Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/65

 9*s.xn.juLYi8,i9Q3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

57

a production of David MacBeth Moir (1798- 1851).

If MR. OULD thinks that I can assist him he may write to me direct.

THOMAS WHITE.

Scottish Liberal Club, Edinburgh.

MR. OULD will find a translation in the metre he is seeking in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' No. 117. C. M. HUDSON. '

" To MUG " (9 th S. xii. 5). Please let me suggest, just once more, that the right book to consult is the * English Dialect Dictionary.' There are about ten words spelt mug ; and the information fills more than a page. Mug (1), sense 7, is "to supply with beer or liquor"; and mug, verb (4), sense 1, is "to beat, thrash, chastise." Mug, sb. (3), is "a stupid, inexperienced person," &c.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE POPE AND THE MASSACRE OF ST. BAR- THOLOMEW (9 th S. xi. 407, 512). Bran tome, according to Anquetil, related that the Pope wept when he heard of the massacre :

" Je pleure, dit-il. tant d'innocents qui n'auront pas manque d'etre confondus avec les coupables : et possible qu'& plusieurs de ces morts Dieu eut fait la grace de se repentir."

These words show pity for the victims, but not disapproval of the act. The Pope re- gretted that people who were not Huguenots should have suffered, as they must have done, in-, so huge and indiscriminate a massacre. He also regretted that the Huguenots had not the opportunity of renouncing their faith or repenting their sins. But he went no further. In Mackintosh's 'History of Eng- land ' is the following account of the celebra- tion of the massacre ; but this account was not written by Sir James himself. It is in the conclusion of the historj 7, added after his death :

" At Rome the Pope and the cardinals returned God thanks, in the church of St.. Louis, for this signal instance of divine grace to Christendom and the infant pontificate of Gregory XIII."

Ranke confirms this. E. YARDLEY.

"UTHER" AND "ARTHUR" (9 th S. xi. 327, 496). It may be worth noting, as I do from 'County Folk -lore/ vol. iii., 'Orkney and Shetland Islands ' (p. 270), that Arthur, com- mon in Shetland now, is suspected of being a corruption of the Old Northern Ottar :

"Last century 'Otto,' or 'Otho' or 'Ottie' was a frequent fore-name here, and now no case of it occurs. In our Northern Isles it has even been Judaised into ' Hosea,' so that ' Otto Ottoson' was transmuted into 'Hosea Hoseaeon 'so written, but pronounced ' Osie Osieson.' "

ST. SWITHIN.

MAYORS' CORRECT TITLE AND THEIR PRE- CEDENCE (9 fch S. xi. 389, 437). A mayor of a cathedral city, as such, is not entitled to the prefix ''Right Worshipful." Liverpool has been a cathedral city since 1880, but the mayor was merely designated " Worshipful" till ten years ago he became the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor. On the other hand, the Mayor of Bristol was always the "Right Worshipful" till he became a Lord Mayor. I believe the higher title is used at Exeter, Chester, and Norwich. I fancied it was confined to boroughs which are counties of themselves, but Shrewsbury disposes of that theory. Not long ago I saw an announcement that something would be done by "the Right Worshipful the Mayor of St. Pancras " ! W. DIGBY THURNAM.

This has long been a doubtful question. I was always given to understand by my father (Thomas Hughes, F.S.A.) that "the Right Worshipful " was only used by mayors of towns which were counties in themselves and had sheriffs. This is so at Chester and Exeter, where there are sheriffs, and also at Plymouth, where there are not. Certainly the chief magistrates of all the county towns are not "Right Worshipful/' e g., in this town, Lancaster, though chartered in the reign of King John and earlier, the mayor is only <k the Worshipful." MR. SOUTH AM will have a difficulty in placing his mayors. I fought the point out for Lancaster on the occasion of the church procession of the Royal Insti- tute of Public Health at Blackpool in 1899. The Ripon Town Clerk was there, with his mayor and mace and bald rick, and claimed, by virtue of a traditionary charter of King Alfred, to take precedence next after the Mayor of Blackpool and Lord Mayors. I successfully contended, on the other hand, that, as representing the county town, the Mayor of Lancaster (Alderman Bell) took precedence of any town represented except Blackpool. There were no Lord Mayors there. The safest way is to give the mayor of the town visited the first place, and after him the mayor of the county town, followed by any Lord Mayors present in order of charter, and then all other mayors in charter order, mixing county and non-county boroughs. I may mention that at Liverpool functions the county town of Lancaster has always come next after Liverpool.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Town Clerk of Lancaster.

The "eminent antiquary" whose opinion your correspondent relies upon cannot have very carefully investigated the subject as to