Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/239

 n s. iv. SEPT. 16, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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patron of Klopstock, whose ' Messias ' was dedicated to him. Frederick II. of Hesse Cassel, unfortunately distinguished as having sold his subjects to fight against the Ame- rican colonists in the War of Independence, was the correspondent of Voltaire, whom he visited at Ferney. In early life he was for several years under the tuition of J. P. de Crousaz, a professor at Lausanne whose attack on Pope's ' Essay on Man ' incited Warburton to vindicate the poet's orthodoxy, and was thus the occasion of the latter' s becoming Pope's official interpreter. Mark Pattison in his introduction to the ' Essay ' makes a curious slip in describing De Crousaz as "in the service of the Elector of Hesse Cassel." Frederick II. was Land- graf. His son, William IX., became the first Elector in 1803, under the title of William I. EDWARD BENSLY.

Bad Wilduuejen.

" CYTEL " IN ANGLO-SAXON NAMES (11 S. iv. 187). The answer as to the sense of Wolf -kettle and Thor-kettle (not Thor's kettle) is simple and direct : they had no particular significance at any time. The leading principle concerning these names is that they usually (but by no means always) consist of two elements artificially hitched together. Thus Wulf-gar (modern E. Wool- gar) meant " wolf-spear." In this case the two constituents, " wolf " and " spear," are significant ; but the casual compound has no special reference to anything what- ever. Till this principle is understood, all is confusion.

It follows that there is a large number of names beginning with " wolf," few of which make sense. Take, for example, Wulf-stan, " wolf -stone," modern E. Wool- ston ; whether " wolf-stone " makes sense or not is of no consequence.

There is nothing really remarkable about this. If, for example, a boy were now to be baptized John Mark, such a boy might be regarded, from an old Teutonic point of view, as having the name Johnmark. And a little reflection will show that some such view was necessary, because a large number of names was required, especially in ages when surnames were not in vogue. By combining two elements casually the number of available names was enormously increased, owing to the variety of combinations that could thus be produced.

The best book on Christian names is that by Miss Yonge ; but it is rapidly becoming obsolete for modern requirements, owing to the large number of errors which it contains.

Many of these were due to her ignorance of Teutonic philology ; and not a few were due to her wholly mistaken attempts to manipu- late Teutonic names so as to extract definite sense out of their casual forms.

WALTER W. SKEAT,

Ulfcytel and Thurcytel are also written Ulfchil and Thurchil. Cytel means, as MR. HILL states, kettle, or, as I should prefer, place of the sacred cauldron where the heathen Danes performed their rites. But Thurchil was a very common Saxon Domes- day name. A Turchil was son of Ailwyn, Vice-comes of Warwick, from whom de- scend the Ardens of Warwickshire and Shakespeare, according to Dugdale.

Churchill is probably Anglo-Saxon, and not derived from De Courcelles, as has been suggested. Chil might also mean " child " or " son of." My own surname Raven- shaw was originally Ravenshall and Raven- chell, from the Ravenchil in Domesday Book (Cheshire). The Saxon after the Conquest would pronounce the ch as sh, We say " cat," the Frenchman chat exactly the same word. Hrofenchetel, a Domesday place in Cheshire, is the modern Henshaw, hrofen being firafen, or Saxon for raven. There must be many more instances. J. RAVENSHAW.

Oxford and Cambridge Club.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND WITH RIMINO VERSES (11 S. iv. 168). The learning of these "Kings" was an early duty of mine, I have a reprint of them before me now, brought down to the reign of good Queen Victoria ; but to the best of my belief the original rimester lost breath with George IV.. MR. CAMPBELL LOCKE'S memory is not quite accurate as regards the verses, neither is my own, but I think we are referring to the same work. William I. begins : William the Conqueror first we will view, Who at Hastings the army of Harold o'erthrew ; His laws were all made in the Norman tongue, And at eight every evening the Curfew was rung.

The reprint emanated from Nottingham (Dunn & Fry, South Parade, 1874), and the supplementary poet was identified with that place, since it appears, under William IV., The Cholera raged, the Reform Bill was passed, Our Castle was stormed, and burnt at the last.

ST. SWITHIN.

All the lines quoted by the REV. CAMP- BELL LOCK are contained in a series of 36 eight-line verses, of which I have a copy, taken from ' True Stories from English History, by a Mother,' 4th ed., with 3$