366 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 155. 



"aber and "inver. 

 (Vol. vi., p. 290.) 



Your correspondent Topos will find full inform- 

 ation on this point in Johnes's Philological Proofs 

 of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the 

 Human Race, pp. 70 — 72., London, 1843 : 



" In the first syllable ' Inver' and Ab-ber differ, but 

 they agree in the last. Both 'In' and ' Ah,' the first 

 syllables of these terms, occur so often in Celtic regions, 

 that there can be no doubt they were both in use 

 among the ancient Celts as words for a river or water. 

 The last syllable of these words, Ber or Ver, I shall 

 show to mean an ' Estuary.' ' In' occurs in the name 

 of ' the Inn,' in the Tyrol, the ' ^n-us' of the Romans, 

 and in other instances previously noticed. ' An ' is a 

 Gaelic or Irish term for ' water,' which is identical in 

 sound and sense with terms of frequent occurrence 

 among the tribes of the American continent, as in 

 Aouin (Hurons, N. America); Jin Jin {Kolushians, 

 extreme N. West of N. America); Ueni (Maipuriuns, 

 S. America.) « Ab' occurs in 'The Aube,' in France, 

 &c., a name of which the pronunciation may be con- 

 sidered identical with Ab, ' water,' ( Pers/an). Ap in 

 Sanscrit, and Ubu Obe in AfFghan, mean ' water.' 

 * Obe' occurs in Siberia as the name of a well-known 

 river. In India also the term has been applied to 

 ' rivers ; ' thus we have in that country the Pung-ab 

 (the province of ' The Five Rivers'), an appellation of 

 which the corresponding Celtic terms ' Pump-ab ' would 

 be almost an echo 1 . 



' Berw' is the South Welsh name for the effervescence 

 in the deep receptacle in which a cataract foams after 

 its fall; it is applied also to the cataract itself, as 

 ' Berw Rhondda,' the fall of the River Rhondda. Aber, 

 in Cornish, means ' a confluence of rivers,' also, 'a gulf,' 

 'a whirlpool.'* In Breton or Armorican, Aber means 

 'a confluence of rivers.' ' Dans le diocese de Vannes,' 

 says Bullet, 'le mot a encore une autre signification, 

 c'est celle de torrent' .... (Compare Torr-ens 

 (Latin), ' Torrent' (English), from Torreo (Latin) 'to 

 boil.') ' Aber, in a deflected sense,' he says, ' has been 

 applied to a harbour ; hence, Havre de Grace ! ' ' It is 

 a curious fact,' says Chalmers, ' which we learn from 

 the charters of the twelfth century, that the Scoto-Irish 

 people substituted Inver for the previous Aber of the 

 Britons. David I. granted to the monastery of May 

 Inver-In qui fuit Aber-ln in Chart May.'f This re- 

 markable place is at the ' Influx of a small stream, 

 called the In, on the coast of Fife. Both appellations 

 are now lost.' " 



R. J. A. 



CHANTRY CHAPELS. 



'(VoLvi., pp. 223.305.) 



*" I am obliged to Mr. Noake for his reply to my 

 Query on this subject, but he has misunderstood 

 its nature. 



* This word is marked thus ■{• in the Cornish Voca- 

 bularies as being extinct. 

 f^Chalraers's Caledonia. 



I did not " inquire (as he imagines) whether 

 the small chantry chapels, situate in hamlets at 

 some distance from the parish church, were used 

 for public worship as chapels of ease?" On the 

 contrary, I stated that they were so used ; and in- 

 quired whether such chapels so situated were 

 "ever used exclusively as sepulchral chantries?" 

 adding, that " I had not met with an instance of 

 the kind," In my investigation of this subject, 

 which has been somewhat extensive, I have in- 

 variably found that such chapels, when remote 

 from the parish church, were used for public 

 worship by the neighbouring population. This 

 fact is important. For not only were these chan- 

 try chapels always used for sepulchral purposes, 

 but the only ground for suppressing them, and 

 alienating their endowment, was, that they were 

 devoted to the superstitious ceremony of offering 

 masses for the dead. On searching early records,- 

 I find many of them had originally been used 

 simply as chapels of ease ; but subsequently being 

 adopted for sepulture, and endowed with a chantry 

 by the lord of the manor or other important per- 

 son, they received the name of chantry chapels, 

 and consequently were suppressed, and their en- 

 dowments alienated, even in hamlets lying three 

 or four miles from a church, and containing some 

 hundreds of inhabitants. As I am preparing a 

 small work on the destroyed churches of the 

 county in which I live, I shall be obliged to any 

 of your readers who will Instance some so-called 

 " chantry chapels," remote from other church, 

 which were used only as chantries. I am aware 

 that an account of these chantries may be seen In 

 the Augmentation Office; but how are these do- 

 cuments arranged ? and may they be examined 

 without fee, or for a small one ? 



Is there an account of the suppression of these 

 chantries in the British Museum ? Mr. Noake's 

 conjecture about " early English " roads Is amus- 

 ing ; but Macadamised roads do not enable old 

 and Infirm persons to walk two and three miles to 

 church, nor shelter the poor from the inclemencies 

 of the weather. An oratory was not a chantry 

 chapel, but, occasionally, merely a room in a 

 dwelling-house. Chantry chapels, I believe, were 

 always consecrated. 



Mr. Noake may see a description of them ia 

 Bloxam's Monumental Architecture, pp. 86. 178. ; 

 and In the Glossary of Architecture, under the 

 word " Chantry." W. H. K. 



the habit or profane swearing by the 



ENGLISH. 



(Vol. vi., p. 299.) 



I cannot but think that, in the observations 

 there made, both the army and navy are very 

 unwarrantably maligned. I believe that pro- 



