Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/476

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. DEC. 7, 1901.

'Salve Regina,' which is the last of the antiphons of the B.V.M. found in the Breviary, at the end of Compline, and said or sung from Trinity Sunday until Advent. With Dominicans it is customary to sing this antiphon by the bedside of a dying religious ; and the Carmelites recite it on leaving the altar at the end of Mass, after the last Gospel. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

This hymn is given in full in 'Arundel Hymns,' part i., edited by the Duke of Norfolk and Mr. Charles T. Gatty (Boosey & Co.), and the author's name is stated as Rev. John Lingard, D.D. The music (two tunes) is also given, with sources of origin.

J. DE BERNIERE SMITH.

4, Gloucester Terrace, N. W.

ACERVATION (9 th S. vii. 420, 485 ; viii. 70, 361). The story of the Markgraf is founded on a similar account in the * Volsung Saga.' See some remarks in an article 'Beasts and Birds of the Law' in the Spectator, 10 July, 1886, p. 909. W. C. B.

SURRENDER OF LAND BY A STRAW (9 th S. viii. 303). See 6 th S. vi. 534; vii. 218, 253, 374, 433 ; viii. 258 ; xii. 451 ; 7 th S. ii. 258.

W. C. B.

SHIFTING PRONUNCIATION (9 th S. viii. 164, 291). K. S. remembers Marlborough being locally pronounced Molborough for fifty years past, and OLD MARLBURIAN speaks of "every boy who ever was at " Marlborough doing the same thing ; meaning, of course, boys who can still be come at, so that we can hear what they say, for we cannot reach dead Marlburians to learn how they pro- nounced the word in their boyhood. In OLD MARLBURIAN'S comments we have exactly the information desired by the present writer If Prof. Earle's suggestion -that Marl is pro- bably Mcer and leak or lea is a correct one, then surely the reasonableness of the surmise as to Mori being quite different from the old pronunciation is the more fully established and the " wrongness " of Mori also, in this sense, that that sound gives one no sort of idea of u original meaning of the place-name, which name surely was originally given on purpose that it might indicate that meaning. One can quite conceive that Marl was origin- ally pronounced Afairl, just as part and part- ridge are still pronounced pairt and pairt- nage by the village inhabitants of many scores of miles of the North Country. And here, too, which is nearest the original sound (whether French or Latin), partridge or pairtridge ? Surely then it is clear that if

Prof. Earle is right, the latter-day pronuncia- tion of Marlborough leads one right away from the signification of the word, and the sounding of the word with the name-sound to the a leads one straight to it. The sign- post is still standing, but we elect to ignore it. The question how long the deeper vowel- sound (disguising the meaning) has obtained remains open ; but is it not a fair con- tention, if the tendency of vowel-sounds is ever to deepen (and the Frenchman Dr. Delaunay says that is so), and if Frenchmen still sound the letters mal as they do, that we cannot conceive of the spelling Malbrouck having been sounded Jfc^brouck 1 The French do not (as to sound) yet speak of "mo^-de-mer," though we have deepened Elfred and jElfred into something much like Olfred, and may perhaps even conceive of fashion in time converting the sound (as with Morlbo rough) into Orlfred ! But i? it not wise to keep an eye on what may bring us back (under such corruptions) to the original meanings of words 1 This an atten- tion to the alphabetic name-sound in the vowels of old words will often do for us, and " Mce'r lea borough " seems good testimony to this. B.

With regard to the pronunciation of Marl- borough, it would appear to have been the same in 1705 as now, for in the church- wardens' accounts of St. Peter the Less, Chichester, for that year (as given in vol. xliv. of the ' Sussex Archaeological Collections ' just published), the following item occurs : "July 15th, for Ringing of the Bells for Molbprows Victory over the French, 0.3.0." Spelling in those days was mostly phonetic.

E. E. STREET. Chichester.

BLACKMORE OF BISHOP'S NYMPTON (9 th S. viii. 343). The Blackmores to, whose stock the late Mr. R. D. Black more, the dis- tinguished novelist, belonged, were a well- known old North Devon family. Writing to me upon 29 September, 1897, the talented author of ' Lorna Doone,' referring to his own armorial bearings, remarks :

" The three chevrons in my arms are gules, and the pales, or pallets, are red, too, supposed to indicate bloody strokes (by a royal hand) upon the shield of one of my ancestors, who fought well."

Then he continues, in his well-beloved cramped, but characteristically precise handwriting :

"My father's forbears were North Devon yeomen, and small landowners for three years at Parracombe ; but my mother's were of blue blood."

Parracombe, it may be added, is exactly