Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/353

 9 th S. II. OCT. 29, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

345

in their right order, would have done just as well. The following explanation has occurred to me as possible. The proverb is French, that is, it came into existence in a Catholic country. Now Friday is a day of abstinence and Sunday a feast day in Catholic countries. Could not 'the original meaning, then, have been, " Those who feast when they ought to fast will fast when they ought to feast'"? That the proverb soon lost such signification is obvious ; but it is remarkable that Friday and Sunday were the days chosen, unless an ecclesiastical sense were intended.

T. P. ARMSTRONG. Putney.

CICERO ON THE DREYFUS CASE. In the twenty-ninth chapter of the speech of Cicero pro T. A. Milone the following words seem made on purpose to describe beforehand the hesitation of the French Ministry about the recall of the unlucky prisoner of the He du Diable, namely : " Etiamsi propter amicitiam vellet ilium ab inferis revocare, propter rem publicam non fecisset." PALAMEDES.

SUBSTANTIVES IN "ER" FORMED FROM VERBS ENDING IN "Y." The rule generally observed is that the y changes to i before the termination er; but respectable authorities are found deviating from the grammarians' directions. Browning, a precisian in such matters, has " ferry er " = ferryman in 'Balaus- tion's Adventure.' "Highflyer" is also the form in which the name of a well-known clipper always appeared in the shipping lists. PERTINAX.

"Too TOO." I think that we had discus- sions many years ago about the early use of this now, fortunately, decadent expression. I have just come across it in Johnson's trans- lation of 'Ambrose Parey,' London, 1649, folio :

"That leaving this too too cruel way of healing, (by the actual cautery) they would embrace this new, (by tyeing the arteries) which I think was taught me by the speciall favour of the sacred Deity."-P. 341.

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

[See 6 th S. iv. 266, 313 ; v. 36, 97, 336 ;vi. 197, 357 ; vii. 256 ; viii. 277. See also H. H. Furness's ' Ham- let,' American Variorum edition, notes on the word "too too."]

AN ANCIENT BRITISH TOWN IN GLAMORGAN- SHIRE. In the Western Mail of 4 Oct. "Morien" claims to have made a great dis- covery of nothing less, in fact, than the ruins of a large ancient British town in South Wales. I do not think that any account of this town has yet appeared in ' N. & Q. 3 The

following summary of " Morien's " interesting paper may, therefore, be welcome to its readers.

A passenger by the Taff Vale Railway, along the Rhondda branch up the valley, is familiar with a lofty mountain at the top of the valley called Pen Pych, or "the Head 01 the Projecting High Hill." This is flanked by two short valleys one called Cwm Sulsig, perhaps after a hermit of that name, the other Blaen Rhondda. After passing up the Blaen Rhondda the vale curves to the left, and the Rhondda forms a waterfall, near the foot of which is a boulder, now covered with fallen rock, called from time immemorial Y Garreg Lwyd, or the " Holy Stone." Below Garreg Lwyd the river is known as Rhyd-y- Cyllill, or " the Ford of the Daggers," and here, some time ago, a Roman dagger, now in the Cardiff Museum, was unearthed.* The hillside above the boulder is known by the name Iscood, or " Beneath the Shield " (from Latin scutum = shield or buckler). Beyond this again is a place called Rhyd-y-Scutan, or " the Ford of the Shield." These local place- names are extremely significant. Starting from Treherbert and entering into this dis- trict, "Morien "made for the mountains north of Blaen Rhondda. Passing through a country with many other suggestive place - names as, for instance, Rheg Oes, or " the Curse of the Age," LlunVawr, or "the Great Image " and Caer Moesau, or "the Town of Good Manners " he ultimately came upon immense heaps of stones on each side of the road :

"For hundreds of square yards above the road, on the flat of the mountain, were the ruins of countless numbers of small round houses. In the centre of each circular heap was a green plot of grass. In the midst of the other ruins was a large circle, likewise bordered with heaps of stones all round. Half a mile below the road we could see the brawling Rhondda, and further on, between the road and the river, where the mountain side is steep, were the ruins of scores of long terraces of round cottages, all facing the south. They were all built exactly alike, and in many the outlines of the entrance were distinguishable. In all directions were the markings of the ancient zigzag footpaths leading up from the river to the terraces. In one place is still to be seen the hollow circular stone font for catching rain-water with which the Druids sprinkled water from above upon their disciples. Lower down the valley, and not far from the river, I noticed several small tumuli and the ruins of small square buildings, probably ancient stables. Taking a view of the ruined town from near the river, its length appeared to be about a mile by half a mile broad, running up the hillside. Now, it seems certain that the ancient name of the town was Caer Moesau, or ' Town of Good Manners. The name Rheg Oes, or ' the Curse of the Age,' has reference to an awful massacre of the Druids which was perpetrated here by the Roman legions about