Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/72

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NOTES AND QUERIES, rio s. xn. JULY 17, im

"HAUGHENDO " : FYLDE OATH (10 S. xi. j 509). Haughendo, for auchten-dole ; lit. ' "eighth part," is explained in the ' Eng. Dial. Dictionary,' s.v. haughendole ; and in the ' ISTew Eng. Dictionary,' s.v. eightin-dole.

Some account of the A.-S. h, M.E. gh, is given at p. 92 of my ' Primer of Eng- lish Etymology.' The usual rule is that it is lost after a long vowel, and became / after a short one. The o in A.-S. dohtor, " daughter," was short, which accounts for an / ; but was usually lengthened, which accounts for the loss of the guttural. " Sough " not only became " suff," but gave the modern " surf." But here the vowel was shortened ; it was originally long. WALTER W. SKEAT.

MB. G. M. TAYLOR is quite right in surmis- ing that in " laughter " and " daughter " a guttural sound was the original. In Tudor times the augh words were sounded gutturally throughout England, but for the last three centuries the capital has substituted a/, and the guttural, retreating further and further north, has been all but extirpated from English speech by the widening influence of the grammar schools : La grammaire, qui salt regenter jusqu'aux rois, Et les fait, la main haute, obe'ir & ses lois. Such names as Baughan, Faugh, Feather- stonhaugh, Maughanby, are all pronounced with the sound of /. It is proper to add that a similar change has taken place in certain Irish names, which has even affected the orthography. We find beside the old historic names O'Morchoe and O'Donoghue the Anglicized corruptions Murphy and Dunphy. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

I have heard the oath " my Gough " used in the Isle of Man, with a distinct guttural. The Anglo-Manx dialect has many affinities with that of the Fylde. Whether this oath is used by Welshmen I cannot say. FRED. G. ACKERLEY.

Grindleton Vicarage, Clitheroe.

t TMn. HOLDEN MAcMiCHAEL also refers to the JE.D.D.'J

FOUNDERS OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA (10 S. xi. 489). Pending a full reply to MR. HIBGAME'S query, which I trust will be sent to ' N. & Q.,' the following items may be of service.

The records of the settlement of Norfolk County exist only in MS., in the Clerk's Office there. A history of Norfolk, &c., was published in Philadelphia, 1853, by Wm. S. Forrest : he states that the name was given by its first explorer, Col. Thoro-

good, in honour of his native English county, from which he first emigrated to Elizabeth City County, afterwards crossing the James to the southern side. Unfor- tunately, he gives no dates, except " 1650 " as a minimum at head of chapter ; and as Norfolk County was granted 11 April, 1637, to Henry Frederick Howard, Lord Mal- travers, it must have been constituted before the latter date. The land for Norfolk town (fifty acres) was first bought under an Act of the Virginia Legislature, 8 June, 1680 ; the first purchasers of lots included Peter Smith, Richard Whitby, Henry Spratt, and Wm. Porteus ( Bruce' s ' Economic Hist. Virginia,' ii. 552). The town was incor- porated in 1705. FORREST MORGAN. Hartford, Conn.

COMETS (10 S. xi. 489; xii. 15). Some few years ago a Yorkshire lad at Christmas- time, playing at Pope Joan, used words to this effect : " Why, this is what at home we call ' comete.' ' He pronounced the word either as " kumat " or " kumait," I forget which, but the accent was strongly on the second syllable. Thinking that the name might possibly have been introduced from Spain, I looked into Baretti's Spanish dictionary, where I found : " Cometa, 1, comet ; 2, kite ; 3, kind of game at cards." G. C. BILLESDON.

JOHN WALKER, THE INVENTOR OF THE LUCIFER MATCH (10 S. xi. 427). See also 8 S. iii. 466 ; iv. 70, 134, 177, 273. At the second reference the late PROF. TOMLINSON said that " to name one man as the inventor of the lucifer match " could only result from ignorance. Although I fell under the Professor's ban on this occasion, I none the less welcomed his erudite remarks on the subject and also those which followed.

At the sale of the Bidwell collection of lamps and candlesticks at Messrs. Puttick's rooms on 3 July, 1906, an original box of " R. Bell's Improved Lucifers," containing thirty matches and the original sandpaper, realized nineteen shillings.

JOHN T. PAGE.

HOLT CASTLE AND THE BEATJCHAMP FAMILY (10 S. xi. 308, 395, 490). MR. F. A. EDWARDS is doubtful whether the wife of Walter de Beauchamp was daughter or sister of Urse d'Abetot. She was daughter of Urse, and sister of Roger d'Abetot. As Roger was banished and his estates forfeited, Walter de Beauchamp must have obtained the fief, not, to speak strictly, in right of his wife, but by regrant (Round, ' Feudal