Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/101

 s. xii. AUG. i, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

93

Paris. Without entering the city the un- happy prince was taken to the castle of Vincennes and murdered. The foulest crime that stains the name of the great Napoleon took from 15 March to 21 March to accom- plish. It is only fair to remark that it was said at the time that there was complicity in the murder, for the reason that on the fatal night of 20 March Talleyrand was seated at a card-table in Caulincourt's house in Paris. The party was about to rise from play when the "pendule" on the chimneypiece struck two. Talleyrand started as he heard it, and then, turning to Caulincourt, whispered, " Yes ; 'tis all over now.' ' L'esprit se refuse a 1'idee d'un pareil crime !

HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, S.W.

I have an old print of the execution of the duke. He is without coat or vest, no covering before his eyes, and kneels before the levelled muskets of the soldiers ; his right arm is ex- tended to the utmost to keepa dog, apparently a large) poodle, as far off as possible. The engraving is a tinted aquatint. This sort of print was much in vogue in the earlier part of the last century. G. T. SHERBORN.

Twickenham.

44 OVERSLAUGH" (9 th S. xi. 247, 331). If for the derivation of the military meaning of " overslaugh " a foreign language must be resorted to, it would be as well perhaps to go to the German as to the Dutch. We also use uberschlagen, Low Ger. uberslan (long a), in the sense of to skip, drop e g., eine Seite, eine Marche, &c. Could not German soldiers serving in the British army say Hano- verianshave introduced the term, first as a verb, which afterwards was made a substan- tive? G. KRUEGER.

La profession de foi du 'Vicaire Savoyard,' c'est le nom ou le titre d'une des parties de 4 L'Emile ' de Jean Jacques Rousseau (sur la religion naturelle). IGNORAMUS.
 * LE VICAIRE SAVOYARD' (9 th S. xii. 68).

HORNE OR HEARNE (9 th S. xi. 188, 275). There can be no doubt that these place-names and families bearing these names in various countries are of different, often entirely distinct origin. Yet, nevertheless, the various modifications of the word namely, Erne, Home, Hearne, Hern, Herne, Hearon, Him, &c. may be derived from one root. In the Teutonic languages it is irren, to wander, stray, err, or become outlaw, whence also Hurenliebe. profligate love; Hum, copse, cave or hiding-place; Aim, a departed or deified ancestor ; Him, the brain or organ of

the wandering spirit or ghost; and Ehren, nobles or wandering conquerors. The Latin errare and Frankish errant, with the Celtic Err names, are related, for the original root must be far back in Indo-Germanic language. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, pub- lished by Mitchell & Hughes, and most of the many good genealogical publications dis- tinctly show different origins of the families of Heron, Home, and Hearne, and in some cases what may be termed onomatopoeic origins of the words, or origin due to mispro- nunciation or abbreviation of some entirely distinct name. Early in last century a book was published with some such title as ' Ancient Welsh and British Kings,' in which Haern and Tara Haern or Treherne occur. Herne the Hunter may have been no myth, but a member of the Berkshire family to which belonged Thomas Hearne or Hern, the antiquary and assistant librarian to the Bodleian Library in the eighteenth century, and his cousin Edward Hearn or Hearne, printer of the Morning Herald, which preceded the present Standard newspaper, whose descendants now reside in Mel- bourne. The names Herne and Heroun occur in the Roll of Battle Abbey. The Irish Hearns, to whom belongs Lafcadio Hearn, of Japanese fame, derive their name from the abbreviation of one or more Celtic tribe names, and are to be found wherever Irish families have settled, especially in the United States of America. They are apparently in no way connected with the Irish families of Erne, Heron, or Home racially, as these appear to be of Norman or Lowland Scottish origin. G. NEUMANN.

Leeds.

SPANISH BADGE (9 th S. x. 367). For history see Dorregaray, k Historia de las Ordenas de Caballeria,' vol. ii. part ii. pp. 329-30.

C.

"NOTHING" (9 th S. xi. 166, 333, 395, 452, 517). The riddle long known to me stands thus :

That which contented men desire, The poor possess, the rich require, The miser spends, the spendthrift saves, And all men carry to their graves.

ELIZABETH FOWLER.

" BLETHERAMSKITE " (9 th S. x. 507 ; xi. 335, 490). Blethers (or bladders^ blown up, dried, and attached by short strings to rods, were the insignia of the old Court and other privileged jesters. They were (and are at Bidford-on-Avon) carried by the fool and the hobby-horse of the rnorris dancers, to whom is entrusted the collection of coppers, and