50 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 246. 



at a depth below the surface of the ground, which 

 proves they had been used long before the noxious 

 weed was brought to this country. The old 

 women in Annandale, Wilson tells us, used a dry 

 white moss not long ago, and said it was much 

 sweeter to smoke than tobacco. It might easily 

 be that. M— A L. 



(Vol. ix., p. 400.) 

 I think Professor Martyn has gone too far when 

 he went to the Greek for his derivation of such a 

 good old English word as orchard, more especially 

 as, when pronounced, they do not agree in sound. 

 That the English word is pronounced orchat, is 

 only in analogy with that of the vulgar in all 

 aimilar cases. I suspect it is simply worts-yard, 

 i. e. herb-yard, which in this country preceded an 

 enclosure for fruit-trees. Ash gives, " Wort, the 

 general name of an herb ; a plant of the cabbage 

 kind." Another derivation might be suggested, 

 which, though less probable, I give for the sake of 

 a remark which may be founded upon it, viz. 

 orts-yard, i.e. waste-yard. Ash says under the 

 •word " Ort (a word not much used in the sin- 

 gular), the refuse, that which is left." It is es- 

 pecially used of the sweepings of cows' l/ooses ; and 

 this leads me to remark that it is in the language 

 connected with the farm that some of our good 

 old English monosyllables are to be traced. The 

 farmer in the north, and doubtless elsewhere, still 

 says to his man, " Go, unseal the kye, and sweep 

 the orts in their booses into the groop." To un- 

 seal is to loosen the so2o, an ingenious wooden 

 trap by which the cows are held. Ash says, 

 " Sowe [(verb int. obsolete), to seal." But he is 

 wrong, according to the writer's experience ; seal 

 is the verb, and sowe its substantive. Boose is 

 the locus standi of the cow, and groop (see Ash), 

 the place for the urine. The terms of driving, 

 again, ho, gee, &c., deserve the attention of anti- 

 quaries, and probably some of your readers may 

 think this subject worth prosecuting farther. 



E.P. 



Dr. Johnson identifies the word with the Anglo- 

 Saxon oprseapb (i. e. 'hort-yard), and his view 

 seems far more probable than that of Professor 

 Martyn. H. G. 



EPITAPH IN liAVENHAM CHUECH. 



(Vol.ix., p. 369.) 



This church is in Suffolk, but the following 

 remarks apply to both counties. "Prayse" may 

 here be a verb, and "continuall" an adverb for 

 contimially. The phrase is common in Norfolk 

 among uneducated persons : " She continuall do 



it." The "of" in the next line maybe a Nor- 

 folkism too; "I was a praising of her" being 

 common also. "Ingrain" does not apply in this 

 case ; a painter grains deal to imitate mahogany, 

 oak, &c. The word ingrain or ingrained belongs 

 to the dyer's trade, and is solely applied (I think) 

 to scarlet ; at least to such colours only as are 

 obtained from cochineal. The term Grana fina 

 was used by Spanish merchants to distinguish the 

 domesticated cochineal Insect from the wild and 

 inferior kind, Grana sylvestra, probably in igno- 

 rance of its being really an insect ; and the term 

 had Irremediably taken its place in Spanish com- 

 merce, before Cortez had sufBcient leisure and 

 opportunity to follow his master's orders in mak- 

 ing himself acquainted with the natural produc- 

 tions of the country he had conquered. The 

 word is thus fixed In our language ; a curious fact, 

 as I do not find that Keruces (according to Pliny), 

 early used by the Spaniards, or Lac, still earlier 

 used by the Indians, were subject to the same 

 misnomer ; yet the ancient Spaniards must have 

 heard of the lac dye through the Phoenicians, even 

 if it were not produced in Spain, as some writers 

 have supposed. F. C. B. 



There are two or three misquotations in the 

 copy of this epitaph rendered by your correspon- 

 dent A. B. E,. As correctness is desirable, I ven- 

 ture to repeat the lines, which are inscribed upon 

 a brass plate affixed against one of the nave piers 

 of this church, marking the corrections in Italics : 



" Continuall prayse these lynes in brasse, 



[The verb record is here obviously to be understood,] 



Of AUaine Dister here, * 



A clothier vertuous whyle he was 



In Lavenham many a yeare 



For as in lyfe he loved best 



The poore to clothe and feede 



So with the riche and alle the rest 



He neighbourlie agreed 



And did appoint before he died 



A spiall [special] yearlie rent 



Whiche shoulde be every Whitsontlde 



Amonge the poorest spent." 



" Et obiit anno dni 1534." 



Lavenham Church abounds in curious relics, 

 and will well repay the antiquary who would take 

 the pleasure of visiting its ancient fabric. Being 

 a native of Lavenham, I have often read the epi- 

 taph noticed by A. B. K. The first two lines 

 mean " Continuall prayse these lynes in brass (do 

 give) of Allaine Dister here" (i. e. wholieth here). 

 It is one of those quaint forms of expression which 

 still characterise the old people of Lavenham. 

 The town is not in Norfolk, but in Suffolk, situated 

 midway between Sudbury and Bury St. Edmunds. 



Feed. Eibbans. 



Grammar School, Leek, Staffordshire. 



