282 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 125. 



cated — has long perplexed me. One is unwilling 

 to suppose that the touching words ascribed to 

 the two monks were a stock speech common to 

 aged monks who have such pictures to show ; but 

 what better explanation is there ? I believe that 

 the first edition oi Italy appeared, not in 1830, as 

 your correspondent supposes, but In 1822. Is the 

 story to be found in that edition ? J. C. B,. 



Welsh Names '■'■ Blaen" (Vol. v., p. 128.).— 

 Although my acquaintance with the language of 

 the Cymri is very limited, I think that a know- 

 ledge of the cognate Erse or Gaelic enables me to 

 make a shrewd guess at the meaning of the word 

 Blaen, prefixed to the names of so many farms in 

 Wales. The Gaelic word Baile, pronounced 

 Salle, signifies a town — the Scotch tou7i — or 

 farm, and, with the preposition an or na — Anglice 

 of — is written Baile'n, pronounced Ballen: this, 

 I think, Is probably the same word as Blaen, and 

 means, being interpreted, " the farm of." In the 

 examples given by your correspondent a, the 

 words affixed to Blaen are descriptive ; many of 

 them scarcely differ in sound from their Gaelic 

 synonyms : e. g. Blaen-awen is the Gaelic BaiWn 

 abhuinn, pronounced Ballen avine, Ang. " the farm 

 on, or of the river ;" Blaen-argy — Gaelic, Baile n 

 airgiod, " the silver fiirm," or perhaps 'w arguin, 

 of sti'Ife; Blaen-angell — Gaelic, Bailen aingeal, 

 "angel farm;" Blaen-y-foss — Gaelic, Baile-na- 

 fois, pronounced fosh, and synonymous with the 

 Dutch lust, "leisure or pleasure farm;" and 

 Blaen-nefern — Gaelic, BaiU-na-fearn, " alder 

 farm." In England these farms or towns would 

 have been called respectively, Rioerton, Silverton, 

 Alderston, and so on. The same word, generally 

 spelt Bally, forms part of the name of a very large 

 proportion of the small towns and farms in Ireland. 



W. A. C. 



Orrasary. 



The Verb "fo commit" (Vol. v., p. 125.). — The 

 verb to commit, in the sense used by Junius, was 

 employed by Lord Chesterfield so far back as the 

 year 1757. In a letter to his son (Nov. 26), his 

 lordship, after instructing Mr, Stanhope what to 

 say to one of the foreign ministers, directs him to 

 send to his own court an account of what he had 

 done : 



" Tell them you thought the measure of such great 

 importance that you could not help taking this little 

 step towards bringing it about, but that you mentioned 

 it only from yourself, and that you have not committed 

 them by it." 



Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son were not 

 published until 1774, which will account for 

 Walker ascribing to Junius the merit of intro- 

 ducing Into the English language the French sig- 

 nification of the verb to commit, 

 ' - ■ ■ , . . William Cramp. 



Beocera-gent (Vol. v., p. 201.). — As I asked a 

 question relating to the Irish, perhaps I may be 

 allowed the so-called Irish mode of answering it 

 myself. 



Beucherie Is evidently derived from Beuceraige, 

 the Islet of bee-hives, or bee-keepers (who were 

 regularly appointed officers in Saxon England) ; 

 but as I was utterly at a loss for the word gent, I 

 requested the opinion of Dr. Leo, from whom I 

 have received the following satisfactory reply : — 



" The word gent seems to be the same word as our 

 German ganie, and the Scottish yauntree ; i. e. a tree 

 which forms a stand for barrels, hives, &c. In several 

 parts of Germany, where the culture of bees has, from 

 distant periods, been carried on extensively, the hives 

 are transported from one place to another according to 

 the seasons : now in the forests, when the pine-trees 

 are in flower ; now in the fields, when the rape blos- 

 soms ; then again in the woods, when the heather 

 blossoms ; and at last, when winter approaches, in 

 the barn. A tree forms the stand for the bee-hive, 

 and thatch protects it from the rain. Such a tree 

 seems to be the beucera-gent. 



" In an old Glossary, the old high- German word, 

 gantmari, is interpreted as tignarius (i. e. faber tignariuSy 

 a carpenter). This word presupposes another word 

 gant, a beam or a rafter, probably equivalent to your 

 Ang.-Sax. gent; and thus beocera-gent would be a 

 beam upon which to stand bee-hives." 



The question still remains. Why was the Islet In 

 question called Parva Hibernia ? B. Williams. 

 The Lodge, Hillingdon. 



New Zealand Legend (Vol. v., p. 27.). — This 

 strange legend reminds me of the fine passage in 

 Caractacus, of which I know not whether It Is an 

 original conception, or taken from any author : — 

 " Masters of wisdom 1 No : my soul confides 

 In that all-healing and all-forming Power, 

 Who, on the radiant day when Time was born. 

 Cast his broad eye upon the wild of ocean, 

 And calm'd it with a glance ; then, plunging deep 

 His mighty arm, pluck'd from its dark domain 

 This throne of freedom, lifted it to light, 

 Girt it with silver cliffs, and call'd it Britain ; 

 He did, and will preserve it." 



C.B. 



Twenty-seven Children (Vol. v., p. 126.). — To 

 E. D.'s Query, " whether there is any well-authen- 

 ticated Instance of a woman having had more than 

 twenty-five children ?" something like a reply will 

 be found In the following paragraph, which formed 

 one of a series of " Curious Extracts," in the 

 Edinburgh Antiquarian Magazine (1848) : — 



" ' Extraordinarg Number of Children, — The follow- 

 ing extraordinary, yet well-attested fact, is copied from 

 Brand's History of Newcasde, lately published. The 

 fact is mentioned and corroborated by a quotation from 

 an Harleian MS. No. 980-87. A weaver in Scotland 

 had, by one wife, a Scotch woman, sixty-two children, 

 all living till they were baptized ; of whom four 



