408 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d s. NO 99., Nov. 21. '67. 



(the reading of some copies), because it is much 

 more natural to suppose a hunter strangled by 

 bears than by boars. 



Hopposteres has been supposed to signify pilots ; 

 " Yet saw I burnt the ships' pilots ; " but for this 

 interpretation no satisfactory reason has been as- 

 signed. Again, it has been suggested that, as 

 "hoppesterres" once signified, or may have signi- 

 fied, female dancers, the expression ships' hop- 

 posteres means " dancing ships," i. e. ships at sea, 

 pitching and labouring. Others, again, would read 

 " shippes upon the steries," or ships steering their 

 course. 



Not feeling satisfied with either of these inter- 

 pretations, I would venture to suggest that hop- 

 posteres is an old form of the word upholsteries. 



The op for up is Dutch, ophouden being the 

 Dutch word correspondint^ to our uphold. 



The I of upholstery is absorbed in hopposterie, as 

 often before s. 



The h of hopposterie is the h of upholstery a 

 little out of place. This, however, is not the only 

 instance in which Chaucer prefixes the letter h. 

 For Elysium we find Helise ; for Eloisa, Helowis; 

 for abundant, hahundant. 



I would understand, then, by ships' hopposteres, 

 or upholsteries, the dockyards or arsenals where 

 ships are refitted ; not talcing upholstery in the 

 sense of the ships' tackling or furniture, but rather 

 in that of the place where such furniture is sup- 

 plied. Conf. surgery, rookery, piggery, grapery, 

 and, in the more contracted form, laundry, foun- 

 dry, vestry, &c. The yard where the ship re- 

 ceives repairs, and is fitted with her tackling, is 

 the ship's upholstery o? hopposterie. 



This interpretation will make a connected sense 

 with the preceding line : — 



" The toun destroied, ther was nothing laft — 

 Yet saw I brent the shippes' hopposteries." 



That is, Nothing was left to be burnt of the 

 toron itself; but 1 saw the dockyards burnt in 

 addition. 



In connexion with this view of a ship's hoppos- 

 terie or upholstery, as signifying a place where 

 ships were fitted and repaired, we may remark 

 that in the Scottish language, " uphald," as a noun 

 substantive, signifies the act of maintaining a 

 building by giving it the necessary repairs, or the 

 oblijiation to do so. Thomas Boys. 



French Protestants. — It appears that after the 

 year 1762 the Protestants in France were no 

 longer condemned to the galleys. For this alle- 

 viation of their sufl'erings they were indebted, it 

 would seem, to a fresh interference on their be- 

 half by the English government, through the me- 

 dium of the Duke of Bedford, who was ambassador 



to the French Court at that time. The Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury had also written to the Due 

 de Nivernois on the same subject ; but from an 

 interesting, inedited letter written by Saint Flo- 

 rentin to the Due de Choiseul, and now first 

 printed in La France Protestante, tom. vii., 8vo., 

 Paris, 1857, from the Registres du Secretariat, 

 Archives Gen., E. 3524., there appeared no hope at 

 that time of the French government departing 

 from the intolerant maxims of Louis XIV. Count 

 Saint Florentin was Minister of the Interior, and 

 managed all the affairs of the state with reference 

 to the Protestants. He was accused of having 

 issued an immense number of lettres de cachet 

 during his ministry ; and from his letter now 

 quoted, which is too long for " N. & Q.," he was 

 not likely to assist the Protestants in breaking 

 their fetters. This gracious act was reserved for 

 the Due de Choiseul, and his still more liberal 

 and powerful successors ; and, above all, for that 

 great Revolution which so awfully avenged cen- 

 turies of misgovernment and oppression. J. M. 



Telegram. — The oldest date given to this word 

 as yet is two years ago, and its earliest habitat 

 the United States. It may be carried farther, for 

 it was used in Liverpool four years ago, and 

 nearly as long ago in London. Hyde CLARiiB. 



A Surgeon in the Army to rank as an Ensign. — 

 Eighty years ago it was customary in the English 

 army, when a surgeon was appointed to a regi- 

 ment, to hand him at the same time an ensign's 

 commission. . Dr. Freer served in this rank at the 

 battle of Bunker's Hill. W. W. 



Malta. 



War Cries. — The Normans at Hastings, " Ha 

 Rou, Ha Rou, Notre dame, Dex aide." The 

 old Scandinavian cry was " Thor aide." The 

 British cry at the defeat of the Picts, a.d. 220, 

 was "Alleluia." The Saxon cry was "Out, out! 

 Holy Cross ! " Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Devonshire Notice. — Mr. Cl. PIopper's copy of 

 notice in Kensington Gardens (2""* S. iv. 351.) 

 reminds me of a printed placard put up, and sent 

 round the county by three of our, since departed, 

 magistrates, at the time of the expected French 

 invasion, directing all constables, &c., whenever 

 a landing took place in Devonshire, " To drive 

 all Oxen, Donkeys, Sheep, Pigs, Women, and other 

 Cattle to the interior of Dartmoor.'' W. C. 



Haldon. 



The oldest Judge in the United States. — The 

 Fayetteville Observer furnishes a notice of the 

 venerable Henry Potter, United States judge for 

 the district of North Carolina, an office which he 

 has filled with dignity, integrity, and ability for 

 fifty-five years, and which, at the great age of 



