Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/103

 9 lh S. VII. FEB. 2, 1901.)

NOTES AND QUERIES.

95

drawn down over their eyes when at thei nefarious practices. The phrase was probabl, suggested by the game of "hood man-blind, as in Scotland the person who hoodwink another in " blind man's buff" is called ; "billy-blinder": "Ay, weel I wot that's littl short of a billy-blinder. An a' tales be true yours is nae lie " ('Perils of Man,' iii. 387), J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

NOTE ON A PASSAGE IN CHAUCER'S 'PRO LOGUE ' (9 th S. vi. 365, 434, 463 ; vii. 30). think A. C. W. has hardly kept pace with th< increase of knowledge as to the phonetics o Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. There is no proof that, in such a collocation of letters as cege, ege, ige, the g had any guttural sounc at all approaching that of the g in go ; ano that is no doubt why Dr. Sweet, in his 'Anglo-Saxon Primer,' now marks all such g$ with a dot and directs us to pronounce them as y. A.nd, at an early date, all such groups passed into a mere diphthong, the e disap-

B taring altogether, if not final. This is why r. Sweet, in his ' History of English Sounds, pp. 293-4, gives as Middle English forms such monosyllables as hail, snail, fayr, fain nay I (implied in the verb naylen), main, tail, payle, brain. This was early, universal, and in all dialects ; so that the supposition that such a word as rail was still dissyllabic in Chaucer's time is quite out of the question. The word rail was already spelt hrcegl in the 'Blickling Homilies,' ana even hrcel, as in Thorpe's * Diplomatarium,' p. 170, 1. 10, A.D. 924. The notion about Chaucer's reading Anglo-Saxon poems with intelligence is quite new to me. WALTER W. SKEAT.

SCOTTISH NAMES IN FROISSART (9 th S. vii. 28). The following extract may interest G. S. C. S., though it relates not to a Scottish, but to an English family. It is taken from a letter written in 1820 by Robert Surtees, the historian of the County Palatine of Durham, to Sir Cuthbert Sharp, the author of 'A History of Hartlepool ':

" 'Tis a strange mistake, and may amuse you in France, that Froissart mentions a Baron Aveugle, who, nevertheless, evidently had the full use of his eyes, and could see to lay on his blows, and this turns out to be literally the Baron of Ogle." See Geo. Taylor's 'Life of Surtees,' edited for the Surtees Society by the Rev. James Raine, 1852, p. 397.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

MEDALLIONS ON JUG (9 th S. vi. 190). I find that^at 6 th S. x. 348 a plate was described bearing the same heads and letters, but with the addition of an inscription in Dutch refer- ring to the prosperity of the house of Orange.

This inscription was translated at p. 376, but the letters were left unexplained. With this clue, however, one can guess that P.W. and F.S.W. are the initials of some prince and princess, and that PVOR represents P. V. OR., i.e., Prince of Orange Possibly D. 5 (or on the plate D.V.) may mean " fifth Duke. " I shall be glad if any correspondent can help.

W. C. B.

MARIOLE " IN A CHARTER (9 th S. vii.

47). If there be reason to believe that the phrase denotes geese, we should read auce (aucoe) ; but I can make nothing of mariole in this connexion. J. T. F.

Durham.

ETON COLLEGE AND RAM HUNTING (9 th S. vi. 230, 374). I have just come across a con- temporary account of this " solemnity " in the Norwich Mercury of 8 August, 1730 (reprint No. 43, 7 July, 1888), from which it appears that the custom of "blooding" a novice obtained in this " sport," as well as in those of foxhunting, otterhunting, and deerstalk- ing, so recently quoted in 4 N. & Q.' (vide ' Otter Hunting : Christening,' 9 th S. vi. 270, 334). " His Royal Highness the Duke" was, presumably, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the second son of George II., who was born in 1721 :

"Eton, August 1. This Day was celebrated the Anniversary Diversion of hunting the Ram by the Scholars : What made the Solemnity more remark- able was that his Royal Highness the Duke was jleas'd to honour it with his Presence ; the Captain of the School presented him with a Ram Club, with vhich his Royal Highness struck the first Stroke. 3is Royal Highness was in at the Death of the 3-am ; and his Club was bloody'd, according to ustom. There was afterwards a Speech made by he Captain, at which the Duke was also present ; le then proceeded to see the Chappel, the Hall, he Library, the School, and the Long Chamber, ,nd it was generally observed, that his Royal High- ness returned to Windsor very well pleased."

G. YARROW BALDOCK. South Hackney.

SUFFOLK NAME FOR LADYBIRD (9 th S. v.

48, 154, 274; vi. 255, 417). It may not be enerally known that the ladybird, or May >ug, is named after the Virgin Mary. Possibly t is an unconscious survival of the old

mediaeval reverence which has protected his pretty insect from the cruelty which hildren but too often love to exercise over elpless living creatures. "Ladybird [ lady,

meaning Our Lady, i.e., the Virgin Mary,

- bird; cf. German Marienkdfer, lit. Mary-

eetle]" (Johnson's 'Univ. Cyclop.,' New

ork, 1895). "Ladybird. The name is appa-

ently a modification of ladybug, lady referring