Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/343

 s. xii. OCT. 24, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

335

It is, of course, well known that the A.-S. haga is a very early word. The * H.E.D.' quotes it about 825 A.D., from the 'Kentish Glossary,' which gives " sepis, haga" And it occurs in * Beowulf ' ! Hence was formed the compound haga-thorn (Matt. vii. 16). It cannot but be obvious that haga-thorn is composed of haga and thorn. And surely I need not explain how haga became M.E. hawe,]ust as A.-S. lagu became M.E. lawe ; whence, in modern English, we have haw and law. So also A.-S. maga is E. maw. One wants to know what it is that is denied. Is it the existence of haga, or the existence of the compound, or the sense of haga; or what ? In the ' H.E.D.' it is not the derivation that is "not clear," but the development of the peculiar sense of haiv to mean the " fruit of the hawthorn."

I take this opportunity of noting that the form hay-thorn is not quite the same word, but compounded from the A.-S. hege, of the eighth (!) century, whence the later E. hay, sb. (2) in the 'H.E.D.' In fact, so far were hedges from being unknown in early times, that the A.-S. forms are no less than three viz., haga, weak masc., a "haw"; hege, strong masc., a "hay"; and hecge, weak fern., a "hedge."

Is there no such word in German as Hage- dorn ? And what is that derived from, if not from hag ? So also Du. haagdoorn.

And, of course, horethorn is a totally different word so far as its form is concerned, for it represents the A.-S. heir thorn, i.e., "hoar thorn"; see 'Hoar,' sect. 3, in 'H.E.D.'

Why are we to mix up haiv and hoar? It would be quite as sensible to mix up caw and core, or daw and door, or laiv and lore, or maw and more, paw and pore, raw and roar, saw and soar, or taw arid tore. Surely English has a history. WALTER W. SKEAT.

The early history of the words haw and hawthorn, as given in Skeat's ' Concise Dictionary,' and more fully in the 'N.E.D.,' shows that haw comes from A.-S. haga, an enclosure, not from hdr, hoar or white. A reference to 'N.E.D.' under haw, hay, and hedge will show that hedges are not "a comparatively late invention." The word "angula" at the above reference must be a misprint for angulo. "In angulo" was not an uncommon form of the surname now represented by " Corner." J. T. F.

Winter-ton, Doncaster.

ORANGES (9 th S. xii. 170, 295). In the Bodleian copy of the translation of Oviedo's ' History of the West Indies,' by Richard Eden (1555), which belonged to Peter Carew,

there are a few MS. marginal notes. "The nauygation whiche is commonly made from Spayne to the Weste India, is from Siuile " : MS. in margin " Ciuill," whence I conclude that this was the English pronunciation of Seville in Queen Mary's time. Fruiterers call the bitter oranges from which marmalade is made " civil" oranges, which is, no doubt, like other pronunciations which we now call vulgar e.g., character, theatre, tay (tea) a survival of the old pronunciation.

A. D. JONES. Oxford.

MR. BLAND, THE EDINBURGH ACTOR (9 th S. xii. 207, 277). I am grateful for the informa- tion under this head. Can any contributor give the names of John Bland's sons "? Was one named Edward 1

CHARLES SWYNNERTON.

RICHARD NASH (9 th S. xi. 445 ; xii. 15, 116, 135, 272). BRUTUS has given a very incorrect version of Lord Chesterfield's epigram. The stanzas should read as follows :

Immortal Newton never spoke

More truth than here you '11 find ; Nor Pope himself e'er penn'd a joke

Severer on mankind. This picture placed these busts between

Gives satire its full strength : Wisdom and wit are little seen,

But Folly 's at full length.

The "statue" which your correspondent substitutes for "picture" still stands in a niche in the Pump-Room. It was sculptured by Prince Hoare (brother of William Hoare the painter) in 1751, at the expense of the Corporation. Beneath it is Tompion's clock, given by the maker in 1709, to whose skill, from its time-keeping merits, it yet bears testimony. T,

JENKINS'S HEN (9 th S. xii. 208). To die as Jenkins's hen is to die unmarried a maid. Thus Jamieson's 'Dictionary.' Of the per- sonality of Jenkins nothing is said.

H. P. L.

SWORN CLERKS IN CHANCERY (9 th S. ix. 408, 512 ; x 34 ; xii 154, 277). As compiler of the calendar and writer of the preface to the 'Calendar of Chancery Suits, Reynardson's Division,' vol. i., A-K my attention has been drawn to the above queries and answers, and I am obliged to MR. B. P. SCATTERGOOD for pointing out that the above calendar is really the work of the British Record Society. If the inquirer will read the preface he will see that I ask for further names of the Six Clerks in Chancery previous to the time that the list given in the preface commences.