Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/192

 184

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. n. SEPT. 3,

rubbish from the Italian robaccia, and quotes Mr. Gladstone as saying, in reply to the sug- gestion, " I will also name a word, and this is squander, from sqiiadernare." The Times reviewer (15 July) says :

" In these two cases the relation is probably direct

and derivative but the occurrence of the same

word in cognate forms in English and Italian proves little or nothing, unless it can be shown that the French, from which the English has bor- rowed much more largely than from the Italian, has no similar form, and that Latin is not the common origin of both."

I venture to question the correctness of both of these derivations, on the authority of Prof. Skeat, who derives rubbish from rubble, broken stones, the latter being the diminutive of the French robe in the sense of "trash," so well preserved in the cognate Ital. roba. Squadernare, according to Feller's 'Diction- ary,' means to read attentively, peruse, con- sider. Mr. Gladstone would have oeen nearer the truth if he had derived squander from scialaquare, to lavish, to waste ; but Prof. Skeat does not recognize this, and considers the word to be of Scandinavian origin.

JOHN HEBB.

2, Canonbury Mansions.

LLANTHONY. The following statement occurs at p. 22 of Freeman's ' English Towns and. Districts ':

" Llanthony is not, as many people seem to think, the church ot St. Anthony. It is a contraction of Llanddewi-narit-Honddil that is to say, the church of David in the vale of the Honddu. The vale of the Honddu is a deep mountain valley, in which the older Llanthony stands, with the stream of the Honddu rushing along it to find its way into the Usk, the 'Welsh Axe of our forefathers. '

I beg to draw attention to a slight error in this statement. There is, indeed, a Honddu flowing into the Usk at Brecknock ; but the Honddu, or Hothny, on which Llanthony is situated, flows, not into the Usk, but, round the southern spur of .the Hatterills, into the Munnow, a tributary of the Wye.

J. O'BYRNE CHOKE.

SURNAMES. To names derived from inn signs, such as Angel and Swan (ante, p. 44), may be added Hart, from the " White Hart "; Cheese, from the "Ham and Cheese," a common sign in villages ; Eagle, from the "Spread Eagle"; Dragon, from the "Green Dragon"; Cross, from the "Golden Cross"; Oliphant (Elephant), from the "Elephant and Castle"; Roebuck, and others that might be named. Cadman, like Jack Cade, is a maker of "cades," or " casks." It cannot be from Csedmon (ante, p. 74), as not to speak of phonetic diffi- culties we know that before, in the thirteenth

century, family names had become general, Norman appellations had displaced A.-S. personal names, which are, therefore, seldom the source of modern surnames.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

TENNYSON ON HAVELOCK, 1857. In the review of 'Alfred, Lord Tennyson : a Memoir,' by his son (Macmillan & Co., 1897), in the St. James's Gazette, 6 October, 1897, it is stated that the following poem, written in 1857, has never been published. Perhaps a place may be found for it in ' N. & Q.'

Bold Havelock march'd,

Many a mile went he,

Every mile a battle,

Every battle a victory.

Bold Havelock march'd, Charged with his gallant few ; Ten men fought a thousand, Slew them, and overthrew.

Bold Havelock march'd, Wrought with his hand and his head, Marcffd, and thought, and fought, March'd, and fought himself dead.

Bold Havelock died, Tender, and great, and good, And every man in Britain Says, " I am of Havelock's blood."

HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W.

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. I forward a pas- sage which, if attention has not already been called to it, will be of some interest as giving a hint of the discovery of wireless telegraphy. It is from " New Atlantis, begun by the Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Albans ; and continued by R. H. Esquire. London, Printed for John Crooke at the Signe of the Ship, in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1660," a book in the Burnley Grammar School Library :

" Hereupon he immediately reached forth of a little Ark, wherein many rarities were placed, a Loadstone far bigger then that which holds up Mahomets tomb in Mecha. This is the truely pre- tious stone, of such divine use (said he) that by its charitable direction it not only ciments the divided World into one body politic, maintaining trade and society with the remotest parts and Nations, but is in many other things of rare use and service. I shall not open all its properties (said he) most of them being already known amongst you Europseans: I will only unfold this usefull and most admirable conclusion upon it, and which hath been but lately here experimentally discovered, which is this. Two needles of equal size being touched together at the same time with this Stone, and severally set on two tables with the Alphabet written circularly about them ; two friends, thus prepared and agree- ing on the time, may correspond at never so great a distance. For by turning the needle in one Alphabet, the other in the distant table will by a secret Sympathy turne it self after the like manner. This secret was first experimented here by one Lamoran, who being suspected of Apostacy, because of his