364 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



t2»>fl S. V. 122., May 1. '58. 



roar," William Lauder, whose eulogy (not very 

 consistent with his name) runs thus : — 



" A perfect devil incarnate, if any such ever existed, 

 an abandoned monster of mankind, of insatiable avarice, 

 unbounded ambition, implacable malice, unparalleled im- 

 pudence, shocking impiety, unnatural against the father 

 that begot hini, an arch-traitor and rebel against his 

 political father, his rightful sovereign ; in short, a mur- 

 derer, and an approver and abettor of murderers ; bog- 

 gling at no enormity how flagrant soever, to accomplish 

 his purposes, and like his master, Cromwell, completely 

 versed in all the arts of fraud, falsehood, sophistry, and 

 pr3vai'ication." 



Lethrediensis. 



MODIiD, 



(a""* S. V. 232. 806.) 



I beg Me. Bernhard Smith's pardon, but 

 cannot agree with him. I think Milton wrote 

 " rpould," and meant by the word a mole-hill, the 

 habitation (cuhile) of a mole, or mould-vmrp. It 

 is i^ot every mole-hill that is the mould, but the 

 largest one, in which the mole hollows out various 

 galleries and ways for himself. There is a plate, 

 in a note on the mole, in the Rev. J. G. Wood's 

 edition of Gilbert White's Natural History of Sel- 

 borne (Routledge, 1854, see p. 321.), which gives 

 a good description of a mole-hill, the mould, and 

 its " darksome passages." 1 have heard mole- 

 catchers talk of a garden mole as if he was a 

 larger animal than the field mole ; and perhaps be- 

 cause be is more mischievous, they always expect 

 something extra for trapping a garden mole. Mil- 

 ton writes, — 



" For God had thrown 

 That jnountajn as his garden mould, high raised 

 Upon the rapid current, wliich through vein§ 

 Of porous earth with kindly thirst updrawp> 

 Eose a fresh fountain, and with many a riJi 

 Watered the garden, there nnited fell 

 Down the deep glade, and met the nether flood, 

 Which from his darksome passage now appears." 



In God's hand the mountain was but as a mole- 

 hill ; and as in a mole-hill, with its porous earth 

 and several passages, the water oozed, some up- 

 wards, forniing a fountain, which meets the nether 

 flood, that goes through the darksome passage. 

 This seems to me all to apply to a mould, a mole- 

 hill ; had Milton meant a mound, he would have 

 written mound, but I do not see that his descrip- 

 tion would in any way have applied to a solid 

 mound, or mole, or embankment. 



Once more I must ask pardon. The mole de- 

 rives his name, I think, from the Danish mule, 

 a mouth ; midd-varp is his Danish name, which 

 means mold-caster, but the root is mule, a mouth, 

 a mouth-caster, as in the German maul-wurf. 

 The Anglo-Saxon name is wanda, from wendan, 

 to turn. Mould-warp is still the name of the 

 mole in Derbyshire ; and among the Danish hys 

 of Lincolnshire I have shown the use of the word 



warp. Is mould-warp also used in Lincoln's^ 

 shire ? 



I know no other instance of mould ysed as I 

 suppose it to be by Milton. But mold I finds 

 used in a homily in the Bodleian Library, temp, 

 Henry II. (supposed) ; vide Eccleston's Introduc- 

 tion to English Antiquities, p. 102. And I con- 

 clude that mould, a shape, in which anything is 

 cast, mould {humus) earth, fine earth, churchyard 

 mould, mould-damp, mole, the animal, and mould, 

 a mole-hill, all are derived from the Danish mule, 

 a mouth, a mole being an animal who casts with 

 his mouth. The Greeks called him aKaXo^, a 

 digger, 



I ^dd the quotation from the homily, and Ec- 

 cleston's translation : — 



" De }?eT bolb gebylb 

 For thee is a house built 

 Gp "Sn iborien pepe 

 Ere thou wert born. 

 De rer molb imync 

 For thee was a mould shapen 

 6p "Sii OF mohep come 

 Ere thou of (thy) mother camest, 

 De hie ncf no ibihC 

 Its height is not determined, 

 Ne 'Sej- beopnef imeren 

 Nor its depth measured, 

 Ner til iloceb 

 Nor is it closed up, 

 Hu Ions bir tJe pepe 

 However long it may be, 

 Nu ine ^e bpinje^ 

 Until I thee bping 

 Wep ^u beon fcealc 

 Where thou shalt remain 

 Jf u me fceal '5p mecen 

 Until 1 shall measure thee 

 Anb "Se molb feot! ^a 

 And the sod of earth." 



The literal translation of the last line is, " And 

 thp jnquld sod there." A. IJqi.t White. 



william de warenne, first earl of surrey, 

 'and gundrada his wife, 



(2"-» S. V. 269.) 

 The testimony concerning the parentage of 

 Gundrada, wife of William de Warenne, first Earl 

 of Surrey, is of so conflicting a nature, that, unless 

 fresh evidence be brought to light, it is not likely 

 we shall ever attain certainty. The most pro- 

 bable opinifm is, that Gundrada was the daughter 

 of Matilda by her first husband Gorbod, or of 

 William before his marriage, or pretended mar- 

 riage, with her. If either of these suppositions be 

 true, we can see good reason why William de 

 Warenne speaks in his charter of the relationship 

 between his wife and Queen Matilda, but makes 

 no mention of any such connexion with William, 

 The fact that William speaks of Gundrada in one 

 of his charters as his daughter does not militate 

 against this ; for if his marriage with Matilda 



