Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/161

 IX. FEB. 22, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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(Aulus Gellius, ' Noctes Atticse,' xvii. 17) ; the heart of a people is its mother tongue only (Jean Paul, xlvii. p. 179). The Emperor Charles V. was nearer the truth when he said, ' Autant de langues que 1'homme sgait parler, autant de fois est-il homme ' for every language that a man learns he multiplies his individual nature, and brings him- self one step nearer to the general collective mind of Man."

C. LAWRENCE FORD. B.A. Bath.

"FiTz" (8 th S. vi. 443; vii. 31, 77, 136). At 9 th S. viii. 534 MR. GRAHAM EASTON makes the astounding statement : " ' Fitz ' denotes illegitimacy." The phrase he uses can only mean that this is a general rule, not confined to the FitzJameses. Has he any evidence in support, or even positive proof in this particular instance 1

O. O. H.

WARBTJRTON=WERBURH'S TOWN (9 th S. viii. 460). In this connexion it may be worth mentioning that in a will, undated, but of about 1525, the testator, residing at Hoo St. Werburgh, in Kent, describes himself as "of Saint Wartown."

GEORGE C. PEACHEY.

TENNIS : ORIGIN OF THE NAME (9 th S. ix. 27, 75). Surely the most likely derivation of " tennis" is from O.G. tenni, modern German Tenne, threshing-floor. The word " area " in the Reichenau glosses is explained by danea. See Diez, ' Recueil de Travaux Origiiiaux ou Traduits,' &c., s.v. ' Area.' H. A. STRONG.

CONFESSIONALS (9 th S. ix. 48). It does not appear that what MR. ACKERLEY saw at Libau was anything very remarkable. No doubt it would strike an Englishman or a person who has been brought up in Pro- testant surroundings, but on the Continent such sights, if not familiar, are, at any rate, not unusual.

In a church frequented almost entirely by Poles I have seen one of the boxes mentioned. It may best be described as a cross between a chair and a confessional. The precautions for secrecy were of a minimum description. Nor was it very wonderful. In the same church, very undermanned with priests in proportion to the numbers of the congrega- tion, at &ny time on a Sunday, when low Mass is being said, or when the church is open, the people may be seen tailing off, three deep at first, then two, then one, on either side of a confessional, while in front of it some half-dozen individuals are standing in the hope that their turn may come some time. In the same church the sermon is preached in Polish, but is submitted, I am told, bofore-

land to the Government censor. If eccle- siastical doings and regulations in Poland are somewhat defective and I do not wish to mply that they are so to any considerable extent it must be remembered that the hurch in Russia labours under many dis- advantages. T. P. ARMSTRONG.

The form of confessional described by MR. ACKERLEY, in which both priest and penitent are visible to any one who is in front of the " box," is the only form to be found in the very numerous churches of Malta. This kind of confessional, moreover, if I am not inis- baken, is general throughout Italy. The con- fessions of men are in no country restricted bo the " confessional-box " (to use an English term), being heard frequently in any part of the church, in the sacristy, or even in the priest's private apartment. I believe that ecclesiastical regulations require that the confession of a female (except, of course, in case of sickness or other emergency) shall be heard in a confessional.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

The Rev. Frederick George Lee, in his 'Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms,' London, 1877, states that in England anciently the priest sat in the chancel to receive confessions. Veiy few of the old constructional confessionals exist. At Tan- field, near Ripqn, Yorkshire, there is an ancient confessional or shriving-pew sup- posed to be unique, the front of which is open, and the penitent must have been in full view of any one in the church.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

STRAWBERRY LEAVES (9 th S. viii. 463, 513). The reason and the meaning of the orna- mental leaves, commonly known as straw- berry leaves, which are placed upon the coronet of a duke, &c., is a question which has puzzled the writers on honour and heraldry. Selden, a learned man on the subject, mentions " the rose (or as some would have oak leaves or some other leaves)," but gives no definite explanation. Nisbet says, " they [coronets] are brightened with leaves like those of the oak, smallage or great parsley." Randle Holme, in his usual loqua- cious style, gives the following:

"An Earl's crown, Crownett or Coronet. The circle of this is raised into spires like sun-beams, with buttons between; each spire having a pearl fixed on the point thereof ; some describe the Crown to have small Roses between the spires, but that is only the fancy of the workman as a further flourish or garnish to the Crown when the largeness of it will admit of such curiosities, but the old way was