Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/120

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. v. FEB. 10, 1900.

of physical well-being. This fact of its being "one of the first things wanted when we come into the world, and one of the last that we part with when we go out," probably accounts for the custom of sponsors presenting their godchildren at christenings with one or more spoons ; or, again, that of making such a present on visiting a " lady in the straw," whence it is said to " administer comfort to ladies when they * lie in,' and to every person before being 'laid out'"; and, still again, in the case alluded to by G. W., though one was not aware that this was customary. A silver spoon was a talisman in possession of which the recipient or possessor would never want such it is still to him who is born with one in his mouth and the gift of a wooden spoon, unless it implied a very modest amount of "good luck," would seem to convey a sly, if "not sarcastic allusion to the probability of the marriage proving at the expiration of five years a failure, because the fifth anniversary of the nuptial ceremony is spoken of as a " wooden wedding," as that of the tenth is called a "tin wedding," the twenty-fifth a "silver," the fiftieth a "golden," and the seventy-fifth a "diamond wedding." Such a gift also reminds one of a similar distinction conferred upon the last of the honour men, the Junior Optimes in the Cambridge Uni- versity, who are designated " wooden spoons," because of old they were presented with a wooden spoon, while the honour men had a silver or golden one. At the annual White- bait Dinner of the Government ministers, a rigorous account of every vote of those members who are in the House of Commons having been kept, the lowest in the list is, or was, presented with a wooden spoon; and among the presents received generally at the mess-table one Christmas Eye, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, who had got into the Engineers " by the skin of his teeth," received a wooden spoon in playfully sarcastic allusion to his

luck. J. H. MACMICHAEL.

Wooden spoons are given to brides "for luck." I never heard that any implication of a jocose or gibing nature was intended. A wooden spoon is, however, sometimes sent to a too demonstrative lover to indicate that he is "spooney," but this is another story.

C. 0. B.

The wooden spoon appears to be a sort oi jocular wedding present. I asked a man from the country what meaning attached to it, and he replied, "Why, it's to feed the bairns with wneii they come."

H. ANDREWS.

At Cambridge the last Junior Optime who 'wooden spoon," to denote that he is only it to stay at home to stir porridge, which may be the hidden meaning of the marriage
 * akes a University degree is called the

ft of a wooden spoon.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

THE NAME SWIGG (9 th S. iv. 329, 464). This surname is not necessarily "a corrupt r orm of some German name." Its probable origin is the A.-S. swige, found in some MSS. as swigge silent, quiet; and it should be classed with the numerous cognomens de- rived from personal attributes or peculiarities, such as (leaving out the purely cornplexional lames) Daft, Moody, Swift with its equiva- ent Snell, Sharp, Quick, Slick, Wise, Gay, Jruikshanks, Sheepshanks, Golightly, Swire ^neck), Speakman, Speaklittle, and many others ; and equated not etymologically with the German Stumm, Roman Tacitus, &c., but apparently not with the German Schweig or Schweich.

I do not, for more than one reason, favour a possible origin from the A.-S. swica, Middle and Dialectal English swike = deceiver, traitor, perhaps seen in an old cant name for a rogue, 'Swigman." HY. HARRISON.

"WROTH SILVER" (9 th S. v. 4). His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch is much to be com- mended for the zeal with which he has fostered the continuance of the curious Martinmas custom of collecting the " wroth silver " annually on Knightlow Hill, in Warwickshire. On Martinmas day last year that intrepid

Ehotographer Sir Benjamin Stone, M.P.. )rmed one of the company of visitors, and obtained a series of photographs illustrative of the ceremony. The scene on Knightlow Hill before sunrise on a dull November morning has been graphically described more than once by journalists who have succeeded in making the necessary effort to be present. In 1896 the Daily Telegraph representative was there, and afterwards dubbed the noble Duke "the last of the Druids." The Daily News devoted to the subject in 1881 an article which con- tains much valuable detail. In 1892 a Graphic artist was present and sketched the scene. His picture duly appeared in the Graphic of 17 Dec., 1892, and was accom- panied by about a column of descriptive letterpress in which the opinions of " two great antiquaries" are given as to the mean- ing of "wroth." For some years one of the most regular witnesses of the ceremony was Mr. 11. T. Simpson, of llugby. This gentleman collected a mass of information and curious