Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/30

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ii28.VLjA*.,i.

Abuses ' (1583), says : " Is'it not Christmas ? Must we not be mery ? " We may be sure that the observant eye of Shakespeare was gladdened by the grace and colour of the holly, and that in gratitude he penned the -lines " Heigh-ho, the holly ! "

W. JAGGARD, Capt. Repatriation Records Registry, Winchester.

The holly was and is the emblem of mirth, because it was and is used to decorate the house for the Christmas festival. The custom is probably a survival of an ancient rite of nature worship, for which, see Sir James Frazer's ' The Golden Bough.' In the later middle-ages a favourite Christmas pastime was a contest between holly and ivy, the men

of the party representing holly, the women ivy. Several Fifteenth Century carols com- posed for this sport, and some notes upon it, may be found in ' Ancient English Christmas

' Carols,' edited by Edith Rickert (Chatto & Windus : 1910)." M. H. DODOS.

Certainly songs of the holly were current long before Shakespeare's time.

In the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, 5396, is the following carol, written during the reign of Henry VI., in praise of the holly

and in connection with jollity :

Nay, Ivy ! nay, it shall not be i-wys ; Let Holy hafe the maystery, as the maner ys. Holy stond in the Halle, fayre to behold ; Ivy stond without the dore ; she is full sore acold.

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c.

Holy and hys mery men they dawnsyn and they

syng,

1 Ivy and her maydenys they wepyn and they wryng.

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c.

Ivy hath a lybe ; she laghtit with the cold, So mot they all hafe that with Ivy hold,

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c. Holy hath berys as red as any rose, The foster the hunters, kepe hem from the doo,

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c. VEvy hath berys as black as any slo ; Ther com the oule and ete hym as she goo.

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c. Holy hath byrds, a full fayre flok, The Nyghtyngale, the 'poppyngy, the gayntyl lavyrok. Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c.

Good Ivy ; what byrdys ast thou?

Non but the howlet that kreye " How ! how ! "

Nay, Ivy ! nay, &c.

CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield Park, Reading.

F May nob the as*>3ia<:ion of holly with tnirth be explained by the fact that it was used in the Saturnalia by the pagan Romans ? /j' Arboretum,' vol. ii. 511. London, 1838.)

M. RICE.

MASTER GUNNER (12 S. v. 153, 212, 277). In the list of ' Monumental Inscriptions in Hartpury Church, co. Gloucester,' which is given in Bigland's ' Historical, Monumental, and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester,' vol. ii., 1792, appears the following (in capitals) :

Here lyeth the body of

Anthony Gelfe, Master

Gunner of the King's Majestie.

There is nothing to indicate the date, except the remark that the inscription was " round the verge," i.e., of the memorial to John Maddocke, Gent., of the parish, Alderman of the City of Gloucester, who died Dec. 19, 1657. So it was later, but probably not by many years. Of course, inspection of the Registers would be likely to show date of death and burial. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

The following is an extract from ' An Accidence for Young Seamen or Their Pathway to Experience,' by Capt. John Smith, published in 1626 :

"The Master Gunner hath the charge of the Ordinances, Shot, Powder, Match, Ladles, Spuuges, Cartrages, Armes, and Fire-workes, and the rest, every one to receive his charge from him according to directions, and to give an account of his store." The term is similar to master mariner.

J. W. DAMER-POWELL.

Royal Societies Club.

The following references to Master Gunners occur in the burial register of Holy Island, Northam Island :

William Brown, sometime master gunner at Holy Island, April 8, 1688.

William Hart, master gunner at Holy Island, Nov. 12, 1703.

John Montgomery, master gunner at Holy Island, Feb. 11, 1782.

Charles Nowlin, master gunner at Holy Island, Aug. 28, 1743.

William Watts, gunner at Holy Island, Feb. 9, 1673-4.

A work, called ' Edward Webbe, Chief Master Gunner, His Travailes,' was published in 1590, It was reprinted privately in Edin- burgh, in a thin 8vo., in 1885.

J. W. FAWCETT. Consett, co. Durham.

"NEY " : TERMINAL TO SURNAMES, &c. (12 S. v. 290). This is not a regular suffix, except in a few instances, such as " Court- ney," which is believed to be the French nickname, court nez, short-nosed. In Romney, Watney, Whitney, the suffix is -ey, and means an isle or sandbank., the n representing part of a personal name, and frequently an A.S. genitive : Ruman, Watan, Hwitan. Stepney was originally Stebenhethe, or