Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/479

 10 s. xi. MAY 15, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

he is commemorated (for example, in the -archdiocese of Westminster), his day is 24 April. This is the only day given to "' S. Bonus Latro " in the " Supplementum pro aliquibus locis " in the Missals and Horae Diurnae I have looked at. The Roman Martyrology says nothing as to his com- memoration elsewhere than at Jerusalem, which it records under 25 March.

Probably most readers of ' N. & Q.' are acquainted with Mr. Laurence Housman's beautiful poem ' To the Penitent Thief on Calvary' in his 'Spikenard' (Grant Richards, 1898). JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

MB. CUBBY'S foot note invites information as to " Abilo Obispo Vienense." The { Arch)bishop of Vienne whose name has " bien change sur la route " is none other than Alcimus Avitus. The quotation " Sicque reus scelerum," &c., is taken from lib. iii. ('De Sententia Dei') of his ' Poemata,' 11. 415, 416. " Pandit " should be pendit. EDWABD BENSLY.

Aberystwyth.

HOLT CASTLE (10 S. xi. 308). Holt Castle is supposed to have been built by the D'Abitots in the Norman period. It has been the seat of the Warwick, Beauchamp, Wysham, Bromley, and Foley families.

Ricraft in his ' English Champions,' on the subject of Sir William Brereton, com- mander-in-chief of the Cheshire forces of Cromwell's army, recounts a long series of his achievements, one of which was the capture of Holt Castle on 21 Nov., 1644. HENBY CUBTIS SHABPE. Combermere, Buckleigh Road, Streatham, S.W.

Holt Castle is said to have been built by Urse d'Abetot, the rapacious Sheriff of Worcester. Although Dudley Castle is the only castle mentioned in the Domesday Survey, Urse is mentioned as holding five hides at Holte as under-tenant of the Abbot of Worcester. It is certain that the Beau- champs held the castle, and it is to be noted that Walter Beauchamp was son-in-law and heir to Urse d'Abetot. Holt Castle fell into the hands of Sir John Bourn, who added to it a large residential quarter. It after- '' wards became the property of Thomas Bromley, the Lord Chancellor. Nash, in his ' History of Worcestershire,' says of the castle that " nothing now remains but a tower and some old embattled walls."

C. H. R. PEACH. Manchester.

Holt Castle was in 1864 the residence of Mr. John Pickernell. JOHN T. PAGE.

"REALM": ITS PBONUNCIATION (10 S. xi. 107, 338). It is years since I heard " realm " pronounced " reem " by an old parson, who read " reem of the blest." Very many pronounce the word " rel-em," just as they say "el-em" for " elm."

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

"HAWSEB": "HAUL" (10 S. xi. 307). - Apparently the ' N.E.D.' relates " hawser " to " hoist " "in reference to the original purpose of the hawser." But should it not rather be attributed to " hals," neck, " part of the forecastle or bow of a ship " ? The ancient ships, as the old pictures show, had often a projecting head or beak and neck, whilst they retain still their bow ('N.E.D.,' shoulder) and ribs. " Right forrard " was the hawse-hole (neck- hole) for the anchor cable ; and for hawse- hole and hawser the ' N.E.D.' quotes halse, hause, haulse, hawse, houlse, harse, and halshol : halsier, halsor, halser, and hasar. " The hauses are those great round holes before, under the Beak-head." I suggest that the hawse-hole was the neck-hole, and that it (and not "hoist") gave the name to the great anchor-rope which passed through it. It seems, indeed, more probable that " hoist " has come to us through " hawser," as the big rope would naturally be regarded as par excellence the lifting-rope for heavy weights.

I hardly like to suggest that "haul" (primarily, I think, a nautical word) is also derived from " hals " (cf. " haulse " ), though at present I do not feel very sure that it is not ("We hauled anchor and passed gently up the river"). It would be interesting to have authority on both points. DOUGLAS OWEN.

" THE WOOSET " (10 S. xi. 27, 71). Apart from the fact that the country people to whom we owe " wooset," " husset," certainly knew nothing of any " machine " beyond a plough, harrow, or " tarmentur," the suggested " wuzzer," " whizzer," fails to account for the form of the word in question, and especially for the nature of what is presumed to be intended by it. The latter was, as with " Hoodening " in Kent, the procession of a wooden horse's head with clapping jaws. On the analogy of the initial w sounded in Wilts in pronouncing " oats," " home," and " [w]hore's bird ' (bastard) as " wuzbird," I have little diffi- culty in viewing " wooset " as a worn form of "wuzzed"= horse head. This view is corroborated by the alternative forms " husset," " hoset." H. P. L.