Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 is. xn. JULY 31, 1915.

FAWCETT, RECOBDEB OF NEWCASTLE ( 1 1 S. xi. 380, 421). If Christopher Fawcett, Recorder of Newcastle, was born in 1713, and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1729, he could hardly have been in the same form at Westminster with William Murray, who was born 2 March, 1704/5. Lord Campbell's story would seem inaccurate, and I should be glad to learn how Murray became acquainted with Fawcett and Vernon. G. F. R. B.

HASSOCKS (11 S. xii. 29). The meaning of the place-name " Hassocks Gate " would be pretty plain if it occurred in the North Country. It would signify the " gate " or road through rough moorland or bosrland grass. Skeat explained that the original meaning of " hassock " was coarse grass, and quoted Kersey's ' Dictionary ' for 'the secondary meaning, " Hassock, a straw cushion us'd to kneel upon," so called because it was commonly made of coarse grass. Ha also quotes from a fifteenth-century writer the phrase " segges, soddes, and hassokes."

In South- West Scotland the word signifies rough, sedgy land, and has been preserved in the following tradition of Robert the Bruce. From the eastern shore of lovely Loch Dee (in Galloway) rises a hill still called Craigen- callie, the Old Woman's Crag. Here, in a solitary cabin, dwelt a widow, the mother of three sons, each by a different husband, and named Murdoch, Mackie, and MacLurg. It was on this hill that King Robert had given rendezvous to his scattered following, and hither he came after his foster-brother was killed. He asked the old widow for food, whereof he stood in sore need. She bade him come in, because all wayfarers were welcome for the sake of one.

" And pray who may that one be ? " asked the King. " I '11 tell ye that," quoth the coed wife : " it is none other than King Robert the Bruce, rightful lord of this land. He is hard pressed just now, but he '11 come to his ain in his ain day."

The King then made himself known, and sat down to a good meal. While he was dis- cussing the homely fare, the three sons returned. Their mother made them do obeisance straightway ; but before the King accepted their service he said he must test their marksmanship. The eldest, Murdoch, let fly at two ravens perched on a crak,, and transfixed them both with one arrow. Mackie then shot a raven flying overhead, but MacLurg missed his mark altogether.

After the King had come to his own, he sent for the widow and asked her what re-

ward she would take for her timely succour. " Just give me," she said, " the wee bit hassock o' land at ween Palnure and Pen kiln " (two small rivers flowing into Wigtown Bay). Her request was granted. The " bit hassock," being about five miles long and as many broad, was divided between her three sons, who became progenitors of the families of Mackie of Larg, Murdoch of Cumloden, and MacLurg of Kirrouchtrie. These lands have now passed into the pos- session of men of other names ; but Mur- doch's feat is commemorated in the arms borne by that family, and duly enrolled in the I. yon Register, viz., Argent, two ravens hanging pale -wise, sable, with an arrow through both their heads fesse-wise, proper. Monreith. HEBBEBT MAXWELL.

A hassock (of uncertain etymology) is (1) a firm tuft or clump of matted vegetation, formerly trimmed, and used to kneel upon in church ; hence (2) a cushion or bass, often stuffed with rushes or straw, used in church. In combination as " hassock-gra3s," &c. Also " the soft calcareous sandstone which separates the beds of ragstone in Kent."

" Gate " -formerly meant not only what we now understand by the word, but a road, path, or street, as still in names of streets in unwalled as well as in walled towns. I should be inclined to suppose that Hassocks Gate meant the road through uncultivated land known as " the hassocks." " Gate " for street is, however, a Northern and Mid- land rather than a Southern term, and the reference has probably been to a gate in the modern sense, leading into and out of a hassocky common. See ' N.E.D.' under " Hassocks " and " Gate." J. T. F.

Winterton, Lines.

"Hassocks (Sussex). O.E. hassuc, 'a clump of matted vegetation,' then 'a clump of bushes or low trees.' Cf. (K.C.D., 655) 986 chart. 'On one hassuc [upp an hrofan hricge.' " Johnston's ' Place-Names of England and Wales,' 1915, p. 294.

Walsall ^* ^' GBUNDY-NEWMAN.

FIANCE" (US. xii. 49). "Betrothed " and "affianced" are both valid synonyms, and it would be well for those who do not like "fiance" to employ them as substitutes. The bast way of putting a word out of use is not to use it.

I have wondered why we have communiques from the front just now. Imagine ' The Com- muniques of the Duke of Wellington ' ! The word does not appear in the French dic- tionary (1904) which I have at hand.

ST. SWITHIN.