Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/251

 12 8. VL MAY 15. 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

203

And in 1913 a paper was read from the Rev. A. Allinger, S.J., Professor of Latin at St. Xavier's College, Bombay, at the Classical Association meeting in Sheffield, from which I transcribe one or two passages :

" Their aim was to restore Latin, as a living language, both written and spoken. Ciceronian Latin was not required. All that they wanted from the Latin which was to serve as an inter- national medium of communication was that it should be plain and correct .... They proposed to revive Latin also as a spoken language. An educated Englishman should again be able to carry on a conversation in Latin with an educated German, Frenchman, or Italian, somewhat after the fashion of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More .... Colloquial Latin is stored up for us in two kinds of extant literature viz., in letters and comedies. Those who have never gone into the matter will be surprised to see in what a neat and charming manner ordinary phrases of daily life can be expressed in Latin."

In proof of this the essayist furnishes the subjoined examples :

He travels by railway. Via ferrata (or via ferrea) Her facit.

He left this morning at 9.20 by the fast train. Citatiore vectura hodie profectus est puncto vicesimo a nona hora antemeridiana.

I have just received a telegram. Modo mihi nuntiatum est per filum aeneum. Here is another instance taken from Dr. Stauder's illustrated ' Post Prandium,' or ' Pleasantries in Colloquial Latin ' :

Officiosa TJrbanitas. Tempus pro TJmbrarum Discessu adest.

(Ex Judice, Neo-Ebor.)

Professor. Timeo ne nimis serus sim.

Patrona Laris. Minime, Professor, nimis serus esse non potes. Fabula dicit blandimeiita offiiciosa societatis ssepe duplicem significationem habere, et ssepius contrariam.

The ' Colloquia ' and ' Adagia ' of Erasmns supply additional examples of Latin made easy, and I may close with the remark that I have frequently conversed in Latin with Frenchmen, Germans, Dutchmen, Italians, and Spaniards with facility, adopting, of course, the Italian method of pronunciation. J. B. McGovEBN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

NOTES ON THE DE GORGES OF

KNIGHTON GORGES,

ISLE OF WIGHT, A.D. 1241-1349.

(See ante, p. 182.)

RALPH ( 3 ^ de Gorges, son and heir of Ralph " the Marshal " and his wife Maud, succeeded to the family estates by May, 1296-97 (Rot. Fin., 25 Edw. I., m. 13). He served under his father in Gascony in the campaign 1294, and was probably taken prisoner with

him at Risuna, as will be shown later on in references to the losses he and his father jointly sustained in that expedition. Evi- dence of his being still in captivity is shown in a protection order, bearing date April 2, 1299, " for Ralph de Gorges for as long as he emains a prisoner with the King of France " (Cal. Pat. R., 1292-1301, p. 402).

Dugdale says he was serving in Scotland the statement, and in face of the foregoing excerpt it is probable he was still a prisoner and Dugdale's authority may be only a writ summoning him. He must, however, have 3een set at liberty soon afterwards since he was certainly present at the siege of Caer- laverock in 1300. Hoare says that he is celebrated
 * he following year, but cites no authority for

' by the minstrel as being one of the foremost chieftains who sat down with their chivalry before
 * hat noted fortress :

There more than once the new-dubbed knight Sir Kalph de Gorges I saw, hemmed round." His long detention as a prisoner in France may have been the cause or reason of his late knighthood. It may be noted here that Wiffen, 'Russell Memoirs,' i. 137, identifies Ralph "the Marshal " in 1294 with Ralph at Caerlaverock in 1300, whereas the latter was the former's son.

By a fine (29 Edw. I., 1301) evidence is afforded of Sir Ralph being then married, a " Magister Thomas Gorges " granting certain manors and the advowson of a church, &c., in the county of Dorset " to Ralph de Gorges and Alionora his wife."

In the year 1305 the manor of Knighton Gorges was leased to William de Caleshale and his wife Cicely for the term of their lives (Inq. a.q.d., file 55, no. 20).

The claim advanced by Sir Ralph to be reimbursed for the losses he had sustained in the French wars in Gascony is now dealt with :

" 1308, May 4. To the treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer. Order to allow to Ralph de Gorges in the debts due from him, the arrears of the wages due to him and his father Ralph, for the time when they were in the late King's service in Gascony in the twenty-second year of his reign, and for the restitution of their horses, their loot, and also for the wool of his father seized for the use of the late King." Cal. Pat. R., 1307-13. It appears from an entry made in the Close Rolls two years later that some difficulty was found in carrying out the order, "because they were not notified of the number and price of the said horses, &c." (Cal. Cl. R., 1307-13, p. 104, m. 26).

The foregoing notices are all important, as I have already pointed out, showing that the