*"i S. IX. May 5. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



siideu, youth jngend, beneath hienieden, math mahd, 

 and smooth schmeid, where the English th is the 

 descendant of the Germanic d.' Farther, hath hat, 

 lath latte, breadth brcite, width weite, month mount, 

 moth motte, garth gurt, birth gebvrt, Worth urcrfft, 

 aud sith sert, where the English /A is derived 

 from the German I. The Anglo-Saxon furnishes 

 the words breath, wreath, loath, rath, wrath, 

 wroth, faith, pith, with, tilth, sooth, forsooth, 

 tooth, froth, quoth, mirth, forth, uncouth, and 

 truth, with slight variation from English. The 

 remaining words in th are length, health, stealth, 

 warmth, sloth, broth, depth, smeeth, monteth, 

 frith (from the Swedish fiaerd), wealth, spilth 

 (Danish spilde), troth (old German and French 

 drud), dearth, swarth, ruth, and the ordinal num- 

 bers, most of which have no representative of the 

 th in their origin, and some of them may come 

 under Home Tooke's rule, which is confined to 

 English and Anglo-Saxon, both derivative lan- 

 guages : but such rule disposes of so small and 

 insignificant a portion of our nouns as scarcely to 

 deserve notice. It cannot properly be termed a 

 law or rule, for it is exceptional and abnormal, so 

 far as regards the formation of nouns from verbs 

 in these two of the Indo-Germanic class, although 

 it is a general rule in the Shemitic languages that 

 the noun is formed from the third person of the 

 verb, that, and not the first person, being the root 

 and the simplest form of the word. 



In Dr. Donaldson's New Cratylus, the authors 

 who have treated on etymology may be found 

 characterised ; but in writers like Vater, Rask, 

 Grimm, Pritchard, Bopp, and Pott, who had a 

 much more extended linguistic horizon than 

 Home Tooke, no such rule as to the th is to be 

 found. Some English etymologists, Murray, Gar- 

 diner, Richardson, and Trench, have adhered 

 partially to Home Tooke's views. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



Durance Vile (2 nd S. ix. 223.) — Burns uses 

 the expression, but whether he first I cannot say. 

 — Vide Epistle from Esopus to Maria, v. 55-59. 



" A workhouse ! ah, that sound awakes my woes, 

 And pillows on the thorn my rack'd repose! 

 In durance vile here must I wake and weep, 

 And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep ! " 



Ache. 

 Rev. F. J. H. Rankin (2" d S. ix. 263.)— The 

 Rev. F. J. II. Rankin, B.A. (not Ranken), was a 

 native of Bristol and a member of an old English 

 Presbyterian family. He received his education 

 for the dissenting ministry at Manchester New 

 College, then established at York, but now in 

 London — an institution connected with the Lon- 

 don University. After studying there for five 

 years (1823 — 8), he officiated for a short time as 

 an occasional preacher at Dudley and other places, 

 and was afterwards engaged in tuition at Leeds 

 and Liverpool. ANhilc at Liverpool he conformed 



to the Established Church ; graduated at the 

 London University in 1841, and was ordained by 

 the late Bishop of Loudon ; went as first Queen's 

 Chaplain to Gambia, where, after a short resi- 

 dence, he fell a victim to the climate in 1847, 

 when about forty-two years of age, leaving a 

 widow and two daughters. J. R. W. 



Sir Robert le Grys (2 nd S. viii. 268.)— -I re- 

 member well the name of Le Grys at Dickie^ 

 burgh, Norfolk. The then owner of it was James 

 le Grys — spelt Le Grice (if I recollect rightly) — 

 who was a small yeoman or farmer, and was re- 

 puted to be the descendant of an ancient reduced 

 family. An Artist. 



Thomas Houston (l rt S. xi. 86. 173.) — There is 

 a biographical notice of this poet in one of the early 

 numbers of the Neivcastle Magazine about 1820 or 

 1821, in a series of biographies of eminent persons 

 connected with Newcastle. As the magazine is 

 rather scarce, could any of your readers oblige 

 me with a short notice of the author ? R. Inglis. 



Sea Breaches on the Norfolk Coast (2 nd S. 

 ix. 30. 288.) — Your correspondents who have 

 written on this subject will find some notice of it 

 in the Chronicle of John of Oxenede.i, recently 

 published by the Master of the Rolls, under the 

 editorship of Sir Henry Ellis. The Index con- 

 tains references to all the notices of these cala- 

 mities recorded by the writer, who, living at St. 

 Benet's Abbey, was in a good position for being 

 correctly informed respecting them. Sir Henry, 

 in his Preface (p. xxxii.) refers to my father's 

 Geological Map of Norfolk, as illustrating the 

 changes produced by these devastating inroads. 



B. B. Woodward. 



" Tms day eight days " (2 nd S. ix. 90. 153.)— 

 Besides confirming J. Macray's statement as to 

 this b^ing a common phrase in Scotland, I may 

 mention that it is also common to speak of twenty 

 days when meaning three weeks ; for which the 

 explanation of T. J. Buckton will hardly account. 

 The same anomaly exists in the corresponding 

 French phrases : huit jours, for a week ; quinze 

 jours, for a fortnight ; vingt jours, for three weeks. 

 The Italians and Spaniards again, while using 

 quindici giorni and qidnce dias for a fortnight, call 

 a week settimana and semana ! J. P. O. 



Age of the Horse (2 nd S. ix. 101.)— Will no 

 Warrington correspondent give you the age of 

 " Old Billy," of whom there is an engraving, and 

 whose authenticated age, if I remember right, was 

 somewhere about seventy years ? P. P- 



Sarah Duchess of Somerset (2 nd S. ix. 197.) 

 — This lady is said to have married Henry, second 

 Lord Coleraine, and to have died Oct. 25, 1692. 

 The reference being Archdale's Irish Peerage, v. 

 145. Her will is dated May 1 7, 1686. S. O. 



