292 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 76. 



1190. After directing his rents, services, and ob- 

 lations to be brought annually to Paris, he adds — 



" In receptlonibus averi nostri, Adam clericus iioster 

 presens erit, et eas scribet, et siiiguli habeant singulas 

 claves de singulis archis in quibus reponetur averum 

 nostrum in templo." 



The following storj', which illustrates P.'s Query, 

 is told by Blackstone : — 



" Sir Thomas More (when a student on his travels) 

 is said to have puzzled a pragmatic professor at Bruges, 

 who gave a universal challenge to dispute with any 

 person in any science : in omiii scibili, et de quolibet 

 ente. Upon which Mr. More sent him this question, 

 ' Utrum averia carucje, ca])ta in vetito namio, sint 

 irreplegibilia, Wliether beasts of the plough, taken in 

 withernam, are incapable of l)eing replevied : ' " 



— a question likely enough to pose any man except 

 an English lawyer. Cudyn Gwtn. 



Aver or Aiver is a word in common use in the 

 south of Scotland for a horse. In Burns's poem 

 entitled " The Dream," there is this couplet : 

 " Yet aft a ragged cowte's been known 

 To mak a noble aiver." 



J. Ss. 



Aver (Vol. lii., p. 42.). — Your correspondents 

 G. M. and D. 2. are at cross purposes. The 

 latter is unquestionably right in his opinion about 

 haver cake, haver in that instance being the Ger- 

 man Hofer, Sw. Havre, &c., as held by Brockett 

 {North Country Words) and C:iri- {Craven Glos- 

 sary), But aver, averhun, on which G. M. des- 

 • cants, is altogether a different word. As D. 2. 

 requires the authority of a dictionary, allow me to 

 refer him to Laconibe, Dictiounaire du vieux Lan- 

 gage Franqois, where he will find : 



" Avoirs, aiiimaux domestiques de la b:issc cour." 



" AvERLANDS, mavchand de chevaux." 



And in the second, or supplementary volume of 

 the same work : 



" ' Avers,' bestiaux qui nantissent une ferme a la 

 campagne." 



See also Jamieson {Scottish Dictionary) : 



" Aver, a cart-horse." 



A suggestion may also be gathered from Web- 



ster under Average. 



F. S. Q. 



In the Chronicle of Jocelyn de Brakelond, at 

 p. 29. of Tomlins's translation, mention is made of 

 one Beodric, 



" Lord of that town, whose demesne lands are now 

 in the demesne of the Cellarer. And that which is 

 now called Aierland was the land of the rustics." 



Again, at p. 30. : 



" The Cellarer was used freely to take all the dung- 

 hills in every street, for his own use, imless it were 

 before the doors of those who were holding averland j 

 for to tliem only was it allowable to collect dung and to 

 keep it." 



To this a note is appended to the effect that 

 " Averland seems to have been ancient arable land 

 so called, held by rustic drudges and villans." 

 At p. 29. the said Cellarer is stated 

 " To have aver-peni, to wit, for each thirty acres 

 two pence."* 



Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Hu- 

 mane, gives Aver, from avoir : " Bestiaux qui nan- 

 tissent une ferme de campagne ;" and Ave, " un 

 troupeau de brebis," from ovis. 



Eaynouard, in the Nouveau Choix des Poesies des 

 'J'rouhadours, vol. ii., which commences i[iQ Lexique 

 Roman, derives " Aver " also from Avoir ; to sig- 

 nify possession generally I take it. 2dly, Trou- 

 peau, 



" E play mi quan li corredor 

 Fan las gens e 'Is avers tugir." 

 (" Et il me plait quand les coureurs 

 Font fair les gens et les troupeaux.") 



Bertrand de Born, Be m Play, 



Barbazan, in his short Glossary, derives the word 

 from Avarus. H. C. C. 



I would inform D. 2. and others (Vol. iii., p. 42.) 

 that aver, or haver-cake, which he states to be the 

 name applied in North Yorkshire to the thin o.it- 

 cake in use there, is evidently derived from the 

 Scandinavian words, Hafrar, Havre, Hafre, oats. 



G. E. R. Gordon. 



Stockholm. 



''The Sword Flamberg" (Vol. iii., p. 168.).— 

 An English Mothkr is informed that " Flam- 

 berge," or " Floberge," is the name of the sword 

 won in battle from the Saracen admiral Antheiior 

 by Mangis d'Aygremont, the hero of the romance 

 of that name. Ancient swoi'ds were frequently 

 "flamboyant," or with waved edges; more espe- 

 cially those used for purposes of state. The 

 Dukes of Burgundy bore a tvvo-handed sword of 

 this form. Indeed, "flaming swords," as they 

 were called, were worn down to the time of our 

 Charles II., and perha])s later. It is rather singu- 

 lar that the ordinary synonyina for a sword should 

 be " brand." The n.anie of the weapon taken from 

 King Bucar by the Cid was " Tizona," or the Fire- 

 brand. 



The flamboyant type may possibly be of Eastern 

 origin. The krisses of the Malays, at the present 

 day, have serpentine blades. 



W. J. Bernhard Smith. 



Temple. 



Cockade (Vol. iii., pp. 7. 196.). — The cockade was 

 simply the knot of the riband that served to cock 

 the bioad flapped hat worn by militnry men in the 

 seventeenth century, and which in fine weather, or 

 going into action, &c., they used to cock, by means 

 of hooks, laces, and ribands. AVe see still in the 



* " Averpenny was a sum paid as a composition for 

 certain rustic services." 



