116 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 68. 



every edition of the Bible inwhicli the words "made 

 themselves breeches" are to be found, by showing 

 that such Bibles are generally only worth about j 

 as many shillings as tliey are supposed to be worth 

 pounds. It is worth noting, with reference to this 

 translation, that in the valuable early English 

 version, known as Wickliffe's Bible, just pub- 

 lished by the university of Oxford, the passage ; 

 in Genesis (cap. iii. v. 7.) is translated " thei 

 soweden togidre leeues of a fige tree and maden 

 hem brechis." Effessa. 



Origin of the present Mace of English. — In i 

 Souihey^s Letters of Espriel/a (Letter xxiv.,p.274., 

 3rd edit.), there is a remark, tliat the dark hair of 

 the English people, as compared with the Northern 

 Germans, seems to indicate a considerable admix- 

 ture of soutliern blood. Now, in all modern 

 ethnological works, this fact of present complexion 

 seen)s to l)e entirely overlooked. But it is a fact, 

 and deserves attention. Either it is tiie effect of 

 climate, in which case the moral as well as the 

 physical man must have altered fiom the original 

 stock, or it arises from there being more " un- 

 german" blood llowing in English veins tiian is 

 acknowledged, ilay I haz.ird a i'ew conjectures ? 



1. Aie we not apt to underrate tlie number of 

 Romanised Celts remaining in England after the 

 Saxon Conquest ? Tiie victors would surely en- 

 slave a vast multitude, and m.arry many Celtic 

 women ; while those who fled at the fii'st danger 

 would gradually return to their old haunts. 

 Under such circumstances, that the language 

 should have been changed is no wonder. 



2. Long before the Norman Conquest there 

 was a great intercourse between England and 

 France, and many settlers from the latter country 

 came over here. This, by the way, may account 

 for that gradual change of the Anglo-Saxon lan- 

 guage mentioned as observable prior to the 

 Conquest. 



3. The army of the Conqueror was recruited 

 from all parts of France, and was not simply 

 Norman. When the men who composed it came 

 into possession of this country, they clearly must 

 have sent home for their wives and families; and 

 many who took no part in the invasion no doubt 

 came to share the spoils. Talcing this into account, 

 we shall find the Norman part of the population to 

 have boine no small proportion to the then in- 

 habitants of England. It is important to bear in 

 miii<l the probable increase of population since 

 1066 A.D, Terra Martis. 



Trtie Blue. — I find the following account of this 

 phrase in my note-book, but I cannot at present 

 say whence I obtained it: — 



" The first assumption of tlie phrase ' true blue' was 

 by the Covenanters in opjiosition to the scarlet badge 

 of Charles I., and hence it was taken by the troops of 

 Leslie in 1639. The adoption of the colour was one 



of those religious pedantries in which the Covenanters 

 affected a Pliarisaical observance of the scriptural let- 

 ter and the usages of the Hebrews ; and thus, as they 

 named their children Habakkuk and Zerubbabel, and 

 their chapels Zion and Ebenezer, they decorated their 

 persons with blue ribbons because the following sump- 

 tuary precept was given in the law of Moses : — 



" ' Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to 

 make to themselves fringes on the borders of their 

 garments, putting in them ribbons of blue.' " — A^umb. 

 XV. 38. 



E.L.N. 



" By Hook or by Crook." — The destruction 

 caused by the Fire of London, ad. 1666, during 

 which some 13.200 houses, &c , were burnt down, in 

 very many cases oblitenited fill the boundaiy-marks 

 recpiisite to determine the extent of land, and even 

 the very sites occupied by buildings, previously to 

 this terrible visitation. W'iien the rubbish wiis 

 removed, and the land cleared, the disputes and 

 entangled chiinis of those whose houses had been 

 destroyed, both as to the i)f>sition and extent of 

 their properly, promised not only iutei'Uiinable 

 occupation to the courts of Jaw, but made the far 

 more serious evil of delaying the rebuilding of the 

 city, until these disjJUtes were settled, inevitable. 

 Inqjelled by the necessity of coming to a more 

 speedy settlement of their respective claims than 

 could be hoped for from legal process, it was de- 

 termined that the claims and interests of all jier- 

 sons concerned should be referred to the judgment 

 and decision of two of the most experienced land- 

 surveyors of that day, — men who had been 

 tlioroughlv acquainted with London ])reviously to 

 the fire; and in order to escape from the nume- 

 rous and vast evils which mere delay must occasion, 

 that the decision of these two arbitrators should 

 be final and binding. The surveyors appointed to 

 determine the rights of the various claimants were 

 Mr. Hook and Mr. Crook, who by the justice of 

 their decisions gave genernl satisfaction to the 

 interested parties, and by their speedy determina- 

 tion of the different claims, ])ermitted the rebuild- 

 ing of the city to proceed without the least delay. 

 Hence arose the saying above quoted, usunlly a|)- 

 plied to the extrication of persons or things from 

 a difficulty. The above anecdote was told the other 

 evening by an old citizen U|)wards of eighty, by no 

 means of an imaginative temperament. J. D. S. 



Putney, Feb. 1. 1851. 



! [We insert the above, as one of the many explana- 

 tions which have been given of this very popular 

 phrase — although we believe the correct origin to be 

 the right of taking Jire-hnte by hook or by crook. See 

 Notes anh Queries, Vol. i., pp.281, and 405.] 



Becord of Existing Momtmevts — I have some 

 time since read your remarks in Vol. iii., p. 14. of 

 "Notes and Queries," on the Rev. J. Hewett's 

 Monumentarum of Exeter Cathedral, and intend in 



