Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/217

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s. in. MA*, is, 99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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>able that the changes, like Elizabeth's pro- lamation of 1560 calling in the base money net with much popular disapproval.

GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool.

I think the expression " white money," in t he quotations given by M. 0. L., refers to the ( ebased silver coinage, which from the year 1 546 bsgan to fall in value, and though King 1 Edward VI. made an attempt to remedy the evil, it continued to do so until the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She, however, carried out the reform begun by her brother. Cooper, in his 'Chronicle,' London, 1560, fol. 351, in his remarks on the depreciation and alterations in the monetary value, says :

"With this alteracion moste poore men were nmche greued, for theyr whole substaunce lay in that kinde of mony, where as the rycher sorte, partely by frendshyp understanding the thing before hande, dyd put that kynde of money away : partely knowynge the baseness of the coyne, kept in store none but good golde and olde syluer, that woulde not brynge anye losse."

JOHN KADCLIFFE.

" FAROW" (9 fch S. ii. 346). I can only suggest a query in this case. Is it not the proper name Pharaoh, used as a verb? "An old Pharaoh " is a common expression still in Monmouthshire, and so is "acting the Pharaoh" both in Welsh and English. I venture to offer this as a suggestion.

D. M. K.

MONTAIGNE AND EAST ANGLIA (9 th S. iii.

144). Montaigne does not say, " Higham or

Eyquem," but simply " Eyquem." " Higham "

is merely Florio's conjecture, and even were

it accepted there are numerous Highams

in various parts of England, besides two

Heighams (pronounced Hayham) in Norfolk.

lit was then the fashion in France to claim

I foreign ancestry, and I should imagine that


 * Montaigne's allusion was to the Ascham


 * family, for he might have assumed that the

s, as in many French names, was silent. But

as there are several villages in Guienne called

Eyquem, Ayquem, or Yquem, we need not go

further afield for the origin of the numerous

Eyquems, Aiquems, and Ayquelins who

Iflourished in and round Bordeaux in the

ime of his grandfather Raymon Eyquem.

This I pointed out in the Times, 5 Sept., 1892.

J. G. ALGER.

Paris.

I am afraid, permit me to remark, that esteemed corroborative of the belief enter- tained by C. J. I. that Montaigne was of 'English ancestry." On the contrary, it
 * he evidence I have in this case will not be

indicates very plainly indeed that, instead of English, the celebrated essayist had Jewish blood in his veins. I beg to quote, for the information of your correspondent, the fol- lowing from p. 237 of my copy of ' Michel de Montaigne : a Biographical Study,' by M. E. Lowndes (Cambridge, 1898) :

" M. Malvezin gives the result of a most thorough investigation of deeds and documents relative to the essayist's family. He is at some pains to disprove the notion, based on two passages in the essays, that the Eyquems were of English extraction, and he establishes the existence of the Eyquems in Guyenne before the English occupation. The English reader may be permitted a regret that M. Malvezin has not come across any trace of that English cousin ship referred to by the essayist. ' Une nation,' he says of the English, ' a laquelle ceux de mon quartier out eu autrefois une si privee accointance, qu'il reste encore en ma maison aucunes traces de nostre ancien cousinage.' And again : ' Et si les miens se sont autre- fois surnommez Eyquem, surnom qui touche encores une maison cogneue en Engleterre.' On the other hand, M. Malvezin opens up a new vein of specula- tion, for those interested ^n race affinities, by his discovery of Jewish blood in Montaigne's mother, Anthoinette de Louppes." Italics are mine. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

Clapham, S.W.

" CATCHING THE SPEAKER'S EYE " (8 th S. ix. 208, 338). The earliest use of this phrase I have noted is in the Monthly Magazine for 1798, in which is a letter upon * Whimsical Peculiarities of Expression.' In this it is observed :

" What is meant by the common expression, when a member rises to speak, of 'Catching the Speaker's eye ' ? If it mean anything, I should apprehend it must mean nearly the reverse of what the words import, namely, that the Speaker's eye catches the member first, and so gives the precedence in speaking."

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

TOM TIT TOT' (9 th S. iii. 146). Several versions of the " Pudding and tame " rhyme have been printed in *N. & Q.,' 6 th S. i. 417 ; ii. 55, 277. W. C. B.

WOLLASTON ARMS (9 th S. ii. 429; iii. 29, 78). In the extract quoted by MR. LAYTON at the second reference, Mr. K. E. Chester Waters is hardly correct in saying that Alice Coburne's " disconsolate lover raised a monu- nent to her memory in Stratford Church." The church in question is commonly known as Bow Parish Church, and officially as the church of St. Mary, Stratford, Bow. Miss Alice Coburne's monument occupies a position about the centre of the north clearstory wall, and opposite a similar one to the memory of ler mother, Mrs. Prisca Coburne. As it can nly be examined with the aid of a ladder, it probably very seldom receives the attention