Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/220

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* 8. V. MABOH 17, 1900.

PROF. SKEAT says, " Bad philology ought to be a thing of the past." Yes ; and there is another thing which ought to be a thing of the past, and that is the habit, too common amongst men of letters, of giving uncon- sidered opinions. In the professions of medicine and law it is regarded as a serious thing to give an opinion without first weighing the evidence. It is otherwise in literature. I gratefully acknowledge the good philological work that PROF. SKEAT has done, but it is clear that in this case he has not considered the evidence which he pre- tends to criticize.

It will be soon enough for my critic to advise me to abandon philology when he has proved that I am wrong. First let him ad- dress himself, with some degree of precision, to the matter of this letter, and justify, if he can, the attack which he has made upon me.

S. O. ADDY.

" ARGH " (9 th S. v. 48, 97). I beg to thank PROF. SKEAT for his interesting reply to my query. He says, " I suppose there is no reason why there may not once have been a temple

at the places indicated." I think that this

cannot be satisfactorily admitted, as will be seen from the following examples taken from thirteenth-century charters, where in every case this word appears in a descriptive com- bination applied to the name of a " furlong ' : or "shot" in the arable fields of a vill. It is of so frequent occurrence in this connexion in early Lancashire charters that it is not easy to dissociate it from a meaning akin to " land ploughed or harrowed ":

" Una acra terrse arabilis in campo de Midelare, et una acraprati inter duos Midelare." 'Cockersanc Chartulary,' p. 77, s.t. ' Hackensall.'

" Campum de parva Midelare." Ibid.

"Duas acras terrse arabilis in dominico meo de Hacuneshou in cultura quse vpcatur Petit-middel

hargh ultra Middelargh sike." 'Register o

Lancaster Priory,' p. 353.

" Unam acram super Argolf incipiendo usqu<

ad Argolstan etunam acram in oriental! parte de

Argolgate." ' Cockersand Chartulary,' p. 120, 'Stamall.'

" Dimidia landa super Argehole totam terran

infra fossatas in campo de Dustesahe." Ibid., p. 220 s.t. * Preston.'

"Sexdecim acras terrse in Bretherton i

Siverthesarhe" (alibi Siverthesarge). Ibid., p. 471

"Tota terra infra divisas villa? de Bretarwe.

Ibid., p. 807.

These examples, which could be repeatec almost indefinitely, appear to discredit alto gether the derivation of argh from A.-S. hearh a heathen altar or temple. PROF. SKEAT shows however, that hearh might become in Anglo French spelling hargh, hergh, and so the case

tern hearg(e) would give harrow. On the south ide of the river Kibble argh is frequently oftened into arhe, arwe, equal to harrow, s in the last two instances given above. This eems to point to A.-S. hearge, a harrow, as a ossible derivation, bringing argh into the ategory of words applied to newly broken ground, such as rode, royd, ridding, Lat. xartus, assartus (vide Ducange's 'Glossary,' n voce). I suppose that there is no reason why the use of the harrow in preparing waste >r unbroken ground for a corn crop may not lave suggested the application to ground >rought under cultivation of a word derived rom the same (unknown) root as our harrow.

W. F.

Marton-in-Craven.

SLANG, WHEN FIRST USED (9 th S. v. 28). At a meeting of the Elizabethan Society held on 21 February, 1894, Mr. Arthur Hayward read a paper on ' Elizabethan Slang,' which was reported in the Academy of 17 March. Mr. Hayward said : "The first lexicographer sense was Grose in 1785."
 * o recognize the word * slang ' in its present

John Bee, in his ' Sportsman's Slang, a Dictionary and Varieties of Life,' 1825, says :

"Slangs are the greaves with which the legs of convicts are fettered, having acquired that name from the manner in which they were worn, as they required a sling of string to keep them off the ground. The irons were the slangs ; and the slang wearer's language was, of course, slangous, or par- taking much, if not wholly, of the slang."

This explanation of " slang " has been adopted by Charles Annandale in the ' Im- perial Dictionary,' 1883.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Jack Slang, the horse-doctor, was one of the company at " The Three Pigeons," whom Tony Lumpkin left his mother to meet in the nrst act of 'She Stoops to Conquer,' which was produced 15 March, 1773, and the name may have had an allusive meaning.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

RUBBING THE EYES WITH GOLD FOR LUCK (9 th S. v. 104). I do not remember having ever come across the interesting piece of Lin- colnshire folk-lore which MR. H. ANDREWS has extracted from Thomas Miller's ' Gideon Giles,' but there is a kindred belief regarding the efficacy of gold which is common here. Inflamed spots or gatherings on the eyelids often occur, especially among children and young people, and they are sometimes acutely painful. They are here known as styes or stynes, and to rub them with gold is regarded