Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/149

 9* s. vni. AUG. 17, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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strange ; in fact, I fail to understand how, when, and why English ideas became so dis- sociated from continental ideas on the subject. At one time England assuredly had & noblesse like that abroad, nobility, of course, originally being something that could neither be given nor acquired, but must be by blood and descent. Surely this is the most rational view to take of nobility. In England there seem to be a number of families who are regarded as " gentle," but who appear to have sprung from traders, &c. ; while frequently the descendants of the really ancient families are poor and occupy obscure positions, and are unaware of their noble origin, and even if they are aware of it will coolly say that they are not noble because of their poverty. But a true noblesse, of course, includes poor and honoured members as well as rich ones. Then, again, many people seem to delight in trying to prove that this, that, or the other family is not noble, in a way that strongly reminds one of the fox and the grapes Many people either do not know or wilfully shut their eyes to the fact that Time brings many changes to families as well as things, and that the powerful family of centuries ago, even if it has equally powerful repre- sentatives at the present day, is likely to have also very poor representatives descended either direct from that family or from col- lateral branches. Contrast a modern French history with one of England. The former, in speaking of the nobles of ancient times, refers to all men of noble race ; whereas the English history more often than not refers to the nobility of, say, the eleventh century, as though it merely included rich and powerful people, and all the remainder were com- moners. Contrast the description given by Thierry of the Norman nobles with that given by a modern English writer. I am seeking for information, as I haye not yet come across any book that explains why English nobility possesses the peculiar features of the present day. I am as one

f roping in darkness, trying to find the light, requently have I met with men in the position of tillers of the soil, &c., who are undoubted descendants of noble families, which, passing through various vicissitudes, now number amongst their members those who are quite ignorant of the stock from which they spring. FEENCHMAN.

" To BEAT A BANK." The following is to be found in Rae's * History of the Late Rebellion,' Dumfries, 1718, chap. v. p. 251 :

"About Eleven at Night, a Bank was beat thro' the Town, arid Intimation was made to all Towns- men and Strangers, who were provided with Horses,

to appear in the Streets with their best Horses and Arms by the next Beat of the Drum."

I have known the word " bank " in the above-quoted passage to be taken as a mis- print for " ban," which according to old military dictionaries meant a proclamation, at the head of a body of troops or in quarters, by beat of drum. Rae, however, was a Scots- man he was minister of Kirkconnell in Upper Nithsdale and he here uses an old Scotch phrase which meant sounding a ruff or ruffle on the drum, such as is sometimes called a roll. In the ' Gentleman's Dic- tionary,' 1705, we are told that to beat a call is to advertise the soldiers to stand to their arms when a general officer is passing by ; and in Watson's * Military Dic- tionary ' we read : " Ruffle, a beat on the drum ; lieutenant-generals have three ruffles, major-generals two, brigadiers one, as they pass by the regiment," &c. ; also that to beat a ruff is to warn officers to their posts. Eland's 'Military Discipline,' fourth edition, 1740, pp. 14, 15, speaks of the major directing "the orderly drummer to beat a ruff, to give the officers notice," and of "a ruff of a drum to warn them."

The phrase " to beat a bank " is to be found in its old Scotch form in 'Monro his Ex- pedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment,' 1637, part ii. p. 33: "The drummer-major, accompanied with the rest of the drummers of the regiment, being commanded, beate a ban eke in head of the regiment."

McDowall in his 'History of Dumfries,' 1873, p 484, thus alludes to the incident related by Rae :

" The town crier proceeded through the principal streets at eleven o^clock that night, and in the usual way warned such burgesses and residents as possessed horses to appear mounted and with their best arms at next beat of drum."

FLOYD v. LLOYD. There are many names which have undergone fashionable change to suit the aristocratic pretensions or aspira- tions of their owners, especially the name Smith, converted into Smyth, &c. There are twenty ways, perhaps, of spelling the name Johnston and endless other common names, but neither Floyd nor Lloyd is so common or even aristocratic as to require any ameliora- tion at the hands of etymologists. To one who has been to much trouble to seek the why and the wherefore of the convertible peculiarity in which these names are involved it is unexplainable upon any grounds known at the present time. Floyd is a name as distinct from Lloyd as possible, and never conjoined with any alias ; in fact, up to