Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/17

 io* s. in. JAX. 7, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to be the correct one, to judge from the fact that the speakers were asked to sanction a new style of legislation, and not whether they would or would not alter the laws of Eng- land. JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

"BROKEN HEART/' What is the origin of the metaphorical pathology expressed in the sentence, " She died of a broken heart " ?

MEDICULUS.

CALLAND. I should be glad to obtain information about Augustus, Charles, and George Calland, who were all three admitted to Westminster School on 12 January, 1784. Charles matriculated at Oxford from Christ Church, 3 April, 1788, and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in the following year.

G. F. K. B.

CHARLES HOPE WEIR. I desire to know the date of the death of Charles Hope Weir, the friend of Adam Ferguson. He was living in Edinburgh in 17G1. Where can an account of him be found ? D. E.

New Bedford, Mass.

HORSESHOES FOR LUCK. In suspending them on walls or nailing them on doors which is the right side upwards? I have always considered the front of the shoe should be top, but I know several people who maintain the reverse, although they can give me no reason for so doing. What is the rule 1 I notice in Fred Barnard's frontispiece to the "Household Edition "of 'Dombeyand Son' a horseshoe is represented on a shed door back upwards. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

GODIVA'S BIRTHPLACE. Is the birthplace of Godiva known ? The ' D.N.B.' is silent on the point. A. R. C.

FLORIDA. " In 1763 it was ceded to Great Britain by the Spaniards in return for Havana. Vigorous efforts were made by the British Government to promote settlements by liberal grants of land to settlers.'' The above is a quotation from an encyclopedia, which also states that a Mr. Drake, I believe, has written a ' History of Florida from the Earliest Days.' Unfortunately I could not find this in the Free Reading - Room in Liverpool. An ancestor of mine died possessed of a large tract there, and if I could see the original grants of land and the grantees, I could fill in one or two important gaps in the family pedigree. Where in London can I find names, &c, of grantees ? I suppose duplicates of grants were made.

M.A.Oxox.

"WASSAIL." (10 th S. ii. 503.)

I FEAR no one can possibly accept the proposal to regard the Icel. veizla as the original of wassail; for it would obviously have only given some such form as wait set. It does not explain the ai in the second syllable.

I see that the passage from Robert of Gloucester which is already quoted in my dictionary is again quoted in ' N. &, Q.' But my reference to "Hearne's Glossary, p. 731," has been wholly neglected. It seems hard that such indifference should lead to a new and unjustifiable etymology.

As I fear your readers will not take the trouble to refer to this "p. 731," I take the opportunity of doing so on their behalf. On that page Hearne gives " a remarkable frag- ment," as he calls it, from an old MS. ; and he also refers us to the word queme in his Glos- sary. There he gives yet another passage, which is of great interest. I give it here in prose :

" Lord king, Wassaille, said she [Rowena]. The king asked what that might mean ; for he knew nothing of that language [English]. A knight had learnt their language in youth. His name was Brey [or Brey], and he was born a Briton ; he had learnt the language of the Saxons. This Brey was the interpreter of what she had told Vortigern. ' Sir,' said Brey, ' Rowen greets you, and calls you king, and addresses you as lord- This is their custom and their manner, when they are at the ale or feast. Each man that loves wherever it may seem good to him shall say Wasseille, and drink to him. The other shall say again Drinkhaille. He that says Wasseille drinks of the cup, and, kissing his companion, gives it up to him. DrinkheiUe, saj s he, and drinks thereof, kissing him in jest and play.' The king said, as the knight had taught him, ' Drinkheille' smiling on Rowen. Rowen drank as pleased her, and gave it to the king, and afterwards kissed him. This was, indeed, the first Wassaille, and that first one became famous. Of that Wo&a/Slt men talked a good deal, and [said] Wassaille when they were drinking their ale. Many times that young maiden wassailed and kissed the king," &c.

I fear I owe an apology to those who con- sult my dictionary. It never occurred to me that any one would cast a doubt upon this extremely well-known story, and so I quoted from Robert of Gloucester only. Of
 * ourse, I ought also to have quoted the much

older account in Layamon, which simply settles the question. See vol ii. pp. 175, 176. I give the earlier and later texts side by side, but modernized :

Dear friend, wens hail ; Dear friend, wassail ; The other saith, drinc The other saith, dring- haU. hail.