Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/545

 10 s. vm. DEC. 7, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

451

In his written confessions there is no men- tion of this. On the contrary, he says : " After I had committed the murder I undressed and went to bed as usual."

I may say by the way that there was a story current shortly after the trial that a certain nobleman was passing Lord William Russell's house, 14, Norfolk Street, between two and three on the night of the murder, and that he saw a naked man pass one of the windows of the house, but that he was afraid to come forward and give evidence, as he might be asked what he was doing in Norfolk Street at that time of night, the fact being that he had been at the house of a married lady in the neighbourhood, which he was desirous of concealing. I have been told the name of this nobleman, but I have quite forgotten it ; and even if I remembered it, I should not of course publish it. After every sensational case a number of foolish stories get noised abroad, and a number of foolish people believe them.

HARBY B. POLAND.

I do not think there is ground for the supposition that Courvoisier, who murdered his master, Lord "William Russell, in May, 1840, had been previously tried for robbery on Hounslow Heath. After his condemna- tion he wrote " some account of the short duration of his life, which is to terminate on the 6th day of July, 1840 "; but this contains nothing that implies any other crime than that for which he was hanged. It will be found in ' The Chronicles of Crime,' by Camden Felham, 1841. This published account followed so soon after the occurrence that, had there been cause to suppose the culprit was connected with other offences, such would hardly remain unnoticed. Besides, I question if any authenticated instance of highway robbery in the neigh- bourhood of Hounslow Heath can be shown to have taken place for many years before 1840. W. B. H.

REINDEER : ITS SPELLING (10 S. viii. 170, 258, 358, 416). Modern English spelling is a survival, in the main, of Middle English spelling, with some modifications. Middle English spelling was based upon the pro- nunciations current in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The rimes used by Chaucer prove that, in the fourteenth century at any rate, the symbols ai and ei were indifferently used to signify the same sound. It follows, from this point of view, that either symbol could once be used. But this

is not quite all ; for ai was often written ay, and ei was often written ey. Hence there were actually four admissible spellings in the former syllable, viz., with ai, ay, ei, or ey. In modern times it is usual to reserve ay and ey for final sounds, and to use ai and ei elsewhere. Examples are to be seen in pray, prey, rain, rein, the sound being always the same.

It follows that we should expect to find ei, in modern ones. The ' N.E.D.' records the facts accordingly. The ' Morte Arthur ' has raynedere (soon after 1400) ; Lydgate has reyndere (about 1430). Again, Steele has raindeer (1712), and Goldsmith reindeer (1774). But this is not all ; for the same sound could be written with a and final e ; hence ranedeer is said to occur between 1600 and 1700, though no example is given. Less satisfactory spellings are reendeer, noted as occurring between 1700 and 1800 ; and rhendeer (1759).
 * 1) 2/ cy, in this word in old examples, and ai,

Hence both raindeer and reindeer are legitimate modern spellings, just as we have both gray and grey.

If any further distinction is to be made, it can only be done by considering the ety- mology. From this point of view, the right form is reindeer (as in the ' N.E.D.'), because rein is due to the Norse hreinn ; besides which, ei is the universal Norse symbol for the sound, and ai does not occur in Norse at all.

The Norse ei answers to the A.-S. d ; and the A.-S. form was therefore hrdn. And this is actually the form used by King Alfred in the well-known passage cited in the ' N.E.D.'

The A.-S. a passed into the sound of long o, giving the Mid.E. ron or roon ; so that a modern English roandeer or ronedeer might have come down to us, had the native word survived. Of this form I know of only one instance, duly noted by Stratmann. It occurs in the ' Old English Miscellany,' ed. R. Morris, E.E.T.S., p. 92, 1. 71 : " Ne the ronke racches that ruskit the ron," i.e., nor the strong hounds that chased the reindeer. The o in ron is long, because the riming word is bon, with the sense of " bone."

WALTER W. SKEAT.

LANDOR AND MENAGE (10 S. viii. 407). Since there is no reference to Giles Menage in Forster's edition of Landor's ' Works ' (8 vols., 1876), it may be worth mentioning that Landor has alluded to the French scholar elsewhere than in his ' Queestio.' In