2»* S. No 47., Nov. 22. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



409 



seems to have arisen from the misconstruction of Alfred's 

 words by some other person who was tlie author of the 

 prosaic verses that have hitherto gone under his name." 



Is there really an error on the part of Alfred, 

 or " some other person" ? Might not the writer 

 of the above verses (whoever he be) simply have 

 meant, that, as Virgil had been indebted to 

 Homer for so much of the materials from which 

 lie wrote his epic, the latter might well be called, 

 not only the "master" and "teacher," but even 

 tlie '■'•friend" of the former ? 



In my humble opinion, it is not necessary to 

 suppose an error of such magnitude. 



Alex. Thomson Grant. 



Aberdeen. 



Derivation of ^'■Pamphlet" — Dr. Richardson, in 

 his Dictionary, appears rather doubtful of the ety- 

 mology of the word pamphlet. Johnson derives it 

 from "par un filet," (held together) "by a thread," 

 and quotes Caxton's " pawnflet " in support of his 

 derivation. 



But in the " Boke of St. Alban's" in the Trea- 

 tyse of Fysshinge with an Angle, the author of the 

 book plumes himself (?) on the fact that his work 

 is composed of so large a volume, and that it is 

 not contained in any " lyttyl pfaimflet " which 

 might come into the hands of the profanum vulgus. 



Now, if you take from the three words " par un 

 filet," the letter i, you have left the word praun- 

 fiet (the a succeeding the r instead of preceding 

 it) ; and prawiflet, by the common change of r 

 into I (as from peregrinus into piZgrim, and in- 

 numerable other instances), becomes plaunflet. 



In the only two French dictionaries I have seen 

 (each one in several volumes 4to.) the word is 

 oddly enough described as " un mot Anglais.^' 

 Will any of your readers tell me from Ducange 

 or Menage whether their etymologies of it favour 

 the " par un filet " derivation ? 



I ought to add that Mr. Halliwell's Archaic 

 Dictionai'y contains the word " parnfilet ; " all 

 which, I think, tends to show that " par un filet " 

 is the true source of the word, which is also con- 

 firmed by the meaning of its French equivalent, 

 brochure. S. SiNGiiBXON. 



Greenwich. 



Merchant' s Mark. — Traces of many things that 

 have passed away from among us are still to be 

 found among our Teutonic cousins ; I have lying 

 before me the seal of a letter from a Wurtzburgh 

 merchant, on which is engraved a very perfect 

 merchant's mark, consisting of a heart, from which 

 a cross, surmounted by the figure 4, issues ; in the 

 broad part of the heart are the letters F P, each 

 in a circle, and at the point of the heart the letter 

 R, all in Roman capitals. 



Francis Robert Davies. 



Lobositz. Bohemia. 



MORE GOWER QUERIES. 



The success which has attended my last in- 

 quiries respecting some words and phrases in 

 Gower's Confessio Amantis induces me to request 

 you to insert the following, as I desire to ascer- 

 tain the meanings of the words in Italics : — 



1. 



" His herte is anahuUa named, 

 Which is of great vertue proclamed." 



2. 

 " His stone is honochinus bote, 

 Through whicli men worchen great riote." 



3. 



" Thre stones, whiche no persone 

 ^ Hath upon erthe, and the first is 

 By name cleped licuchis, 



4. 

 " Nectanabus, which causeth all 

 Of this metrede the substaunce." 



5. 

 " And with this noise, and with this cry, 

 Out of a barge farste by, 

 Which hid was there on scomer-face. 

 Men sterten out and * * *." 



G. 

 " There was nothing hem betwene, 

 But wowe to wowe and walle to walle." 



F. R. Daldy. 



Minav Queries. 



Amphibious Animal in Scotland. — May I ask, 

 through your pages, whether the animal described 

 in the following paragraph is known to naturalists? 



" A species of amphibious animal, apparently of the 

 rat kind, called ' Beothach an' f heoir,' is found in the 

 eddies of the higher regions (i. e. of Scotland), always in- 

 habiting the vicinity of the green patches round springs. 

 When a horse feeds upon the grass that has been recently 

 cropped by this animal, it swells, and in a short time 

 dies ; and the flesh is found blue, as if it had been bruised 

 or beaten." — Logan, Scottish Gael, vol. ii. p. 36. 



I have asked after this animal from High- 

 landers, and though they believe there is some 

 such beast, I could never get any straightforward 

 account of it from them. E. H. Kingslet. 



Sir Roger Ormston. — Sir Roger Ormston was 

 High Steward of the University of Cambridge, 

 and died in 1504. Any particulars respecting him 

 will be acceptable to 



C. H. & Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Kids, Battens, Tallet. — Why are sheaves of 

 straw called battens, and faggots of firewood de- 

 signated hids, in Shropshire and elsewhere ? And 

 what is tallet, as applied to a hay-loft, derived 

 from ? Hugh Owen. 



