218 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 14. 
QUERIES ANSWERED, NO. 4. — “‘ POKERSHIP,” BY 
BOLTON CORNEY. 
A query made by so experienced a writer as 
the noble historian of Audley End, cannot admit 
of easy solution; and instead of professing to 
answer the two-fold query on pokership, it might 
more become me to style this note an attempt to 
answer it. 
In the Historical collections of the noble families 
of Cavendishe, etc. the passage which contains the 
doubtful word is printed thus : —- 
“He [Sir Robert Harley, of Bramton, Hereford- 
shire] was in the next year [1604], on the 16th of 
July, made forester of Boringwood, alias Bringwood 
forest, in com. Hereford, with the office of the poher- 
ship, and custody of the forest or chace of Prestwood, 
for life.” 
Are we to read parkership or pokership? 
pokership, what is its meaning ? 
Skelton, the rhymer, has parker for park-keeper, 
so that parkership is an admissible word; but I 
reject it on this occasion, as inapplicable to a 
forest or chace. J incline to believe that poker- 
ship is the true lection. Poke denoted a purse; 
witness Chaucer : — 
“ Gerveis answered; Certes, were it gold, 
Or in a poke nobles all untold, 
Thou shuldest it have.” — C. T. v. 3777. 
We do not find poker in Barret or Cotgrave ; 
but if poke denoted a purse, poker might denote a 
purse-bearer or treasurer, and pokership, the oflice 
of purse-bearer. So we have Bursa, [| Glossarivm 
manvale, 1772. I. 849.] bursar, bursarship, etc. 
Borton Corney. 
If 
MERTENS, MARTINS, OR MARTINI, THE PRINTER. 
A correspondent, “W.,” in No. 12. p. 185., 
wishes to learn “the real surname of Theodoric 
Mertens, Martins, or Martini, the printer of 
Louvain.” 
In Latin the name is written Theodoricus Mar- 
tinus; in French, Thierri Martin; in Flemish, 
Diedrych Meertens, and occasionally, but I think 
incorrectly, Dierix Martens. 
In a side chapel of the chancel of the church at 
Alost, midway between Brussels and Ghent, is 
the printer’s tomb, and a double inscription, in 
Latin and in Flemish, commemorates his celebrity 
and the dates of his birth and death: in the Latin 
inscription the name.is Theodoricus Martinus; in 
the Flemish, which is very old and nearly effaced, 
it is Diedrych Meertens. 
The name of Meertens, as a surname, is'as com- 
mon in Brabant and Flanders as that of Martin 
with us. A. B. 
I beg to say that, in Peignot’s Dictionnaire 
raisonné de Bibliologie, the name of the printer 
Mertens is given as “ Martens, Mertens, ou Mar- 
tin d’Alost (Thierry), en Latin Theodoricus Mar- 
tinus.” The article is too long for insertion in 
your pages, but it contains an account of the 
title-page of one of his editions, in 4to., in which 
the name is spelt Mertens: — “Theo. Mertens 
impressore.” ‘I'wo other title-pages have “ Apud 
Theod. Martinum.” So it appears that the printer 
himself used different modes of spelling his own 
name. Erasmus wrote a Latin epitaph on his 
friend, in which a graceful allusion is made to his 
printer’s mark, the anchor : — 
“« Hic Theodoricus jaceo, prognatus Alosto : 
Ars erat impressis scripta referre typis. 
Fratribus, uxori, soboli, notisque superstes 
Octavam vegetus preterii decadem. 
Anchora sacra manet, grate notissima pubi: 
Christe! precor nune sis anchora sacra mihi.” 
HERMES. 
ETYMOLOGY OF ARMAGH, 
In reply to the inquiry of “D. 8. Y.” (p. 158. of 
your 10th number), I beg to say that the name of 
Armagh is written, in Irish, Ardmacha, and sig- 
nifies the Height (or high ground) of Macha. 
It is supposed to have derived this name from 
Macha Mong-ruadh [i%. e. Macha of the red hair], 
who was queen of Ireland, according to the Chro- 
nology of O'Flaherty, a. Mm. 3603. Li. T. 
Dublin, Jan, 5. 1850. 1 
Sir, — There are the following authorities for 
different derivations of the word Armagh. 
Camden, in his Britannia, says : — 
“ Armack ab Amarcha regina; sic dictum fabu- 
lantur Hibernici; at mihi eadem esse videtur quam 
Dearmach vocat Beda: et Roborum Campum ex lingua 
Scotica sive Hibernica interpretatur, ubi cirea annum 
salutis pix. monasterium extruxit celeberrimum Co- 
lumbanus.” 
Dr. Keating’s Hist. of Ireland has as follows : — 
“ Macha the wife of Nemedius died before her son 
Ainnin ... from her Ardmagh received its name, be- 
cause she was buried in that place.” 
Circles of Gomer (London, 1771), contains as 
| follows: — 
“ Ar, and Ararat.— The Earth, country, or upon 
and on the earth. ... Armagh on the surrounding 
water confines.” 
M. Bullet, Mémoires de la Langue Celtique, 
writes thus : — 
“ Armagh, 
“ Une des plus anciennes villes d’Irland. Ar, article. 
Mag, ville.” —-vol. i. 
But the 2nd and 8rd vols. of these Mémoires, 
which contain the Celtic Dictionary, afford a more 
probable interpretation : — 
“Ar or Ard signifies a height, mountain, hill, 
