436 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. V. 126., May 29. '58. 



their countenances were not seen, lest the judges 

 should be influenced thereby ? Fossob. 



The Mowbray Family. — I shall be glad to be 

 informed whether Geoffrey, the warrior-bishop of 

 Coutances, who took so active a part in the mili- 

 tary operations of William the Conqueror, and 

 whose large possessions in England passed (ac- 

 cording to Ord. Vital.) into the hands of his 

 nephew Robert de Mowbray, was a member and 

 bore (previous to his consecration) the name of 

 this family ? T. North. 



Leicester. 



Roman Swords and Size of the Romans. — While 

 on a visit in Northamptonshire a short time ago 

 an ancient sword was shown me, dug up near 

 Peterborough, in excellent preservation, and de- 

 scribed by the possessor as Roman. Its length 

 is about two feet four, and on the handle is a ring 

 for buckling it on. What I wish, however, to call 

 attention to is the length of the grasp of the hilt. 

 Mine is not a large hand, but the length of the 

 grasp was too short for me by at least an inch ; 

 and I trouble you with this letter to ask some of 

 your numerous readers, far better qualified than 

 myself to throw light upon the subject, whether 

 this does not seem to lead us to infer that the 

 Romans were a smaller race of men than our- 

 selves ? or whether the statues, &c. at Rome, and 

 the skeletons discovered at Pompeii and Hercula- 

 neum, have been of such a size as to negative the 

 opinion, which I certainly have heard advanced, 

 that such was the case with these conquerors of 

 the world ? Inquirer. 



Roman Catholic Geography. — 



" St. Mary's College, Blairs, near Aberdeen, founded in 

 1829, as the representative of the Elder Colleges Meupel, 

 Samalaman, Scalan, and Lismore." 



Where are these four places respectively situ- 

 ated ? Taba. 



The One Hundred and Forty-fifth Psalm. — 

 This Psalm, or rather the 144th according to the 

 Septuagint, contains in that version a longer 

 thirteenth verse than the Hebrew or English. It 

 is called an alphabetical or acrostical Psalm, and 

 yet it contains only twenty-one verses. This 

 longer verse would seem to make up the deficient 

 (fourteenth) verse of the Hebrew ; that which in 

 alphabetical arrangement should begin with 3 (N). 

 The meaning of the verse is, " The Lord Is faith- 

 ful in His words, and holy in all His works." 



In Paragraph Bibles, this Psalm is divided into 

 four portions ; the first consists of seven verses, 

 the second of six— of seven with the missing one, 

 making the number even with the first portion, 

 and the next two portions of four verses each. In 

 the first seven verses God is praised for his fame 

 and glory ; in the next seven, including the lost 



verse, for his goodness and greatness ; in the fol- 

 lowing four for his providence ; and in the last 

 four for his saving mercy. 



How was this verse lost ? I shall be glad if you 

 or some of your correspondents can throw any 

 light upon it. J. Clarke. 



The Name William. — 



" This name was not anciently given unto children in 

 youth, but a name of dignity imposed upon men in re- 

 gard of merit ; but -being since grown into a very or- 

 dinary proper name, I thought good here among these 

 proper names to place it. For the etymology hereof, the 

 reader will please to understand that the ancient Ger- 

 mans, when they had wars with tlie Romans, were not 

 armed as they were, but in a far more slight manner, 

 having ordinary swords, spears, shields of wood, halbards, 

 and the like, supplying the rest with their strength and 

 valour. Now, when it so happened that a German sol- 

 dier was observed to kill in the field some captain or 

 chargebearer among the Romans (such being well armed, 

 and their helmets and head-pieces commonly gilded), the 

 golden helmet of the slain Roman was (after the fight) 

 taken, and set upon the head of the soldier that hath 

 slain him, and then honoured with the name and title of 

 Gildhelme; which should, according to our new ortho- 

 graphy, be Gilden or Golden-helmet, which growing 

 afterwards into an ordinary name, because divers names 

 began with Will (as before some are noted), this was 

 easily, hy wrong pronunciation, brought unto the like, 

 howbeit among the Franks it kept the name of Gild- 

 helme, and with the French (of their offspring) it got the 

 name of Guilhaume, and since came to be Guilleaume, and 

 with the Latinists, Gulielmus." — Verstegan [^Ifestitution 

 of Decayed Intelligence, p. 214., edit. 1655]. 



Is this, which I have cut from a newspaper, the 

 true derivation of the name William, or is there 

 any other more probable one ? 



William Eraser, B.C.L. 



Alton, Staffordshire. 



French Bible. — I enclose description of a 

 rather interesting volume I bought lately. It 

 may interest some of your readers, and I trust 

 elicit some information regarding it : — 



" La Bible translat^e de Latin en Fracois au vray sens, 

 pour les simple gens qui n'entendent pas Lati, corrigee et 

 imprimee nouvellement. A Paris, par Renault, 1543." 



It contains digest of the historical books ; then 

 Jonah, Ruth, Tobit, Daniel, Susannah, and Job ; 

 concluding with a summary of the history of the 

 world from Adam to Christ divided Into seven 

 ages, and an exhortation to the reader to study 

 the book. There are about 150 engravings (wood, 

 very fine for the time), and in two or three in- 

 stances the same picture Is made to illustrate two 

 different passages. A MS. note mentions that 

 they are by Pierre Rochienne, and several have 

 P. R. in the corner. J. D. C. 



Glasgow. 



Capel Lofft. — Among the " Neglected Bio- 

 graphies" of Suffolk is that of Capel Lofft, the 

 critical student of Milton, the patron of Bloom- 

 field, the warm advocate of the slave, — a man of 



