454 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 nd s. IX. June 9. '60. 



The Judges' Black Cap (2 nd S. xi. 132.) — 

 This question still appears involved in obscurity. 

 There is one opinion, and that of considerable 

 weight, which has escaped the researches of your, 

 correspondents. In The Annotated Edition of the 

 English Poets by Robert Bell, and in the reprint 

 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, vol. iii. p. 102., are 

 the following lines : — 



" The sonday next the marchanned was agoon, 

 To Seint Denys i-come is daun Johan, 

 With croune' and berd al freisch and newe i-schave." 



The word " croune " is noted with the letter " i " 

 as a guide to the foot-note, which is as follows : — 



"It is perhap3 unnecessary to remind the reader that 

 all clerks used to shave the crown of the head, a remnant 

 of which custom may be observed in the form of the wigs 

 of our judges, who, in the middle ages, were generally 

 clerks. This tonsure on the crown of his wig, the judge, 

 in passing sentence of death, covers with a black cap, not 

 to give additional solemnity to the occasion, as some sup- 

 pose, but to show that for the time he lays aside his 

 clerical office, it being against the primitive canons for a 

 churchman to have anything to do with the death of a 

 fellow-creature." 



It is a matter of much regret that the writer of 

 this note has given no clue to his authority for 

 the above statement. And that regret is increased 

 by the fact that the name of the contributor of 

 this valuable collection of notes appended to the 

 most popular of Chaucer's works should also be 

 withheld from the public. The preface indeed 

 leads to the inference that the author is the Rev. 

 J. M. Jephson, an able and discriminating anti- 

 quary and old English scholar. • H. D'Aveney. 



Hereditary Alias (2 ,,d S. ix. 344. 413.) — 

 Many such exist in the Highlands, being gene- 

 rally Gaelic names and their translation. M'Ta- 

 vish=Thoinson, M'Calmon=Dove, Gow=Smitb, 

 Gorm=Blue. Some however, as Dewan=Bucha- 

 nan, do not seem to come under this rule. 



J. P. O. 



In Kuerden' s MSS. Chetham Library, Man- 

 chester, occur extracts of two deeds showing an 

 alias used by the family of Kuerden : — 



" 1535. Ricardus Jacson, alias dictus Ricardus Keuer- 

 den de Keuerden." 



And again — 



" 1537. Indenture of marriage. Richard Jackson, alia!! 

 Kuerden and John Jackson of Walton, his brother, agree 

 that Gilbert, son and heir of John, shall marry Grace, 

 daughter of Richard Enes of Fish wick." 



E. T. L. 



Peers serving as Mayors (2'" 1 S. ix. 162.292. 

 355.) — I find the following entries in the List of 

 Mayors of the Town and County of Haverford- 

 west : — 



1787. The Right Hon. Lord Milford. 



1805. „ „ Lord Kensington. 



1809. „ „ Lord Kensington. 



David Gam. 



Hydrophobia and Smothering (1" S. v. 10.; 

 vi. 110. 206. 298. 437.) — In the Dublin Chronicle, 

 28th October, 1788, the following, circumstance 

 is recorded : — 



" Thursday morning an accident happened at the 

 Blackrock [near Dublin], which has been attended with 

 most melanchoh' consequences: — A fine boy, about four- 

 teen 3"ears old, passing by a gentleman's house, the lady's 

 lapdog ran out and bit him ; in about two hours the 

 youth was seized with convulsive fits, and shortly after 

 with the hydrophobia ; and notwithstanding every assist- 

 ance that night, his friends were on Friday obliged to 

 smother him between two beds." 



A correspondent observes in the next number 

 of The Chronicle, that 



"The improbability of such a murder being committed 

 within three miles of the metropolis, and near so many 

 polished and well-informed people as reside at the Black- 

 rock, is much greater than if it had been asserted to be in 

 a very remote part of the country, far distant from any of 

 the faculty of medicine." 



I have carefully examined the newspaper in 

 question, but without finding any confirmation or 

 contradiction of the report. Can you refer me to 

 any instance on record (besides what has been 

 stated already in " N. & Q.") of the perpetration 

 of such barbarity elsewhere ? Abhba. 



Origin of "Cockney" (2 nd S. ix. 234.)— After 

 all that has been advanced upon this subject, it 

 seems as if we were in reality only going round in 

 a circle, and are as far as ever from a solution of 

 the difficulty. Old speculations are revived, and 

 sometimes with an apparent ignorance that they 

 have ever been adduced before ; while in other 

 cases the desire of producing something new, leads 

 to a very perfunctory dismissal of the suggestions 

 of philologers who have long held a distinguished 

 position in the world of letters. It is not my in- 

 tention to thrust upon your notice any idea of my 

 own ; but I wish to be allowed to hint to Mr. 

 Williams that he has not yet exhausted the in- 

 quiry, nor is he correct in his reply to Mr. 

 Sketchley. Coles is no doubt a respectable 

 authority, but seems to have nothing to say on 

 the subject of coqueliner. Now it will be ad- 

 mitted that Dr. Samuel Pegge was an accurate 

 and painstaking antiquary ; and if Mr. Williams 

 will take the trouble to turn to his Anecdotes of 

 the English Langxiage, Svo. 1814 (p. 32.), he will 

 find this passage : — 



" The French have an old appropriated verb (not to be 

 met with in the modern Dictionaries, but you will find it 

 in Cotgrave), viz. ' Coqueliner un enfant,' to fondle and 

 pamper a child," &c. 



I have not Cotgrave at hand to refer to ; but I 

 have faith in Pegge's quotation. Moreover, in 

 Boniface's Fr.-Eng. Diet., as common a one as 

 any, the same interpretation is given. R. S. Q. 



Atter or Alli (2 ud S. ix. 344.)— All in Gaelic 

 is a rock or cliff". J. P. O. 



