314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n<i S. V. 120., x\rRiL 17. 'oS. 



Portuguese Origin of some English Words. — 

 The following may be coincidences rather than 

 illustrations, but they seem to me worth consider- 

 ation : — 



SoMEB SAULT, or Somerset, Dr. Johnson de- 

 rives from French sommer, a beam, and sauU, a 

 leap. In Portuguese sohresalto means a " sudden 

 start," a surprise. 



Coward and Cowardice Dr. Johnson says are 

 of " uncertain derivation," probably from couard, 

 Fr. In Portuguese covarde and covardia mean 

 coward and cowardice; probably, says Vieyra, 

 from cava, a cave, " because he hides himself." 



Bulwark Dr. Johnson conjectures iiiay come 

 from the Dutch holwerche, but the Portuguese 

 haluarte means a " battery " or " bastion." 



Poison Dr. Johnson refers to the Fr. poison. 

 The Portuguese word is pegonha.^ J, E. T. 



Sir Archibald Alison and the Caudine Forks. — 

 It is well-known to all the students of Roman 

 history that in the Second Saranite War the Ro- 

 man army were, by a stratagem, enticed into a 

 mountain-pass near Caudium, in Southern Italy ; 

 that they were surrounded by the Samnite army, 

 compelled to surrender upon ignominious terms, 

 and afterwards passed under a yoke. The name 

 of this pass was Furculce or Furcce Caridince, from 

 its resemblance to the instrument which the Ro- 

 mans called a furca: the jugtim or yoke was in 

 the shape of a gallows, and was formed for the 

 occasion of three spears ; two fixed perpendicu- 

 larly in the ground, and a third tied transversely 

 to their extremities. Livy describes the jugum 

 thus : " Tribus hastis jugum fit, humi fixis dua- 

 bus, superque eas tranversa una deligata," iii. 28. 



Sir Archibald Alison, however, confounds the 

 Furculce Caudince, the name of the Caudine Pass, 

 with the yoke under which the Roman army 

 was passed, and accordingly, in his History of 

 Europe, speaks of an army being passed " under 

 the Caudine Forks." With reference to the sur- 

 render of Duport at Baylen, and the Convention 

 of Cintra, he says, — '■ 



" The spell which held the world enchained had been 

 broken; the dangerous secret had been disclosed that 

 French armies could pass under the Caudine Forks." — Ch. 

 1. vol. vi. p. 856. ed. 1839. 



JRev. George Brathwaite. — I copy out of a 

 family Bible the following curious account of a 

 very aged man. I should be glad if anybody 

 could tell me anything more about him : — 



" Dec. 16th, 1753, at Ilam died the Reyi Geo. Brath- 

 waite, of St. Mary's, Carlisle, aged 110 or 111 years, being 

 Sunday. He retained his memory to the last, and was 

 between 90 and 100 years in the cathedral. He was blind 

 before ho died, but could repeat all the Psalms and Ser- 

 vice by heart, except the lessons ; could marry, church, 

 christen, &c. ; was led in later declining years by his 

 grandson George Dalton, son of Thomas, and always shed 



tears, or rather teai's were always seen in his ej'es, when 

 the Psalm containing • Oh that I had wings like a dove, 

 then would I flee away and be at rest ' (sic.) — What an 

 eventful period in history he saw ! " 



E.D. 



Fabian's Chronicle, " which he nameth the con- 

 cordaunce of historic, &c. 1559, Mense Aprilis. 

 ^Imprinted at London by Henry Bradsha. ' A 

 fine copy of this interesting Chronicle in its 

 original binding is in my library, but it appears to 

 have escaped the notice of all our typographical 

 writers. No mention is made of such a book or 

 PRINTER by Ames, Herbert, Dibdin, Hansard, or 

 TImperley. Can any of your readers refer me to 

 any account of this Henry Bradsha ? or of any 

 book printed by him ? The woodcut frame to the 

 title has the king in council on top, and Grafton's 

 device at the bottom. On page 561. " The iiij. 

 dale of June (1554) was taken doune all the Gal- 

 lowes, that were aboute London." Query, When 

 were they erected, and upon what occasion ? The 

 volume ends on page 571., the first year of Eliz- 

 abeth, with these words, " whose highnes Jesus 

 preserue." George Offor. 



Hackney. 



America discovered in the Eleventh Century. — 

 Lord Dufferin, in his Letters from High Latitudes 

 (Murray, 1857, p. 55.), says, " Greenland was 

 colonised by Europeans in the tenth, and Ame- 

 rica* discovered by Icelanders at the commence- 

 ment of the eleventh, century." He gives the 

 Chronicle of Snorro Sturleson as his authority. 

 Can your readers inform me of any corroborative 

 testimony ? Alfred T. Lee. 



'■'■The Quality Papers.''^ — Who is the author of 

 The Quality Papers, edited by Demetrius Wyse- 

 man, Gent., 1827 ? One of the poems in this 

 volume " Childe Chincumchaw," in two cantos, 

 appeared in the Literary Gazette about 1823 or 

 1824. Sigma. 



Bishops of Sodor and Man. — Can any of your 

 correspondents give me any clue to the arms of 

 the following Bishops of Sodor and Man ? : — 

 John Phillips, 1605—1633. 

 William Forster, 1633—1635. 

 Samuel Rutter, 1661—1662. 

 George Mason, 1780—1783. 

 I am anxious to include them in my Catalogue 

 of Arms of Bishops, which, but for the dispersion 

 of Mr. Appel's business, would have been pub- 

 lished at Easter. W. K. Riland Bedford. 

 Rectory, Sutton Coldfield. 



[* Several articles on the discovery of America ap- 

 peared in our 1" S. vols. i. and ii, — En.] 



