154 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[2nd s. No 84., Aug. 23. '56. 



tism is so well marked in all the oldest rituals, and 

 even yet is remembered in the rubrics of the 

 Roman Missal, no such particular mention is made 

 of it for the baptism at Pentecost, nor do the 

 rubrics for that season preserve a record of it. 



3. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers had no word 

 like Witsonday or Witsontide ; but called the 

 Sunday and its octave by the term Pentecostes ; 

 and it is likely that among them, as among the 

 other nations of the Church, the ceremony of 

 wearing a white robe for a week after baptism had 

 grown obsolete many years before the coming of 

 the Normans. Witsontide is an English word, and 

 (lid not, as it seems, get into use earlier than the 

 twelfth or thirteenth century. This, however, is 

 certain, that its introduction was long after the 

 custom had ceased of neophytes wearing a white 

 robe for eight days after their baptism. The 

 meaning of the term among our forefathers who 

 originated it, we learn from the Liher Festivalis, 

 where John Mirk, canon regular of Lilleshull, its 

 writer, says : 



" Good men and wimmen this day (Dies Penthecostes) 

 is called Wytsonday by cause the holy ghoost brought 

 wytte and wysdoin in to Crestis dyscyples and so by her 

 prechyng after in to all cristendom — (Et repleti sunt 

 omnes spiritu sancto) and fj'lled hem full of ghostly 

 wytte." — Fol. xlvi. b. 



Thus we find that the root of the word is not 

 " white," nor had anything to do with white gar- 

 ments, but "wit" — mind, understanding, and 

 Pentecost was so called to signify the enlighten- 

 ment by the Holy Ghost of the soul — the under- 

 standing — the " wit " of man. D. Rock. 



Mr. Denton's suggestion that the corresponding 

 names of Whitsunday in foreign languages should 

 be given in " N. & Q.," I gladly comply with, as 

 I think the comparison will tend to show that the 

 origin, to which I alluded, is correct. 



French, — Le jour de la Pentecote. 



Italian, — II giorno della Pentecoste. 



Saxon. — Pentecostenes msessedseg. 

 German, — Pfingstonn tag. 



Dutch. — Der Pingster dag. 

 Spanish. — Dia de Pentecostes. 



In each of these cases the compound is of Pente- 

 cost and day. The English adjective is Whitson, 

 as in the terms — 



" morrice-dance. 

 farthings, 

 tide, 

 lord, 

 week, 

 ale, &c. 



The feast, certainly, is not White-Sunday, what- 

 ever meaning White might be supposed to bear ; 

 but specially the Whitson-day, as Easter-day, 



Whitson- - 



Christmas-day, or Ascension-day. The White- 

 Sunday would be the Dominica in Albis, not 

 Pentecost, which is the word used in the list of 

 holy days more than once in the Book of Common 

 Prayer, for this feast, as it was till about the 

 twelfth century. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Whitsunday : Pilate. — In a Note on the deriva- 

 tion of "Whitsunday" (2°"^ S. ii. 99.), Mr. Denton 

 gives a quotation by Hearne from a " very rare 

 book printed by Wynkyn de Worde." Now this 

 " very rare book " is none other than the Liber 

 Festivalis, which was printed by Wynkyn de 

 AVorde, and also two editions by Caxton. Hav- 

 ing access to a copy of it, I turned to it to collate 

 Hearne's quotation, which is quite correct, and in 

 so doing, I stumbled on the following derivation 

 of another word, which I row forward to you, as 

 I think it will tend to show Mr. Denton that the 

 derivations in this work are not worth much, as 

 they are evidently founded on a mere similarity of 

 sound. One of Caxton's editions was in 1483 ; 

 that by Wynkyn de Worde in 1493 : 



"This Pylate was a knyghtes sone that was called 

 Tyrus, that he gate hym on a woma that hj'ght Pyle, 

 and this womans fader hyght Ate. So whan this chylde 

 was borne they sette his moders name and the grande 

 fader after, and so by bothe names called hym Pylate." 

 Henry Kensington. 



QUEEN ANNE's POSTER FATHER, WAS HE IRISH? 



(2"'i S. ii. 86.) 



In reference to the Query in your last, signed 

 C. M. B., I had my attention directed to this sub- 

 ject by a letter, probably from the Querist, to a 

 friend, some time since, but could find nothing 

 particularly satisfactory. The individual inci- 

 dentally mentioned in the Blennerhassett pedigree 

 is set down as son of " David Barry of Raharaska, 

 and Elinor, 4th daughter of Sir Thomas Hurly of 

 Knocklong." A brief note mentions him as " the 

 late Queen Anne's foster father," and that is all. 



Looking over Miss Strickland's gossiping Me- 

 nioii-s of the Queens of England lately, I find 

 some particulars which may serve as a clue to 

 further inquiries on this subject. That lady, in 

 her life of Queen Mary II., uses largely, and gives 

 frequent references to, the Diary of Dr. Lake, 

 the tutor to the Duke of York's daughters. And 

 under the date of November 1677, at the mar- 

 riage of William of Orange and the Princess 

 Mary, we find the diarist noting that her sister 

 Anne was ill of the small-pox, and his own trouble 

 at not being allowed to go to her chamber to 

 read prayers to her : 



" This troubled me," he says, "the more, because the 

 nurse of the Lady Anne was a very busy zealous Roman 



