Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/524

 518

NOTES AND Q UERIES. [11 s. iv. DEC. 23, ion.

He followed Stephen, whose reign, full of strife,

Caused a fearful waste of human life.

Henry the First, by learning skilled,

Who reigned when his brother by chance was

killed ;

William called Rufus, which signifies Red : A prince of bad morals and manners, 'tis said. The throne by his quickness in travelling he won From his brother Robert, the eldest son Of William the Conqueror, stern and bold, Who ordered the Curfew bell to be tolled, And caused the Domesday Book to be made, And the Xorman feudal laws obeyed. He won the great battle on Hastings plain, Where Harold the King by an arrow was slain, While his men with Normans in combat mixed, In the year ten hundred and sixty-six. Son of 'Earl Godwin, and successor To good King Edward the Confessor. He followed three Danes on the throne that sate : The first, Canute, who was called the Great ; Then two of his sons to him succeed : Harold called Harefoot because of highspeed ; The last of the race was Hardicanute, Whose grossness with royalty little did suit. The Danish power had stronger grown, And the Saxons had often been overthrown Since the days of great Alfred, brave and wise, \Yho like a bright star in the dark did rise. He laboured incessantly to assuage The fury and vice of a barbarous age. He quelled the Danes, who, on every hand, Scattered fire and sword throughout the land. He was grandson of Egbert, whom we call The first King of England. He ruled over all The seven kingdoms the Saxons framed, And,* from their number, the Heptarchy named : Kent, East Anglia, Sussex, Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia, and Essex. While the natives, who long for their country had

striven,

At length to the mountains of Wales were driven J3y Jutes and Angles from Germany's shore, Who came at King Vortigern's summons o'er, And drove Picts and Scots beyond the Tweed, Who invaded the Britons, who help did need, Feeling of power and help bereft When by the foreign legions left, Through Goths and \ r andals, tribes of the North, From forests and mountains sallying forth, Subduing the Romans, once so bold, Most famous of all the nations old, Who conquered the Britons, a barbarous race, Chiefly employed in war and the chase, Who dwelt in our native England.

The last lines, I believe, are supposed to be repeated over and over again, after the manner of " This is the house that Jack built," but I am afraid that, even in this truncated and sectional form, the poem is rather long for the pages of ' N. & Q.'

J. FOSTER PALMER.

8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

URBAX V.'s FAMILY NAME (11 S. iv. 204, 256, 316, 456, 499). It was not on the mere " likeness of the names " that I based my suggestion, but, as I stated, three or four ancient reputable writers actually name the Pope as Gulielmo Grimaldi, and now

it seems that Boccardo's ' Enciclopedia Italiana' writes of him as Grimoaldo and Grimaud, both forms of Grimaldi.

The Latin ' Life ' to which I referred says ' " Quibus libentissime adnumerarim Angelicum Grimaldi creatum Cardinalem ab avo suo Urban V. antea Gulielmo Grimaldi."

If Grimaud, Grimoard, and Grimoaldo are the same name, it comes practically to saying that the Grimoards were Grimaldis, for the two latter are undoubted variations of Grimaldi. The Grimoards being an old Provencal family would exactly agree with their being originally Grimaldis ; for, as I noticed before, the Grimaldi were settled in Provence, A.D. 973, and gave their name to some places there. This seems to have been somewhat of a habit with them ; for a castle and town of Grimaldo, near Salamanca, is mentioned ; and I remember, some years ago, climbing up to the village Grimaldi, the Italian side of the Pont St. Louis, beyond Mentone. There is also a Grimaldi in Calabria. L. M. R.

NORTH DEVON WORDS c. 1600 (US. iv. 449). The mention of " tea " in the Hols- worthy register of 1598 is very surprising. If authentic, it is the first appearance of the word in the English language. This is so unlikely that one must suppose the MS. has been incorrectly read, and suspect the correctness of some of the other words found in it. G. C. MOORE SMITH.

[DiEGO also questions meaning of " tea " in 1598.]

DONNY FAMILY (11 S. iv. 467). Apart from the genealogical question, it may be of interest to recall that the name was used by Dickens, who gave it to Miss Donny and her sister at Greenleaf, in the third chapter of ' Bleak House.' Dickens' s practice of noting down unusual names is well illustrated by the long lists from his ' Memoranda ' printed in Forster's ' Life,' vol. hi. chap. xii.

EDWARD BENSLY,

LOWTHER AND COWPER FAMILIES (11 S,

iv. 388, 457). It is correct that Chris- topher Lowther married Anne, daughter of Sir John Cowper, and at the time of her marriage she was probably the only daughter as her sister Elizabeth died young. She had, however, two brothers William and Thomas and, by her father's second mar- riage, a sister Elizabeth, who was surviving in 1759. Sir John Cowper was a grandson, and Lord Chancellor Cowper a great-grand- son, of Sir vv'illiam Cowper, Bart., of Non- ington, Kent, and Hertford ; hence the