Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/164

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NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. IL A. 20, t

John Warner, Bishop of Rochester, married a person named Bridget, it could not have been this lady. G. E. C.

THE PLOUGHING OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA (9 th S. ii. 108). Two of the most famous temples in Pekin are dedicated to the Sky and Agriculture respectively. They stand near one another on the southern side of the capital, and, with the parks that surround them, cover a very wide expanse of land. The Temple of the Sky is a circular edifice, approached by a long flight of marble steps, and surmounted by two roofs that project considerably over the Avails of the temple. The fane dedicated to Agriculture is not so large, but it has three roofs, one above the other, and is chiefly remarkable for the number of pilasters, beautifully carved, with which it is adorned. Near this latter temple lies the field where the emperor used to go to guide the plough of ivory and gold once a year, invoking Heaven's blessing the while upon the crops. The custom, however, is no longer observed ; it was given up after Pekin had been profaned by the triumphant entry of the Anglo-French army in I860.

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Putney.

This ceremony (of a ritual and conventional character) is described, with an illustration, in a common book Miss Corner's 'China and India,' p. 92.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

A full account of "the opening of the ploughing season at Pekin, the capital of the empire, by the emperor in person," will be found in Gray's 'China' (1878), ii. 186-8, in which the object is thus stated :

"When this great festival has inaugurated the agricultural year, the first duty of Chinese farmers is to follow the good example which their rulers have set before them by putting their own hands to the plough."

T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Salterton, Devon.

CHELSEA (9 th S. i. 264). With reference to the derivation of the name Chelsea, the fol- lowing paragraph appeared in the London Argus for 19 March, in an article dealing with the history of Chelsea :

"The origin of Chelsea, both as a name and a place, is very remote, so much so that no one can trace it right back. In the Domesday Survey it is spoken of as Chelchea, and Mr. Alfred Beavor, in his ' Memorials of Old Chelsea,' would have us believe that this is none other than the Cealchythe where Anglican synods were held in the period of the Mercian supremacy. Cealchythe,

in the tongue of our Saxon fathers, would mean a small haven walled in, either naturally or artifici- ally, by chalk. Mr. Beavor points to the remains of a causeway at Chelsea leading to a suggested ford, and built partly of chalk, but beyond that he has not much to say in proof of his theory, and the most favourable verdict that can be given in the circumstances is one of not proven."

Timbs in his 'Curiosities of London' (1867, p. 89) says that Chelsea "lies about fifteen feet above the river," and, according to Nor- den, is named from its strand,

"like the chesel (ceosel or cesel) which the sea casteth up of sand and pebble-stories, thereof called Chesehey, briefly Chelsey, as is Chelsey (Selsey) in Sussex. In a Saxon charter, however, it is written CecdchyHe ; in Domesday, Cerechede and ChaJced ; and Sir Thomas More wrote it Chehhith, though it began to be written Chelsey in the sixteenth cen- tury. The Rev. J. Blunt derives the name from Cealc, chalk, and Hi/d, or Hythe, a harbour, adding that this Hythe was used for landing chalk, and so had given a name to the place."

.C. H. C. South Hackney.

USE OF Low LATIN IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (9") S. ii. 108). MR. THORNTON may confirm his suspicion that "rostrum was applied to a man's nose" by referring to Smith's ' Latin-English Dictionary,' where examples of this meaning are given from " PI. Men. i. i. 13 ; Petr. 75, 10." His suspicion will be further strengthened if he looks out the word in Riddell and White.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

For

read

bos piger ; optat arare.

Ox is slow, not horse. F. J. CANDY.

Norwood.

CLARET AND VIN-DE-GRAVE (8 th S. xii. 485, 512 ; 9 th S. i. 52). G. P. R. James, in his ' The Brigand ; or, Corse de Leon,' chap. ii. (p. 17 of " The Parlour Library " edition of Thomas Hodgson, London, circa 1857), mentions "Avignon claret," with the note, "The fhdt time I ever find the word claret used, it is applied to the wine of Avignon "; and, chap. xliv. (p. 424), a second note is added : " The first wine that I find called claret is the wine of Avignon, very different from that to which we now give the name." With respect to gravel-grown grave, I remember to have met with a humorously appreciative notice of a light white wine with a gun-flint flavour : " Un petit vin blanc avec un gout de pierre-a-fusil." THOMAS J. JEAKES.

Littre may be right in saying that there is no locality bearing the name of Grave in the

bos ; piger optat errare