Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/226

 218

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. MAKCH 15, 1902.

words would mean "flighty talk." This is, of course, a guess ; but it has the advantage of starting from a Dutch word that is per- fectly real and common, and not one that was constructed for the purpose of mystifying the credulous. CELER.

WIDOW OF PROTECTOR DUKE OF SOMERSET, HANWORTH, MIDDLESEX (9 th S. ix. 148). Hanworth House was built originally as a hunting-box by King Henry VIII. Towards the end of his reign it was settled in dower upon Queen Katherine Parr, who frequently resided there after the king's death with her second husband, the Lord Admiral Seymour, brother of the Protector, and the Princess Elizabeth, whose education was entrusted to her care. It was at Hanworth that the harmless familiarities took place between Elizabeth and the Lord Admiral and his wife a molehill which was transformed into a mountain at the admiral's trial. The manor of Hanworth was granted for life to Anne, Duchess of Somerset, the widow of the Protector. In 1578 the duchess entertained Elizabeth at Hanworth, when the queen, at the request of the Countess of Hertford, the duchess's daughter-in-law, sat to Cornelius Ketel for her portrait. She again visited Hanworth in September, 1600, when William Killigrew was in possession of the manor, and hunted in the park. The Newdegates were then settled at Harefield Place, a few miles off. The old house at Hanworth was burnt down by accident on 26 March, 1797. Little of the ancient structure remained, as extensive repairs and alterations had been effected by the Killigrews and subsequent proprietors. W. F. PRIDE A ux.

The manor of Hanworth was granted to Anne, Duchess of Somerset, for life in 1558, and in 1578 she entertained Elizabeth there. Hanworth House was destroyed by fire on 26 March, 1797, but, according to Thome's ' Handbook to the Environs of London ' (1876), part i. p. 314, "the moat and a few vestiges of the house may be seen imme- diately W. of Hanworth Ch." G. F. R. B.

BERANGER : ' LE Hoi D'YVETOT ' (9 th S. ix. 88). MR. BOUCHIER will be amused to hear that one of our local "historians" boldly claims the hero of Beranger's poem for the Isle of Axholme. We are told in the appen- dix to Read's history of the isle that, accord- ing to a local tradition which I think I may say survives only in the work named, and probably originated in the writer's own head the real name of this potentate was Ornulff, who reigned over the isle in the time of the

Heptarchy, and that it was in his honour
 * hat * the late Baron-de-Berenger " wrote the

verses, of which a free rendering is there given. I quote the first stanza only : 'Tis really a great while Since there reigned in Axholme's Isle A king but little spoken of in story, Who betimes he went to bed, And was slow to raise his head, Nor lost a wink of sleep for lack of glory. And a nightcap which Dame Fate Made to fit upon his pate Was ail the crown, they say, of this wondrous

potentate.

Oh la ! oh la ! oh dear ! oh dear ! What a funny little king in Axholme's Isle was

here!

What a funny little king was here, oh dear ! What a funny little king was here !

The " legend " is evidently founded upon the well-known story of Edgar and Elfrida. but many additional circumstances are added to account for Ornulff, who is the son of Elfrida and the king's emissary ; and both the time and the place are changed. The whole business was probably intended for a joke ; but whether the historian was himself the wag, or some foreign wit imposed upon his " islonian " simplicity, I cannot say.

Lovers of Beranger will find much profit- able and interesting matter in his preface to the ' Chansons Nouvelles et Dernieres ' (Gamier, 1876). He there discourses at some length on his political creed and his chansons, and pays the Frenchman's tribute to the genius of Napoleon. Chambers speaks of Beranger's devotion to the Napoleonic legend ; but his craintes, as expressed in the ' Traite de Politique a 1'Usage de Lise,' show that he was not blind to the emperor's grave errors, and did not hesitate to point them out. In l Le Roi d'Yvetot ' he likely enough portrayed the antithesis to Napoleon.

B. I). MOSELEY.

Burslem.

M. Gustave Masson, in 'La LyreFran9aise,' 1867, p. 407, has a note: "This masterpiece of satirical songs, composed in 1813, was evi- dently directed against the insatiable ambi- tion of the Emperor Napoleon." W. C. B.

PORTUGUESE NAVAL SUPREMACY (9 th S. ix. 147). The empire of the Portuguese in the East seems to have been as short-lived as their discoveries were brilliant. They had incessantly to fight with the natives, and were hard pressed later on by the Dutch and to a less extent by the English. According to one authority it was impossible that a nation so small and without liberty should long maintain her supremacy over so wide-