Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/364

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s, iv. OCT. 28, mi.

In France " Puvis " is met with, as in Puvis de Chavannes the painter, and is supposed to be derived, or vice versa, from Purvis.

In the Chino-Japanese War the Chinese cruiser Chi-yuen had as engineer an English- man named Purvis. The crippled Chi- yuen made a valiant attempt to ram the Yoshino, but sank in the attempt, Purvis going down with his ship.

WILLIAM BRADBROOK.

Bletchley.

Lower wrote in his ' Patronymica Bri- tannic a ' :

" According to the account given in B. L. G. [Burke's ' Landed Gentry '], the Purvises of Darsham, co. Suffolk, originated from the family of Purvis ' of that Ilk ' in Scotland. ' That Ilk,' however, does not seem to be identified, although the name Purveys or Perves is found in ancient records of the Lowland counties. I think the name is more likely to be derived from the A. Norm, pervis or parvise, which Kelham defines as ' the outer court or palace or great house.' . . . .Such was the place in Palace-yard, near Westminster Hall, mentioned by Fortescue, ' De Laud. Leg. Ang.,' c. 51 ; and Dugdale also takes notice of the Pervyse of Paioles."

" Parvise " is now the current name for a room over a church porch, sometimes for the porch itself, and for a monastic enclosure such as that in the embrace of cloisters.

ST. SWITHIN.

" WALM " AS A STREET - NAME (11 S. iv. 290). In several twelfth-century charters the name of the street in York now known as Walmgate appears as " Walbegate " and " Walmagate." These variants may assist in the derivation of " Walm," which seems to be a personal name. W. FARRER.

The compiler of ' Eboracum,' published in York in 1788, propounds a Roman origin for this name. Certainly colour is given to the suggestion by reference to a plan of the city, which shows Walmgate to be the only straight street of any length within the boundary of the city walls. The author says : -

" Walmgate is a long broad street, extending from Foss-bridge to the bar. It has borne that name above five hundred years, as appears by a grant of some houses in it to the nunnery at Clementhorp, in the time of Walter Gray, arch- bishop ; but this name is thought to be a corrup- tion from Watlingate, where the Roman road begun from York to Lincoln, and to some of the eastern seaports. The street out of the bar was anciently called so."

Walter Gray was the thirty-third Arch- bishop, occupying the see from 1217 to 1256.

WM. NORMAN.

The fact of " walm " being denned as " a bubble in boiling " suggests that some spring existed at, or near, Walm Lane, Cricklewood, to which E. A. L. presumably refers : hence its title. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club. [MR. T. SHEPHERD also thanked for reply.]

OMAR KHAYYAM BIBLIOGRAPHY (11 S. iv, 328). I find that I omitted from my list the names of Axon, Cowell, Guiterman, Palmer, Scott, Siller, and Topakyan, each of whom translated into English some por- tion of the ' Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.'

A. G. POTTER.

126, Adelaide Road, Hampstead, N.W T.

'DIVES AND PAUPER' (11 S. iv. 321). Into my note a few errors have crept. On p. 321, col. 2, 11. 11-9 from foot, the inscrip- tion in MS. Reg. 17c. XXI. should read " Henricus Parker Monachus qui claruit Anno D. 1470...."; on p. 322, col. 1,, 1. 24, for " sorwye " read " sorwe " ; and on p. 323, col. 1,1. 13 from foot, for " mye " read " nye." Three or four other minute corrections would be required to represent faithfully the originals quoted, but these may rest. H. G. RICHARDSON.

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Specimens of Bushman Folk-lore. Collected by the late W. H. I. Bleek, Ph.D., and L. C. Lloyd, and edited by the latter. (George Allen & Co.)

THE names of the enthusiastic workers who amassed this valuable collection are a sufficient guarantee that the utmost patience and care were given to the undertaking. The 468 pages of the volume contain mythology, legends, songs, and narratives, accompanied by an English transla- tion, which renders the original idiom as closely as possible.

A perusal of the book leaves the reader in saddened sympathy with the race of pygmies, who formerly held their own among the fiercest and the most gigantic animals of South Africa. Till the successive appearance of the Hottentot, the pitiless Bantu, and the still more deadly white man, the little yellow dwarfs, armed with poisoned arrows, found life a good thing in the land of lions, leopards, and huge pachyderms. Progressive races are apt to be ill at ease in their environment, since they are continually modifying the world around them, with the result that they never become fully adapted to it. During the period, of quite unknown length, when the Bushman had his country to himself, he seems to have grown admirably fitted to surroundings which it was beyond his power to alter to any great degree. Stress of circumstances moulded him until he was mentally and physically adjusted to the position