Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/357

 10* S.V.APRIL 14, i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Roman Catholic) prior to the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act of 1848. For this reason it so happened that the present Duke of Norfolk, as a Roman Catholic, is the first Earl Marshal since the reign of Henry VII. who has in person acted as Earl Marshal at a royal coronation.

King Henry VII. , soon after the battle of Bosworth Field where Richard III. was de- feated and slain was crowned at West- minster Abbey by Cardinal Bourchier, Arch- bishop of Canterbury. PORTCULLIS.

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN (10 th S. v. 107, 152). Will the owner of the letter from Major Talbot Ashley Cox state whether he is prepared to part with it, should the friends of the above-named wish to acquire it 1

(Mrs.) CHRISTIAN.

Redgate, Uppingham.

"WALKING" CLOTH (10 th S. v. 169, 212). Some of the remarks at the last reference are very irrelevant.

Walcher in Domesday Book is simply a Norman form of A.-S. Wealhhere, from wealh, stranger, and here, army, compounded in the usual way.

Wakefield is spelt, we are told, Wachefield in Domesday Book. But I doubt if ie is right ; and as to Wac/ie, it is merely the Norman spelling of A.-S. ivacu, a watch, wake, vigil. The sense is " field where wakes were held." It is impossible to connect it with walker.

Walkern (explained in my * Place-names of Herts ; ) cannot possibly be connected with A.-S. cern, a dwelling-place ; for the sense " house of a walk " is not in accordance with A.-S. idiom, and would be unintelligible. It is rather a Middle-English new spelling (as if from walk and hem, A.-S. hyrne, which really does occur as a suffix in place-names) of the Domesday Book form Walchra, which perhaps really does represent the A.-S. weal- cera, gen. pi, (place) "of the fullers.' 3

I doubt if there is sufficient evidence about Walkington ; and I further doubt whether it can be connected either with fullers or with strangers.

In my ' Concise Dictionary ' I suggest that the Mid. Eng. walker, a fuller, was borrowed from the Mid. Dutch walcker, a fuller, which Bailey (who is not to be relied on) misspells walcher. That is, it is probable that the word was reintroduced by the Flemings. For though tho A.-S. wealcere exists, I can find only a single example of it, and that is merely in a glossary ; so that it may well have been lost, and regained from the Continent afterwards.

If we might be allowed to consider only one question at a time, it would much con- duce to clearness. WALTER W. SKEAT.

On 1 Sept., 1459, a will was made by "Ricardus Bramhowe de Ripon, Walkar" ('Ripon Chapter Acts,' 84). On this the editor notes :

"A fuller, hence ' Walker-earth' ( W. R. Yks.),. fuller's earth. The fuller trod the cloth by walking about on it in 'walk-mylne clogges ' ('Townely Myst.,' Surt. Soc M vol. iii. p. 313). The ' Walk- Mylne' of Ripon is mentioned in a charter of 1359, 'juxta aquam qua? currit usque le Walke- nrilne.'"

Bedern Bank in Ripon was formerly called " Walkmylnbanke" ('Mem. Ripon/ i. 135, 282). In Scotland and Germany a fulling mill is a walk-mill (Yks. Arch. Journal, vii- 193).

In 'Durham Depositions,' Surt. Soc., vol. xxi. p. 29, we find, 1447-8, Johannes Robynson, "walkar," punished "quod laboravit in arte fullonica in die Epiphanise- Domini."

In an interesting account of Clairvaux that is to appear in the next issue of the- Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, the old writer speaks of the water-power relieving the fullers of their hard labour by alter- nately lifting and letting down those heavy pestles or mallets, whichever you like to call them, or certainly wooden feet, for this- name seems more in agreement with the- dancing business of the fullers.

Surely there can be no doubt that the English surname Walker is derived from that same dancing business, so familiar previous, to the introduction of machinery.

J. T. F.

8 ' Walken is good German for " fulling." The German name of fuller's earth is- Walkererde, and of a fulling mill, Walkmiihle. As one of your correspondents refers to the walking of a hat, I may mention that I witnessed the operation many years ago- abroad. The billycock in its pristine state is like a clown's peaked cap, which is dipped into boiling water and '* walked," i.e., rolled, with a wooden pin a rolling-pin, in fact like paste. L- L. K.

Cowell's * Interpreter ' says : "Walkers are- such as are otherwise called Foresters

There are foresters assigned by the King, who are Walkers within a certain space of Ground to their care."

H. W. UNDERDOAYN.

DR. WALKER'S name has a closer associa- tion with tenterhooks and frames than with