158 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2""i S. Vtl. :^EB. 19. '59. 



clergymen, who preached with such a voice and manner 

 as to give their names cant to all spealiing of the same 

 kind." 



But I think that neither this nor the suggestion 

 of Grose, that the word is a corruption of chaunt- 

 in^, can be looked upon as the correct one. It 

 appears to me more than probable that our ordi- 

 nary word mendicajit (from the Latin mendico) is 

 the primary source; this abbreviated into cant or 

 canter, signifying a vagrant or beggar, one who 

 cants or asks alms in a whining tone, was cer- 

 tainly in use long before the period of the anec- 

 dote above related, as is proved by the quotation 

 from Ben Jonson's Staple of Netves given by your 

 correspondent Henry Hoth. In Taylor's Works 

 (1630) also is the following passage : — 

 " And gave all their money to the mendicanting canters." 

 Andrew Cant was minister of Aberdeen in the 

 reign of Charles I., and he was buried in the 

 churchyard there, his tombstone having inscribed 

 on it a very highly eulogistic Latin epitaph. Of 

 him Pennant (ToMr in Scotland, vol. i. p. 122.) 

 says, " Andrew canted no more than the rest of 

 his brethren, for he lived in a whining age." 



One can scarcely suppose Skinner, Pennant, 

 and others to be correct in deriving the word from 

 the canto, as our word cant does not imply a mere 

 sing-song tone, but rather a whining voice, uttered 

 by a person whom you feel is attempting in a 

 greater or less degree to deceive you — you are 

 conscious of hypocrisy being practised, whether 

 the subject be religion, politics, begging, or any- 

 thing else. Moreover, if the word meant singing, 

 the Anglo-Saxon cantere, a singer, is a much more 

 probable source of origin than the Latin canto. 



T. N. Brushfield. 

 Chester. 



Title of Esrjuire (2°'^ S. iv. 134. 238. &c.) — 

 Several of your correspondents have given us 

 many interesting remarks respecting those who 

 are not entitled to the title of esquire. , I shall be 

 glad if you can inform me who are Ici ;v entitled 

 to that appellation. The other day a Ji ^nd asked 

 me what entitled a gentleman to pllce a cockade 

 in his servant's hat. I was fain to confess my ig- 

 norance. Perhaps some of your correspondents 

 will enlighten me as to this also. ^* 



St. Fold's Visit to Britain (2'"^ S. vii. 90.)— 

 Chancellor Harington (no mean authority) in his 

 Tract The Bull of Pope Pius the Niidh, and the 

 Ancient British Church, states that " the argu- 

 ments in favour of the preaching of St. Paul in 

 Britain are so strong, as scarcely to admit of a 

 doubt in the minds of those who have duly studied 

 the question, aided by the researches of the Welch 

 archaeologists." And he then refers the reader 

 to The Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cyrnri, by 

 the Rev. John Williams. Bishop Stillingfleet has 

 fully entered into the question at the end of the 



first chapter of his Origiiies BritanniccB. He is 

 strongly in favour of St. Paul's having visited 

 Britain, resting his argument, not only on the well- 

 known passage of St. Clement (1 Ep. ad Corinth. 

 c. viii.) " St. Paul preached righteousness through 

 the whole world, and in so doing went eirl rh r4i)au 

 TTJs Avffews, to the utmost bounds of the West ; " 

 but also on many other reliable authorities. 

 Eusebius affirms " That some of the apostles 

 preached the gospel in the British islands." Tlioo- 

 doret (tom. i. in Psal. cxvi.) states that St. Paul 

 " brought salvation to the isles that lie in the 

 ocean." And St. Jerome (in Arnos, c. v.) says 

 that having been in Spain, St. Paul's " diligence 

 in preaching extended as far as the earth itself ;" 

 adding elsewhere that, after his imprisonment, St. 

 Paul " preached the gospel in the western parts ; " 

 and when we remember that Gildas states " that 

 the gospel was received here before the fatal de- 

 feat of the Britons by Suetonius Paulinus," which 

 occurred in the eighth year of Nero, it seems more 

 than probable that St. Paul first introduced the 

 gospel to Britain. St. Paul's imprisonment at 

 Rome, according to the best authorities, ended in 

 the fifth year of Nero, and he was not beheaded 

 till the fourteenth of that emperor ; and this 

 agrees well with the gospel being introduced into 

 Britain before the eighth year of Nero, Clemen:-;, 

 Theodoret, St. Jerome, St. Athanasius, and Epl- 

 phanius and others say that St. Paul preached in 

 the western parts after his imprisonment at 

 Rome. Where, then, did he spend these eight or 

 nine years ? Probably in Spain, Gaul, Britain, 

 and other western countries. I think it may 

 fairly be inferred from Acts xx. 38. that he did 

 not return to the East. Collier (Eccles. Hist. i. 

 12.) maintains the probability of St. Paul's visit 

 to Britain. Alfred T. Lee. 



Swinton Family (2""* S. vii. 46.) — Peter Swin- 

 ton, Esq., of Knutsford, died in the last century, 

 leaving coheiresses, both of whom have numerous 

 descendants living. To some of these it might be 

 gratifying if he could be connected with the 

 Scotch family of Swintons, from which Sir Walter 

 Scott was maternally descended ; and if a relation- 

 ship could thus be established between the greiil 

 Scotch novelist and one who is considered by 

 many as the first of our English female novelists. 

 If J. L. Seymour would state what he knows, or 

 has heard, in a less vague manner than he has done, 

 it might elicit information from other sources. 



E. H. D. D. 



A long genealogy of this family is given by 

 Burke in his Dictionary of the Landed Gentry (ed. 

 1858), under the head of Swinton of Swinton. 

 He states this family to have been originally 

 Saxon, and derives its name from the Barony of 

 Swinton in Berwickshire. Edulphus de Swinton 

 of Swinton flourished in the reiijn of Macbeth and 



