Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/618

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. DEC. 26, IMS.

strong waves in succession will be followed by a feebler fourth, and so on with tolerable regularity. It is very doubtful, however, whether there is any regularity about the recurrence of the larger wave.

G. L. APPERSON.

Tennyson, in speaking of the ninth wave, is in agreement with Celtic ideas, in which the ninth wave has considerable importance. Thus, in one of the poems (fifteenth century?) attributed to the Welsh bard Rhys Goch ap Rhiccert (Poem xii. in the ' lolo MSS.') we find the sea-gull addressed as " white queen of the waves of Severn sea, who hast thy kingdom on the nine waves of ocean " ; and the editor remarks in a foot-note : " In Welsh poetry, allusion is often made to the ninth wave, which was believed to be larger than the others." So, too, when the Milesians first landed in Ireland, they made a covenant with the Tuatha de Danann that they should re-embark and sail " the distance of nine waves on the high sea," after which, if they succeeded in landing again despite the Tuatha de Danann, Ireland should be theirs (Keating, vol. ii. p. 85, Irish Text Society).

In ' The Sin-Eater, and other Tales,' Fiona Macleod has a story entitled ' The Ninth Wave,' which is based on a belief current in the Hebrides that the ninth wave exercises a peculiar fascination :

" An' wherever it will be going it calls. An' the call of it is ' Come away, come away, the sea

waits! Follow! Come away, come away, the

sea waits ! Follow ! "

The story is that of a man who hears the calling of the ninth wave, and, unable to resist its spell, rushes into the sea and is drowned. The number nine is easy to explain, since it is the multiple of three.

H. I. B.

When we were children, some forty to forty-five years ago, we used to be told that every seventh wave was larger than the rest ; and on counting the waves breaking on the seashore, we frequently found, or imagined we found, this to be the case.

T. GLYNN.

Liscard.

At Saltfleet by St. Clement's, on the Lin- colnshire coast, we always looked out for the ninth wave as the biggest (c. 1850), and this accords with the idea of Tennyson, who, when young, knew that coast very well.

J. T. F.

Durham.

I venture to add another quotation from Ovid to that given by W. C. B. :

Qui venit hie fluctus, fluctus supereminet omnes Posterior nono est undecimoque prior.

' Tristia,' Lib. I. Eleg. ii. 49-50.

W. H. MAIDLOW, M.D.

ANCASTER (10 S. viii. 130; x. 455). Surely the " Andredes cester " in the ' A.-S. Chronicle,' anno 491, was somewhere in the South ; see Plummer's note. It is conjectured to have been near Pevensey. As we already find the spelling Ancaster in the time of Edward I. (Inquis. post Mortem), it would be surprising if it could have been shortened from this old form. Besides, it is on record that " Andredes cester" was totally destroyed and was never rebuilt.

The book on place-names by Flavell Edmunds appeared in 1872, when it was hardly possible to do anything but guess ; and it should never be consulted now. Words fail me to describe how hopelessly at fault it often proves to be. If demonstra- tion of this is really required, it is ready. His identification of Andred with Andrew is in itself a caution.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

It should be mentioned that Ancaster stone, though " very durable " in some situations, is not always so when used for outdoor sepulchral memorials. In such cases I have known it to be totally destroyed in a few years, by the action of frost, wet, and wind. No doubt its durability depends partly on the bed from which it is taken, and cannot always be depended upon.

J. T. F.

Durham.

SPECIAL JURISDICTION (10 S. x. 368, 418). The Town Clerk will have to investigate the privileges of Lancaster or the accuracy of the press !

The passage he is doubtful of occurs in The Times of Saturday, 24 October, p. 4, col. 3, and runs as follows :

"under an old charter the Peterborough

bench has the Assize power of Oyer and Ter miner, or general gaol delivery, so that its chairman can pass the death sentence, a privilege extended to only one other bench of magistrates, that of Lancaster."

A legal friend informs me that the same right has been claimed in the past at Stamford, and that it was put in force in 1659 and again in 1704. R. B.

Upton.