Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/210

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. XL FEB. 27, im

the agricultural writer, who published a treatise (highly esteemed at the period) on the art of husbandry, and died in 1736 ? If not to him, to whom ?

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

STUART, EARL OF TRAQTJAIR. Is it known who was the wife of John, first Earl of Tra- quair ? He was the son of John Stuart of Traquair by Margaret, daughter of Andrew Stewart, or Stuart, Master of Ochil- tree. Where can I find the Ochiltree pedi- gree ? A. T. M.

RUTLAND : ORIGIN OF THE NAME. Can any of your readers kindly inform me of the origin of the family name of Rutland 7 The particular family in which I am in- terested were, according to Guillim's ' Dis- play of Heraldry,' 1679, of Saffron Walden in Essex. It has been suggested that the name should be Ruthland, and that there is a part of Essex called the Ruth, and that the ancient holders of it were called Ruth- landers, since altered to Rutland. I have searched in Morant's ' Essex,' but can find no trace of this origin.

HARRIOT Euz. TABOR.

OTWAY BALE left Westminster School at Midsummer, 1803. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning his parentage and career. G. F. R. B.

HENRY ELLISON. (See 10 S. x. 8, 95, 137.) Can any of your correspondents give me the dates of the respective deaths of the three brothers Richard, John, and Henry Ellison ? G. F. R, B.

DRAYTON ON VALENTINE'S DAY. In which of Michael Drayton's works is mention made of St. Valentine's Day ?

GEO. DRAYTON.

TASSO'S ' AMINTA.' Where can a copy of Tasso's pastoral drama ' Aminta ' be procured in translated form prose or vers and by whom is it published ?

GEO. DRAYTON.

DIALOGUES OF LUISA SIGEA. Who was the author of this book, and what is th nature of the dialogues ? To judge from the effect of a haphazard reading of a fev pages on one of the characters in a recen novel, ' Mr. and Mrs. Villiers,' by Huber Wales, the dialogues must be of a powerfu nature, the reader, after first turning crimson and then deathly white, sinking quietly t the ground unconscious. JOHN HEBB.

lleplws.

THE LIQUID N IN ENGLISH. (10 S. xi. 105.)

IN tracing the history of the gn sound

we find that the E. ni is a reversion to the

at. ni, which is represented in Spanish

jy n, in Portuguese by nh, and in Italian

tnd French by gn ; for example, Lat.

enior, Span, senor, Port, senhor, It. signore,

Fr. seigneur ; Lat. Hispania, Span. Espana,

'r. Espagne ; Lat. Britannia, Fr. Brefagne ;

&t. campania, It. campagna, Fr. campagnc. ["his fact is important in its relation to

iatin pronunciation, as it shows that such a word as senior should be pronounced seni-or, and not sen-yor.

The English pronunciation, however, differs from that of the Romance languages .n having no nasal sound. Whether the Latin language possessed this sound is difficult to say ; probably it did. I do not quite understand the force of the word ' equivalent ' ' when PROF. SKE AT says : " The chief examples of E. ni from (or equivalent to) F. gn are " minion, com- panion," &c. Minion and companion may be equivalent in meaning to mignon and

ompagnon, but they are far from being equivalent in sound.

To the three words instanced by PROF. SKE AT as possessing " the liquid n " may, I think, be added signor or signior, which Shakespeare has anglicized in giving it the English plural. I remember also to have seen seigneurial used in English books, as well as cognoscenti. If champignon is ad- missible, a claim may be put in for peignoir, a lady's dressing-gown. Old-fashioned people still sometimes write poignard for poniard. There may also be added canyon, from the Span, canon, a deep cleavage in the hills. This word has become naturalized in American literature.

A word omitted by PROF. STCEAT it is possibly unknown in the cloistered refec- tories of Cambridge is champagne. Unless my memory deceives me, this word two hundred years ago was spelt champain, just as we have Spain from Espagne, and Britain from Brctagne ; and it is remarkable that we should have reverted in more modern days to the French spelling. A cynic might refer this change to the common notion that things with a tinge of naughtiness about them seem less repulsive when arrayed in foreign garb than when clad in honest home- spun, j. j