Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/625

. n. DEC. 24, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

517

Ain or An=hen=old ; and, as mere spellings do not count, compare Ainstable, Ainthorpe, Aintree. ARTHUR HALL.

Highbury, N.

"L.S." (10 th S. ii. 428). The explanation as to the meaning of these letters on copies of, or drafts of, deeds is quite correct. But why any solicitor should have had, as seems suggested, the same letters, in that con- nexion, placed on a mural tablet to his memory, would be beyond his confreres to conceive. Probably they do stand for Law- Society, the title popularly used by solicitors for the then Incorporated Law Society of the United Kingdom, now changed to the Law Society. MISTLETOE.

"MALE" (10 th S. ii. 426, 453). Dr. Edwin Freshfield, in a foot-note on p. iii of the Introduction to the 'Records of the Society of Gentlemen Practisers in the Courts of Law and Equity,' says of the phrase " male and unfair practice " :

" The word ' male ' is not, as I first thought, a mistake in spelling, but represents, I believe, the manner in which the word we call ' mal-practice ' was then pronounced."

It is obvious that the * Records ' are making use of the word as an adjective.

MISTLETOE.

BATTLE OF SPURS (10 th S. ii. 426). Townsend, in his ' Manual of Dates,' under the name 'Guinegate,' mentions two battles as having been fought at this place : the first, that in which the Flemings defeated the French, 11 July,, 1302; the second between Henry VIII. and the French, 16 August, 1513. He says both were called " the Battle of the Spurs."

The first of these, I believe, is more cor- rectly known as the battle of Courtrai. In this engagement the Flemings, numbering 20,000, consisting principally of weavers from Ghent and Bruges, were led by the Count of Namur. The French, under Robert, Count of Artois, numbered 7,000 knights and 40,000 infantry. The French were utterly routed, and from the number of gilt spurs gathered on the field, and hung up as a trophy in the church of the convent of Groenangen, the battle took its name, being called by the French journee des eperont, dor. Long- fellow refers to the encounter in ' The Belfry of Bruges ' :

I beheld the Flemish weavers, with Namur and

Juliers bold, Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the

Spurs of Gold.

The battle in Henry VIII. J s reign was fought at Guinegate, near Tournai, the

French, under the Due de Longueville, being put to flight. Hume (ed. 1807) gives the accepted explanation of the name "Battle of Spurs," saying that the engagement was so called because the French "made more use of their spurs than their swords." The following are the authorities he supplies at the foot of the page: 'Me'moires de Bellai,' liv. i. ; Polydore Virgil, liv. xxvii. ; Holinshed, p. 822 ; Herbert.

I have not had opportunity to refer to these works, which possibly might throw further light on the name. The alternative explanation from a " village named Spours " is new to me, and I can find no mention of such derivation in * Ency. Brit.,' Townsend, Haydn, 'Chambers's Ency.,' Rosse, Ploetz, Knight's ' Cyclo. of Geography,' or Dr. Brewer's 'The Reader's Handbook of Allu- sions,' which all adhere to the old expla- nation. CHR. WATSON.

Haydn's 'Dictionary of Dates' (twenty- second ed., 1898) gives the following under
 * Spurs, Battle of' :

"This battle was popularly called the battle of the 'Spurs,' because the French used their spurs more than their swords. The name was really obtained from the village of Spours near which it was fought. Lodge."

But, on the other hand, here are other authorities. Lingard, in his ' History of England,' in speaking of the fight, says : "The French, with their characteristic humour, denominated [it] the Battle of the Spurs " (vol. iv. chap. vi.).

Hume and Smollett, in their 'History of England ' (vol. iii. chap, xxvii.), say :

"This action, or rather rout, is sometimes called the Battle of Guinegate, from the place where it was fought ; but more commonly the Battle of Spurs, because the French, that day, made more use of their spurs than of their swords or military weapons."

Brewer, in his 'Reign of Henry VIII. (vol. i. p. 31, foot-note), has : " The Battle of the Spurs was fought at Guinegaste, or rather at Bomye, near Terouenne, on August 18. " The Rev. F. Bright, in his 'History of England,' says : " This curious panic the French christened the Battle of the Spurs " (vol. ii. p. 370, third ed., 1888). And finally, to quote once again, Holinshed 's ' Chronicles' (of England, Scotland, and Ireland) has it thus :

"This incounter chancing thus was called the

battell Des Esprons, by the Frenchmen themselves, that is to saie, the battell of spur res : foresomuch as they in steed of sword and lance used their spurres with all their might and maine to pricke foorth their horsses to get out of danger ; so that in them was verefied the old prouerbe, One paire