Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/30

 NOTES AND QUERIES,

112S. V. JAN., 1919.

t>y T. Faulkner in his ' History of Brentford,' .nd was buried in the church of St. Lawrence, New Brentford. His library, containing a good selection of theological works and of Oreek and Latin classics, was sold at Sotheby's in June of that year.

R. JAMES PARKER. Darfield Eoad, Crofton Park, S.B.

THE POPE'S CROSIER (12 S. iv. 13). A. E. P. R. D. asks for a verification of the statement that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Pope never carried a crosier unless he entered the diocese of Trier. This practice is mentioned by Jeremy Taylor in his * Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying,' 7, * Of the fallibility of the pope and the uncertainty of his expounding scripture and resolving questions.' Taylor gives Aquinas as his authority, and adds the marginal reference, " In iv. sent. dist. 24." Eden in his edition of Taylor's works, vol. v. p. 466, adds the further detail, " q. 3 art. 3 fin." EDWARD BENSLY.

ICKE FAMILY (12 S. iv. 106, 226, 311). Lower's ' Patronymica Britannica ' derived the surname Hick or Hicks from Isaac, and Canon Bardsley in his first work, ' English Surnames,' took a similar view. This is doubtless the book referred to by SIR DOUGLAS OWEN. Bardsley, who made a special study of surnames in his later years, " produced his * Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames ' in 1901. In this work he altered his view entirely in regard to the personal names Hicks, Higgs, &c., and wrote, s.v. Higgin :

"I stated in my 'English Surnames' (1875) that Isaac was the parent of Hikke, Higgs, giving my reasons. B\it I was altogether wrong, and I take this opportunity of apologizing for what at "best was only a guess." Under Hick he writes :

" That Hick was the nickname of Richard, for a time rivalling Dick, is clearly manifest. . . .If it be objected that Hick is hard and Richard soft, the same objection applies to Dick. Besides, Hick had a softened variant in Hitch, whence our Hichins, Hichinsons, Hitchins, and Hitchings. . . . In the after-race for popularity Dick won at a canter, and while Hick is forgotten, Dick holds his own." Under Icke he says :

" The son of Richard, from the nickname Hick. The surname seems to have lost its aspirate."

While Isaac would produce Ike and Ikey, it Would not give Icke and Ickey. It is quite possible that, as Lower suggests, there may be a place-name Heck or Hick which is responsible for some of the personal names

now current, as such family names as Ross, Lum, &c., appear to have more than one souce to draw from.

See also the entries under Dick, Diggs, Dickens (from a French Diquon), Dix (Dixon), and Hickok in Bardsley' s Dic- tionary/

The Rev. J. W. Johnston derives Eccles and Beccles from ecclesia and bi-ecclesia, or Church and Bychurch. N. W. HILL.

36 Highbury Place, N.5.

"BIAJER" (12 S. iv. 187, 252). On reading MR. S. PONDER' s reply, I remem- bered that there is an interesting note tin the Orang-Laut in ' My Journal in Malayan Waters; or, the Blockade ofQuedah,' by Capt. Sherard Osborn, R.N., C.B., (3rd ed., 1861, pp. 253-9). In this he writes :

" My Malays owned they were countrymen, but spoke of them as barbarians of the lowest caste, pariahs of Malay ia, and summed them up by the title of Bad People, or Gipsies, who make war alike by petty theft upon Malays or Siamese."

G. H. WHITE. 23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

LEAP YEAR : LADY'S OFFER OF MAR- RIAGE (12 S. iv. 245). A law punishing a man who refused a lady's offer of marriage is said to have been passed, not in France, but in Scotland, in the year 1288. If the man refuse the lady, he shall be " mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less, as his estait may be," unless he can prove himself betrothed already. The French law fol- lowed in a few years ; and it is said that before Columbus sailed in 1492 (first voyage) the " law " was extended to Florence and Genoa. There seems to be no record of any fines exacted under this sentimental statute. In England of the early seven- teenth century a man was not * entitled to " benefit of clergy " if he disdained such an offer ; and later a refusal cost the happy man a silk gown a legend traced to St. Patrick.

' A Valentine to her that excelleth All,' by " daun Johan Lidegate, ye munke of Bury,' in " wyse of chesing loues at Saint Valen- tynes day " (Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series, cvii.), makes choice of the valentine a serious business :

Some cheese for fayrnesse and for hye beaute, Some for estate, and some eke for rychchesse, Some for fredame, and some for bountee, Some for theyre poorte and theyr gentylesse.

The poet chose Mary (the Virgin), but added a more worldly (in every way) and

i pointed " Lenvoye " to " sixst Henry, his

! moder Kateryne."