Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/18

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JAN. l, '98.

from that of stone coffin (or stane-through) to that of coffin-stone (or through-stane) ; after which the true sense of through was easily lost. WALTER W. SKEAT.

The meaning is a (flat) gravestone, as used in Lowland Scottish according to Jamieson in the article " Thruch-stane " of his 'Scottisl Dictionary.' Sir Walter Scott introduces the expression into ' The Antiquary/ chap. xvi. :

"The provost ...... and the council wad be agr

Do

ree-

able that you should hae the auld stanes at Dona- gild's chapel, that ye was wussing to hae ...... But ye

maun speak your mind on 't forthwith, Monkbarns, if ye want the stanes ; for Deacon Harlewalls thinks the carved through - stanes might be put with advantage on the front of the new council- house."

I find the following, centuries earlier in date, in Horstmann's ' Altenglische Legenden,' N. F., p. 16, 1. 383 :

Enterd he was in toumbe of stone And a marble thrugh laid him opon where " thrugh " evidently means a cover for

the tomb struction.

according to the ancient con-

In the 'Plumpton Correspondence' (p. 228) Sir Marmaduke Constable writes to Lady Rokesby : " My coussin Portington, as I doth sopose, hath brought your through to Kesby Church, to be laid of your husband." The gloss is "- '

s Thruff Glossary)."

stone, a tombstone (Brockett's

"Through" is a corruption of O.E. \ruh,

coffin, grave, see 'P

&c.

For further information iee 'Prompt. Parv.,' voc. "Thurwhee stone"; Catholicon Anglicum 'voc. "Thrughe"; Strat- mann-Bradley's 'Middle-English Dictionary,' voc. ")>ruh"; and Jamieson, as above.

If the phrase " the through stone " occurs in a Latin-written will, the definite article has probably no specific meaning. It may, however, refer to a stone already provided ad hoc. F. ADAMS.

106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

This term, as applied to a grave-cover, has nothing to do with the preposition through. nor is it applied particularly to stones placed in a thoroughfare or " through path." ^Rites of Durham,' speaking of the floor-slab of Bishop Beaumont in the middle of the choir calls it " the said through of marble " (Surt boc ed., p. 13). The cover of the charnel vault is called "a faire throwgh stone " (p. 51). Mr. Elmden was buried " with a faire throwgh stone above hym" (p. 52). Also, as a daily exercise, the monks ' f did stand all bairheade, a certain long space, praieng amongs the toumbes and throwghes for there brethren SjxT^ 118 burved there." It is from the Old Northern word thruh, a cist or grave

frequently found in Runic inscriptions. See the vocabulary in Stephens's ' O.N. Runic Monuments.' There is a word totally differ- ent in origin and meaning, though often identical in form, denoting a large stone that goes through the whole thickness of a wall. See Peacock's 'Glossary,' s. v. " Thruff-stone."

J. T. F. Winterton, Doncaster.

EEA IN ENGLISH MONKISH CHRONOLOGY (8 th S. xi. 387 ; xii. 421, 466). MR. ANSCOMBE'S attack upon my remarks in the 'Crawford Charters ' seems to demand a reply, although it is founded upon a misapprehension of my object. My note explicitly refers to the use of this era in the dating of charters, and my position is, therefore, quite unaffected, even if he could prove all his theses. It may suffice to review briefly the facts. In England there is no genuine charter thus dated that is older than Beda's time ; in France, Germany, and Lombardy there is none until the begin- ning of the ninth century,* and the era was not used in the Papal Chancery until the tenth century. In England, as we may see from the records of the councils of Hertford in 673 and of Hatfield in 680, which are preserved by Beda, the ecclesiastical dating was by the indiction and by the regnal years of the English kings, a use borrowed from the Roman legal system. In Gaul the Pas- hal table of Victor was in use until the nd of the eighth century, t and this did not 2five the year of the Incarnation, and the era can, therefore, hardly have been taken from the cycle of Dionysius Exiguus. Beda was, is Mabillon recognized, the first Western listorian who regularly used the era of Dionysius, and he continued the Easter cables of Dionysius. Moreover, his works on chronology were so famous in the Middle Ages that they obscured the work of Diony-

ings used this era in their charters in the middle f the eighth century is a mistake. It does not >ccur until 801 (Theodor Sickel, 'Acta Regum et .mperatorum Karolinorum,' Vienna, 1867. i. 221 ; larry Bresslau, ' Handbuch der Urkundenlehre fur 3eutschland und Italien,' i. 839). In other words, t does not occur until after the great Caroline lenaissance, in which the Englishman Alcuin played so great a part. From 819 to 832 the chan- cellor of Louis the Pious was the Englishman Fridu- gis, the pupil and favourite of Alcuin, a man who had much to do with the revision and collection of the formulce (Bresslau, i. 573).
 * MB. ANSCOMBE'S statement that the Frankish

t B. Krusch, 'Die Einfuhrung des griechischen Paschalritus im Abendlande' (Neues Archiv. ix. 99, sqq.). Scaliger and Pagi were of opinion that the use of this cycle was superseded by Charles the Great.