Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/525

 s. v. JUNE 2, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

433

DELMER (10 th S. v. 348). If this is merely a variant on Delrnar, which I suspect, it cer- tainly is used as a proper name. A friend of mine who bears it tells me it is derived from a Prussian baron of that name. I see three Delmars in the 4 London Court Directory.' Bardsley, in his * Diet. Eng. and Welsh Surnames,' 1901, which does not seem suffi- ciently made use of by your correspondents, gives :

"Delamare, Delamere, Delmar. Local, *de la mere,' at the lake, from residence beside a lake ; M.E. mere, a pool. John de la Mere, co. Oxf., 1273 (Hundred Rolls). Henricus del Mere, 1379 (Poll Tax), W. Riding, Yorks, p. 210. 1675, married, John Delemare and Susanna Reffrey, St. Jas. Clerkenwell."

H. W. DICKINSON.

Lower interpreted the surname Delmar by de la mer. This, if used as a baptismal name, may have been taken from the surname, or have been bestowed on a child for some marine reason. When once given, it would have a good chance of being repeated in the next and succeeding generations.

ST. SWITHIN.

" Delmar, an abbreviation of De la Mare." Further :

" De-la-Mare, from La Mare, near Pont- Audemer, a castle built on piles in a lake. Norman de la Mara lived c. 1030. Hugo de la Mare (1070) occurs in a Breton Charter (Morice, ' Hist. Bret. Preuves,' i. 434) .For De la Mere, see De la Mare."

The above quotations are from ' The Norman People ' (author's name not given), published by. H. S. King & Co., 1874, and dedicated ford.' 5 HARRY HEMS.
 * ' to the memory of Percy, Viscount Strang-

Robert Ferguson, in his 'Teutonic Name- system, 1 1864, says there is a stem dal, tal, which Forstemann, in his ' Altdeutsohes Namenbuch,' refers to the Anglo-Saxon deal, illustrious, distinguished, eminent ; and he places it with other names compounded of Dal, Del, or Thai, and Mar, famous, like Dallimore, Dellamore, Delmar ; Modern German Thalmeier, Thalhammer (?) ; French Delamarre, Delemer, Delimier. Del mer.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

LADIES' HEAD-DRESSES IN THE THEATRE (10 th S. v. 389). MR. SCHLOESSER will find a delightful account of the " celebrated critica trunk-maker " in the 235th number of The Spectator, dated Thursday, 29 November 1711. He is introduced by Addisou as follows :

"It is observed that of late years there has been a certain Person in the upper Gallery of the Play house, who when he is pleased with any thing tha is acted upon the Stage, Expresses his Approbation

_y a loud knock upon the Benches or the Wainscot,, which may be heard over the whole Theatre. This*
 * erson is commonly known by the Name of the-

Trunk-maker in the upper Gallery'' 1

S. BUTTERWORTH.

For the "critical trunk-maker" see The Spectator, No. 385, by Addison.

CHARLES MASEFIELD.

"CAST NOT A CLOUT TILL MAY BE OUT"' V 10 th S. v. 388). The Scottish interpretation of this proverb assumes that it is the month,, and the whole month, that is in question. Unless with the aid of superior culture, we do not think of hawthorn blossom as "may,' r but simply call it " flourish." In his ' Popular .Rhymes of Scotland' Robert Chambers writes thus of the month and its fickle cha- racter :

'There is another ungracious rhyme about the- Favourite month of the poets :

Till May be out,

Change na a clout. That is, thin not your winter clothing till the end of May a good maxim, if we are to put faith in- the great father of modern medicine, Boerhaave, who, on being consulted as to the proper time for putting off flannel, is said to have answered, ' On. Midsummer night, and put it on again next morning.' ?3

THOMAS BAYNE.

Thirty years ago in West Yorkshire we had three of these "May" couplets, which were often associated. Amongst my own companions there was an idea (with what basis I know not) that the first was modern, but that the second and third were very old. At any rate, their association shows that the reference in the second was to May the month, and riot " may " the hawthorn bloom, which seldom appears in the West Riding before quite the end of May or early June. The couplets were :

Never change a thing

Till May comes in.

Never cast a clout

Till May goes out.

Those who bade* in May

Will soon be laid in clay. The idea was that at the beginning of May one might change some garment (overcoat or under-shirt in the case' of men) for a lighter one, but that none must be quite abandoned before the first day of June.

H. SNOWDEN WARD.

TRAVELLING IN ENGLAND, 1600-1700 (10 th S. v. 348, 414). From a 'History of the Post Office,' by Herbert Joyce, to which I would refer your correspondent for particulars, I gather that travellers in the seventeenth


 * Bade is " bathe."