2-"i S. IX. Mar. 10. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



177 



leave to your decision, only so far I will say that 

 I shall not think £500 (or more if necessary) too 

 great sum on this very fluttering occasion. I 

 would intreat, if possible, that they be sent here 

 before This Brigade is relieved, of which I have 

 yet no intimation ; before they are quite ready, if 

 you please it will be proper to make enquiry at 

 the Secy, of State's, Treasury, War Office, and 

 Admiralty, when a proper Ship is sent out, in 

 order that no opportunity may be lost — forgive 

 all this, but I have it much at heart. 



"Your kind Letter of 16th Jau ry came by last 

 post. I hope your Gout has disappeared, and that 

 Don Quixote gained a compleat victory. 



" I am disappointed the draiving for the medal 

 cannot be ready till next post — Mean-while I 

 know you will make enquiry ; they say Birch the 

 engraver could give some information. If they 

 can be struck at the Tower we shall be sure no 

 more will be struck off than the exact number. J 

 should wish about twenty to be struck of the best 

 Gun metal from the flotantes. Have you ever re- 

 ceived the specimens from the Artillery ? Major 

 Loyd promised to deliver them. Best wishes to 

 all our connections. 



"Dear Sir, yours truly, 



' " G. A. Eliott." 



ENGLISH ETYMOLOGIES. 



May I offer the following common English words, 

 — -cither not found in our dictionaries, or left 

 without any satisfactory derivations, — for the con- 

 sideration of Dean Trench or his learned fellow- 

 labourers in philology ? 



1. Jean (pronounced Jane) the well-known 

 OOtton cloth. I do not find this word in Richard- 

 son, Todd's Johnson, Webster, nor Crabb {Tech- 

 nological Diet.). Nor is it to be found as a heading 

 in M c CuHoch's Diet, of Commerce, 1854. In 

 Ogilvie's Imperial Diet, it is defined to mean " a 

 cloth made of ivool and cotton." I doubt the cor- 

 rectness of this explanation ; and no etymology is 

 offered. 



•2. Humble, a seat for servants behind a car- 

 riage. Surely this is a'genuine English word, worthy 

 of admission into our dictionaries. Yet I cannot 

 find it. I see in Long Acre there is a coach- 

 maker named Rumball. Did he or any of his 

 name invent this kind of carriage-seat? and 

 should we write "Rumball?" Proper names 

 abound in the coach-maker's trade — Stanhope, 

 Tilbury, Clarence, Brougham, &.<:. 



3. Splinter-bar. This word I find only in the 

 Imperial Diet., but I question the correctness of 

 the definition there given — "a cross-liar in a 

 b, which supports the springs." Is it not the 

 bar !o which the traces of the leading horses are 

 attached, when four or more are driven? I find 

 the word (I presume the same is intended) very 



differently spelt in Wiseman's Severall Chirurgi- 

 call Treatises, Lond. 1676, book v. ch. 9., p. 387. 

 " A person was wounded upon the road by a blow 

 with a spii, tree-bar." 



4. Flannel. No dictionary gives a satisfactory 

 derivation of this common word. To deduce it 

 from lana, lunula, is absurd. Was not the fabric 

 first, made in Wales ? What do the Welsh scholars 

 say? I only find " gwlauen, welsh, from gu-lan, 

 wool." Shakspeare mentions " Welsh flannel." Is 

 not the ft a corruption of the Welsh 11 f and did 

 not the English, unable to produce the latter 

 sound, substitute the fl, just as they called Llew- 

 ellyn Flnellen, Lloyd Floyd, &c. ? In what Welsh 

 town was flannel first made ? It is now woven 

 at Llanidloes. Was it ever made at Llanelly ? 

 Surely there are scholars in Wales who can settle 

 this etymology for us. Instances abound of 

 fabrics being named from their place of manufac- 

 ture : Worsted, Cambric, Calico, Holland, &c. 



Jatdee. 



Technical Memory applied to the Bible.— ° 

 I could furnish you with many curious scraps 

 from mediaeval MSS. in my possession. There is, 

 for instance, a series of hexameter verses, to assist 

 memory in recalling the contents of each chapler 

 of the Bible. One word, generally, is used to 

 denote some salient point or fact in the chapter. 

 From the whole I will select the four verses on 

 St. John's Gospel as an example. In the MS. the 

 numbers of the chapters are placed over each 

 word, as well as a running explanation of the al- 

 lusion contained in the word : — 



Erat in 

 priccipio 



aquas m vinum 

 in Caua Galilee 



1 2 



Verbumj mutat aquas Nicho'.Iemus 



Vivus qui celo ■ vos ascenditel coram duo qui dixit 



venit ad rhesum 

 nocte 



mulieris Sa- 

 maritane , 



4 

 ydria 



r> 1 1 i ■- in 

 piscina 



5 

 motus 



dcscer.di 



Sum panis 



ad diem 



7 

 festuiu 



nee tc conderanabo 

 mulier 



stat adultera 



natus il- [ unum et 

 luminatur unus pas- 

 tor erunt 



9 

 cecus 



10 

 ovile 



Lazaruir. 



quatri- 



dluinum 



It 



Flevit 



unguenti discipu-|Ego sum 



luam ac- lorum ,etveritne 



cepit M. lavat 



Ihesua 



12 



libra 



13 



pedes 



Ilimig'veste 

 purpurea 



18 



lllusus 



et inclinnto 

 capitc 



19 

 moritur 



14 

 via 



Cliristus 



Ego turn 

 et Paler 

 meus agri- 

 cola 



15 



vitis 



et plorabitis, Ihesua 

 inundus an- in orto 

 tern gaudebit 



1G 



flebitis 



17 

 orat 



Thesus discipulifl 



snis 



21 



;e manifestat 



20 

 Burrexit 



It will be observed that the construction of the 

 first verse is not faultless; but the Medianals 

 were not very particular. The whole of the 

 Scriptures arc thus comprised in 215 verses; 168 

 for the Old, 47 for the New Testament. I have 

 seen the same once in print, in the Biblia Maxima. 



