NOTES AND QUEllIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



" "Wben found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 39.1 



Saturday, July 27, 1850. 



C Price Threepence. 

 I Stamped Edition Ai. 



CONTENTS. Page 



Notes : — 



Etymology of " Whitsuntide" and " Mass" - - 129 



Folk Lore: — Sympatlietic Cmes — Cure for Ague — 



Eating Snakes a Cliarm for growing young - - 130 



Long Meg of W.stminster, by E. F. Rinibault - - 131 



A Note on Spellinii — *' Sanatory," " Connection " - 131 



Minor Notes ; — Pasquinade on Leo XII — Sliakspeare 

 a Brass-rubber — California — I^Iayor of Misrule and 

 Masters of tlie Pastimes — Roland and Oliver . 



Queries : — 



The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money - 

 The Geometrical Foot, by A. De Morgan 

 Minor Queries: — Plurima Gemma — Emraote de Has- 

 tings — Boozy Grass — Gradely — Hats worn by Fe- 

 males — Queries respecting Feltham's Works — Eikon 

 Ba^ilice — "Welcome the coming, speed the parting 

 Guest " — Carpets and Room-paper — Cotton of Finch- 

 ley — Wood Carving in Snow Hill— Walond Family — 

 Translations — Botmy Dundee — Gr.iliam of Claver- 

 house — Franz von Sickingen — Blackguard — Moaning 

 of "Pension" — S'ars and Stripes of the American 

 Arms — l*assages from Shakspeare — Nursery lUiyme 



— '• George " worn by Charles I Family of Manning 



of Norfolk — Salingen a Sword Cutler — Billingsgate 



— "Speak the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke" — Ge- 

 nealogical Queries — Parson, the ^'affordsliire Giant — 

 Unicorn in the Koyal Arms — The Frog and the Crow of 

 Ennow ^" She ne'er with treacherous Kiss," &c. 



Replies: — 



A Treatise on Equivocation _ . , - 



Further Notes on the Derivation of the Word *' News" 

 ** News,** " Noise," and ■' Parliament" - - - 



Shakpeare's Use of the Word " Delighted*' by Rev. Dr. 

 Kennedy .md J. O. Halliwell . - - . 



Replies to Minor Qu'-ries : — Execution of Charles I. — 



Sir T. Herbert's Memoir of Charles I Simon of 



Ghent— Chevalier de Cailly — Collar of Esses —Hell 

 paved with good Intentions — The Plant " Hsemony" 



— Practice *if Scalping among the Scythians — Scan- 

 dinavian Alytliology — Cromwell's Estates — Mngor — 

 ** Incidis in Scyllain " — Dies Ira? — Fabulous Account 

 of the Ijou — Caxion's Printi ig-OHice . - 



MlSCF.l.t.ANEOUS : — 



Notes on Hooks. Sales, Catalogues, Sales, &c. 



Hooks and Odti Volumes \yanted 



Answers to Correspondents - , - 



13! 



132 

 133 



133 



136 

 137 

 138 



139 



• 140 



142 

 143 

 1-13 



ETY.MOLOGY OF " WHITSUNTIDE " AND "MASS." 



Perlia|)S the followiiijf Note and Query on the 

 liiueh-disputed i)ri;iiii of tlie word W/ilt.sHiiilaij, as 

 used ill our lAuir'^y, may fiii<l a ])hice in your 

 journal. None of tlie etymologies of this word at 

 present in vogue is at all satisiactory. They are — 

 I. White Surtiluy : and this, either — 

 1. From the garments of white linen, in which 

 tlio.se who were at that S(;ason admitted to the rite 

 of holy baptism were clothed ; (as typical of the 

 epirilual purity therein obtained:^ or, — 



2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down 

 from the Father of Ijights on the day of Pentecost: 

 and "those vast diffusions of light and knowledge, 

 which were then slied upon the Ajiostles, in order 

 to the enlightening of the world. " (Wheatley,) 

 Or,- 



3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on 

 this day all the milk of their kine, then called 

 tohite meat, on the poor. (Whealley, from Gerard 

 Langbain.) 



II. Hiiict Sunday : from the French, hat, eight ; 

 i. e. the eighth Sunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, 

 Alliance Div. Off.) 



III. There are others who see that neither of 

 these explanations can stand ; because the ancient 

 mode of siielling the word wns not TF^/<-sund.ay, 

 but Wit-&onCiiiy (as in Wicklifif), or TFi'te-soneday 

 (which is as old as Robert of Gloucester, c. a. d. 

 1270). Hence,— 



1 . Verstegan's explanation : — That it is Wied 

 Sunday, i. e'^ Sacred Sunday (from Saxon, wied, or 

 loihed, a word I do not find in Bosworth's A.-S. 

 Diet. ; but so written in Brady's Clovis C'alen- 

 daria, as below). But why sliouhl this day be 

 distinguished as "sacred" beyond all other Sun- 

 days in the year ? 



2. In Clavis Calendaria. bv John Brady (2 vols. 

 8vo. 1815), I find, vol. i. p. 378., "Other authori- 

 ties contend," he does not say who those authorities 

 are, "that the original name of this season of the 

 year was Wittentide ; or the time of chwjsing the 

 wits, or wise men, to the Witteiiuffetni'te." 



Now this last, though evidently an etymology 

 inadequate to the importance of the festival, ap- 

 pciirs to me to liirnish the right clue. The_<lay 

 of Tentecost was the day of the outpouring of the 

 Divine Wisdom and Knowledge on the Apostles ; 

 the day on wliich was given to them that Holy 

 Si'iRiT, by which was "revealed" to them ''The 

 wisdom of God... even the hidden 7visdoin,v,-hw\i 

 (JoD ordained before the world." 1 Cor. ii. 7.* It 

 was the day on which was fulfilled the promise 



* The places hi the Now Tcstainent, where Divine 

 Wis(U)in and Knowledge are refened to the outpouring 

 of God's Spirit, are numberless. Cf. Acts, vi. 3., 1 Cor. 

 xii. 8., Kph. i. 8, 9., Col. i. 9., &c. &c. 



Vol.. Ti.— No. no. 



