Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/474

 390

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. MAY 20, 1905.

faithfull indeavours by such rare secrete services as were by mee effected to prevent the same,

I tasted so great extremitie of imprisonment,

and other hard usage many wayes, as scaping with life (by timely and happy alteration of the State), I felt long after the paines of those torments, whereby my health in xx. yeares after was ex- treamly empayred."

His copy of Ripley had been in his possession for forty years, and he had during that period " founde out divers devices of rare service " of warlike engines both for sea and land. He announces his intention to impart some " rare experiments in Distillations and Fire - Workes." The Lansdowne MS. deals with this subject. It will be noted that it is not the original writing, but a copy pre- pared for Burghley. It is printed in Halli- well's 'Letters on Scientific Subjects.'

RHYS JENKINS.

" BLANCS CHAPERONS J> AT GHENT. It is related in Chastellain's memoirs (quoted in Michelet's ' Hist, de France,' tome vi. p. 199) that the people of Ghent wanted again their "blancs chaperons." I should be glad to know what they were. MENTOR.

ROB ART TIDIR. Over the doorway of the small cell at the foot of the stairs of the Beauchamp Tower (Tower of London) the name "Robart Tidir" is carved in large letters. Some account of this appears in an old number of Archceologia, but no informa- tion concerning the person indicated is yet forthcoming. Can any of your readers enlighten rne ?

Robert, Earl of Essex, was executed in the Tower, though his family name was Devereux, not Tidir (or Tudor), unless we are to believe certain alleged decipherings connecting Essex with Queen Elizabeth.

But the carved letters are there to be seen, and should be capable of explanation by antiquaries. KERWOOD.

DANISH SURNAMES.

(10 th S. iii. 49, 137.) ON this interesting subject Christian Jen- sen's valuable book ' Die Nordfriesischen Inseln (Sylt, Fohr, Amrurn und die Halligen), vormals und jetzt' (Hamburg, 1891), should be consulted at pp. 221 et seq. Jensen says that even after surnames appeared in the church register (and that was in very modern times only) they were seldom used by the people. Of what was the practice in giving surnames Jensen gives a family illustration : Bleik Matzen, of Keitum (Sylt), an ancestor of the

author's wife, married, on 27 November, 1690, Diihre Bo Mannis, daughter of Bo Mannis. Their four sons were named Bo Bleiken, Hans Bleiken, Manne Bleiken, and Matz Bleiken, i.e., the Christian name of the father became the surname of the sons, but the daughters were named Marin, Diihre, and Inge Bleik Matzen. The grandchildren in turn became respectively Boen, Hansen, Mannis, and Mat- zen. A wife took her husband's Christian name; thus a girl called Jeiken Matzen Klew on marrying a man whose Christian name was Magnus became Jeiken Mansen (Mans being contraction for Magnus). As regards Heligoland, I am unable at the moment to lay my hands on Fried rich Oetker's ' Heligo- land: Schilderungen und Erorterungen,' 1855, but perhaps I may be allowed to quote from a letter of my own in The Athenaeum of 11 January, 1890 :

" I can confirm Mr. Rye's conjecture that the final s in names frequently means ' son of,' from the usage of our kin in the North Frisian islands. Until the latter half of the eighteenth century, surnames were unknown in Heligoland. A child was named after his grandfather (or other relative) with his father's Christian name as second name. Thus, as Oetker has observed, if a man named Jasper has a son who was to be named Pai, the boy's full name would be Pai Jaspers ; his son, again, would be Jasper Paiens, and so on. ' Son of ' was indicated by s or e?i or ens. In 1763 the Government insisted on the use of proper surnames, but the usage seems long to have been variable, such names as Jasper Jaspers, Klaas Klaasen, &c., indicating some confusion be- tween legal and customary nomenclature. I know one name of this kind now borne in Heligoland, viz., Heike Heikens. I may, perhaps, mention that Oetker does notice that as a matter of fact the old system of naming is kept up by the use of three names. The surname is now fixed, the first name is variable, but the middle name generally com- memorates the father or grandfather. A man is just as often known by his first two names as by his surname. Thus a young fisherman named Hans Dreier Paiens or Payens (pronounced Poins), whom 1 know very well, is nearly always called by his friends ' Hans Dreier.' Oetker has noticed the extensive use of nicknames in Heligoland ; he wrote in 1855, but I can fully confirm his statement, and, indeed, not only an interesting, but an amusing paper might be written about Heligoland nomen- clature."

As Heligoland and the other North Frisian islands are essentially Danish, I hope the above notes may not be out of place.

WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK. Ramoyle, Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow.

" BEATING THE BOUNDS" (10 th S. iii. 209, 293). The first question concerning this asked in ' N. & Q.' was in 1 st S. xi. An answer appeared in 1 st S. xii. 103. Since then the question has received attention at the following refer- ences : 3 rd S. vi. 107; 5 th S. vii. 365, 517; viii.