«54 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 218. 



monks of Okebury a release of suit and service 

 within his manor of Wallingford, which charter 

 has a seal appended bearing an impress of the earl 

 armed on horseback, with a lion rampant crowned 

 on his surcoat, inscribed " Sigillum Richardi 

 Comitis Cornubiae." Now this inscription seems 

 to identify the lion as pertaining to the earldom 

 of Cornwall ; surely, if the bezants represented this 

 earldom, they would not have been omitted on his 

 seal as Comes CornubicB. 



Again, a very high heraldic authority, one of 

 deep research, Mr. J. R. Planche, gives this opinion 

 on the subject : 



" The border bezantee, or talentee, of Richard, King 

 of the Romans, is no representation of coins but of 

 peas (poix^, being the arms of Poitiers or Poictou 

 (Menestrier, Orig., p. 147.), of which he was earl, and 

 not of his other earldom of Cornwall, as imagined by 

 Sandford and others. The adoption of bezants as the 

 arms of Cornwall, and by so many Cornish families on 

 that account, are all subsequent assumptions derived 

 from the arms of Earl Richard aforesaid, the peas 

 having been promoted into bezants by being gilt, and 

 become identified with the Cornish escutcheon as the 

 garbs of Blundeville are with tliat of Chester, or the 

 coat o( Cantelupe with that of the see of Hereford." — 

 The Pursuivant at Anns, p. 136. 



A simple Query then would seem to settle this 

 matter. Is any instance known of bezants occur- 

 ring as the arms of Cornwall previous to the time 

 of Earl Richard, or earlier than the commence- 

 ment of the thirteenth century ? Norhis Deck. 



Cambridge. 



Greek and Homan Fortifications (Vol. vili., 

 p. 469.). — J. H. J. will find some information on 

 this subject in Fosbroke's Grecian and Roman 

 Antiquities (Longman, 1833). John Scsibe. 



Osbemus filiiis Herfasti (Vol. viii., p. 515.). — 

 In reply to the Query of Mr. Sansom, " Whether 

 Osbom de Crespon, the brother of the Duchess of 

 Normandy, had a brother of the same name ? " I 

 "beg to reply that there appears to be distinct evi- 

 dence that he had ; for in a grant of lands by 

 Richard IT., Duke of Normandy, who died in 

 1026, to the monks of St. Michael, there are, 

 along with the signatures of his son Richard and 

 several other witnesses, those of Oshernus f rater 

 ComitisscB, and Osbe?-nus filius Arfast (^Lobineau, 

 tom. ii. p. 97.). One of those may probably have 

 become Abbot of S. Evroult. No doubt Mb. San- 

 SOM is well aware that one of the same family was 

 Osborn, Bishop of Exeter, He was a son of 

 Osborn de Crespon, and brother of the Earl of 

 Hereford, premier peer of England. In 1066 he 

 forbad the monks to be buried in the cloisters of 

 their monasteries ; but they resisted his injunction, 

 and, on an appeal to the Pope, obtained a decision 

 against him (Mabillon). For an eulogium on him 



see Godwin, De presul. Angl. He died in 1104, 

 and was burled in the cathedral at Exeter. 



I would observe that the ancient orthography of 

 the name is Osbern, which was continued for 

 many centuries, and may even now be seen in 

 Maidwell Church, Northamptonshire, on the mo- 

 nument of Lady Gorges, the daughter of Sir John 

 Osbern, who died in 1633. Omicron. 



I think there can be little doubt that Herfastus 

 " the Dane " was the father of Gunnora, wife of 

 Rich. I., Duke of Normandy ; of Aveline, wife of 

 Osbemus de Bolebec, Lord of Bolbec and Count 

 of Longueville ; and of Weira, wife of Turolf de 

 Font Audomere. The brother of these three sis- 

 ters was another Herfastus, Abbot of St. Evrau ; 

 who was the father of Osbernus de Crepon, 

 Steward of the Household, and Sewer to the Con- 

 queror. H. C C. 



Devonianisms (Vol. viii., p. 65.). — Your cor- 

 respondent Mr. Keys is at a loss for the origin of 

 the word plum, as used in Devonshire. Surely it 

 is the same word as plump, although employed in 

 a somewhat different sense. Plum or plump, as 

 applied to a bed, would certainly convey the idea 

 of softness or downiness. As to the employment 

 of the word as a verb, I conceive that it is analo- 

 gous to an expression which I have often heard 

 used by cooks, in speaking of meat or poultry, 

 " to plump up." A cook will say of a fowl which 

 appears deficient in flesh, " It is a young bird; it 

 will plump up when it comes to the fire." A 

 native of Devonshire would simply «ay, " It will 

 plum." 



As to the word clunk, it is in use throughout 

 Cornwall in the sense of " to swallow," and is un- 

 doubtedly Celtic. On referring to Le Gonidec's 

 Dictionn'aire Celto-Breton, I find '■'■ Lonka^ or 

 Lounka, v. a. avaler." 



I have neither a Welsh dictionary nor one of 

 the ancient Cornish language at hand, but I have 

 no doubt that the same woi-d, with the same sig- 

 nification, will be found in both those dialects 

 of the Celtic, probably with some difference of 

 spelling, which would bring it nearer to the word 

 clunk. 



It is not wonderful that a word, the sound of 

 which is so expressive of the action, should have 

 continued in use among an illiterate peasantry 

 long after the language from which it is derived 

 was forgotten ; but many pure Celtic words, which 

 have not this recommendation, are still in common 

 use in Cornwall, and a collection of them would 

 be highly interesting. Could not some of your 

 antiquarian correspondents in the west, Mr. 

 BoASE of Penzance for example, furnish such a 

 list ? I will mention one or two words which I 

 chance to remember : mabyer, a chicken, Breton 

 mob, a son, iar, a hen ; vean, little, Breton vihan. 



