Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/418

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. MAY 27,

should be put to death or not, and that it was carried in the affirmative, except his own vote and another. Baxter told it to a Privy Councillor (Sylvester, ' Baxter's Nar- rative of his Life,' 1696, part ii. pp. 373, 374).

In 1646 the Romish authorities in England wrote to their several convents, and to the Sorbonne, to know if it was lawful "to make away" with Charles I. The Sorbonne re- turned answer " that it was lawful " (Bram- hall, * Works,' 1842, vol. i. p. xcv).

See more upon this obscure and singular subject in Baxter, l Key for Catholics,' 1659, p. 323 ; and in Prynne, ' Rome's Masterpiece,' 1643; also in Heylin, 'Life of Laud,' 1639 and 1640 ; especially in Ware, * Foxes and Firebrands,' 1682, part iii., and in Du Moulin, 'Obedience to Sovereigns,' 1664, p. 58; and some valuable letters in Arckceoloc/ia, 1832, vol. xxiv. p. 141, as noticed in 'K. & Q .,' 8 th S. xii. 401. M.A.

IMPRESSIONS OF SEALS (9 th S. iii. 169, 333). Many years ago an engraver of gold, silver, and brass seals cut a matrix for me, and when sending it to me enclosed with it a most beautiful impression of it on red sealing- wax. Soon afterwards I called at his shop, praised the seal and the impression sent with it, and asked him how the latter was made, and thereupon in my presence he struck another impression of the matrix, which I happened to have with me. To the best of my recollection the way he did it was as follows : He took a stout, stiff visiting card and put on it a little heap of finely powdered good red sealing-wax, and then held the card over a gas jet at such a height that the paper- was not burnt and only slightly scorched. In a short time the wax melted into a brilliant circular button on which he firmly pressed the matrix. He did not take the impression until the wax had cooled a little, but at once on raising the seal he lightly painted the wax with a camel's-hair brush dipped in vermilion mixed with artists' oil. Before using the matrix he made sure that it was quite clean, cold, and dry, and he did not leave it on the wax long enough to grow hot and adhere. Probably a hot iron held above, but close to the powdered sealing-wax, would melt it as effectually as heat applied below the paper. I have no doubt that particles of wax can be removed by washing the matrix with a little brandy, whisky, or other strong spirit.

C. DEBOSCO.

"STOOK" (9 th S. iii. 206, 357). At the last reference it is said that Nuttall connects stook with G. stanch. This is a good example of disregard of phonetic laws. G. lauch

corresponds to E. leek; so G. stanch would I correspond to E. steek. But does any one talk of a steek of corn ? Fliigel's ' G. Diet.' gives stauch, a toss, jolt, cuff; also a short and narrow muff. But what have these to do with stook ?

Of course I know what it all means. Nuttall simply copied Wedgwood, who gives "G. stauch, Prov. G. stuke, properly a pro- jection, heap, or bunch." This is given by Fliigel as "stuke, pro vine, a stump of a tree, a heap." The Bremen 'Worterbuch' gives stuke, a heap, or bundle ; thus a heap of six turves is called stuke; and in Holstein buck- wheat is set up in stuken to dry. Seeing that G. u really corresponds to E. oo, as in the case of pjtuhl, a pool, this is much more to the point.

If people, instead of guessing or copying guesses, would only verify the voivel- sounds, we should then make progress. It is not difficult. In my ' Principles of E. Etymology,' Series 1. p. 91, 1 explain that mod. E. oo corre- sponds to A.-S. o, Du. oe, G. u, Icel. o ; and I S've as an example E. stool, A.-S. stol, u. stoel, G. stuhl, Icel. stolL At p. 162 it is shown that A.-S. o is related by gradation to short a, as in the case of shake (with a lengthened from A.-S. scdc-ari), pt. t. shook (A.-S. scoc). Hence it is that stack and stook are mere variants, and have much the same sense. At the same time I do not think that a was the ultimate root -vowel. We may start from the root stek-, to pierce, with the Teutonic gradations stak- and stuk-, and the (unusual) strong gradation stok-, for which see Brugmann's explanation. In this view we can obtain the A.-S. stycce, mod. E. stitch, from the grade stuk- with the usual mutation. A good quotation for stitch, in the sense of stook, may be seen in Halli well's ' Dictionary. WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE GOLDEN GATE (9 th S. iii. 349). The entrance to the port of San Francisco was probably so named because when the fame of the town's gold resources was first spread abroad about 1848 the magnificent harbour must have been a veritable golden gate to those who entered it then a poorly populated Spanish mission station on the way to realize their El Dorado dreams.

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

ENDOWING PURSE (9 th S. iii. 328). In the Middle Ages, and in the north of Europe, money was presented by the bridegroom to the bride the day after the wedding under the name of Morgengabe, or morning pre- sent. Something of the kind prevailed in England under the name of the " dow purse."