2nd s. VII. Mae. 12. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



225 



dialects, tlie words, modern and antiquated, an- 

 swering to our English " pickle," are very nu- 

 merous indeed: — pekel, poekel, piechel, pickel, 

 poeckel, bickel, boekel, boeckel; the oldest coming 

 the nearest to the inventor, Boeckel, Beukels, 

 Boekel, &c. 



Those continental etymologists who decline to 

 derive from him, tell us that the true derivation is 

 from the old buck (German) or from the Greek 

 7r7j7<(j ! Does this bring us much nearer the mark ? 

 I have in vain sought in Dutch and German, 

 High, Low, and Jewish, any record or traces of 

 the word boekel and its congeners, antecedent to 

 Beukel's invention ; and I have seen no good 

 reason yet, though some learned linguists have 

 expressed their doubts, for questioning the deri- 

 vation of our English pickle, through pickel, pekel, 

 poekel, bickel, and boekel, from Beukels, whose 

 name is also spelt Boekel. 



Etymologists, if they know their business, will 

 not attempt to establish their pet derivations by 

 "knocking down" all competing etymologies as 

 "mistakes." They will rather weigh duly what 

 another has to offer, even while they support their 

 own view by the best reasons in the world. A 

 correspondent, H. B., asked an explanation of the 

 phrase " Lareovers for medlars" (2"* S. vi, 481.) ; 

 and the inquiry was promptly met by an editorial 

 note, which offered what many persons would 

 think a very satisfactory solution. But, says an- 

 other correspondent (vii. 138.), "The reply given 

 to H. B.'s query is hardly correct." And why not 

 correct ? Because the expression, as used in 

 Derbyshire, is *^ Layhouds for meddlers," and 

 " layhouds " has a different origin ! Now against 

 the proposed derivation of layhouds I have not a 

 word to say ; it is very much to the purpose. But 

 how on earth does it prove the explanation of 

 lareovers, previously offered, to be incoi-rect ? 



The phrase in Kent is ^^Rareovers for meddlers," 

 which still awaits an interpreter. K'. 



Crashaw (2°* S. v. 449.) — D. F. M'Cabtht 

 suggests that case in the new edition of Crashaw's 

 Poems, must be a misprint for ease. " Weeping 

 is the ease of woe." I write to inform him, in 

 confirmation of his suggestion, that in my copy 

 of Crashaw, the 2nd edition, London, 1648, the 

 word is correctly printed ease. O. L. Chambers. 



Smoke Money (2""^ S. vii. 155.) — The parish 

 accounts of Leverton, near Boston, show that an 

 annual offering of three halfpence was made by 

 each householder to the rector, under the name of 

 smoke-money, until, at least, the end of the seven- 

 teenth century. This was an extension of the 

 old _" levy to the Pope of one penny on every 

 chimney from which smoke issued, and called 

 Peter-pence, hearth-penny, or smoAe-penny." See 

 Mr. Singer's notes to the new edition of Selden's 

 Table Talk, Pepys says (see his Journal under 



date June, 1662), we find " much clamour against 

 the chimney money ; and the people say, they will 

 not pay it, without force." The payment called 

 hearth-vaoney, which was a charge of one penny 

 for each hearth within a house, was annually 

 made in the parish of Freiston, near Boston, so 

 late as 1798. Pishet Thompson. 



Selwood (2°'> S. vii. 29.) — Anglo-Saxon will 

 find in Collinson's Somerset, vol. iii, p. 56., a copy 

 of the Survey of Selwood Forest taken temp. 

 Edw. L ; but owing to the change of names he 

 will scarcely be able to follow, on the best county 

 map, the limits described. The Forest lay partly 

 in Somerset, partly in Wilts : and all within its 

 precincts was certainly within the ancient diocese 

 of Sherborne. But that the whole of that diocese 

 was ever called Selwood-sAire does not appear in 

 any authority that has ever been seen by J. 



It is possible (though perhaps not probable) 

 that Anglo-Saxon, who is seeking information 

 respecting Selwoodshire, has omitted to notice the 

 passage in the Saxon Chronicle, which seems to 

 speak of its formation as a bishopric. 



The English translation of the Chronicle in Pe- 

 trie and Hardy's Monumenta Historica, Sfc, reads 

 thus : — 



An. 709. "This year bishop Aldhelm died; he was 

 bishop on the west of Selwood : and in the early days of 

 Daniel the land of the West Saxons was divided into two 

 bishopshires, and before that it had been one," &c. 



T. B. J. 



Separation of Sexes in Church (2"^ S. vii. 76.) 

 — On looking over the registers of the parish 

 church of Bingham, 1 find an entry which may 

 perhaps throw some light on this subject. In 1685, 

 Dr. Samuel Brunsel being then rector, some seats 

 were " boorded in the bottom ; " and there follows 

 a list of the names of those that " payed twelve 

 pence a peece for the boording of them, and were 

 placed in the same." Five names are then at- 

 tached to the " First seat on soute side," six to 

 " The third seat on soute side," &c., but to the 

 " sixt seat on soute side " is added, " being wo- 

 men's places," and the same description is applied 

 to seven other seats, one of which is called " the 

 first seate on the soute side below the alley for 

 women." M. E. M. 



Pocket-handkerchief (2"^ S. vi. 481. ; vii. 96.)— 

 Amongst old law-Latin terms for articles of ap- 

 parel (an. 1675) I have found " Fibulae pro su- 

 dariis et muciniis " — anglice, handkerchief buttons." 

 Qy. How was the " handkerchief" then worn, or 

 these " buttons " applied ? and did they rather 

 resemble broaches, admitting, like them, of more 

 and richer ornamentation ? 



It is not desirable that any more specific name 

 for the article itself should be introd,uced into 

 our language ; though there is no doubt that it 



