2«>d S. VII. June 25. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



521 



sound of a trumpet ; Teut. homme, a drum ; Du. 

 hommen, to sound; A.-S. and old Eng, beam, a 

 trumpet ; Sc. heme. " It is evident," says Jamie- 

 son, " that heme is radically the same with bom- 

 men." If then heme, beam, a trumpet, be thus 

 traceable to bombus, ^6fi§os, bommen, why not 

 Sir A. Barton's beams to med.-Lat. bombus, It. 

 bt)mba, Fr. bombe, &c. all signifying a bomb ? 



The said beams were " let fall " (dropped) on 

 the enemy's deck from Sir Andrew's "top-castle." 

 Now in the mediaeval sea-fights the top-castle 

 was the usual place from which fire-balls and 

 similar annoyances were thrown down on the 

 decks of hostile ships. For instance, " Les pig- 

 Jiate etaient des pots ou Ton mettait des matieres 

 incendiaires, qui se repandaient sur le tillac quand 

 ils se cassaient, jetes de la gahie." (Jal, Archeol. 

 Navale, ii. 182. Gabie, the top, " hune ou cage 

 qui est au haut d'un mat.") And bombs appear 

 to have been thrown, rolled, and "let fall" by 

 hand, before the period when they began to be 

 fired from mortars. Bombs are said to have been 

 invented in the year 1495, but not to have come 

 into general use till 1634. Sir A. Barton fought 

 his last battle in 1511. 



If, from his superior knowledge and skill in his 

 profession, he was able to avail himself so early of 

 the invention, and to throw from his top-castle on 

 his enemy's decks shells instead of fire-balls, this 

 may account for the formidable character which 

 he acquired by the " beams " that he "let fall." 



Thomas Bots. 



" Let no man to his top-castle go, 



Nor strive to let his beams down fall." 



" 'AWa (j>vKdTTOv, KaX np\v ixelvov npo<TiKe<iBai trot, irporepov <Tv 

 Tovs &ek^Zl/as /AeTeojpifov, /cat rinv axarov 7rapaj3aA.A.ov." 



Aristophanis Equites, v. 762. 

 " Scholiastes. AeX<^is aiSijpoui/ KaracrKevacrixa ij noKipSivov 

 eli SeK<j>iva eo-x^/AaTKrjLieVov, toCto Se «k t^s KepaCai rov i(TTOv 

 al vavp.axov<Tai c<f)Cecrav eis Tas r(Sv noKefiCiav Kai KareSvovTO," — 

 Scholia ad foe, p. 61. ed. Dindorf. 



H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



ABBREVIATED NAMES OF TOWNS. 



(2°'» S. vii. 257. 404. 467.) 



I am at a loss how to interpret the tone of Mr. 

 Skene's remarks, in part exuberantly — and, I fear, 

 ironically — deferential, and in part defiantly in- 

 credulous. At any rate he addresses to me an ap- 

 peal so directly personal that I must be permitted 

 to quote his words upon the two points in respect 

 to which he challenges me to reply. 

 1. On the first Mr. Skene writes, — 

 " Sarisburia, no doubt, is the Anglo-Saxon of Salis- 

 bury ; but although I have had good experience of the 

 ancient forms of contraction, I cannot conceive the very- 

 smallest idea of any such form which would mislead a 

 'half-informed lawyer' to believe that he saw in it 

 ' Sarwm,' and I assert that Mk. Nichols will be at a loss 



to show an instance of such a form ; in short, that he 

 cannot," 



The form required is merely 

 " Sag," 

 and the reason why any half-informed person 

 would read the word as Sarum is, because the 

 terminating contraction was that constantly used 

 for the Latin genitive case plural. Thus, as 



" hag reg " 

 was haruin rerum, so the person before described 

 would read the form above given, not as Saris- 

 biiricB, but as Sarum. I hope I may now have 

 made my meaning understood, whether my view 

 of the matter be adopted or not. 



2. Mr. Skene, having never seen or heard of 

 the contraction Barum for Barnstaple, doubts 

 that it has ever existed, and asks me " where is 

 the analogy, and whence is thew/w.?" I reply, 

 that, if the use of the abbreviation in question 

 can be shown, the analogy betw'een reading 

 Barum for Bar', and Sarum for Sar', is perfectly 

 obvious, and the um has originated either in the 

 way I have already shown, or possibly from the 

 final letter of Barfi (as contracted in the Taxatio 

 P. Nicolai IV., for example) being misread for a 

 u instead of n. Having previously written from 

 casual recollection, I have now to look for au- 

 thority in proof of this certainly strange-looking 

 abbreviation, — though, perhaps, really not more 

 strange than the familiar terms in which Shrop- 

 shire and Nottinghamshire are spoken of as the 

 counties of Salop and Notts. I must admit that I 

 have searched several books in vain for printed 

 proof; but I have consulted two very competent 

 living authorities, both of whom assure me that I 

 am perfectly right, and one of them says that he 

 has frequently met with " Barum " in the epis- 

 copal registers at Exeter. The Latin name of 

 the town in extenso I find in five different forms 

 in the old edition of Dugdale's Monasticon AnglU 

 canum, 1656, vol. i. pp. 1024, 1025. : — 



' Barnastapola. 

 Barnastapala. 

 Barnastapolia. 



Barnastapla. 

 Barnastapoli." 



As for Salisbury (Old and New) I do not pre- 

 tend to say when the name was first read Sarum. 

 The ancient and now deserted town appears in 

 the Roman itineraries under the name of Sorbio- 

 dunum. In Domesday Book it is written Saris- 

 berie. In the rhyming chronicle of Robert of 

 Gloucester it has nearly attained its present form, 

 appearing as Salesbury. When the new city was 

 first built, its original seal was inscribed " sigill' 

 NOVE civiTATis sABESBVKiE." Sarum (so written 

 at length) appears on several of the seals engraved 

 in the history of the city, by Benson and Hatcher 

 (Hoare's South Wiltshire., vol. vi.), the oldest pro- 

 bably of which is that inscribed " sigil' domvs 



HOSPITALIS BEATI NICHOLAI SARVM." Whilst OU 



