Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/321

 10 s. XL APRIL 3,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL J, 1000.

CONTENTS. No. 275.

NOTES : " Liverpool " : its Etymology Tennyson Concord- ances, 261 Westminster Changes in 1908, -262 St. Michael le Quern Floor-Cloth Manufacture, 265 Doctors in London during the Plague Paul's Alley in 1601 Y Symbol for Th John Aubrey's Marriage" Balaam," 2f~ " Scape "=Freak of Nature Matthew Flinders, 267.

QUERIES : Sir Reginald Bray Stonehenge Monolith " Aisle " : " Alley," 267 Author Wanted Bewickiana Jenny Wilkins Famous Jewesses Nanny Natty Cote : Lucy Locket Lady's Heraldic Motto, 268 Michael Angelo Rooker Thames : "The Flats" and King's Channel Isaac Glasse James Mears Wiltshire in Berk- shire Hannah Cowley's Burial-PlaceSir Richard and Lady Fanshawe The Old Wives of St. Ives " Squad "= Mud Laws of the Conqueror, 269 Woodnesborough, near Sandwich ' ^Esop's Fables,' 1821, 270.

KEPLIES : " Marylebone " : Prepositions in Place-Names, 270 Falcon Court, Shoe Lane Hippocrates and the Black Baby Semaphore Signalling, 271 Canopied Pews Population of Ancient Rome Devonshire Miniaturists, 273 Waddington as a Place-NameBritannia as the National Emblem " Druce," Lane-Name, 274 Peter Drelincourt, Dean of Armagh Corunna : Bearer of the News St. Sunday, 275 Third Foot Guards at Bayonne Disraeli, 276 William Bullock on Virginia First of March: Sweep "Flees" Away " Jager" Henry Ellison Lizards and Music' The Swiss Family Robinson,' 277.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The English Catalogue of Books ' Coleridge's ' Biographia Literaria."

OBITUARY : Father Angus. Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

" LIVERPOOL " : ITS ETYMOLOGY.

I HAVE not, as yet, observed any reason- .able etymology given for Liverpool ; but perhaps I may be wrong, as it is obvious ^enough.

It is precisely parallel to Livermere, a Suffolk place-name. This appears as Lyver- mere in 1290 ; for in the ' Inquisitiones post Mortem,' i. 103, a certain Willelmus de Lyvermere is mentioned as being a Suffolk man. In Kemble's ' A.-S. Charters,' charter 907 is ascribed to the reign of Edward the Confessor ; but the existing copy is full of Norman spellings, which must be allowed for. In the county of Suffolk (it tells us) there was a place called " Liuuremer," an obvious error for " Liuermere," due to the Norman scribe's repetition of u (for v), and his use of the French suffix -re for the A.-S. -er, as in the absurd spelling acre for Mid. E. aker (A.-S. cecer) ; cf. Du. akker, G. acker.

There is no difficulty as to liver. It is merely a dialectal form of the prov. E. lever (commonly used in the plural form levers), otherwise written lewer, leyver, and liver,

which is the name of a particular kind of rush, commonly the yellow flag (Iris pseuda- corus). The form lever at once accounts for the spelling Leaver, the name of the mythical bird which the antiquaries invented in 1668 as being " the Armes of this towne " ; see ' N.E.D.,' s.v. ' Liver,' and ante, pp. 158, 212 (' Shakespeare in French : Arms of Liver- pool ' ).

It is the yellow flag, and not a mysterious bird, that flourishes in pools and meres ; hence it is not surprising to find that Suffolk possesses both a Livermere and a Rushmere. Moreover, the A.-S. form was Icefer in the tenth century, as ^Elfric's ' Glossary ' ex- plains gladiolus by " laefer." But we can trace the word much further back, as it occurs in the Epinal, Erfurt, and Corpus glossaries of the eighth century. The Corpus MS. has : " scirpea, lebr " ; the Erfurt MS. has : " scirpea, lebrse " ; and the Epinal MS. has " scirpea, de qua matta conficitur, lerb," an obvious error for lebr. These spellings are consistent with the fact that these old MSS. usually show 6 in place of the later / (which was sounded as v). And the note tells us that the name was also given to the common rush that was used for the making of mats. The accus. form Zee/re occurs in a text ; so that the word belonged to the feminines of the strong declension.

^Elfric also gives the Latin equivalent as pirus, which (as Toller notes) is a mere error for papyrus. The English / answers to Gk. TT ; so we may connect Icefer with Gk. \eir-eiv, to peel, and the Lithuanian lapas, a leaf ; it was obviously named from its flat shape, like the Latin gladiolus from gladius.

I may add that the German Schilf is not a Teutonic word, but is merely the Latin scirpus done into a German form. The sense is right enough, as the German for " rush-mat " is Schilfmatle.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

TENNYSON CONCORDANCES.

THE Editor's reference (10 S. ix. 118) to my old friend Brightwell brings to mind the peculiar circumstances in which his ' Concordance ' was issued. Was there ever oefore a concordance to a man's works issued during his life ? Such an occurrence is surely unique.

It is almost unnecessary to say that Brightwell compiled his in adoration of Tennyson's poetry. The plan of it was submitted to Tennyson's publisher Moxoii in the spring of 1868 ; and there can be no