Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/324

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9> s. xii. OCT. 17, istos.

Rhugylgroen is anything but unfortunate. For, after all, what does the voice of the owl so much resemble as a diabolical rattle ! I 'm sure I don't know. Reader, do you ?" * Wild Wales,' by Geo. Borrow, p. 333.

AP RHYS.

The usual present name of the owl in Welsh

is Cuan or Cwan, an imitation of the bird's

hooting, as stated in Silvan Evans's ' Welsh-

English Dictionary ' (Carmarthen, 1893, dis-

continued with the end of the letter D, alas !

by the author's recent decease). A Welsh

friend of mine assures me that Blodeuwedd

is unknown nowadays as the name of an

owl. According to Owen Pughe's 'Welsh-

English Dictionary ' (Denbigh, 1832, which,

owing to its full quotations, is still regarded

as a mine of information), Blodeuwedd is

derived from Blodau, s. pi., flowers, and denotes

what has the appearance of flowers, some-

times the name of an owl, and also that of a

woman. The following quotation from the

'Mabinogion ' is added : "Sef yn blodeuwedd

tyllhuan, o'r iaith yr awrhon " (" the flower-

visage is an owl in the language of this day ").

Tyllhuan (or tilluan), the other figurative

designation of an owl, is still applied some-

times to a faithless girl, as I am told. The

Welsh poems of Davydd ab Gwilym, called

the " Dimetian Nightingale," who flourished

in the fourteenth century, were translated by

Arthur J. Jones in 1834. A copy of this

version may be found in the Bodleian Library

H. KREBS.

HISTORY OF BOOKSELLING (9 th S. xii. 267). The late Mr. Nicholas Triibner asked me to read a German MS. of his on the book trade of antiquity. I urged him to publish it Those who had the pleasure of the friendship of the learned and genial publisher know that he had a high standard. I suppose that his fastidiousness, joined to the heavy demands of business upon his time ano energies, prevented him from issuing an essay that would certainly have been welcome. WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

ORANGE BLOSSOMS AS EMBLEMS OF (9 th S. xii. 5, 56). While the French schola and writer of whom DR. MURRAY speaks n< doubt meant that the orange blossom i associated pre-eminently with matrimoir and fecundity, he surely would not wish t' dissociate the delicate white bloom from th indispensable condition of moral purity. I appears to be the tree itself, rather than th blossom, that symbolizes generosity an fecundity, from its habit, as it grows^in th East, of bearing both fruit and flower a the same time, and Dr. Brewer says tha

custom of wearing orange blossoms at the uptial ceremony is, in fact, derived from
 * ie Saracens. It seems to have been un-

nown in Shakespeare's time and much tter, and the adoption of the flower generally, i the emblematic sense imputed to it, dates rom comparatively modern times. Robert n yas, M.A., LL.D., F.R.B.S., in his 'Language f Flowers,' 1875, says :

"The fair brow of a virgin bride is wreathed dth a garland of orange blossoms, meet emblem of, er maiden purity. This decoration is withheld rom all who are undeserving of the distinction, lore especially in the neighbourhood of Paris."

>ee also his 'Sentiment of Flowers,' 1842,

. 72. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

ENGLISH ACCENTUATION (9 th S. xi. 408, 515; di. 94, 158). Would not Lepanto be in good hythm in the line quoted at the second eference and commented on at the third 1

Actium, Lepanto, fatal Trafalgar, may, I think, be compared with

Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime.

' Childe Harold,' iv. 183.

That Byron did violate the Italian pronun-
 * iation of Lepanto is, I think, certain from
 * he line

Immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight.

Ibid., 14.

There are other names of places in Italian which have the tonic accent on the ante- 3enultimate, e.g., Otranto, Spalato, Taranto, Brindisi. Notwithstanding the English ten- dency to throw back the stress towards the beginning of the word, it is remarkable that nearly all Englishmen speak of Brindisi, i.e., Brindeez} 7 ^ or Brindizzy. I have landed at Brindisi often by P. and O. ships ; I do not remember any ship's officer who called the town Brindisi. On the other hand, as far as my memory goes, they all speak of Ismalia, or Ismaylia, instead of Isinailia.

In London there are Arundel Street, Strand, and Arundell Street, Coventry Street. The former is pronounced 'Arundel Street, the latter (according to cabmen) is pronounced Arundell Street. There is an Arundel Street in Bethnal Green ; how it is pronounced I do not know.

In his comments at p. 94 GENERAL MAX- WELL should have referred to the communica- tion of MR. A. D. JONES, not that of MR. MAcMiCHAEL, which says nothing about Lepanto. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

THE MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF A LONDON CITIZEN (9 th S. xii. 203, 242). Permit me to point out, as illustrating the accuracy of the diarist quoted by A. S., that "Mr. Dibdin,