Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/352

 406 [9th 8. IV. Nov. 11, '99. NOTES AND QUERIES. occurred in a village near Welshpool. where "that ancient Servant of the Lord," .Richard Davies, visited. The gate to the common evidently served the function of the village pond in many places. RICHARD LAWSON. Urmaton. MONSTER FROM THE TIBER (9th S. iv. 226). —N. M. <fe A. will find Rococioli's hook, con- sisting of four leaves without pagination, in the British Museum, 11,405 c. 64 (2) [Modena, 1500?], 4to. It is entitled, according to the Catalogue, "Ad Illustrissimum Herculem Estensom F. Rococioli Mutinensis Libellus de Monstro Romse i' Tyberireperto anno D'ni MCCCCLXXXXVI." Q. V. THE SURNAME MORCOM (9th S. iv. 148, 312). —MR. PENNY hazards the remarkable as- sertion that " Malcolm, being presumably a Gaelic word, may have the same roots and be practically the same word " as Morcom, which he internists as the Welsh Mor-cwm or Maer- cwm. It is disheartening to come across such a suggestion in ' N. & Q.' There is hardly a Gaelic name of which the meaning is so simple—maol Coluim, the servant of Colum (latinized Columba). Maol — lo&ld or shaven, is the usual term for a servant, shaving being the immemorial badge of servitude. There is a town in Renfrewshire of which the name has been sadly garbled by the railway authorities. Kilmacolm it is, with the accent on the last syllable, that is, cill (the locative case of ceall) mo Coluim, the cell or chapel of dear Colum ; but at the railway station it appears in large letters as Kilmalcom, and one often hears it pronounced by strangers with the stress on the penultimate, which obscures the dedication to Columba of the Churches, and makes the sense to be "the cell of Colum's servant." HERBERT MAXWELL. I have met with Morcom as a surname in West Dorset; and about two miles east of Charmouth, where the road to Bridport slips through a high gap in the hill, is a hamlet called Morcomlake. LOBUC. This name cannot have been derived from Mawr Cwm, because if it represents great hollow it would have taken the form of Cum- mor, Cwm Mawr. Compare Penmaeninawr, Head-stone-great. JOHN P. STILWELL. Hilfield, Yateley, Hanto. Is there any reason why this should not be a surname from the place-name "More- cambe" (which is commonly so pronounced, exactly)? In that case would not "the bending (or winding) sea " be the meaning ? BULTITUDE. THE LETTER P AS A ROMAN NUMERAL (8th S. xii. 148).—More than two years ago I in- quired at this reference if the letter P was used as a numeral, and surmised that in the case mentioned P stood for X by mistake. I now find from consulting Capelli's' Dizionario di Abbreviature' that P is a contraction for quadringenta, which is Latin for four hundred. My surmise was, however, cor- rect, and therefore a printer's error over two hundred years old lea to the discovery of the information. ARTHUR MAYALL. CREST ON A HORN (9Ul S. iv. 328).—Ought not the inscription to be preceded by H., and so read, " H[is] Mfajesty's] ship San Josef taken Feb. 14, 1797"? The 112-gun Spanish ship San Josef surrendered to Commodore Nelson on " St. Valentine's Day," 1797, when Sir John Jervis won the battle of St. Vincent and his earldom. At the commencement of 1799 the San Josef was one of the eleven " First Rates," and second only to Le Com- merce de Marseilles (120 guns) in the British Navy. 1 cannot but think that the crest on the other side of the horn must be intended for that of Earl St. Vincent, i.e., " Out of a naval crown or, enwrapped by a wreath of laurel vert, a demi-pegasus argent, maned and hoofed of the first, winged az., charged on the wing with a fleur-de-lis gold " (Burke). The Naval Chrrmide, July, 1800, gives, " Out of a naval crown or, encircled with a garland of oak proper, a demi-pegasus, winged azure, and charged on the sinister wing with a fleur-de-lis or," as St. Vincent's crest. F. L. MAWDESLEY. Delwood Croft, Yorks. REV. RICHARD BUTLER (9th S. iv. 329).—See Cotton's ' Fasti Ecclesize Hibernicse ' (supple- ment, 1878), p. 98: "A very interesting memoir of him was printed, but not published, by his widow. 4to., 1863." C. E. " As FC 's THE BALTIC " (9th S. iv. 288, 336).— In this part of the north of Ireland, which lies within the Ulster Plantation area, many old words and phrases are still current among the descendants of the original Scottish Border families. Thus I have often heard the expression "as drunk as Baity " used among the peasantry here. 1 never quite knew what it meant; but I have no doubt that both expressions are identical in meaning. S. A. D'ARCY, L.R.C.P. and S.I. Rosslea, Clones, co. Fermanagh. CHRISTIANITY IN ROMAN BRITAIN (9th S. iv. 229, 334).—Your correspondent MR. F. DAVIS is in error when he says " the only Romano-