Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/14

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XIL JULY 3, 1915.

examined Hardy, German, and Hampden on 9 Jan., 1583/4, and committed Hardy to ward, and the next day wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham to ask what they were to do with him (Catholic Record Society, vol. v.
 * pp. 47-50).

Nine years afterwards " John Hardie, of Farnham, gent.," is mentioned among the recusants in Surrey remaining at liberty Cal. Cecil MSS.,' vol. iv. p. 272). Any further particulars about John Hardy would be welcome.

Stephen Hardye, who entered Winchester 'College in 1553 from Farnham, aged 13, and was deprived of his New College Fellowship .in 1563 for non-residence, was probably a brother. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" Two BAZES OF GINGER." In ' King
 * Henry IV.,' Part I., the second Carrier says :

"I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of ginger to be delivered as far as Charing Cross." The glossary of the Handy- Volume edition gives " Raze, race, of ginger, a root of ginger." This does not seem satisfactory ; a couple of ounces of ginger would be but a
 * small parcel to send by carrier along with

a gammon of bacon. I turn to Prof. Skeat's ' Dictionary,' and find the glossary justified ;


 * N.E.D. ' also refers " raze " to " race," a
 * root, of ginger.

The similarity of the two words has, I believe, misled these two authorities. The -clue to the meaning of " raze " will be found on the ' N.E.D.' under " raziere," referred to " raser, a dry measure containing about four bushels." I follow the clue in Littre, where I find " rasiere " to have been a measure of a little more than a bushel, so called from being struck, mesure rase (cf. ^ race-measure," ' E.D.D.'). But Mistral's <4 Tresor ' brings me nearer still, for the

ras " is a southern measure sometimes used for corn, but especially for walnuts and almonds : dous cent ras * d'amelo, two hundred razes (bushels) of almonds.

It seems probable then that the raze of ginger was a frail or rush basket, such as has been used from 1216 (' N. & Q.', 9 S. vii. 33) to the present day for dried fruits, and holding about a bushel, thirty-two to seventy - five pounds (' N.E.D.'). From being imported in such a package, the term

race-ginger" ('E.D.D.') would have been used to distinguish root-ginger from the ground spice, much more probably than irom the ginger having been scraped

(' E.D.D.'), or from its being the root, raiz of the plant. " Raze " and " rase " seem, then to be ambiguous terms, denoting, the former an original package of ginger, the latter a piece of ginger from such a package.

EDWARD NICHOLSON. Les Cycas, Cannes.

W. H. DUIGNAN BIBLIOGRAPHY : AD- DENDUM. (See US. xi. 373, 461.) Since the compilation of the above bibliography the following have been found :

1881. The Ethics of John Buskin. Walsall Observer,

17 Sept.

1887. On the Social and Political Teaching of John

Buskin. Walsall Observer, 19 March.

1897.

Place-Names. Moorlands News, 16 Sept. Place-Naraes. Leek and Moorlands News, 6 Oct. Place-Names. Staffordshire Advertiser, 5 Nov.

The following is undated and was privately printed : Walsall Postal Arrangements in 1795.

Now that the above additions are being made, perhaps it is advisable for the benefit of future writers to state that many manu- script notebooks, &c., by, and valuable letters written to, the late Mr. W. H. Duignan (by the late Prof. W. W. Skeat and other scholars), are now in the posses- sion of his son, Carl Duignan.

A. S. WHITFIELD.

High Street, Walsall.

"To GO WEST." Attention has been drawn to the use of this euphemism ( = " to die ") in the letters of soldiers at the front. The following appears to be an Elizabethan parallel : ' Looke about You ' (1600),Malone Society's reprint, 11. 51-3 : Skinke. Is there no tricke in this ? Ha, let ma

see?

Or doe they know already I am he ? If they doe so, faith, westward then with Skinke.

Which seems to mean " it is [all up with Skinke. ' G. C. MOORE SMITH.

Sheffield.

AN INGENIOUS EPITAPH. The following epitaph may be of some interest to readers of ' N. & Q.' It seems to be rather a literary exercise than a real epitaph. I copy it from MS. on the fly-leaf of an octavo entitled :

" The Family-Dictionary ; or, Houshold Com- panion (2nd edition), by William Salmon, Pro- fessor of Physick. London, Printed forH. Rhodes, at the Star, the Corner of Bride-Lane in Fleet- street ; and sold by B. Clavel at the Peacock against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, 1696."