Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/283

 w.s.rv.OOT.28,'99.] NOTES AND QUERIES, 347 yet there was found none at a date prior to the building in Kirton upon which their arras were in juxtaposition. I am therefore in- clined to think that the three water-bougets do not represent Roos, but Kirton or Kirkton, as Papworth and Morant and other heraldic works give the same arms to the latter family, although they are supposed to have borne " Barry of six, gu. and arg." Unfortunately, all trace of tincture has disappeared, or that would have settled the matter, as the Kirkton arms were Az., three water-bougets arg., and those of Roos, Gu., three water-bougets arg. (or errn. or or). I venture a suggestion that the building was erected by Sir John Kirkton (who died 1367-8), as he is described as lord of Kirkton and also lord of Tateshale, and he being the last male of that ancient race, at his death the Tateshale property devolved upon one of the Cromwell descendants. How- ever, there is the fact that inquis. p.m make him to have been lord of both Kirton and Tattershale, so it may account for the en- trance arch to the old building springing from the coats of his two lordships, Kirkton on the dexter and Cromwell quartering Tates- hale on the sinister side. Can any readers of 'N. <fe Q.' inform me how Sir John Kirkton or his ancestors became possessed of Tates- hale, or what right he had to use the quartered arms of Cromwell and Tateshale; or give the alliances of these families ? C. T. J. Moore, C.B., F.S.A. Frampton Hall, near Boston. Ben Jonson.—I wish to ask if any reader of ' N. <fe Q.' can give me the reference to the passage in Ben Jonson where he says that soul is a succedaneum for salt:— "A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us, is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the frightfulest sort; to 'save us,' says he, ' the expense of nalt.'"—-Carlyle's ' Past and Present,' book ii. chap. ii. p. 42. " In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the tout out of him ; and now, after the due period, —begins to find the want of it Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt."—P. 118. Edward E. Morris. The University, Melbourne. Ailanthus.—This ornamental tree was in- troduced into this country from China ; but the word is said in the dictionaries to be derived from the name of a species which grows in the Moluccas, and to mean " tree of heaven" on account of the great height attained by it. Can any of your readers say in what language it has that meaning? It does not appear that it can have such a signi- fication in Malay, since a tree in that lan- guage is "pokok or "pohun," whilst "soorga" or "surga" stands for heaven. (See W. E. Maxwell's ' Manual of the Malay Language.') W. T. Lynn. "Polder": " Loophole."—In the 'Etymo- logisch Woordenboek derNederlandscheTaal,' door Dr. Johannes Franck ('s Gravenhage, 1892), it is said of the very common Dutch word j>older that " de etymologie is nog niet scevonden." Therefore every student of the language has the right and the duty to try to find it. Does any phonetic law forbid the word to come from palvxkvria (terra) = marshy land ? Talking of Dutch word-lore, is it impossible that English loophole come from Lowland loop = the barrel of a gun? Presumably before guns were invented the word meant the projecting parts of the other instruments of war which would run out of the holes in the walls of fortresses in time of need. Or is the word connected with loopen = to run? Are there not fortresses of mediaeval date in which there are wind-doors or wind-eyes large enough for a man to squeeze through and run away ? The modern Dutch word for the thing is lits-yat. Can this mean a slit for a body to go out through ? If so, it is a distant cousin of lych-gate. The peasants in Zuid Holland say vlder in the sense of English udder. This does not appear in the ordinary dictionaries, of which 'Campagnas Schoofwoordenboek' is probably the worst. They give uier. Palamedes. Words of Song Wanted.—Can any of your correspondents furnish me with the words of an old song which I have reason to believe was a favourite with the peasantry of Somer- setshire, if not of the south-west of England generally, about the middle or end of last century ? It describes the life led by a hard- working man and a discontented wife who wants him to emigrate to Virginia. I can only give a few of the lines, and even these I have never seen in print. The interest of the verses lies not in their literary merit, but in the story they tell, for, according to the narrative, after long nagging the man at last apparently consents to emigrate as de- sired. He gets his wife on board a vessel bound for America, and makes a secret bar- gain with the captain, who undertakes to carry her off and sell her as a slave to some of the planters. Now, are there any authentic instances on record of such acts having been perpetrated? Sir Walter Scott; in 'The Heart of Midlothian,' refers to a similar occurrence, for the son of Effie Deans and Robertson is entrapped and carried across the seas to work