Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/380

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vin. NOV. 2, 1901.

boards.' At Shrewsbury there was a house bearing this name, and a ferry called Cann Office Ferry. The late Admiral W. H. Smyth, in his ' Sailor's Word-Book,' defines kt can-hooks" as things to sling a cask by the chimes, or ends of its staves, and as being formed by reeving the two ends of a piece of rope or chain through the eyes of the two flat hooks, and then making them fast. May not the building in which these "can-hooks' were kept have given rise to the name 1

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

CROUCH FAMILY OF WILTSHIRE (9 th S. viii. 305). In the thirteenth century there were Cruches or Crouches in Norfolk. Etymo- logically, the name is associated with the word "cross." Cf. Crutched Friars, and see Bardsley's works. But it will be of more interest to refer the inquirer to John Crouch (fl. 1660-81), Royalist verse- writer. He wrote an elegy on Robert Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester. He had dedicated some verses to the marquis in 1662. In a nominal sense Dorchester brings the surname within a short distance of the Wiltshire border ; for the town of that name is in the adjoining county. See 'D.N.B.'

ARTHUR MAYALL.

GREEK PRONUNCIATION (9 th S. vii. 146, 351, 449 ; viii. 74, 192). Is the fact that it is very "unlikely that the a of hay is anything but English " particularly ad rem in the inquiry whether we can be sure " what was the Roman fashion of pronouncing Latin"? It is clear that the conjecture is that the Roman a was absolutely different from the English a (and the Roman e no doubt, too, from the English e, and so on). The Latin word sal has for its English equivalent, with modern English society, the word sorlt, as to sound though the letters are salt as to spelling while the Frenchman's form of that Latin word is sel to this day. Now, no Frenchman would allow that his word was even as much erroneous i.e., had strayed as far from the Latin original as the English word ; and yet if the Frenchman has kept the sound more correctly than we, there is surely some suspicion of an English a sound in the a of the Latin word sal; and if the English a sound is given to the a of sal, and is trippingly pronounced there, it will be found to ap- proach very closely the English e sound, with a result to the ear very much like the French word sel, as now commonly pro- nounced. The Latin origin of our word " vase" is vas. But what is the right pronuncia- tion of "vase"? Some few will say vaize,

many more varze, and many more again vorze. The present writer does not see how it can be contended that vorze (compare sorlt) is likely to convey a true impression of what we may conjecture ("no wise man is sure") the Roman sound of vas was, nor. does he feel sure that even varze is quite certainly indica- tive of it. Can any wise man be absolutely sure that the Latin word vas was not pro- nounced vass by the Romans 1 W. H. B.

LARKS FIELD : BARONS DOWN (9 th S. viii. 264). In Somerset the common term for land left untilled, and overrun with weeds and thistles, is " a larks' leer " or " lair " (see ' West Somerset Word -Book,' p. 417). We have a technical name for almost every state and condition of cultivation, as well as of neglect. A neglected, undrained meadow is said to be " all a-urn'd (run) to ruin and nexex (rushes)." A meadow or pasture would never come to a larks' leer. The same notion of a home for larks seems to prevail in far-off Bishop's Stprtford. It is possible, but I do not now think it probable, that our leer or lair may be lea, pronounced lay, though it would just as well suit the connexion. We have a verb to layer or lair (see op. cit., s.v. ' Layerd '). It is quite usual for weedy, neglected arable land to be a favourite place for flocks of larks.

The "Larks Field" of MR. GERISH was doubtless at some time or other allowed to lie waste and grow such a crop of weeds and evil seeds as to become what every farmer in the West would well understand by the name the field now bears in Hertfordshire. I can- not account for Barons Down, but there is a place in this county near Dulvertori so named in books and Ordnance maps. It is well known to all stag-hunters of the West, and is now the country home of the head master of Eton. Though written as above, no s is ever sounded by any but pedantically polite folks. One cannot but believe that the true name is Barren Down, and that a similar change has taken place in both localities. This explana- tion would probably have well suited the place in this county, although now it is well wooded \ but it is perched high on a down, which may have once been barren. I am well aware, however, that the obvious is often wrong. F. T. ELWORTHY.

P.S. Since writing the above, I notice from a letter in the Times of this day (7 Oct.) that there is another Baron's Down, near Lewes.

THE 'MARSEILLAISE '(9 th S. viii. 61, 126, 187, 245, 287, 331). It is quite true that we have had "a mass of statements " in this discussion ;