252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 74. 



Ticus speaks of, holds in Yorkshire, but not the 

 name. 



In Devon a oorn-fielil, wliich lias been cut and 

 cleared, is cnlled an " arrish." A vacant stublile- 

 field is so called during the whole of the autumn 

 months. 



Your correspondent suggests "arista;" can he 

 suppoi-t this historically ? If not, it is surely ftu-- 

 fetched. Let nie draw attention to a word in our 

 English Bible, which has been nii-^underslood be- 

 fore now by readers wlio were ()uite at lionie in the 

 original languages: '■'■ earing nor harvest" (Genesis). 

 Without some acquaintance with the earlier 

 forms of our mother tongue, one is liable to take 

 earing to mean the same as " harvest," from the 

 association of ears of corn. But it is the substan- 

 tive from the Anglo-Saxon verb erian, to plough, 

 to till : so that " earing nor harvest"= " sowing nor 

 reapina;." From erian we may pass on to (ware, 

 and from that to arista : in the long jiedigree of 

 lansuanje they are scarcely unconnected : but the 

 Anglo-Saxon is not derived from the Latin ; they 

 are^each in its own language, genuine and inde- 

 pendent forms. But it is curious to see what an 

 attraction these distant cousins have for one 

 another, let them only come within each other's 

 sphere of gravitation. 



In Yorkshire the verb tn eai'land is still a 

 living expression ; and a Yorkshireman, who has 

 more Saxon tlian Latin in him, will not write 

 "arable land," but "earable land." A Yorkshire 

 clergyman tells me that this ortliography has been 

 perpetuated in a local act of parliament of no very 

 ancient date. 



Putting all these fiicts together, I am inclined 

 to think that " arrish" must first mean "land for 

 tillage;" and that the comiexion of the word 

 with "gleaning" or "gleaners" is the effect of as- 

 sociation, and therefore of later date. 



But it must be observed, there is a difference 

 between "arrish" and "harrisers." Can it be 

 shown that Dorset-men are given to aspirating 

 their words ? Besides this, there is a great differ- 

 ence between "arriisers" and "arriA/iers" for 

 counties so near as Dorset and Devon. And 

 again, while I am quite familiar with the word 

 "arrish," I never heard " arrishers," and I believe 

 it is unknown in Devonshire. J. E. 



Oxford. 



Harrisers or Ariishers. — Doubtless, by this 

 time, some dozen Devonshire correspondents will 

 h ave informed you, lor the benefit of Clericus 

 It usTicus, that arrishers is the term prevailing in 

 th at county for " stubble." Tlie Dorset harrisers 

 are therefore, perhaps, the second set of gleaners, 

 \yho are admitted to the fields to pick up from the 

 stu 6ble, or arrishes, the little left behirid by the 

 reape/'s' fiimilies. A third set of gleaners has been 

 admitted from time immemorial, natnely, the 

 Anser stipularis, which feeds itself into plun»p con- 



dition for Michaelmas by picking up, from be- 

 tween the stubble, tlie corns which fell from the 

 ears during reaping and sheaving. The Devonshire 

 designation for this excellent sort of jKHiltry — 

 known elsewhere as "stubble geese" — is "arrish 

 geese." 



The derivation of the word must be left to a 

 better provincial philologist than W. H. W. 



Chaucer's ''Fifty IFeAes" (Vol. iii., p. 202.).— 

 A. E. B.'s natural and ingeniously-argued conjec- 

 ture, tliat Chaucer, by the ''fifty wakes" of the 

 Knightes Tale, " meant to imjdy the interval of a 

 solar year," — whether we siudi rest in accepting 

 the ])oet's measure of time loosely and poetically, 

 or (wliich I would glaiUy feel myself authorised 

 to do) find in it, with your coriespondent au 

 astronomical and histori(.'al reason, — is fully se- 

 cured by the comparison with Chaucer's original. 



The Theseus of Boccaccio says, appointing the 

 listed fight : 



" E TERMiNE vi sia a cio donato 



D' UN ANNO INTERO." 



To which the poet subjoins : 



'• E cosi fu ordinate." 

 See Teseide, v. 98. 



A. L. X. 



The Almond Tree, ^-c. (Vol. iii., p. 203.). — The 

 allusions in Hall's poem, stanzas iii. & v., refer to 

 tlie fine allegorical description of iiumaii decrepi- 

 tude in Ecclesiastes, .\ii. 5, 6., when 

 "'The almond tree shall flourish ' (wj/iiVe Aa/Vs), and 

 ' the silver co:d sliall be loosed,' and ' the golden bowl 

 broken ' and ' the mourners shall go about the streets.' " 



The pertinence of these solemn figures has been 

 sufficieiillv explained by biblical commentators. 

 It is t<> be presumed that tlie reference to a source 

 so well known as tiie Bible would have occurred at 

 once to the Querist, had not the allusions, in the 

 preceding stanza, to the heathen fable of Medea, 

 diverted his thoughts from that more familiar 

 channel. V. 



Belgravia. 



[Similar explanations have been kindly furnished hy 

 S. C, Hermes, P. K., R. P., J. F. M., J. D. A., 

 and also by W. (a), who refers to Mead's Medica 

 Sacra for an explanation of tlie whole passage.] 



St. Thomas's Onions (Vol. iii., p. 187). — In 

 refei'ence to the Query, A\'hy is St. Thomas fre- 

 quently mentioned in connexion with onions ? I 

 fancy the reason to be this. There is a variety of 

 the onion tribe commonly called potato, or mnl- 

 tiplyiug onion. It is the rule to pla7it this onion on 

 St. Thomas's day. From this circumstance it ap- 

 jiears to me likely that this sort of onion niav be 

 so called, though I never heard it before. They . 

 are fit for use as large hard onions some time be- 

 fore the other sort. J. Wodderspoon. 



Norwich, March 10. 1S51. 



