Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/335

 9* 8. XL APRIL 25, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

327

Henry Ellis, p. 77, is recorded the death on 5 Oct., 1667, of "R9ger Daniell, paynter in London, and sometime heretofore at Cam- bridge," &c. He was the University printer at Cambridge. W. C. B.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"UTHER" AND "ARTHUR." I should be glad if some scientific Keltologist would de- clare the etymology of the ancient British names Uther and Arthur. It occurred to me when I was in Wales in the summer of 1901 that the latter might be identical with the adjective " aruthr = marvellous, wonderful, amazing, strange, dire, dreadful, prodigious, stupendous "; which as a substantive mascu- line means " a wonder or marvel ; a prodigy," to quote the ' Dictionary of the Welsh Lan- guage ' by the Rev. D. Silvan Evans (the con- tinuation of which would be a great boon) ; and that the former might be an easier way of writing uthr. which, according to ' A Dic- tionary of the Welsh Language ' by W. Owen Pughe, means, as a substantive masculine, " that stunneth"; and as an adjective, "awful, wonderful, astonishing, terrific, horrible." Per- haps it might be thought that the reading of these meanings into the names makes for the legendary character of the story of King Arthur. Before sending you this letter I asked Prof. J. Rhys for his opinion of it. He says that he thought of connecting uthr with the root of German Wunder, and sees no objection to my explaining the name Uther thereby. My derivation of Arthur does not appear to him so easy to accept. But, ex hypothesi< I look upon it as a word distorted by non- Welsh foreigners, as many another name has been. E. S. DODGSON.

MOTTOES : THEIR ORIGIN. I want to know the name of a book which will tell me the origin (historical or legendary) of certain mottoes on coats of arms. I had such a book out of the British Museum two years ago, but have forgotten the name of the author. It was a modern book of perhaps 150 or 200 pages. It gave short stories telling how certain mottoes were first used, and what gave rise to their being taken as family mottoes. The only one I remember was "Every bullet has its billet" (family of Vassall) The book was popularly written not at all from an heraldic point of view. I

have been for several days at the British Museum trying to find it.

ELEANOR S. MARCH.

[Has pur correspondent tried Sir Bernard Burke's ' Vicissitudes of Families,' ' The Rise of Great Families,' 'Anecdotes of the Aristocracy,' and 'Romantic Records of Families,' G. L. Craik's 1 Romance of the Peerage,' and E. Walford's ' Tales of our Great Families ' ?.]

EDWARD ARCHER, M.D. I shall be glad of any information as to the parentage, life, and works of Edward Archer, M.D., founder of the Smallpox Hospital.

LAUNCELOT ARCHER, M.R.C.S.

82, Vincent Square, Westminster, S.W.

MARRIAGE MARKETS. Are the marriage markets (as reported) still in existence in Tunis and other Mohammedan countries ; and, if so, where can any description of them be obtained ? J. J.

"MY ORNAMENTS ARE ARMS." Who IS the

author of the following lines 1 My ornaments are arms,

My pastime is war, My bed is cold upon the wold,

My lamp yon star. My journeyings are long,

My slumbers short and broken, From hill to hill I wander still,

Kissing thy token.

H. H.

HUME OR HOME FAMILY. I shall be much obliged if any of your readers can inform me or indicate a likely source of information to what branch of this family Col. Hume belonged, who was at Gibraltar during the great siege, was Governor of Chester Castle, and was father of Elizabeth Hume, mentioned in Mrs. Fawcett's ' Life of Sir William Molesworth ' as having been a celebrated Edinburgh beauty, engaged at one time to her cousin Sir Alexander Kinloch, but afterwards married to Capt. Brown.

F. W. M.

SIR NICHOLAS KEMEYS AND CHEPSTOW CASTLE. Some few years back (I think per- haps ten) there appeared in one of the Mon- mouthshire newspapers a most interesting account of the manner of death of Sir Nicholas Kemeys at the assault and capture of Chepstow Castle by the Parliamentary forces on 25 May, 1648, and also describing the exact place of interment of that gallant Cavalier officer within the castle walls. I think it stated that this account had been supplied by a lady who formerly held the position of housekeeper to the late Duke of Beaufort, and in whose family the tradition had been handed down. I took a cutting from the newspaper (I think either the