336 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 179. 



C. is informed that, in the fourth volume of the 

 ArchcBologia, p. 27., there is a paper by the Hon. 

 Daines Harrington, on the term Lavant, which, it 

 appears, is commonly applied in Sussex to all 

 brooks which are dry at some seasons, as is the 

 case with the Chichester river. 



" From the same circumstance," It is added, " the 

 sands between Conway and Beaumaris in Anglesey, 

 are called the Lavant sands, because they are dry when 

 the tide ebbs; as are also the sands which are passed 

 at low water between Cartmell and Lancaster, for the 

 same reason," 



To trace the origin of the term Lavant, we 

 must, I conceive, go back to a period more remote 

 than the Roman occupation ; for that remarkable 

 people, who conquered the inhabitants of Britain, 

 and partially succeeded in imposing Roman ap- 

 pellations upon the greater towns and cities, never 

 could change the aboriginal names of the rivers 

 and mountains of the country. " Our hills, forests, 

 and rivers," says Bishop Percy, " have generally 

 retained their old Celtic names." I venture, 

 therefore, to suggest, thaf the British word for 

 river, Av, or Avon, which seems to form the root 

 of the word Lavant, may possibly be modified in 

 some way by the prefix, or postfix, so as to give, 

 to the compound word, the signification of an in- 

 termittent stream. 



The fact that, amidst all the changes which 

 Lave passed over the face of our country, the 

 primitive names of the grander features of nature 

 still remain unaltered, is beautifully expressed by 

 a great poet recently lost to us : 



" Mark ! how all things swerve 

 From their known course, or vanish like a dream ; 

 Another language spreads from coast to coast ; 

 Only, perchance, some melancholy stream, 

 And some Indignant hills old names preserve, 

 When laws, and creeds, and people all are lost ! " 

 Wordsworth's Eccles. Sonnets, xii. 



, W. L. Nichols. 



Bath. 



SCAEFS WORN BY CLERGYMEN. 



(Vol. vii., p. 269.) 



The mention of the distinction between the 

 broad and narrow scarf, alluded to by me (Vol. vii., 

 p. 215.), was made above thirty years ago, and in 

 Ireland. I have a distinct recollection of the 

 statement as to what had been the practice, then 

 going out of use. I am sorry that I cannot, in 

 answer to C.'s inquiry, recollect who the person 

 was who made it. Nor am I able to specify in- 

 stances of the partial observance of the distinction, 

 as I had not till long after learned the wisdom of 

 " making a note :" but I had occasion to remark 

 that dignitaries, &c. frequently wore wider scarfs 

 than other clergyman (not however that the nar- 



rower one was ever that slender strip so impro- 

 perly and servilely adopted of late from the 

 corrupt custom of Rome, which has curtailed all 

 ecclesiastical vestments) ; so that when the dis- 

 cussion upon this subject was revived by others 

 some years ago, it was one to which my mind had 

 been long familiar, independently of any ritual 

 authority. 



I hope C. will understand my real object 'in 

 interfering in this subject. It is solely that I may 

 do a little (what others, I hope, can do more 

 effectually) towards correcting the very injurious, 

 and, I repeat, inadequate statement of the Quart. 

 Review for June, 1851, p. 222. However trifling 

 the matter may be in itself, it is no trifling matter 

 to involve a considerable portion of the clergy, and 

 among them many who are most desirous to up- 

 hold both the letter and the spirit of the Church 

 of England, and to resist all real innovation, in a 

 charge of lawlessness. Before the episcopal autho- 

 rity, there so confidently invoked, be interposed, 

 let it be proved that this is not a badge of the 

 clerical order, common to all the churches of 

 Christendom, and actually recognised by the rules, 

 in every respect so truly Catholic, of our own 

 Church. The matter does not, I apprehend, admit 

 of demonstration one way or the other, at least till 

 we have fresh evidence. But to me, as to many 

 others, analogies seem all in favour of the scarf 

 being such a badge ; and not only this, but the 

 very regulation of our royal ecclesiastical autho- 

 rities. The injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, in 

 1564, seem to mark the tippet as a distinction be- 

 tween clergymen and laymen, who otherwise, in 

 colleges and choirs at least, would have none. I 

 also am strongly of opinion that the tippets men- 

 tioned in the 58th and 74th English canons are 

 the two scarfs referred to : the silken tippet (or 

 broad scarf) being for such priests or deacons as 

 hold certain offices, or are M.A., LL.B., or of 

 superior degree ; the plain tippet (or narrow scarf) 

 being for all ministers who are non-graduates 

 (Bachelors of Arts were not anciently considered 

 as graduates, but rather as candidates for a degree, 

 as they are still styled in many places abroad) ; 

 so that all in orders may have tippets. This notion 

 is confirmed by the fact, that the scarf was fre- 

 quently called a tippet in Ireland within memory. 

 And in a letter, discussing this very subject, in 

 the Gentleman's Mag. (for 1818, partii. p. 218.*), 

 the testimony of one is given who had for upwards 

 of fifty years considered the two words as iden- 

 tical, and had heard them in his youth used indis- 

 criminately by aged clergymen. It is notorious 

 that in Ireland, time out of mind, tippets have been 

 more generally worn than hoods in parish churches 

 there. I am not sure (though I lay no stress on 

 the conjecture) whether this may not have been in 



* See also p. 315, ; and 1819, part i, p. 593. 



