82 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 222. 



perhaps, the exercises of the original owner. All 

 are in Latin, except the following verses, which I 

 transcribe : 



" On Queene Anne, Queene of the Scots. 



March with his winds hath strooke a cedar tall, 

 And morning April weeps the cedar's fall,' 

 And May intends noe flowers her month shall bring, 

 Since shee must lose the flower of all the spring ; 

 Thus March's winds have caused April showers, 

 And yet sad May must lose her flower of flowers." 



C. W. B. 



DERIVATION OF MAWMET. CAME. 



(Vol.viii., pp. 468. 515.) 



That the word mawmet is a derivation from the 

 name of Mahomet, is rendered exceedingly pro- 

 bable by two circumstances taken in connexion : 

 its having been in common use to signify an idol, 

 in the age immediately following that of the Cru- 

 sades ; and the fact, that in the public opinion and 

 phraseology of that time, a Saracen and an idolater 

 were synonymous. In the metrical romances of 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Maho- 

 metanism is described as " hethenesse," and Sara- 

 cens as "paynims," "heathens," and "folks of 

 the heathen law." The objects of their faith and 

 worship were supposed to be Mahomet, Jupiter, 

 Apollo, Pluto, and Termagaunt. Thus, in the 

 romance of Richard Coeur de Lion : 



" They slowe euery Sarezyn, 



And toke the temple of Apolyn." — L. 4031-2. 

 " That we our God Mahoun forsake." — L. 4395. 



" And made ther her (their) sacryfyse, 

 To Mahoun, and to Jupiter." — L. 4423. 



" But to Termagaunt and Mahoun, 

 They cryede fast, and to Plotoun." — L. 6421-2. 

 Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. ii. 



The editor says : 



" There is no doubt that our romance existed before 

 the year 1300, as it is referred to in the Chronicles of 

 Robert de Gloucester and Robert de Brunne." — Vol. i. 

 Introd., p. xlvi. 



In the same poem, the word mawmettes is used 

 to signify idols : 



" Sarazynes before hym came, 

 And asked off hym Crystendame. 

 Ther wer crystend, as I find, 

 More than fourty thousynd. 

 Kyrkes they made off Crystene lawe, 

 And her (their) Mawmettes lete down drawe." 



L. 5829—44. 

 In Wiclif's translation of the New Testament 

 also, the word occurs in the same sense : maw- 

 metis, idolis, and false goddis being used indiffer- 



ently where idola or simulacra are employed in 

 the Latin Vulgate : thus — 



" Fie ghe fro worschipyng of mawmetis." 



1 Cor. x. 14. 

 " My litel sones kepe ye you fro mawmetis." 



1 John v. 21. 



And in Acts vii. 41., the golden calf is designated 

 by the same word, in the singular number : 



" And thei maden a calf in tho daies, and offriden a 

 sacrifice to the mawmet." 



In the first line of the quotation last given 

 from Richard Cosur de Lion, your correspondent 

 H. T. G. will find an early instance of the word 

 came ; whether early enough, I cannot say. In 

 Wiclif's version, cam, came, and camen are the 

 usual expressions answering to" "came" in our 

 translation. If above five hundred and fifty years' 

 possession does not give a word a good title to 

 its place in our language, without a conformity 

 to Anglo-Saxon usage, the number of words that 

 must fall under the same imputation of novelty 

 and "violent infringement" is very great indeed. 



J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



THE GOSLING FAMILY. 

 (Vol. vi., p. 510.) 



One of the Flock asks for information re- 

 lative to the antiquity of the name and family of 

 Gosling. The Norman name of Gosselin is evi- 

 dently the same as that of Jocelyn, the tendency 

 of the Norman dialect being to substitute a hard 

 g for the/ or soft g, as gambe for jambe, guerbe for 

 gerbe. As a family name it is far from uncommon 

 in Normandy, and many of your antiquarian 

 readers may recognise it as the name of a pub- 

 lisher at Caen of works on the antiquities of that 

 province. A family of the name of Gosselin has 

 been established for many centuries in the island 

 of Guernsey. William Gocelyn was one of those 

 sworn upon the inquest as to the services, customs, 

 and liberties of the island, and the laws established 

 by King John, which inquest was confirmed by 

 King Henry III. in the year 1248. In the year 

 1331 an extent of the crown revenues, &c. was 

 made by order of Edward III., and in this docu- 

 ment the name of Richard Gosselin appears as 

 one of the jury of the parish of St. Peter-Port. 



A genealogy of the Guernsey family of Gosselin 

 is to be found in the appendix to Berry's history 

 of that island, and it is there stated that — 



" The first on record in Jersey is Robert Gosselin, 

 who greatly assisted in rescuing the castle of Mont 

 Orgueil from the French in the reign of Edward III., 

 and was, for his gallant services, not only appointed 

 governor of the castle by that monarch, but presented 

 with the arms since borne by that family (viz. Gules, a 



