Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/509

 8*s. vni. DEC. 21, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

" brattle." Here we are on solid ground. Burns had many precedents for the use of " brattle," as may Ibe seen by a reference to Jamieson and those English dictionaries that have utilized his information. It is curious, by the way, that a philological critic did not look into this before committing himself to such a position as that taken up by Mr. Bretherton. Had he done so he would have found that Jamieson and his followers have illustrations of " brattle" from Gavin Douglas, Allan .Ramsay, Alexander Ross, John Skinner, and John Mayne, and other two from Burns besides the example that has exercised his futile ingenuity. Above all, he would have seen that they give the charming passage from 'A Winter Night ':

List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle, I thought me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle

winter war.

As regards the extract from Gavin Douglas, it may be noted that Jamieson's immediate followers (among whom, probably, the editors of the * H.E.D.' are not to be counted) simply content themselves with repeating his re- ference in the form " Doug., V 7 irgil, 202, 28." This should not be possible now, or at any time since 1874, when Mr. Small's edition of Douglas appeared. The reference should be, "Doug., Virgil, Proloug of the Sevynt Buik, 133." THOMAS BAYNE.

"JETSAM": " LAGAN." ' The olde boke of the lawes and customes of Yermouth translated oute of Frenssh and [sic] Englyssh by Thomas Banyard, sty ward ther, in the zeer of our Lord God MCCCCLXXXI,' was printed by H. Swinden in his ' History and Antiquities of the Ancient Burgh of Great Yarmouth ' (1772). From this I extract the definitions (pp. 145-7) of jetsam and lagan (earlier than any English instances in the 1 N.E.D.') :

" For as moche as it ys beforseid of detenu of chatell in some maner, zet it ys to sey of the same mater after the lawe maryne, whiche falleth in VI maners.

' One ys of wrek of the see.

' The seconde, whiche ys called laggan.

' The Hide whiche ys called jetysoun.

' The IHIth, whiche ys called weyff.

' The Vth, whiche ys called roberye.

' The Vlth, whiche ys called gayn sur enemys

' As to lagan, none shall recover, for that that lagan ys that thyng that ys chaced in the sea by strength and abatyng of the water, and of every possession of proprete, and to him it ys to have and cleyme, that fyndyth it, withoute withseyeng of

any

As to Jetson, ther ys recoverer, yf the godes be chaced to the lond ; and fresh sute after be therof made "

It will be observed that the word flotsam which in modern English seems almost in- separable from jetsam does not appear in this passage, weyff taking its place. The earliest instance of flotsam in * N.E D.' as an English word is of 1531 (cited s.v. 'Lagan').

JEWISH RECOGNITION OF TOLERANCE. Till within recent years, English Jews in their prayer for the Royal Family were accus- tomed to beseech Divine Providence to incline the hearts of the authorities with "Rach- monus " towards their suffering race. The word signifies mercy or clemency. Justice and equity they required, and these they had to the full in common with others. So "Rachmonus" was deleted, and a much happier form substituted. M. D. DAVIS.

PORTRAITS BY GEORGE DANCE, R.A. (See 9 th S. iv. 1.) To my list at this reference may be added the following, of which the original drawings are in the Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields : Sir John Soane, R.A.., when young; another dated 1795; two of his son George Soane, one at the age of thirteen and another dated 22 July, 1793 ; and George Wyatt, R.A., of which last there is a duplicate.

W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S.W.

"As MAD AS A TUP." In Derbyshire, at any rate, there is no commoner saying to express anger shown by any one than to say that he or she was "as mad as a tup." " A tup" .is a ram "a tup sheep" and its furious onslaught upon an intruder at a certain season of the year has produced the saying "as mad as a tup." There is another variant concerning an angry person : "As mad as a tup ; looks as if he 'd lost a sovereign an' fun' sixpence." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

REV. GEORGE DOCKER GRUNDY. You have very reasonably discouraged references to cases of individual longevity, the subject of long life having been already fully dealt with, and having also a strong tendency to tediousness ; but the case of the clergyman whose name is given above is so exceptional that it deserves notice. He died at Hey, near Oldham, on 9 November, in the ninety- fifth year of his age and the sixty-third of his vicarship. He had lived under five sove- reigns and seven bishops, having been born (the son of a Manchester merchant residing at Cheetham) on 2 August, 1807. He gradu- ated at Brasenose, and it is recorded that one of his examiners was Newman. Mr. Grundy was ordained deacon in 1830, and