Dec. 27. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



501 



iHtiiar i^ntrtf. 



Names of Places in Normaiidij and Orkney. — 

 In reading Depping's History of the Norman Ma- 

 ritime Expeditions, iny attention was directed to 

 Appendix IX. vol. ii. p. 339., " Des Noms 'J'opo- 

 graphiques de Nonnanilie dont I'origine est etran- 

 gere." Many of the names given there resemble 

 thosfr in Orkney. I note a few of them. 



Depedal. Deepdale, a secluded valley near 

 Kirkwall ; Dale, Icelandic, a valley. 



Auppegard, Eppegard in Noi-mandy ; Kongs- 

 garth, Herdmansgarrli in Orkney ; Icelandic 

 Gardr, a field, an enclosure. 



Cape La Hogue, derived by M. Depping from 

 hmig7\ a promontory ; Ho.xay in Orkney, hougs and 

 ay, an island. Hnugs-eid, isthmus of the hillock, 

 is another derivation. 



Cherbourg, Dep. p. 331.; Suhm, in a note ap- 

 pended, fijids the root in his tongue, skiair, sheer; 

 Icelandic Sker; a sea-rock, the Orkney Skerry, an 

 islet covered at high water. 



Houlmes, near Rouen ; the Orkney Holm, a 

 small island generally uninhabited. 



Yvetot ; Toft common in Orkney. 



Bye, a dwelling, is the Orkney Bu or Boo, a 

 pure Icelandic word. 



Other instances could be given ; and there is 

 nothing remarkable in this when it is considered 

 that the invaders of Orkney and jSTormandy were 

 the same people at the same period, and the 

 better preservation of the Norse tongue in Orkney 

 is readily to be accounted for. In Normandy the 

 language of the invaders was lost in the French 

 in a very short space of time, while the Norse 

 continued the language of Orkney and Zetland 

 during their subjection to the Norwegian earls 

 for a period of 600 years ; and only last year, 1 850, 

 it was that an old m;in in Unst in Zetland, who 

 could spealc Norse, died at the age of eighty-seven 

 years; and except there be in Foula (Fougla, the 

 fowls' island, called Thule in the Latin charters 

 of its proprietors) a person living who can speak 

 it, that old tongue is extinct in Britain. W. II. F. 



Miliar cauertcS. 



357. Meaning of Ploydes. — Perhaps the gentle- 

 man who has directed his attention to the folk lore 

 of Lancashire (Vol. iii., p. 55.) can tell the meaning 

 of tiio word jdoydes in the following rhythmical 

 proverb. Tiie three parishes of Prescot, lluyton, 

 and Childwall adjoin each other, and lie to the 

 east of Liverpool : — 



'■ Prescot, lluyton, ami iiiL-rry ClillJow, 

 Tliree parish churclics, all in a row; 

 Prescot for mii;^s, Iluytoii i'of ploi/des, 

 |At>d Childow tor ringing and singing besides." 



St. Johns. 



358. Green-eyed Monster. — Whence the origin 

 of tlie " Green-eyed JNIonster " ? The Italians 

 considered a green iris beautiful, thus Dante 

 makes Beatrice have "emerald eyes;" again, the 

 Spaniards are loud in their praise. Whence, 

 then, the epithet in its present sense ? ? 



359. Perpetttal Lamp. — The ancient Romans are 

 said to have preserved lights in their sepulchres 

 many ages by the oilines,s of gold, resolved by art 

 into a liquid substance. And it is reported that, 

 at the dissolution of monasteries, in the time of 

 Henry VIII., there was a lamp found that had 

 then burnt in a tomb from about 300 years after 

 Christ, nearly 1200 years. 



Two of these subterranean lamps are to be seen 

 in the Museum of Rarities at Leyden in Holland. 

 One of these lamps, in the papacy of Paul 111., 

 was found in the tomb of TuUia, Cicero's daughter, 

 which had been shut iip 1550 years. 



From 2nd edit, of N. Bailey, (i>L\6\oyos, 1731. 



B.B. 



360. Family of Butts. — A very great favour 

 would be conferred, if any of your anticpiarian 

 correspondents would give me information i-espect- 

 ing the fomily of Butts of Thornage, co. Norfolk, 

 of which were Sir 'W'illiam Butts, physician to 

 Hen. VIII. ; and Robert Butts, Bishop of Norwich, 

 and afterwards of Ely. The principal object of 

 the querist is to know whether this family sprang 

 from that of But, Butte, or Butts, which attained 

 great civic eminence in Norwich during the 

 thirteenth and two following centuries. Cowgill. 



361. Greek Names of Fishes. — Can any of 

 your learned correspondents inform me upon what 

 authority the Greek names of fishes occurring in 

 the following verses from the Vespce, 493, are 

 translated "sprats" and "mackerel?" I have only 

 Donnegan's very unsatisfactory compilation here. 



" fiv /H V wcfjTai Tis op<pws, iJ,iiJ.§pdSas oe fiq deX-p, 

 euSe'wx ftpvx.' ^ Tuikiiv irATjtrio!' Tar jxffiSfa^as' 

 ojTos oifi'j>vi7y ^oix' avBpoiitos inl rupavfiSi," &c. 



NiC.EENSIS. 



362. Drimmnitavichillichatan. — Some twenty or 

 thirty years ago there used to appear regularly in 

 tha Aherdcen'a.nA Belfast Almanack's list of fairs, 

 one held annually at the above place in the month 

 of jNIay. Could any correspondent inform me 

 where it is situated ? I think it is in Argyle or 

 Inverness-shires; but should like to know the 

 precise locality, as it is not mentioned in any work 

 to which I have access at present. X. Y. Z. 



363. Chalk-hack Day. — At Diss, Norfolk, it is 

 customary for the juvenile ])opulace, on the 

 Thursday before the "third Friday in September 



for 



re 



each "other's dress with white chalk, pleading a 



(on which latter day a fair and "session" f 

 hiring servants are held), to mark and disfigu 



