Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/387

 x. NOV. s, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Kempe, &c., belong to both classes, reaching up to near the throne, but descending also into the pro- fessional and trading community. The present compilation is the work of many hands. In addi- tion to Mr. Fred. Hitchin-Kemp and his two asso- ciate or assistant editors, no fewer than six other Kemps, Kempes, and Kemp-Welchs are assigned a share in the production. Though not to be called a common, Kemp is a widespread name. Difficulty is naturally experienced in grouping under headings all the various families to be found in Britain and else- where, nor indeed is the effort seriously made. The name is to some extent Dutch, and the history of political antagonisms repeats itself, and just as there were Kemps on both sides during the wars of the Commonwealth, and probably, could the fact be traced, during those of the Roses, so English and Boer Kemps stood opposite each other in the veldts and drifts of South Africa.

In its various forms the name is of unques- tioned antiquity. In East Anglia, where it is of most frequent occurrence, the stock of Kemps is assumed to have occupied an important place. Documents of such venerable antiquity are naturally wanting, yet proof is supplied that from a period soon after the Norman Conquest the representatives of the family were above the rank of the villeins. A specially interesting chapter deals with the origin or the name Kemp, which Prof. Skeat finds in the Anglo-Saxon word " cempa," a champion. Some doubt is thrown upon this by Mr. John Tabor Kemp, to whom the introductory portion of the book is due. Mr. Kemp holds that the name has arisen in more than one way, and finds evidence that the Kemps are derived from more than one physical stock, those of East England being gener- ally of Saxon and Danish type, while the Kemps of the West he classifies as Kelts. Stress is laid upon the fact that in Anglo-Saxon, as in modern Welsh, Gaelic, and Irish, the symbol c possessed the sound of k. In early documents accordingly, and even so late as the latter half of the eighteenth century, the spelling Cemp is encountered. In the Norwich Consistory Court is the will of Mary Cemp, of Great Yarmouth, who died in 1759. Kemp or Kempe is found so early as the twelfth century. There was a Gottred Kemp living in Norwich so early as 1154 ; but the spelling with K is rare until much later. No Kemp appears in ' Domesday,' in which the name is De Campe. De Combes or Compes, Campio, and Campian or Campion are variants. Edmund Campion, Jesuit, executed in 1581, was buried as Edmund Kemp. The family of Archbishop Kemp changed their names from De Campes. In 1624 a testator signed his will Thos. Champe, while his son attesting signed Thomas Kempe. Many other curious forms are given in the chapter (ii.) from which we take this information. Several instances of the use of Kempe as a private soldier are given in Percy's ' Reliques,' in wnich also we have " the Kempery men." The ' H.E.I).,' which had not reached "k" when the chapter was written, quotes under anno 700, and with the reference " Epinal Gloss.," "Gla- diatores, caempan." It also gives the verb kemp, to contend in reaping. The most distinguished bearers of the name include John Kempe, orKemp, Cardi- nal Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VI., known as " the cursed cardinal," whose portrait serves as frontispiece, and William Kemp, the morris dancer, whose well- known likeness is also reproduced. Thomas Read

Kemp is commemorated in Kemp Town. Numer- ous portraits of baronets and their dames, of resi- dences and the like, and ample pedigrees illustrate a volume which is a model in its class, and indexes of persons and places add to its value. A supple- mentary volume containing a history of the family of Brook, Brooks, Brooke, and Brookes is con- templated, and bearers of that name are invited to communicate with Mr. Fred. Hitchin - Kemp at Catford. For the connexion between Brookes, &c., and Kemps the reader must turn to the volume. The history is admirably got up in all respects.

The Penny Chronology. By W. T. Lynn,

B.A., F.R.A.S. (Sampson Low & Co.) THIS little brochure gives a selection of the most important dates in the history of the world, from the establishment of; the monarchy in the Holy Land (soon after which the dates in the Assyrian canon come to our aid) to the accession of Edward VII. of Britain.

THE latest issue of Folk-lore contains a carefully

Erepared paper treating of "the lifting of the riae " and similar wedding customs. Another article deals with Balochi beliefs and superstitions, and at p. 296 is an appeal to folk-lorists who may have collected notes ^m the Yuletide mumming- play, asking them to rorward information to the editor of the proposed volume on vestiges of folk- drama in the British Isles. This work, which has been decided on by the Council of the Folk-lore Society, is, it appears, in active preparation. Readers of 'N. &'Q.' who know anything of the morris dancers, "plough-stots," and other mummers who yet enliven village life at Christmastide would do well to send information relating to the dress, action, and dialogue of the players to the secretary of the Society.

THE article of most interest in the Fortnightly is the demand of Prof. J. P. Postgate, ' Are the Classics to Go?' The writer holds, of course, with almost every man of true culture that they must not. We must gird up our loins, however, and be zealous in well-doing if we are to save them. One of the steps to be taken is a revision of our elementary books. For the Latin' grammar most in use with beginners a good word has never been spoken. Unsatisfactory is a euphemism when used concerning it. There is not in existence an elementary grammar in which, says the professor, " the conjugation of the Latin verbs for to ' eat ' and to ' drink ' is correctly given." Never, too, has the pronunciation of Latin been in worse state than now it is. Mr. Edmund Gosse writes on Philip James Bailey an unappreciative article. Mr. Gosse was born too late to come directly under the influence of Bailey. He deals at some length, though not quite satisfactorily, with the con- dition of poetry before Bailey's advent, and assigns, we hold, to wrong causes the influence exercised by ' Festus.' On Bailey's lack of humour he is severe ; but he quotes few or none of the gems of poetry with which 'Festus' abounds. With more justification Mr. Francis Gribble inveighs against Zola, who is assailable enough in respect of his obscenities and his errors in taste and judgment. What is advanced in mitigation of Zola's offences is that he did not deliberately pander to the worst taste of the "human beast." Zola is also credited with "an enthusiasm for justice" surely one of the most desirable and rarely accorded of gifts. Sir H. M. Stanley writes on ' New Aspirants for African