2'"iS. Vm. Dec. 17. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



m 



locked, waters locked,' when there was no water in any 

 pail in the kitchen. 



" So from what I have said, the hobgoblins, the witches, 

 the conjurers, the ghosts, and the fairies, are not of any 

 value, nor worth our thought." 



Such are my brief notices of this " bibliographi- 

 cal rarity," which at some future period I shall 

 return to. It remains to inquire when the ^rst, 

 second, and third editions appeared. As yet I 

 have not been able to trace them. There is an 

 edition of 1796, which professes to be a reprint of 

 the present. Edward F. Kimbault. 



FOLK LORE AND PROVINCIALISMS. 



In addition to the curious elucidations of men 

 and manners derived from the customs and lan- 

 guage of our country people, great and important 

 aid is given to the philolojjist by this study. 

 Many things commonly considered vulgarisms are 

 not so; they are often really archaisms, or an- 

 cient Enjrlish names, since superseded by words 

 derived from other sources. Many wonder how 

 Birmingham could possibly be corrupted into 

 Brummagem. The fact is, the latter word is the 

 ancient Anglo-Saxon name, Bromwicham, for- 

 merly pronounced as nearly as possible like the 

 common people do now ; while the former name 

 is that of the family De Bermingham, who held 

 the manor from the time of the Conquest (some 

 say earlier) till 1527. The polite used the name 

 most familiar to Norman ears, while the lower 

 ranks adhered to the old Anglo-Saxon designa- 

 tion. 



A short time before the death of that accom- 

 plished scholar J. Mitchell Kemble, I chanced to 

 mention to him another fact connected with pro- 

 vincialisms ; and that was, that, in different parts 

 of England, words obviously from the same root 

 had widely different pronunciations. Thus the 

 Anglo-Saxon burh, a city, in the north is a 

 " burgh ; " in some parts of England " borough," 

 and in others (in composition) " bury." So the 

 A.-S. die, in parts of England is a ditch ; farther 

 north a dyke ; and in Kent a dyk (pronounced 

 like Dick). I suggested this might be due to the 

 various dialects of the original settlers, Jute, 

 Angle, or Saxon. The gentleman whose loss we 

 all must deeply regret, was much pleased at the 

 idea, and begged of me to collect and treasure up 

 everything of the kind I could. For my own 

 part I conceive this to be one of the chief of the 

 varied uses of " N. & Q.," and that the warmest 

 thanks of every philologist are due to it on ac- 

 count of its storing up the Folk Lore atid Pro- 

 vincialisms of Britain. 



Brangle (2"** S. viii. 6.) — Swift (proposal for 

 badges for the poor) uses this word in the sense of 

 " embroil ; " but in TJrquhart and Motteaux's 

 Rabelais, Book ii. cap. 2., he is telling the Tal- 



mudical story of the giant riding astride on the 

 top of Noah's ark, " for he was too big to get in- 

 side," and says, " in that, portion he saved the 

 said ark from danger, for with his legs he gave it 

 the brangle that was needful, and with his foot 

 turned it whither he pleased, as a ship answereth 

 her rudder." The original is, " car il luy bail- 

 loyt le bransle auecques les iambes." Is the 

 word bransle the origin of brangle ? It seems not 

 improbable. 



Cushion. — Bailey derives this from coussin ; and 

 Richardson seems to think it to be a word cor- 

 rupted from coxa. In the account of Archbishop 

 Nevill's Inthronisation it is spelt quission. Is it 

 not derived from quisse, the old spelling of the 

 French c^dsse, and the meaning something to rest 

 the thigh upon ? 



Derivations Wanted: — StucMing. — That sort 

 of apple tart which in London is named a turn- 

 over, in Sussex is called by this name. What is 

 its derivation ? 



Hvffkins. — In the same county a sort of cakes 

 are called thus. Whence is the derivation, and 

 what is the difference between these and man- 

 chets, simnels, and cracknels ? 



Feeling Leer. — In the neighbourhood of Brigh- 

 ton, if any one is weak and faint, they complaia 

 of feeling leer (or lear, for no one knows how it 

 is spelt). It is said that many of the peculiar 

 words in Sussex and Hampshire are derived from 

 the intercourse between the fishermen of this 

 coast and of the opposite shores of Normandy 

 and Brittany. Is this so ? 



Dunner. — A friend of mine observing to a 

 woman in Buckinghamshire how active her boy 

 was, answered, " Ah, sir ; it beant no iise bringing 

 up lads too dunner." Is this from the A.-S» 

 dunnian, to darken, to obscure ? 



Widbin. — In the same county they call Dog- 

 wood by this name. My informant thought at 

 first they meant woodbine, but found it was the 

 red dogwood that was meant. The A.- Saxon is 

 comtreow. 



Maiden, a clothes* horse. Thus called in the 

 neighbourhood of Tavistock. Is the word pecu- 

 liar to Devon, or is it used in other counties ? 



A Gleer. — A slide is thus called in Oxford- 

 shire. In Anglo-Saxon glcer is the name for 

 amber. Can ice be so called on account of its 

 being partly transparent, like amber ? To this 

 day we call the white of egg glare, which also 

 has some degree of transparency. " Glare," in 

 the sense of light, is derived by Skinner from the 

 French esclairer, a not very satisfactory origin. 



Keck-handed. — In Buckinghamshire and its 

 neighbourhood if a man, at hay time or harvest, 

 holds his fork with his left hand lowest, they say, 

 " Ah ! he's no good ! he's keck-handed ! he works 



