Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 s. v. JAN. 20, 1000.

thinking that these things formed " a part of the Titus Gates movement." The fact that Strype, Lingard, and many other con- scientious writers have been misled by them is to be deplored, but is not surprising. Persons who study history in a profitable manner do so with the sole object of arriving at truth; they are, however, no more pro- tected from the wiles of the forger than other people. We may smile, but we do not seriously blame those who, on their first appearance, accepted as genuine relics of the past Macpherson's * Ossian,' Chatter-ton's 4 Rowley/ or Ireland's ' Shakespeare.'

To discuss these Ware documents on their merits would require many pages, and must of necessity lead the writer to dwell on matters unfit for the pages of *N. & Q.' Therefore, in case 1 have anything further to say on the subject, as possibly I may have, those who desire to follow the controversy will have to look elsewhere.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

THE GOLD COINS OF THE FORUM (9 th S. iv. 513). This note well illustrates the facilis descensus of money values. The solidus or solid coin, not plated, is the French sou. Is it not also our shilling 1 Further, is not the shilling a true representative of the A.S. silver penny, value 10c?., twenty such pennies making a " pound Scots " 1 Here the survival of the word " pound " equates the Roman aureus, our pound sterling. A. H.

"MEMORIZE" (9 th S. iv. 438). From in- quiries made here and in Edinburgh this Americanism does not seem to be in use yet, but it will probably find quarters soon, as Americanisms are readily assimilated by the ordinary Scotch, although they look con- temptuously when a native "puts on his English." The phrase "That takes the cake" is in every -day use and has developed some remarkable local forms, such as " That cops the cookie," "That taks the bannick." I suppose the abuse of "awful" came ori- ginally from Americans; for this alone they deserve some mild kind of plague in addition to the "awful" one. A. F. H.

Perth.

"MAYS" (9 th S. iv. 147, 233). The patronal fete of Chateauneuf coincides with May Day, and is always spoken of as "Le Mai." It is, or used to be, celebrated with dancing on "La Chaume," a grassy avenue continuing the high street into the coppice woods of M. le Comte de Vogue, the owner of the castle, whose own chdteau is at

Commarin; and in the evening, or in case of wet, in "la Salle du Chateau," or great hall of the castle. I remember some forty or forty - two years ago a cherry bough in blossom being plucked for the Queen of the May. My mother used to tell me that it was the custom for the young men to place may boughs in the windows of their sweethearts. She used to speak also of a song being sung called, I think, ' La Raie d'Amour.' In this a "laurel tree" is mentioned. She told me also that when her mother was married the then Comte de Vogue presented her with a crimson sash and a wreath of myrtle.

THOMAS J. JEAKES. Tower House, New Hampton.

" HOON AFF" (9 th S. iv. 517). This signifies "hold off" or "delay." Jamieson gives the same verb under the form hune, and inter- prets it as meaning in Ayrshire "to stop, not to go on," and in Clydesdale " to loiter." The sb. hune, in the phrase " withoutin hune," equivalent to "without delay," is quoted by Jamieson from Dunbar; ana the form hone occurs in Gavin Douglas's translation of '^Eneid,' vii. 430. Prof. Saintsbury, in his 'Short History of English Literature,' p. 191, risks the assertion that Douglas "does not embroider on his text "; but this view seems remarkable for its courage rather than for its accuracy. Let us see how the matter stands here, premising that Douglas's gra- tuitous but hone denotes " without delay." Alecto, in disguise of Calybe, thus addresses Turnus :

Quare age, et armari pubem portisque moveri Loetus in arma para : et Phrygios, qui flumine

pulchro

Consedere, duces, pictasque exure carinas : Ctelestum vis magria jubet.

As given by Douglas this passage stands

thus :

Haue done therfor, assembill this cuntre, Addres thi fensable men in thair array, Enarmyt glaidly move and hald }our way Towart the portis or havynnis of the see, And .set apoun jonne same Troiane nien^e : Drive thair cheftanis of this land, but hone, Thair pantit carvellis birne : so to be done The gret power of hevinlye goddis devyne Commandit hes, decret, and determyne.

See Small's 'Works of Gavin Douglas,' iii. Ill; and cp. with hums=linyers in same work, iv. Ill, and huvit in i. 92. See also ' Hoo ' and ' Hove ' in Jamieson. THOMAS BAYNE.

CORRESPONDENCE OF ENGLISH AMBASSADORS TO FRANCE (9 th S. v. 7). Viscount Scudamore was ambassador at Paris 1635-9, and per- haps for a longer period. Some of his unpublished correspondence will be found in