Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/136

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL FEB. 9, 1907.

been able to discover no rolls of Beighton save the few preserved in the Record Office.

WM. ROMAINE NEWBOLD. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

LATIN PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLAND. As to the head masters at their late Con- ference very wisely determined to adopt the continental pronunciation of Latin in English schools, the question is being dis- cussed whether Latin was ever in England pronounced in the continental way. Rash- dall (in hia ' Universities in the Middle Ages,' vol. ii. p. 594) states authoritatively that in the fifteenth century Englishmen then pronounced Latin in the continental way ; Dr. Caius is cited as an authority for the statement that the melancholy change took place in his time. It is incredible, indeed, that Erasmus should have found himself able to converse with such facility with the University authorities in England, had he not found that they spoke Latin in the same way as himself. Coryat in his ' Crudities,' written at the end of the six- teenth century, laments the fact that he found himself unable to make himself under- stood when he spoke Latin in Italy, and sets forth explicitly the differences in the pro- nunciation of the two nations. This was at the beginning of the seventeenth century But Erasmus about 1500 talks freely witl More, Grocyn, Linacre, and Colet, and ii seems certain that Latin was the means o communication between them. Indeed Erasmus finds himself obliged to apologize to one of his Dutch correspondents for writ ing in Latin, alleging as an excuse hi imperfect acquaintance with his own Ian guage. Milton taught Elwood the Quaker t( pronounce Latin with the Italian pronuncia tion, saying that it was most important t learn this pronunciation in order to be abl to converse with foreigners.

HERBERT A. STRONG. University, Liverpool.

[Much on the subject has already appeared i ' X. \ *}.' Siv 7 S. xi. 484; xii. 36, 149, 209, 295 S S. vi. 14, 253, 489 ; 9 S. vii. 351, 449.]

" HAZE." It is remarkable that th origin of haze, a mist, and of the adjectiv hazy, is wholly unknown. Dr. Murray show that the adjective actually occurs in Englis earlier than the substantive. His earlies quotation is dated 1625, the sentence being " The weather beeing thicke and hawse* the winde high."

I have only just observed a remarkabl passage in the Bremen ' Worterbuch ' of 1767, which seems to show that we certainly

orrowed the word from Low German ; erhaps it was picked up by our sailors in a ^erman port. In vol. ii. p. 601 of that emarkable work, we read that the word Hase means, in the first place, a hare ; and econdly, a stocking, like our English hose. lut there is a third sense, used only in the hrase " de Hase brouet," i.e., the " Hase ' rews. I translate the whole sentence, as j is material :

"De Hase brouet, we say, when in summer, at ventide, a thick cloud suddenly spreads itself over he earth, that does not rise high above the earth, out looks, at a distance, like water A similar hick white cloud is also called Haze in English.

This is surely a statement which requires examination. It is repeated, in similar terms, under the verb kronen, to brew, vol. i. p. 145. We there find :

"De Hasebroiief is said of a certain cloud, that uddenly rises thickly on the surface of the earth. What I desire to know is whether the phrase s still current in Low German ; and if so, whether Hase means " a hare," or " a stock- ng," or anything else ; and how does a Hase brew ? WALTER W. SKEAT.

through Mr. A. C. Lomax, printer, of Lich- field, I published the ' Bibliotheca Stafford- iensis ' in two sizes, viz., royal 4to and imperial 8vo. Since then, as opportunity has permitted, I have been collecting addi- tional matter, which it is proposed to issue in a supplementary volume, so as to complete to date.
 * BIBLIOTHECA STAFFORDIENSIS.' In 1894,

Remembering with pleasure and thankful- ness the assistance yourself and your corre- spondents gave whilst I was compiling the said work, I appeal once again that I may be permitted to avail myself of the pages of 'X. & Q.' to make some inquiries, and to bespeak the help (which has hitherto been so cheerfully given) of your numerous con- tributors ; and I feel confident that I shall not appeal in vain.

May I be permitted to state that copies of the ' Bibliotheca ' are in many libraries, and to beg that any one doing me the honour to reply will first look over the volume, so as to see its general scope ?

Having made the above remarks, I will now outline my wants.

1. Any information relative to any person born, sometime resident in, or taking title from any portion of Staffordshire.

2. Bibliographical particulars relative to- any publication (no matter on what subject) made by such persons, additional to what is already in the book.