226 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



L2«>d s. VII. Mak. 12. '59. 



is now used, as the law-Latin designation implies 

 it was used, in 1675, for other purposes than the 

 dainty and costly lace handkerchiefs which form a 

 part of the modern ladies' drawingroom attire. 



P. H. F. 



Your correspondents on the " Pocket-handker- 

 chief " question do not seem aware that in the 

 northern parts of North Britain the word is un- 

 known. Drop your mouchoir into the salmon- 

 pool, as I am ever doing, — a grief of no small 

 moment for a snuff- taker, — and your Gillygaffer 

 will exclaim, " Ye hae droppit yer ' pobkeit nap- 

 kin.' " G. H. K. 



Inscription in St. Nicholas Church, Abingdon 

 (2"^ S. vii. 130.) — It appears, on examination of 

 Ashmole (ed. 1719 and 1736), that he found the 

 "Inscription" in the Hall of Christ's Hospital, 

 Abingdon. The only difficulty lies in the first 

 letter, V., which cannot be explained, if it in- 

 volves any recondite meaning, without aid of local 

 information. 



«V. A. B. I. N. D. 0. N. R.F. I. 



" Take the first Letter of youre foure Fader, with A, 

 the worker of Wer, & I and N the Colore of an Asse ; set 

 them together, & tel me j'f you can, what it is than. 

 Richard Fannande, Irenmonger, hath made this Tabul, & 

 set it here in the Yere of King Henry the Sexte, 

 XXVlt^" 



Let us now examine in order the eleven capitals 

 as they stand in a row. 



V. " Take the first Letter of youre foure Fa- 

 der." Does V. stand for some proper name ? Or 

 is it merely the first letter of the German (F. 

 Ger. equivalent to F. Eng.) Voi-fahr, a fore- 

 father ? 



[The next seven letters are an old way of spell- 

 ing Abingdon, Abindon.J 



A. " with A." 



B. " the worker of Wer," probably " the worker 

 of Wex" (wax), in allusion to a bee (B). 



[L N. " & I and N."] 



D. O. N. "the Colore of a Asse," i. e. dun. 

 Hence donkey, or, as precisians affect to call it, 

 dunkej. Cf. the Heb. chamor, an ass, " so called 

 from the reddish colour, which in southern countries 

 belongs, not only to the wild ass, but also to the 

 common or domestic ass ; from which it is called 

 in Spanish burro" (Tregel. Gesen.). — Burro is 

 supposed to be from the Gr. irv^pls, red, ruddy. 



K. F. I. "iiichard i^annande, irenmonger." 



Thomas Boys. 



" A man's a man for a' that" (2"^ S. vii. 146.) — 

 I find the following passage in Sterne's Koran, or 

 Essays, Sentiments, Characters, and Callimachies, 

 Part II. : — 



" Titles of honour are like the impressions on coin — 

 which add no value to gold and silver, but only render 

 brass current." 



R. S. F. 



Perth. 



" Quicksilver in the lack of a Sword " (2"* S. vii. 

 171.) — S. C. does not seem aware that there 

 once existed before and up to the time of the 

 Revolution (1688) a company entitled " the Hol- 

 low Sword Blade Company," which was chartered 

 for the professed purpose of making swords of the 

 construction to which he refers. I say professed, 

 — for while it is uncertain whether these hollow 

 sword blades (with running mercury enclosed to 

 gravitate to the point when a blow was struck, 

 and so increase the weight and momentum of the 

 stroke) were ever adopted into actual warfare, 

 it is certain that " the Hollow Sword Blade Com- 

 pany " ultimately resolved itself into a great land- 

 purchasing company, and invested large sums in the 

 purchase of the Irish forfeited estates, as sold at 

 Chichester House, Dublin, in the years 1703-4. 

 These were resold again to different purchasers, and 

 I know many estates in Ireland resting on what is 

 called " the Hollow Sword Blade Title ; " namely, 

 a repurchase from this company as its original. 



A. B. E. 

 Belmont. 



P. S. As to Henry More's application of the 

 idea, it is evidently this : that when an error or 

 mistake is supposed to be consecrated as a reli- 

 gious truth, or as the result of a hidden divine 

 influence, it becomes thereby greatly more dan- 

 gerous and mischievous in its results. 



This probably refers to an old device intended 

 to make a sword-cut tell heavily. A weight was 

 made to " run," or slide, from the heel of the 

 blade to the point, and vice versa. In some cases 

 this was of iron (when it was called a " steel- 

 apple "), and ran on a rod at the back of the 

 blade ; in others it was proposed to place a hol- 

 low tube at the back of the blade, and let quick- 

 silver " run " in it. The weight was thus thrown 

 towards the point of the blade in striking. S. C. 

 must understand the word " running " to have 

 the force of " fluid capable of running," and not 

 in the sense of the participle of the verb active 

 " to run." 



Sir W. Scott, I think, tells a story of a High- 

 land gentleman who eloped with his mistress, but 

 was pursued and overtaken by her relations. He 

 placed her behind him, and defended himself 

 sword in hand ; but the steel-apple of his weapon 

 struck the lady on the head, and killed her. It 

 would seem from this that swords of the above 

 pattern really were made and used in former days. 



Z. 



Church Pitle (2°^ S. vii. 90. 157.) — Fttle is 

 neither from It. piccolo, little, nor from pight, 

 pitched, &c., but is a corruption of plightel, a small 

 portion of ground, dim. of plight, a fold, a double, 

 a plait — from plica. We find both plica terrce 

 and plita terrce. Cf. Cowel and Bailey. 



R. S. Charnock. 



