Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES. \\z s. n. JULY i, me.

" LAUS DEO " : OLD MERCHANTS' CUSTOM '(12 S. i. 409, 474). There is no doubt that it was an old custom for merchants to write the words " Laus Deo " at the commence- ment of their ledgers. I have just inspected two old ledgers of 1847 and 1863, which formerly belonged to my father when he was in business, and in each of these the words " Laus Deo " are written on the front page (not on the top of each page).

A. COLLING WOOD LEE.

Waltham Abbey, Essex.

Will the following information answer your correspondent's purpose ? In Edward Hatton's ' The Merchant's Magazine,' 4th ed. (London, 1701), there are formularies for ' The Method of Keeping the Waste Book, Journal, and Ledger ' (p. 173), and for ' The Entry of the Inventory in the -Journal ' (p. 176) ; also a form for a policy (p. 249). In every case the entries are preceded by the words : " In the name of God. Amen." L. L. K.

VILLAGE POUNDS (12 S. i. 29, 79, 117,

193, 275, 416, 474). What was once the

" village " of Hampstead still retains its

pound, situate close to one of the numerous

fathways leading down to the Vale of Health, b is a square, well-preserved enclosure marked, on its eastern wall, " Anno 1787." At present there is a fine crop of thistles and grass inside for the refreshment of any stray donkey, or other beast, which might happen to be lodged within. But I fancy the pound now receives few, if any ? inmates. During a long residence in the salubrious suburb of Hampstead, I have seen only one lean ass there. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

KERRY PLACE-NAMES (12 S. i. 487). 1. The proper form of " coon edaf deryck " is cuan a' dhaimh dheirge, but possibly the initial <fs were not aspirated in the vulgar tongue (damh = OK, dearg=red).

2. The following is an extract from Joyce's '' Irish Names of Places ' :

" It [Dingle] is called in the annals Daingean-ui- Chuis, now usually written Dingle-I-Uoush. i.e. the fortress of O'Cush, the ancient proprietor ^before the English invasion. These people some- times call themselves Hussey in English, and this is the origin of the mistaken assertion made by some writers, that the place received its name from the English family of Hussey."

3. Dun-an-6ir (golden fort) is correct.

4. Joyce writes :

"The Irish name of the village of Smerwick, near Dingle, in Kerry, which is still used, is Ard- na-caithne (now pronounced Arduaconnia), the height of the arbutus."

Ca tthn c~ arbutus tree, the fruit of which is commonly called Cain-apple.

The name Smerwick is apparently of Scandinavian origin.

5. Gallerus probably = Gall-a'-ruis, or Gallan-ruis, i.e., the pillar-stone or rock of the headland. Gall or Gallan is a name given to certain stones supposed to have been thrown down from the hills by giants. This place is the scene of one of Crofton Croker's " merrow " or mermaid legends.

N. POWLETT, Col.

1. When Sir Nicholas White gave " coon edaf deryck " as the Irish name of Dingle Harbour, he attempted to represent phoneti- cally the Gaelic cuan a' daimh deairg, the haven of the red ox. M, when aspirated, sounds like v ; and dearg, red, is pronounced " darrig " or " derrig."

2. The Irish name of Dingle, " Daingean- ui-Chuis," means O' Gush's fortress,

4. The name Smerycke, mentioned by Sir Nicholas, probably means the same as Smeurach in the Forest of Rannoch, meaning a bramble thicket, from the Gaelic smeur, a blackberry bush.

Dr. Joyce mentions the name Ardcanny, as being pronounced in Irish Ardnaconnia and explains it as meaning ard-na-caithne, the hill of arbutus, a bush or small tree which is only to be found as an indigenous British plant in Kerry. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

" GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE, OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE " (12 S. i. 127, 197). In 1907 this question went the rounds of the American newspapers, and the present writer examined the 1850 edition of the Wycliffe Bible. The Old Testament has a prologue, the New Testament has a prologue, and there is a prologue to each book. The prologue to the Old Testament was probably written by John Purvey, and toward the end of it, if anywhere, one might expect to find the words inquired about ; but, as one would equally expect, there are no such words. At i. 49 is this sentence :

"Lord God ! sithen at the bigynning of feith so manie men translatiden into Latyn, and to greet profyt of Latyn men, lat oo symple creature of God translate into English, for profyt of English men ;

God for his merci amende these euele causis,

and make oure pupje to haue, and kunne, and kepe truli holi writ, to lijf and deth ! "

To the extract from Daniel Webster (1830), quoted by SIR HARRY POLAND, may be added three other pertinent extracts. In