Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/461

 g* s. KIT. DEC. 5, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

453

ST. BEES COLLEGE (9 th S. xii. 408). On what ground did his Lordship of Carlisle present to DR. FORSHAW the St. Bees' collect- ing box 1 Surely it should have found a home in the excellent museum of Tullie House at Carlisle, and not have been allowed to pass into private hands. Will not DR. FORSHAW rectify this error 1

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

Lancaster.

" AVARY " (9 th S. xii. 349). The word avary seems to be merely another form of the French avarie, Italian averia, which used to be derived from the Arabic word awdr, a defect. Korting assumes as its derivation ayyapei'a, angaria, originally a Persian word meaning "forced service," especially applied to the compulsory "commandeering " of horses for Government purposes. He assumes the word to have taken the form of *anquaria and then avaria, and that this word was employed in the sense of a tax on freight, and then in that of damage to freight. It seems probable that popular etymology had something to do with the form of the word, connecting it with avere in the sense of "goods." H. A. STRONG.

University, Liverpool.

This word resembles very -strongly the French word avarie, which seems to be related to our English word average in the nautical sense. I should suggest a reference to the headings 'Avania,' * Aveny,' and 'Average' in the ' N.E.D.' As regards avarie, I find the following remarks in Bescherelle's dictionary:

"Avarie, s.f. (etymologic arabe, amir, dommage subi par une merchandise, ou bas-latin havaria, correspondant au hollandais haver}/, avarie). Nom generique par lequel on de"signe tout dommage survenu a des marchandises, en quelque lieu et en quelque circonstance que ce soit.' :

" Le Tit re den avaries, ou Code de commerce, a e*te emprunte presque litteralement a 1'ordonnance de 1681, qui etait devenue la legislation maritime de toute 1'Europe."

Brachet says :

" Ararie, au sens de droit d'entretien d'un port pour chaque vaisseau qui y mouille. A rarie, dans la basse latiuite havaria, haver ia, correspond au hol- landais havery (meme sens)."

EDWARD LATHAM.

A SEXTON'S TOMBSTONE (9 th S. x. 306, 373, 434, 517 ; xi. 53, 235, 511 ; xii. 115). At 9 th S. xi. 511 MR. JOHN T. PAGE questions the correct- ness of my statement at xi. 235 that my copy of old Scarlett's epitaph reproduces the spell- ing and punctuation of the original. He says that in his copy, taken directly from the picture in Peterborough Cathedral, several differences are to be found ; I do not wish to

doubt MR. PAGE'S assertion, but it surprises- me not a little. When visiting Peterborough and its cathedral many years ago I bought in the town a photograph of Scarlett's pic- ture and epitaph. That photograph is before me as I write, and after careful re-examina- tion of it, I find that it and my copy given in * N. <k Q.' agree in all respects in punctuation and spelling, except that v is- in the photograph everywhere substituted for u, and that, as I said at the time, the whole is written in capitals. The differences between MR. PAGE'S copy and mine are hard to account for. On the one hand, it can scarcely be that the camera has behaved treacherously ("Solem quis dicere falsum Audeat " ?), and, on the other hand, it is not likely that MR. PAGE has made so many errors in copying. Can it be that the picture and epitaph have been renovated or "restored" in recent years, and that MR. PAGE'S version is the more modern 1 The photograph is fully thirty years old. The reading of the epitaph to be found in Chambers's ' Book of Days ' (ii. 16) does not help to a solution, as it differs in several instances not only from the photograph, but also from MR. PAGE'S copy. It is a curious illustration of the uncertainty of documentary evidence that MR. PAGE'S copy, Chambers's version, that given in the Northamptonshire Notes and Queries, and my copy from the photograph should all be more or less at variance. Until further advised, I hold by the photograph. It may be worth while adding that a contributor to ' N. & Q.,' 7 th S. iii. 379 (a reference I owe to MR. PAGE'S reply), gives the seventh line of the epitaph in a different form from any of the authorities named above. Where shall accuracy be found if neither in the photographer's camera nor in the contributors to ' N. & Q.' 1

Since writing the above I have looked into Murray's ' Handbook to the Cathedrals of England ' (Eastern Division), and find Scarlett's epitaph given on p. 71 (1862 edition). Mr. Murray's ' Handbooks,' I believe, enjoy a very high reputation for accuracy, and the author of the volume before me claims in the preface that " the descriptions have been drawn up after careful personal survey, and with the assistance of the best and most recent works on each cathedral." Strange to say, the in- scription as given by " Murray " differs in many particulars, in its spelling and punctua- tion, as much from MR. PAGE'S copy as from mine. Even its spelling of the name (" Scarl- lit ") is unique. I have also examined Bridges's ' History of Northamptonshire ' (edit, by Rev. P. Whalley, Oxford, 1791), and have had a similar experience. The inscription as there