2nd s. N« 46., Nov. 16. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



391 



three Hours for an Answer to How-d'-ye, or a Letter, 

 which I sent every successive Morn.' " 



Julius Sergius, I ought to have previously 

 noted, is the name given in the Key to " Lord 

 ir X." 



Should Pkofessor De Morgan wish to con- 

 sult the volumes, I shall be happy to leave them 

 at your office for his use. T. C. S. 



Marrement (2"'^ S. ii. 327.) — I can help F. R. 

 Daldy with but one word from Gower, marro' 

 ment, at present. This is old French. " Marre- 

 ment, marissement, marrimeni : douleur, deplaisir, 

 affliction, tristesse, chagrin, plaiute ; mmror." — 

 jRocquefort. A. B. 



PASSAGES IN GOWER. 



(2"d S. ii. 327.) 



I beg to offer the following explanation of some 

 of the expressions in Gower of which an ex- 

 planation is asked. 



1. " And I can ever lenger the lasse^ May not 

 this be " linger the less,'* and the meaning be, " I 

 have but little time to spare " ? 



4. " And though I stonde there a mile." Ap- 

 parently the idea of time is transferred to that of 

 space, perhaps in obedience to the exigencies of 

 the rhyme. " A mile " may be put fur " as long 

 as it would take to walk a mile ; " or it may be 

 quite a general expression for " a long time." 



5. " Ne so well taught at mannes eye ; " i. e. as 

 was generally evident, as appeared to the eyes of 

 men. Elsewhere Gower uses the expression " at 

 eye," or " at the eye." Thus : 



" The thing so open is at eye." 



But he is also fond of employing the possessive 

 " mannes " or " worldes," in order to make an 

 expression assume its most general form. Thus : 



" That out of mannes nacion 

 Fro kinde they be so miswent." — i. 55. 



Speaking of the daughters of Phorceus, who were 

 like serpents. And, — 



" Thus we be come for to preie 

 That ye my worldes deth respite." — i. 116. 



7. " Doaire " apparently is that with which one 

 is dowered or gifted; and, in the connexion in 

 which it occurs, a jyrovince. We find it in 

 Chaucer : 



" But ther as ye me profre swiche dowaire. 

 As I first brought," &c. — C. T. 8724. 



8. " Whan he were of dawe; " i. e. when he was 

 dead, literally " out of day, or life." The A.-S. 

 dceg is used of the time of a man's life. 



9. "The thing is torned into was;" i.e. it is 

 become a matter of the past : you can only speak 

 of it in the past tense, and say " it was." 



10. " That she about her white swere. It did," 

 &c. ; i. e. that she put it about her white throat. 

 The A.-S. swer, svjeor, &c., means a pillar or co- 

 lumn. Hence it would be applied figuratively to 

 the neck, as the pillar or column which supports 

 the head. J. J. Stewart Pbbowne. 



King's College. 



(2°^ S. ii. 243. 276. 314. 335.) 



As the rhymester has not told us in what year 

 the " reformation " to which he alludes took place, 

 and as your correspondent Mr. Yeowell has not 

 made it a bit more clear, it must be confessed that 

 the question of the introduction of the cultivation 

 of hops into England is still left a doubtful one. 

 The fact of their importation from Flanders 

 is of very little assistance in settling the date, 

 since that continues in our own day. Until any 

 article of food or commerce becomes a kind of 

 necessity, it will be so little regarded that few will 

 be able to determine the precise date of its intro- 

 duction. It is so with " the wicked weed " that 

 bitters our ale. Hops are probably indigenous to 

 England, but they seem not to have been much 

 cultivated until the adulterations practised by the 

 Flemish growers made the hop merchant's venture, 

 always a precarious, and often a losing one. 

 Harrison, writing in the reign of Elizabeth, says : 



" Of late years we have found and taken up a great 

 trade in planting of hops, whereof our moory hitherto and 

 unprofitable grounds do A'ield such plenty and increase 

 that there are few farmers or occupiers in the country 

 which have not gardens and hops growing of their own, 

 and those far better than do come from Flanders unto us. 

 Certes the corruptions used by the Flemings, and forgery 

 daily practised in this kind of ware, gave us occasion to 

 plant them here at home, so that now we may spare and 

 send many over unto them." — Holinshed's Chronicles, 

 vol. i. p. 185-6., edit. 1807. 



What the relative superiority of English hops 

 was over Flemish adulterated ones, we gather 

 from an entry in the household book of the L'Es- 

 tranges {Airhceologia, vol. xxv.), where, under 

 1530, we read, — 



" Item, pd the iiij day of Octobre to Eobert Baynard by 

 the hands of John Tiff for one hundred hoppys, 18". 



«* Item, pd xxviij day of January to Frances the Fle- 

 myng for 333"" hoppes at xij the hundred ... 39' 4"i." 



In other words, English hops were worth half as 

 much again as those from Flanders. 



In the same household book we meet with the 

 following entry : 



"To my lady Spellman's servant for thynnyng the 

 hop yard." 



E. G. R. will note that these were Norfolk hops.' 



From a letter in Burgon's Life of Sir Thomas 

 Gresham (vol. ii. p. 169.), it would seem that in 



