Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/541

 ii s. v. JUNE s, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

445

north-west. Several manors are doubtfully identified, and some not at all ; but the resulting 2,528 hides is probably not far from the mark.

The relation of this result to the ' Tribal Hidage ' can, of course, be no more than speculative ; but it may be suggested, in continuation of former articles, that the 500 hides east of Chenvell were once asso- ciated with 700 adjacent hides in Bucking- hamshire (the Ashendon and Cottesloe groups), end originated with the 1,200 hides of the Herefinna. The name Finmere (Finemere) may indicate the boundary of this district. The 600 hides on the west, along the Thames and Cherwell. to the north of the Wantage district, mav similarly have originated in one of the tribal areas of 600 hides immediately following Unecungga ; and the adjacent 300 hides of Chadlington then suggest Faerpinga, J. BROWNBIIX.

" SLEEVELESS ERRAND." A good many explanations have been suggested for this curious expression, but none of them seems to have much bearing on " errand." Prof. Skeat suggests that sleeveless means simply " imperfect," hence " poor," and quotes it coupled with " words," " rimes," " reason,"' " excuse." Its later limitation to the word " errand " would seem to indi- cate either an original connexion with that word or the absorption of some special idea which brought it into such connexion. A sleeveless errand is explained by Nares as a ' fruitless, unprofitable message." I would suggest that the reference is to a ren-ard, especially that given to a messenger, in the shape of a pair of sleeves. It is well known that the sleeve, as a symbol, was interchangeable with the glove. Thus, in the same play in which Shakespeare uses sleeveless errand, we find :

Tr. And I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve.

Cr. And you this glove.

' Troilus and Cressida,' IV. iv. In Spanish the emblem used for a gratuity is guantes, gloves, and para guantes corre- sponds to the French pourboire and German Trinkgeld. Lud wig's ' German Dictionary ' (1716) has the example.

"Ich gab seinem Dieuer. der mir die gute Zeit- ung brachte, etwas zum Trinckgeld,' to his man, that brought me the good tidings, I gave something for a pair of gloves,"

which shows the similar use of " gloves " in English as a reward for the messenger. A common French word for a tip or gratuity was manche, lit. sleeve. I have recently

come across an example in some verses by

Dassoucy :

Mais voyant qu'en ces lieux le Dieu des chanson-

nettes,

Apollon maigre et sec, y mange son pain bis, Qu'ila quitte" son luth pour prendre des cliquettes... Qu'il demande la manche ainsi que les trompettes...

i.e., that he asks for a tip, or sends round the hat, as do trumpeters. The phrase occurs a century earlier, in Du Bellay. This French manche is an adaptation of Italian mancia, explained by Florio as " a drinking pennie, a newyeares gift, handsell." Mancia is derived by Diez from Latin *manicia, gloves, given as a present. In mediaeval Latin manica is used both for glove and sleeve. I do not see any great difficulty in supposing that sleeveless errand,, i.e., fool's errand, for which the messenger receives derision or ill-treatment in place of the regular reward, is connected with this. French manche or Italian mancia, but I should like to be able to strengthen my hypothesis by an instance of a pair of sleeves " used for a " pair of gloves " in the sense of gratuity. ERNEST WEEKXEY.

' VIVIAN GREY ' AND BULWER'S FIRST MEETING WITH ROSINA WHEELER. (See ante, p. 347.) 'The Dunciad of To-day' com- menced in The Star Chamber for 10 May, 1826, and since the publication of ' Vivian Grey ' is shown by an earlier number of that periodical to have occurred in April, it follows that the novel was published first. The date of its publication helps us to decide another date of some literary interest, viz., in what month it was that Bulwer first met Miss Wheeler a meeting which has been assigned to three different dates, all of them erroneous.

In his ' Autobiography ' Bulwer says he went abroad for the first time in the autumn of 1825 ; and, though he did not continue the ' Autobiography ' down to his return, his letters show that this was in April, 1826.

Lady Lytton states, in her ' Auto- biography,' that she first met Bulwer at Miss Benger's, when he had just returned from Paris ; and, though she says in one place that it was in December, 1825, and implies in another that it was in October, both dates are obviously wrong, Bulwer being still in France. She enables us, however, to correct her errors by relating that, immediately before she went to Miss Benger's, she had been reading aloud to her uncle the new novel, ' Vivian Grey,' which had just appeared, and which all the world was wild about. As the publication