Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/15

 ii s. vi. JULY e, i9i2.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

A Register of Wills in Lambeth Palace Library (Bourchier, fol. 51 b) yields another variant of the name, thus :

"6 Nov., 1464 emanavit commissio Thome

iaraett de Spalding <fe M' Johanni Bono r notario publicoad administrand' bona mag" Rob'ti farsett Rectoris eccl'ie S ci Georgii in podynglane London .ab intestat," &e.

E. LEGA-WEEKES.

" WALA " IN ' WIDSITH,' L. 14. The form wala occurs twice in ' Widsith,' but with widely different meanings. In 1. 14 it is a proper name in the nom. sing. ; in 1. 78 it is found in composition, and is there a common noun in the gen. pi.

In West Saxon a foreigner was wealh. This ea is the regular W.S. breaking of a before Ih. In oblique cases the aspirate is dropped, and the breaking ea becomes the long diphthong ea. Hence the W.S. nom. wealh makes nom. pi. wealas, gen. pi. weala.

The Anglian dialect did not break a before Ih ; it preferred nom. walk, and this makes its nom. pi. wdlas, gen. pi. wdla. The latter, the Anglian form, is the one before us in ' Widsith,' 1. 78, where wala-rices means form wala(-rice) the Anglo-Norman Latin form Wallia is derived, and this, with the customary northern French addition of s, is our "Wales" (contrast " [Corn]wall)."
 * ' extraneorum regni." From the Anglian

The proper name Wdla postulates Gothic fifth century, and is reproduced by Gibbon and other historians as Wallia.
 * Vdili. This was latinized Vallia in the

Vallia was a Wisigothic king, and of the race of Balthi (or Bceld-ceg), no doubt, like Alaric and others. Gibbon was much im- pressed by his renown, and the narrative of his glorious career and splendid achieve- ments is conveyed in some of the finest writing in chap. xxxi. of the ' Decline and Fall.' The sudden death of Alaric had left the Goths without a policy fitted to their racial characteristics, and legally without a country. In the strenuous course of three campaigns, in 417 and 418, Vallia reduced the Vandals, decimated the Alani, drove the Suevi into the mountains of Galicia, exterminated the Silingi, and conquered Spain. At the conclusion of this victorious war the Wisigothic king restored the Penin- sula to the Roman emperor, and received in return, by treaty, the gift of the Second Aquitaine, " The Pearl of Gaul," and other dioceses in the south-west, including the populous and magnificent cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse.

Xow Widsith composed his poem not long after the death of Gunthihari, it would

seem, i.e., c. 440 ; and in his boyhood the renown of *Vaili had been diffused through- out the Western world. It is not surprising, then, that Widsith sang of *Vaili in the strongest terms of praise. These some later poet accommodated to the idiom of his own day and time as follows. (In the original manuscript from which the Codex Exoni- ensis was copied the third half-line was mutilated and, as I believe, stood thus : "....on Alexandre." The tenth-century scribe who foisted Biblical names into the poem indulged that fancy here, and, mis- judging "....on" to be the fragment of " ond," turned the O.E. dative of Alex- ander after the preposition "... .on " into a nom. by adding " -as," "Alexandreas," which is meaningless.)

J>ara waes Wala | hwile selast, ond [buton] Alexandre | ealra ricost ruonna cynnes ; | ond he maest gepah J>ara J>e ic ofer foldan | gefraegen haebbe. " Of these [princes] Wala was the most ex- cellent for a while, and the mightiest of all the race of men but Alexander ; and he prospered most of those that I have heard tell of on earth." ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

GIFT OF GLOVES, &C.,AT FUNERALS. This custom is well set out in the mercer's bill for goods supplied at the burial of a farmer in Great Leighs, Essex. The silk hatband and best gloves were probably for the clergy- man :

1777 : A Bill for the Funerell of Mr. TAo f. Beadcl : D r. to Joseph Young.

March 7 :

1 yard Black Eibon

a pair Black Buckles, Qd. ; a pair

Knee do., 6d. a pair Strides, 3d., a pair Stockings,

3*.

a Fine shroud & Pillow

18 pair Mens Best Bibbon Bound

Gloves

3 pair Womans Best do. do. do. 17 Crape Hatt Bands, at 3/6 1 Silk Hatt Band & Best Gloves the Use of the Velvett Pall. .

s. d. 006

013

033 11

170 12 2 19 6 10 6 10

6 15

Receivd the Contra : JOSEPH Youxo. ANDREW CLARK. Great Leighs.

CARDINAL ALPHONSE DH RICHELIEU. This is not a misprint for Armand, for in the ' Armorial Universel,' by C. Segoing, " Ad- vocat en Parlement, Historiographe du Roy" (1679), on plate 205, the following is engraved above various coats of arms : " Suitte des Noms et Armes des Ca r dinaux dernierement decedes " (the r was omitted