Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. v. MAR. IB, 1912.

a lady allied to the great houses of Nevill, Fitzalan, and Howard, and his father had fought and fallen at Bosworth Field in the cause of Henry VII. In recognition of his father's services, Henry attached young Charles Brandon to the person of his younger son, Prince Henry, who was of similar age to himself."

In Arch. Cant., vol. xvi. p. 233, there is an account of Sir John Peel e, who took part in the royal jousts held at Westminster on 9, 11, and 13 November, 1494. On the third day

" John Peche's companion was Sir Robert Curson ; together they encountered Thomas Brandon and Matthew Baker. Upon the last-named combatant John Peche brake his spear. It is very evident that John Peche must have been an accomplished and skilful combatant, whose prowess caused him to stand in high favour at the Court of Henry VII."

As this was subsequent to the battle of Bosworth Field, this Thomas Brandon may have been a relative of Charles, Duke of Suffolk. There was a Robert Brandon, Sheriff of Norfolk, 7 Hen. VII.; and at 7 S. viii. 48 MR. PINK inquires as to a Sir Charles Brandon, M.P. for Westmoreland, 1 Ed. VI. R. J. FYNMORE.

TATTERSHALL : ELSHAM : GRANTHAM (US. iv. 269, 314, 455, 535; v. 57, 135). The dis- cussion of this subject is, in the case of some answers, very greatly to be deplored. The hardihood of many of the unsupported asser- tions is much to be lamented. No wonder that our German friends often look upon English " scholarship " with much contempt.

There is not the slightest evidence, in any known printed or written document, for the substitution of initial G for B. We can no more " derive " Grantham from " Great Brantham " than we can derive goat from great boat.

Surely those who discuss Anglo-Saxon names ought to learn the Anglo-Saxon alphabet. There never was a Northumbrian king named " Ella " ; the correct form is ^Elle, as in the ' A.-S. Chronicle.' The genitive was not "Ellas," but " ^Elles." His name has nothing to do with Ellastone (Staffs), which means " Shellac's town " see Duignan ' Place-Names of Staffordshire ? p. 56. Nor yet with Elstow (Beds), which means " ^Elfnoth's stow " ; see ' Place- Names of Beds,' p. 46. What is the use of these wild and disproved guesses ?

Witham cannot be derived from Withlaf tor the plain reason that there was no such A.-b. name as Withlaf. This ridiculous form is an ignorant Norman misspelling of Wiglaf which is the A.-S. spelling in ' the 'A.-S.' Chronicle ' ; see ' Two Saxon Chronicles,'

ed. Plummer, ii. 72. Even if there had been such a name as W T ithlaf, it could have only originated such a name as " Withlafes ham." I entirely repudiate the suggestion that I should admit the possibility of such a form as " Withlaf ham " ; neither would I for a moment consent to derive With&m from it.

I have by no means exhausted the list of the blunders ; but it is weary work. For which reason I decline to say more.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

FRENCH GRAMMARS BEFORE 1750 (11 S. v. 110). An early Anglo-French grammar, the second edition of which, printed in London, 1656, is preserved in the Bodleian, and the twelfth edition of 1686 in the Taylorian Library, is Claudius Manger's ' French Grammar, with French -Engl. Dia- logues,' followed by a ' Tyrocinium \i.e., Rudimenta] Linguas Gallicse,' i.e., a brief abstract of a French grammar in Latin. There is added to the twelfth edition, which I have before me, bearing an especial title- leaf, on pp. 373-4, a " Grammaire Angloise expliquee par regies gen 'rales. . . .par Claude Mauger, Londres, 1685 " (one year previous to the Anglo - French grammar, which is dated 1686). The whole volume comprises besides the preface of four pages, containing a dedication " a Monseigneur le comte de Salisbury," and an address to the courteous English reader 432 pages.

H. KREBS.

REGISTER TRANSCRIBERS OF 1602 (11 S. v. 130). J. H. R. has missed the whole point of the note which he quotes from the title- page of the Ilfracombe parish register. He says " George Milton sen. wrote," but the note quoted by him reads : " George Milton | Newe wrote the Register book &c. f in the yere of our Lord 1602." That is to say, he made the transcript on parchment. George Milton was a parishioner : the register records (with other entries of his family) the baptism of George, son of George Milton, " hujus libri scriptor."

Why was this transcript made in 1602, and why only from the year 1567 ? Parish registers were established by an Order in Council in September, 1538, by Thomas- Cromwell. It was found that some were kept on paper. In 1597 the Convocation of Canterbury ordered that parchment book* be used, and the whole of the registers tran- scribed or copied into them ; therefore the Ilfracombo incumbent delayed five years before carrying out this injunction. The 70th Canon of 1603 repeats this order, and