44 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. X. July 21. '60. 



" dyvour's habit" was abolished by statute, a dis- 

 pensation with it was formally moved for to the 

 Court in every case by the bankrupt's counsel, 

 and was always included in the warrant of libera- 

 tion. 



A similar law appears to have existed in France 

 and Italy, and is alluded to by Boileau Despreaux 

 in his first Satire, line 14. et seq. : — 



" L'enferme en un cachot le teste de sa vie 

 Ou que d'un bonnet vert le salutaire affront 

 Fl^trisse les lauriers qui lui couvrent le front." 



In a note on these lines in the Amsterdam edi- 

 tion of Boileau (1729), it is said that the wearing 

 "un bonnet ou chapeau rouge ou vert," was "pour 

 marquer que celui qui fait cession de biens est 

 devenu pauvre par sa folie;" but that the usage 

 had been for some time discontinued in France. 



G. 



Edinburgh. 



WHO WAS THE DISCOVERER OF STATEN 

 LAND AND LEMAIRE'S PASSAGE. 



" Staten Land," says Malte Brun, " a detached 

 island, which may be considered as forming a part 

 of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego, was dis- 

 covered by Lemaire." (JJniv. Geog., vol. v. Edinb. 

 1825.) " It was discovered in 1616 by the Dutch 

 navigator Lemaire." (Keith Johnston's Dictionary 

 of Geog7-aphy, 1855.) Such is the current state- 

 ment. Is it correct ? In a tract published at 

 Arnheim in 1618, and entitled " WarhafiYe Bes- 

 chreibung der Wunderbarlichen Rayse und Schif- 

 fart, so Wilhelm Schout von Horn, auss Hollandt 

 nach Suden gethan, und was gestalt er hinter der 

 Magellanischen Enge, ein newe und bevor unbe- 

 kannfe Durchfahrt in die Sudersee gefunden," I 

 find a statement bearing on this discovery which I 

 translate as follows : — 



" On the 11th [of February, 1616] there was dispensed 

 to each man three times as much wine as usual, from joy 

 that we had found this new passage ; and at the vehe- 

 ment solicitation of James Le Maire the Commissary, it 

 was decided by the Council, that this passage should be 

 called Maire's strait or passage, although it ought rather 

 to have been called William SchouVs passage, for he had 

 contributed the most to its discovert/." 



James Le Maire was the son of Isaac Le Maire, 

 a wealthy merchant of Amsterdam, who was a 

 principal agent in fitting out the expedition ; he 

 went out in the capacity of chief merchant (Obrist 

 KaujQTman), and seems to have had nothing to do 

 with the management of the ship. This was 

 entrusted to William Cornelius Schout, an ex- 

 perienced mariner, who was chief patron or ship- 

 master (Obrist Patron oder SchifFherr). To him 

 therefore the credit of the discovery is due, though 

 the passage bears the name of Lemaire. If Schout 

 did not get justice in the matter of the name, it is 

 too bad to refuse it to him in the matter of the 

 discovery also. W. L. A. 



Harlot. — Webster derives this word from the 

 Welsh, " herlaivd, a stripling ; hm^lodes, a hoiden ; 

 a word composed of her, a push or challenge, and 

 llawd, a lad." 



But another and more curious derivation will 

 be found in the following extract from The Life 

 of King William, the First, sirnamed Conqueror, 

 written by I. H. (J. Hayward.) Imprinted at 

 London by 11. B., anno 1613, and republished in 

 the 3rd vol. of The Harleian Miscellany, pp. 115 — 

 168, London'edit., royal Svo., 1809 : — 



" Robert, Duke of Normandy, the sixth in descent 

 from Rollo, riding through Falais, a town in Normandy, 

 espied certain j'oung persons dancing near the way. And, 

 as he staid to view awhile the manner of their disport, he 

 fixed his ej'e especially upon a certain damsel named 

 Arlotte, of mean birth, a- skinner's daughter, who there 

 danced among the rest. The frame and comely carriage 

 of her body, the natural beauty and graces of her coun- 

 tenance, the simplicity of her rural both behaviour and 

 attire, pleased him so well, that the same night he pro- 

 cured her to be brought to his lodging ; where he begat 

 of her a son, who afterwards was named William. 



" I will not defile my writing with memory of some 

 lascivious behaviour which she is reported to have used, 

 at such time as the Duke approached to embrace her. 

 And doubtful it is, whether upon special note of immo- 

 desty in herself, or whether upon hate towards her son, 

 the English afterwards adding an aspiration to her name 

 (according to the natural manner of their pronouncing), 

 termed every unchaste woman Harlot." — p. 119. 



In a note on the following page it is remarked : 

 "... after the Conqueror obtained the crown of 

 England, he often signed his grants with this sub- 

 scription — William Bastard ; thinking it no abase- 

 ment either to his title or reputation." * Eric. 



Ville-Marie, Canada. 



PowDERHAM Chdrch, Devon. — It is Very de- 

 sirable for the ascertainment of accuracy in archi- 

 tectural details, to chronicle the exact date of 

 individual specimens of early times, where such 

 can be had. Among Dr. Ducarel's Abstracts 

 from the different Volumes of the Registers of the 

 See of Canterbury, preserved in the British Mu- 

 seum, MSS. Addit. 6082, 6083, in his Synopsis of 

 Archbishop Morton's Register, is an entry which 

 assigns the exact date, to a large portion at least, 

 of the structure of Powderham church in Devon- 

 shire, in a memorandum of the will of the Lady 

 Margaret Courtenay : — 



" Corpus ad sepeliendum, in the parisshe Chirch of 

 Powderham where my husband was buried ; for my hus- 

 band and I made there the newe He, and also the body of 

 the Chirch att oure owen cost and charge, except that I 

 had of the Parissh there to the help of the said bilding 

 viii"!. Dat. mense Julii, a.d. 1487." 



H. E. 



Bodleian Catalogue. — In the Bodleian Cata- 

 logue (ii. 408.), the autliorship of two works is by 



[* On the derivation of Harlot, see " N. & Q." 1" S. x. 

 207. 411. 494.— Ed.] 



