Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/420

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* u. n. NOV. 19, t

number of characters expressly mentioned by surname, Christian name, or sobriquet.

I must confess that I was somewhat sur- prised that the number was not greater than it is. I have not included ' Nicholas Nickleby ' in the above list, because I do not happen to have with me the copy of that book which contains my analysis of the characters.

FREDERICK B. FIRMAN, M.A.

Castleacre, Swaffham.

"FEFNICUTE" (9 th S. ii. 367). There are further particulars as to this word and its meaning in the Manchester City News for 24 September, a copy of which I can forward if required. "Faff"," in the Lanes, dialect, means swagger, pretence. The dialect pre- serves many links between the Teutonic and English tongues. Many dialect words, too, closely resemble German words from the same root. Again, the endings in many moods and tenses of dialect conjugations resemble those in German verbs. There is no greater treat to a Lancashire man with a taste for philology than to conjugate for him, tense by tense, say, "fort' punse" (to kick) and loben. The word may be of Teutonic origin. If it be settled, the etymology of "pfiff-pfaff " = trifling nonsense, might throw light on the first syllable. ARTHUR MAYALL.

GORDON FAMILY (9 th S. ii. 128, 174, 235). At p. 174 MR. RADCLIFFE stated that the Gordon family derived descent from David, Earl of Huntingdon, through the marriage of Malise, sixth Earl of Stra theme, with Egidia, daughter of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Bucnan. This 1 find in Burke's ' Extinct Peerage.' But the admirable 'Complete Peerage ' of G. E. C. enters very fully into the marriages of the later Earls of Stratherne, and nowhere indicates a possibility of this marriage having taken place. Is there any proof 1 May I take this opportunity of thanking MR. RADCLIFFE for his kind reply to my query ? A. CALDER.

CAMELRY (9 th S. ii. 245, 313). It is a mis- take to suppose that this word is only four- teen years old. It is forty-four. Our Editor, in admitting the note at the first reference, indicated where this information could be found. But it is the sad fate of the poor 'H.E.D.' not only to be forgotten when its information is needed, but tope ignored even when attention is directed to it. Lid dell and Scott suggested the word camelry with good reason. 17 KcjU7jAos signifies a body of men mounted on camels, just as 17 IWos signifies a body of men mounted on horses ; but while for the one there is in English a similar

iiction, as in " the horse of an army " and " a oody of horse," for the other there are no such corresponding phrases as "the camel of an army and "a oody of camel." Nor, indeed, does the camel in that guise seem easy to swallow. It seemed preferable to form a new word on the analogy of cavalry, a word with ancestral relationship to Ka/3aAAr?s (for we have no such word as hijywry from our nearer Friend iWos) ; and so, to satisfy a want which did not become acutely felt till many years afterwards, the wise lexicographers gave us camelry. KILLIGREW.

WATER CORN-MILL (9 th S. ii. 268). The Romans might very well have established water-mills in England, for Pliny observes ('N. H.,' xviii. 10) that "Major pars Italise ruido utitur pilo, rotis etiam quas aqua verset obiter, et molat," for the preparation of wheat.

It may be shown that in various places mills in Domesday Book, as, for instance, in the parish in which I am writing, most probably mean water-mills.

In the reign of Henry II. a water-mill near Bicester, Oxon, is described in a charter as existing antiquitus :

"Et quoddam pratuneulum quod vocatur Hamma quod extenditur de crofta Serici de Wrechwic per la mulnedam usque illuc ubi novus rivulus descendit in veterera rivulum et ipsam mulnedam ad facien- dum ibi molindinum ubi fuit antiquitus " (an. 1182, in Kennett's 'Par. Ant.,' Oxf., 1695, pp. 134, 135).

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A. Sandford St. Martin.

In Mr. Alfred C. Fryer's ' Llantwit Major : a Fifth-Century University,' the following passage occurs (p. 94) :

" We read in the lolo MSS., p. 420, the following : 'In 340 A.D. wind and water mills were first erected in Cumbria, where previously only hand mills were known.'"

In R. H. Digby's 'Mores Catholicised. 1845, i. 4, it is stated that the Benedictines made the first windmills in the eleventh century. N. M. & A.

Surely abbey charters as early as twelfth century, or private deeds of the fourteenth century, would name mills. Every district must have had a mill where water power was obtainable. EMMA ELIZ. THOYTS.

TRAFALGAR CHAPEL (9 th S. ii. 328). Is not this the chapel in Earl Nelson's park ? The estate was formerly called Standlynch, and a chapel, founded in 1147, stood in the park. The present building was erected some time in the last century. I fancy it used to be extra- parochial ; but I have some recollection of a parish having been carved out of Downton