Dec. 30. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



535 



of whom I had no anticipation. No doubt that 

 circumstance would have happened whether _ or 

 not; but, as Mr. Addison observes, if the imagination 

 be affected, " a rusty nail or a crooked pin starts 

 up into prodigies." Gr« N. 



Bryant Famihj (Vol. x., p. 385.).— It may be 

 satisfactory to A Friend of the Family to know 

 that the coat of arms used by the Bryants of 

 Devonshire was that of the ancient family of 

 Bryan, viz.. Or, three tiles in point azure. They 

 are not found to have been located at Tiverton, 

 but memorials of them exist in three or four other 

 parishes of the county. J. D. S. 



" Goucho " or " Guacho " (Vol. x., p. 346".). — 

 In answer to A. C. M.'s Query on the above sub- 

 ject, I beg to say that the proper name for the in- 

 habitants of the Pampas is " Gaucho," pronounced, 

 as your correspondent has probably heard it, more 

 or less like Goucho, or rather Goivcho, sounding 

 the a as in Spanish " ah," and the u " oo." 



Some of the tribes of these people live on the 

 other side of the Cordillera, and these the Chilenos 

 call " Guasos " (pronounced nearly " H'uasos "), 

 to distinguish them from their eastern brethren ; 

 and it is by confusing and blending these two 

 words that travellers have made the bastard name 

 Guacho. There is, indeed, such a word, but it 

 signifies a pet animal, and especially a foundling. 



Henet H. Gibbs. 



Frognal, Hampstead. 



Brasces restored (Vol. x., p. 104.). — The in- 

 formation sought by your correspondent Mh. 

 Stanley is given in the following sentence : 



" The plain cobbler's heel-ball has been hitherto used 

 for taking off brasses ; but they were reversed in their 

 appearance, the black incised lines of the original be- 

 coming white in the rubbing. For white or light-coloured 

 paper Mr. Richardson now substitutes black paper ; and 

 for heel-ball a metallic composition, which, rubbed on the 

 black paper, produces a metallic surface, nearly resembling 

 that of the original brass itself. So that, with no more 

 labour than is required by the old process, Mr. Richard- 

 son's new process gives almost a perfect fac-simile of the 

 original." — Athencewn, No. 888. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



The Beginning of Mormonism (Vol. vii., pp. 153. 



548.).— 



" Twenty-eight years ago Joe Smith, the founder of 

 this sect, and Harris, his first convert, applied to the senior 

 editor of this journal, then residing in Rochester, to print 

 liis Book of Mormon, then just transcribed from the 

 'Golden Bible,' which Joe had found in the cleft of a 

 rock, to which he had been guided by a vision. 



" We attempted to read the first chapter, but it seemed 

 such unintelligible jargon that it was thrown aside. Joe 

 was a tavern idler in the village of Palmyra. Harris, who 

 offered to pay for the printing, was a substantial farmer. 

 Disgusted with what we considered a weak invention, 

 and not caring to strip Harris of his hard earnings, the 

 proposition was declined. 



"The MS. was then taken to another printing-office 

 across the street, from whence in due time the original 

 Mormon Bible made its advent. 



* Tall trees from little acorns grow.' 

 But who would have anticipated from such a bald, shal- 

 low, senseless imposition, such world-wide consequences? 

 To remember and contrast Joe Smith, with his loafer 

 look, pretending to read from a miraculous slate-stone 

 placed in his hat, with the Mormonism of the present day, 

 awakens thoughts alike painful and mortifying. There is 

 no limit, even in this most enlightened of all ages of 

 knowledge, to the influence of imposture and credulity. 

 If knaves, or even fools, invent creeds, nothing is too 

 monstrous for belief. Nor does the fact, a fact not dis- 

 guised nor denied, that all the Mormon leaders are rascals 

 as well as impostors, either open the eyes of their dupes, 

 or arrest the progress of delusion." — Albany Journal. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Chaucer''s Parish Priest (Vol. x., p. 387.)- — I 

 suppose the notion of Chaucer having intended his 

 portrait of a parish priest for Wickliff, is of equal 

 authenticity with the tradition that Dryden drew 

 hi3 beautiful exemplification of it from Bishop 

 Ken. OvTis. 



" Oriel" (Vol.x., p. 391.). — Your correspondent 

 M. (2.) appears to me not to have quite arrived 

 at the true etymology of the word oriel, but to be 

 very near it, in schoolboy language " to burn." 

 If he will take the trouble of referring to Jacob 

 Bryant's Observations upon the Poems of Thomas 

 Rowley, p. 452., he will find that in the second 

 note the word oryall is explained as " a gothic, 

 projecting window;" with a remark, that there 

 is, in fortification, a projecting work or c.isemate, 

 called an orillon at this day. Now, as the term 

 expresses any projection, such as the ear Is upon 

 the head, it applies equally to a porch or project- 

 ing window, both of which are admitted to be 

 expressed by the word oriel ; and it is more pro- 

 bable, that the latter term should be derived from 

 the Norman-French than any other langu.ige. 



I cannot but remark, upon the extreme inad- 

 missibility of an assertion of the late Bishop of 

 Llandaff (Skelton's Oxonia Antigua), that oriolum 

 is in reality only ostiolum. If the word is a dimi- 

 nutive, how come ost, the radicals, to be converted 

 into or ; or how comes a genuine Latin word to 

 have been so transformed and misused ? The 

 truth appears to be, that the members of Oriel 

 College know nothing more than their neigh- 

 bours about the etymology of the word, but only 

 that their buildings were erected on the site 

 of a messuage called " Le Oriole." Improving 

 upon this, the bishop conjectures that the stone 

 porch of entrance, now seen in the college quad- 

 rangle, is an oriel, properly so termed. It may 

 be so ; but sure I am, that it did not give name 

 to the college, and that nothing has yet been 

 produced from their records which will at all 

 help the inquiry. Ovrts. 



