Nov. 5. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



443 



Westminster, p. 288., we are told " she was a native of 

 LoL'bborough, near Paisley. She was brought to 

 England to prepare Scotch broth for King James II., 

 but, owing to the abdication of that monarcli, fell into 

 jioverty and died in St. Margaret's workhouse, whore 

 her portrait is still preserved. Her body was followed 

 to the grave by the parochial authorities and many of 

 the principal inhabitants, while the children sang a 

 hymn before it reached its last resting-place."] 



Etymology of " Coin'' — What is the etymology 

 of our noun and verb coin and to coin ? I do not 

 know if I have been anticipated, but beg to sug- 

 gest the following: — Coin, a piece of cornered 

 metal ; To coin, the act of cornering such block of 

 metal. 



In Cornwall, the blocks of tin, when first run 

 into moulds from the smelting furnace, are square ; 

 and when the metal is to be fined or assayed, the 

 miner's phrase is, that it is to be coined; for the 

 corners of the moulded block are cut off, and sub- 

 jected to the assay ; and the degree of fineness 

 proved is stamped on the now cornerless block — 

 thereafter called a coin of tin. It is, I conceive, 

 by no means a violent supposition that such coins 

 of tin were current as money very many ages 

 before either silver, gold, copper, bronze, lead, tin, 

 or any other metal moulded, stamped, engraved, 

 or fashioned into such coins as we now know had 

 come into use. AVe know to what far-back ages 

 the finding of tin carries us, its find being entirely 

 confined to Cornwall; its presence near the sur- 

 face iu an ore readily reduced and easily melted 

 making its reduction into the metallic state pos- 

 sible in the very rudest state of society and of the 

 arts. C. D. Lamont. 



Greenock. 



[See Dr. Richardson for the following derivation : — 

 " P'r. coigner. It. cuniare, Sp. cunar, acunar, to wedge, 

 and also to coin. Menage and Spelman agree from 

 the Latin cuneus. 'Cuneus; sigillum ferreum, quo num- 

 mus cuditnr ; a forma dictum : atque inde coin quasi 

 cune pro moneta.' An iron seal witli which metal is 

 stamped ; so called from tlie shape. And hence money 

 is called coin (q. cune, wedge). — Spelman." The Rev. 

 T. R. Brown, in an unpublished Dictionary of Difficult 

 Etymology*, suggests the following: — " Fr. coign, a 

 coin, stamp, &c. ; Gaelic, cuin, a coin. Probably from 

 the Sanscrit kan, to shine, desire, covet ; kanaka, gold, 

 &c. 'J'be Hebrew ceseph, money, coin, is derived in 

 like manner from the verb casaph, to desire, covet. The 

 other meaning attached to the French word coign, viz. 

 a wedge, appears to be derived from quite a different 

 root."] 



Inscription at Aylesbury. — In the north transept 

 of St. Mary's Church, Aylesbury, occurs the fol- 



* This useful work makes two volumes 8vo. : but 

 how is it the learned Vicar of Southwick printed only 

 nine copies ? Was he thinking of the sacred Nine ? 



lowing curious inscription on a tomb of the date 

 of 1584: 



" Yf, passing by this place, thou doe desire 



To knowe wh.it corpse here shry'd in marble lie. 

 The somme of that whiche now thou dost require 

 This slender verse shall sone to thee descrie. 



" Entombed here doth rest a worthie Dame, 



Extract and born of noble house and bloud, 

 Her sire, Lord Paget, bight of worthie fame, 



Whose virtues cannot sink in Lethe floud. 

 Two brethern had she, barons of this realme, 



A knight her freere, Sir Henry Lee, he bight. 

 To whom she bare three impes, which. had to name, 



John, Henry, Mary, slayn by fortune spight. 

 First two being yong, which cavs'd their parents mone, 



The third in flower and prime of all her yeares : 

 All three do rest within this marble stone, 



By wliiche the fickleness of worldly joyes appears. 

 Good Frend sticke not to strew with crimson flowers 



This marble stone, wherein her cindres rest. 

 For sure her ghost lyves with the heavenly powers, 



And guerdon bathe of virtuous life possest." 



Can any of your readers give me any other 

 instances of children being called imps ? and also 

 tell me wherefore the name was given them ? and 

 how long it continued in use ? T. W. D. Brooks. 



Cropredy, Banbury. 



[The inscription is given in Lipscomb's Buckingham- 

 shire. Home Tooke says imp is the past participle of 

 the A.-S. impan, to graft, to plant. Mr. Steevens 

 (Note on '2 Henry IV., Act V. Sc. 5.) tells us, " An 

 imp is a shoot in its primitive sense, but means a son in 

 Shakspeare." In Hollinshed, p. 951., the last words 

 of Lord Cromwell are preserved, who says, " And after 

 him that his sonne Prince Edward, that goodlie im])e, 

 may long reign over you." The word imp is per- 

 petually used by Ulpian Fulwell, and other ancient 

 writers, for progeny : 



" And were it not thy royal impe 

 Did mitigate our pain." 



Again, in the Battle of Alcazar, 1594 : 



" Amurath, mighty emperor of the East, 

 That shall receive the imp of royal race." 



See other examples in Todd's Johnson and Dr. 

 Richardson's Dictionaries, Shakspeare uses the word 

 only in jocular and burlesque passages, which, says 

 Nares, is the natural course of a word growing ob- 

 solete.] 



" Guardian Angels, now protect w?e," ^~c. — I 

 remember John Wesley, and also his saying the 

 " Devil should not have the best tunes." There 

 was a pretty love-song, a great favourite when I 

 was a boy : 



" Guardian angels, now protect me, 

 Send to me the youth I love." 



the music of which Wesley introduced to his 

 congregation as a liymn tune. The music I have, 

 and I shall be glad if any of your correspondents 



