2"* S. V. 126., May 29. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Wr 



9. "Anno iii Jacobi Reg. An Act for the publique 

 Thankesgiuing on the fift day of Nouember. R. Barker." 



C. J. R. 



Canne's Bible (2"^ S. v. 273.) — I have a 12mo. 

 edition, "printed anno 1682," without name or 

 place. An address "To the Reader" is signed 

 " John Canne." The first title is engraved, ex- 

 hibiting an architectural elevation, with an open 

 volume in the upper part, and at the foot a sword 

 and an olive branch in saltire, bound with a label 

 inscribed " Joh. cap. i. vers, i." Whatever may 

 be the merits of the earlier editions, I would saj 

 of this that it is the most incorrectly printed of 

 any Bible that I ever met with : it abounds with 

 errors throughout, some of them of the highest 

 importance. The references also are extremely 

 incorrect. J. D. 



Planting Yews in Churchyards (2""> S. v. 391.) 

 — This practice is by no means peculiar to Ire- 

 land. It prevailed in England in Catholic times. 

 The yew was generally used for palms, blessed 

 and borne in procession on Palm Sunday ; and in 

 many Catholic churches and chapels in England, 

 it is used still for the same purpose. In others, 

 the sallow is preferred ; and in others laurel, box, 

 or broom. Yew trees were often planted for this 

 purpose near the porches of our old churches. 

 Instances are still found : the old yew tree is still 

 standing near the porch of Colton church, Nor- 

 folk. F. C. H. 



Palm Sunday (2"-J S. v. 391.) — On St. Martin's 

 Hill, a very remarkable hill near Marlborough, 

 on which is an ancient camp more than thirty 

 acres in extent, Palm Sunday is kept ; and per- 

 sons in great numbers used to assemble there, 

 each carrying a hazel-nut bough with the blos- 

 soms (called catkins) hanging from it. The use 

 of yew branches on that day is there unknown. 



F. A. Carrington. 



Forgiveness (2"'^ S. v. 393.) — I think the Ger- 

 man language supplies two words which express 

 free forgiveness apart from compensation. First, 

 we have Erlassen, to let go, to set free, to remit ; 

 and this does not imply that the remission is in 

 consideration of any gift or compensation, but 

 done freely. Secondly, the word Verzeihen sig- 

 nifies to take off an accusation, to free one from 

 reproach. The verb Zeihen means to accuse, and 

 Verzeihen to take off an accusation, and so to re- 

 lease and forgive. F. C. H. 



Your correspondent J. E, T. is in error, sup- 

 posing that the prefix for-^ in forgive, has any- 

 ■ thing to do with the preposition. On the con- 

 trary, it is equivalent to the German ver-, which 

 occurs in the German word to forgive — and this 

 entirely corresponds to the English — vergehen. 

 There are naany other words compounded with 

 for-, as forget, forswear, forbear. It seems, how- 



ever, difficult to give any meaning to this prefix 

 which will hold good in all cases ; but I should 

 think that in forgive it has a kind of negative 

 meaning, which it also has in forget, — and implies, 

 that if you receive an injury, it is not returned or 

 given back. Tau. 



Brookes, Src, fc. (2"'» S. v. 376.)— This family 

 was of some clerical influence in Norfolk : they re- 

 sided at Kirby Bedon, where for a considerable time 

 they were patrons and rectors of the living, which 

 they held with others in the vicinity and with the 

 parishes of Norwich. The Taylor family of that 

 city has adopted that patronymic distinction from 

 a comparatively recent connexion. They bore, gul. 

 on a chevron arg., a lion rampant sab., crowned, 

 or. H. D'AvENEY. 



Curtain Lecture (2"'* S. iv. 24. 77. ; v. 306.) — 

 Your correspondent, P. H. F., in quoting the 

 scarce work, Art Asleepe Husband? A Boulster 

 Lecture, 1640, says : — 



" My copy has the curious frontispiece, under which is 

 'printed for R. Best,' thus giving the name of the person 

 indicated by initials in the title, and probably of the 

 author." 



R. Best was only the stationer or bookseller : 

 the author of the work was Richard Brathwaite 

 (see the first volume of Haslewood's Bamabcs 

 Itinerurium, p. 376.). 



P. H. F. is not acquainted with the contents of 

 the book he quotes, or he would have observed 

 the following curious passage in the postscript 

 bearing upon the subject before us : — 



" I have scene sometimes a pamphlet beare the stile of 

 a Curtaine Lecture ; but so bald were those jests, they'd 

 shame modest guests ; stale tales were sold for new that 

 were old, nay, many were ingraven in the cuckolds haven 

 (the Divell was in 't), before they came to print. So 

 Oyster women cry, ' Ny Wainfleet, Ny : ' when as (phoh) 

 they partake of Cocytus slimy lake. A pumice stone for 

 these, or else they cannot please. I wish with all my 

 heart, to save a fruitlesse mart, that Curtaine Lecture may 

 be employ'd another way, and in our Curtaine Fields, 

 where Cloacina builds, her shields so neatly chus'd, those 

 papers may be used." 



Edward F. Rimbatjlt. 



Brown Bess (2"'» S. v. 259.) — The Dutch sol- 

 dier, mindful of all the care he has to bestow upon 

 his gun, still calls it his wife : " Mijn geweer is 

 mijn vrouw," he says. It is much more poetical 

 to suppose a similar origin to the name of Brown 

 Bess, than to derivate it from the Dutch bus, a 

 gun-barrel, which, in every case, is not brown ; 

 only the stock is. J. H. Van Lbnnep. 



Zeyst, April 26, 1858. 



Gundrada, Wife of William de IVarenne (2""* S. 

 V. 269. 364.) — Mrs. Green, in her Lives of the 

 English Princesses, vol. i. c. 3., gives a digest of 

 the evidence, pro and co?i, with respect to this 

 lady's parentage, with references to the various 

 authorities. R. W. Hackwood. 



