Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/249

 9* S. II. SEPT. 24, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER %, 1898.

CONTENTS. -No. 39.

NOTES : Hexham Priory, 241 Mr. Gladstone's Maternal Ancestry, 243 Fusil Roman England Civic Honours. 244 Tenant and Landlord" Camelry "Hampton Court Tapestry Johnson and Palfrey Parallel Passages, 245 Three Sisters married at Once Shakspeare's Characters Dramatis Person* of 'Othello' " Gillery "Murder of Atahualpa, 246.

QUERIES : " Eardly "Mrs. Wilson Silk Banners Clerke Family Darwin Donne Mrs. Sheridan, 247 H.M. Bark Endeavour ' Robinson Crusoe ' De Liancourt Canons Hall" To enjoy bad health " Tickhill : " God help 'em " Algernon Queen Square, Bloomsbury God's Name in Sbakspeare "Lord" William Gordon, 248 ' The Educa- tion of Achilles ' Alfrey Mickefer Rev. C. Harris Krkenwald, 249.

REPLIES : ' The Birds of Cirencester,' 249" Holophusi- kon" Drinkwater " Solamen miseris," &c. Wada Angel on Horseback" Danuikins," 250 Dr. Wballey Portrait by Lely The Welsh Leek Rivers' Banks, 251 Holborn Improvements " Hoyle" TheKennet Remem- brance of Past Joy in Sorrow, 252 Lady Bab Frightful jvry Mediaeval Lynch Laws Walker, 253 "Heron" Marble Slab Cooke Dr. Stukeley's House Hamlake=- Helmsley, 254 " It blows rayther thin " " Huddle " Manor House, Clapton " Child-bed pew " Dog-Gates French Cardinal Greatest Heat in England Shropshire Names, 255 A Church Tradition " Cross " vice " Kris," 256 Dr. Thompson Scott's Heroines Wellington and Ney, 257 " And now, O Father "" Ordo " Authors Wanted, 258.

INOTES ON BOOKS : ' The English Catalogue of Books,' Vol. V. Burton's ' Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah ' Green's ' Calendar of State Papers ' Dearmer's ' Cathe- dral Church of Wells'' Melusine ' ' L'Intermediaire.'

^Notices to Correspondents.

HEXHAM PRIORY AND THE AUGUSTALES.

THERE are reasons for believing that Hex- ham Priory was originally the nome of an ordo of Augustales, or class of priests main- taining, amongst other things, the worship of Augustus.

In Prior Richard's ' History of the Church of Hexham,' compiled about the middle of the twelfth century, the place is called densis ecclesia."* Here, omitting the intru- .sive d, we have an adjective " Augustalensis," equivalent to " Augustalian," and, as Prior Richard was only copying from earlier writers, it is evident that the place was anciently known as " Augustalensis ecclesia," otherwise the church or assembly of the Augustales.
 * ' Augustaldensis ecclesia" and "Hagustal-

The intrusive d in "Augustaldensis" can be easily accounted for. Such an intrusion, following the letter I, was a common phenome- non in mediaeval Latin and old English. Nor is it unknown in modern dialects. Thus we have " senescaldus " for " senescallus," "she- melde " for A.-S. " scamol," a bench ; and in modern times "chapild " for "chapel."


 * Raine's 'Priory of Hexham,' i. 8, 11.

All the early forms of the name but one, viz., Augustandium, contain the letter I, and all but one the intrusive d. According to the late Canon Raine, the Latin form of Hex- ham is "Augustandium, Haugustaldunum, and once or twice we meet Avith the English word Hagustalham."* In the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' however, the place is mentioned as Hagus- taldesham, as though the first part of the word were a personal name. Forstemann, too, quotes Hagestaldeshusen from a German document of the eleventh century.t It is probable that both these last-mentioned forms are due either to the errors of scribes or to early popular etymology. A better form again with the intrusive d is found in Agastaldaburg, which occurs in 1046, and is quoted by Forstemann from the great charter-book of the Counts of Holland. This can only mean " the town of the Augustales." The German name Augstchiriche, which occurs in a document of the ninth century, + throws light on the point which we are discussing. Either it means a church built by Augustus, or, as is much more likely, a basilica dedicated to his worship and honour.

I do not know whether any inscriptions relating to the Augustales have ever been discovered in Britain, and should be glad to be informed on that point. As, however, they had established themselves in other Roman provinces, the absence of such inscriptions an absence which may be acci- dental would not justify the conclusion that they never established themselves in Britain. According to Dr. Bruce, the town of Hex- ham " is no doubt the site of a Roman station, but its Roman designation has not been satisfactorily ascertained." It lies three miles to the south of the Roman wall in a neighbourhood which abounds with Roman remains. Roman altars were dis- covered in pulling down some buildings close to the church in 1871. A finely carved Roman tombstone was discovered in 1881 " beneath the floor of the porch adjoining the south transept." Roman inscribed stones are built into the wall of the mysterious crypt beneath the church. The chroniclers of Hex- ham were eloquent in their praise of a church which they described as the most splendid basilica on this side of the Alps. Here, if anywhere in England, Augustales were likely to have been found.

century it is called " Civitas Haugustaldenais " (Raine, i. 181).
 * Raine, ut supra, i. ix. In a MS. of the twelfth

f ' Altdeutsches Namenbuch,' ii. 691.

Forstemann, ut supra, ii. 153.

' Handbook to the Roman Wall,' 1885, p. 78.