Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/13

 1JS. V. JA.V., 1919.J

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Clearly, then, some blundering Frenchman confounded the famous Norwich physician with the unlucky Tom Brown " of Facetious Memory," whose religion, if we may appro priate the words of a Cambridge humorist, was " of that joyous bright Greek type, which saw no harm in anything in particular, ' and didn't stick at it, when it did."

Dr. Greenhill adds that "the Note was said to have been written by Clement, formerly Garde de la Bibl. du Hoi, who died 1700-1710." I cannot find that Nicolas Clement ever held the office of " Garde de la Bibliotheque." According to the ' Biographie Universelle,' he was sous- bibliothecaire and died in 1712. The '* bibliothecaire en second," and assigns 1716 as the date of his death.
 * Npuvelle Biographie Gene" rale ' styles him

EDWABD BENSLY.

ST. TRUNNION : HIS IDENTITY. Ball in his ' History of Barton-upon-Humber,' 1856 p. 68', says :

" In the old enclosures to the west of the town WHS a spring of clear water called St. Trunnion's well, and in a field in the West Acridge a very old thorn tree called St. Trunnion's tree, which was standing in 1726 ; but who St. Trunnion was is not known, the question having been frequently discussed in Notes and Queries."

Possibly " St. Ninian " was the original form. In his will, dated April 1, 1528, George Portyngton of Barton-on-Humber left " To the reparation off saynt Nynyan chaple xvjd " ' Lincoln Wills ' (Lincoln Record Soc., vol. 10), ii. 73.

It is well known that the last letter of the word " saint " was often attracted to a saint's name, as in Tedan for St. Aidan, Tantony for St. Antony, Tooley and Tulius for St. Olaf, and Tobin for St. Aubin. In like manner we might have " Tninian " for St. Ninian ; and as ru would be more easily pronounced after the T than ra, the forms " Trinian," " Trunian," and " Trunnion " may quite possibly have been developed after St. Ninian was forgotten.

Winterton, Lines. 3. T. F.

P.S. Since the above was in type I have found that my suggestion has been antici- pated. See Plummer's 'Bede,' ii. 129.

" DINKUM SHOP." Wandering in the pur- lieus of Westminster the other day, I came across a small shop stocked principally with military accoutrements, and over the door was the heading " Harry's Dinkum Shop." Being curious to ascertain the precise sig- nification of this, to me, unknown word, I stepped in and inquired. The proprietress

informed me that it was an Australian word signifying the right shop to go to for anything. I see that the question of its meaning was discussed at 10 S. iii. 168 end 217, when one or two correspondents cited the * E.D.D.,' where " dinkum " is defined to mean " work, due share of work."

WlLLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK.

THE JUDGES' LEVEL. There is a familiar legal anecdote of the judge who was seen drinking a pot of porter before going into court, and who explained the indulgence by saying, " I must drink myself down to the level of my colleagues." It is usually told of Mr. Justice Maule, but sometimes also of other contemporary judges.

The story is, however, of much earlier date. In a commonplace-book of Charles II. 's time (Harleian MS. 6395) we are told (Fragment No. 337) that Sir John Millicent excused his potations on the plea that he must " drink himself down to the capacity of the Bench." Sir John Millicent was only a county magistrate, whom James I. knighted at Royston. So the anecdote^was not a slander against any of the king's courts at Westminster, but only against a provincial Quarter Sessions. CYRIL.

RTJTTER FAMILY NAME. I have found that it is believed (and even by some who bear the name) that " Rutter " is German in origin. In the seventeenth century the word " rutter " was used to designate a trooper, and it is customary to derive it from the Low Dutch ruiter. This is erro- neous : the identification partly depends upon the vowel u, which in ruiter is merely orthographical. The Dutch word rimes pretty closely with English " loiter," and could not therefore yield rutter.

I would seek the origin of " Rutter " in the French routier, and the reduction of ti to t similarly occurs ;in " gutter " from gouttiere.

Rutter, moreover, is a much older family name than the supposed identification allows, and the history of the word " gutter " will help us to trace its descent and origin.

The French gouttiere is derived from Lat. gutta, a drop. In Old French that became gote, goute. Now as "gutter" derives Tom O.F. gote through gouttiere, so may Rutter derive from an O.F. rote through las two distinct meanings : viz., 1, a road ; 2, a viol or fiddle. If we select the first, then " Rutter "= routier, a trooper. But
 * routtiere, or its equivalent. The O.F. rote