Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/566

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [us. V.JUNE is, 1912.

slant means standeth, ret means readeth, rit means rideth, hit means hideth, and so on. Hir paleys stani, &c.

' Hous of Fame,' 713. And forth he rit.

' Knightes Tale,' A 974. Thus rit this duk, thus rit this conquerour.

Id., A 981.

The chief authority on this point is Sweet's ' Anglo-Saxon Primer,' p. 24, where we find : " The full ending of the third person singular present indicative is -eth, which is generally contracted," &c. Numerous examples are given.

The point is that the critic, in attempting to interpret B. I.'s lines after a fashion entirely his own, has read into them a new and wholly impossible sense, which he would do well to " hide " in the future.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE PLACE-NAME ELVET. What is the origin of the word Elvet, the name of a district beyond the limits of the old city of Durham, the other side of the river Wear ? People in Durham speak of Elvet (the borough), and of Old Elvet and New Elvet, two streets adjoining at nearly a right angle. Old inhabitants also often speak of St. Oswald's Church as Elvet Church ; and the bridge leading to the angle formed by the two streets is known as Elvet Bridge. What does this strange word Elvet mean ? A few weeks ago I wrote a letter of inquiry to my old friend the Dean of Durham, who is known to take such a deep interest in the antiquities of the famous old city, and re- ceived a very prompt and kind reply. He tells me that the origin of the word is a frequent subject of discussion among local antiquaries, but that it still remains an unsolved problem. But the letter gave me the useful information that the district was sometimes called the Manor of Elvet, and that it was a Church heritage, belonging to the great Benedictine house in Durham. It might be fittingly described as a monastic allodium, that is, an estate or farm belonging to a monastery.

I also wrote on the subject to the well- known scholar Dr. J. T. Fowler, and re- ceived in reply two letters full of interesting information, and containing a great number of early instances of the occurrence of the word Elvet in charters and other documents dating from the eleventh century to the reign of Henry VIII. Canon Fowler has referred me to a charter printed in Green- well's ' Feodarium ' (Surtees Society) which may be dated early in the twelfth century.

This charter is of the nature of a confirma- tion, by the Pope, King, Archbishop, and barons, of the possessions of the monastery, and Elvet (written JEluet] is mentioned in one of several groups of places (see ' Feo- darium,' xli.). In later documents the name occurs as Elvet (or Elvett).

So then we have documentary evidence that the word we are discussing was written and pronounced Mluet as early as the beginning of the twelfth century. This form points to a Norman-French word aluet. In an Old French twelfth-century transla- tion of the ' Dialogues of Pope Gregory ' the word aluet occurs frequently in the sense of prcedium, estate, farm, especially land belonging to a religious house (ed. Foerster, 1876, pp. 87, 88, 133, 187). This French aluet (also aloet) is of Germanic origin, being identical with Germanic alod (prcedium), whence the Latinized feudal term allodium (see Ducange). In the same French text the Old English word flod occurs in the form fluet, showing an analogous change of 6d into uet. For the pronunciation vet in Elvet (with v as a spirant), compare the modern word velvet with Anglo-French veluet, velwet.

The Elvet of Durham was therefore so called because it was once a prcedium, or piece of land belonging to the Benedictine monastery. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

THE ' POEM ' BY JOHN KAY. It is stated in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' under the head ' Caius or Kay, John,' that the person named wrote an English poem relating the history of the siege of Rhodes in 1480, and that two copies of the book are in the British Museum. Warton's ' English Poetry ' is among the authorities cited. But Warton expressly says that the work is in prose. It is extraordinary, he adds, that Kay or Caius, who called himself poet laureate to Edward IV., should have left no verses to prove his pretensions to the office. I have seen one of the two copies of the " poem " in the British Museum, and it is prose from beginning to end.

STEPHEN WHEELER.

Oriental Club, Hanover Square.

GEORGE III. AND HIS LOVE OF HANDEL'S Music. Being in Worcester in 1862, as I passed through the Cathedral yard I observed that considerable repairs and re- building were going on in the room used for the choir practice, and that a quantity of disused and waste MS. music had been thrown out amongst builders' rubbish. On my return to Oxford I wrote to ask