Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/327

 gth S. IX. AFRIL 19, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

Surely CELER cannot yet afford to boast that he has found a "solution which alone will suit the facts." F. J. C.

GWYNETH (9 th S. ix. 109). Genaeth is a common word used in North Wales for a girl. In Dr. Owen Pugh's great 'Dictionary' the meaning is given :

"Geneth, plural Genethod (gdn, capacity, or what hath the power to contain), a damsel, a maid, a girl, a daughter."

In this case it may signify daughter, but without the context in the inscription one cannot say whether or no it is used as a Christian name (I never heard it so used) or simply as " daughter." WILLIAM PAYNE.

Gwynedd, signifying blessed or happy, is the early form of the word. Gwynaeth, mean- ing a state of bliss a female name still in use is often written Gyneth. Gwynnedd or Gwent, a district in Wales (cf. Vannes in Brittany) ; Gwen, meaning white ; and "gwenith," wheat, should not be confused with Gwynnedd, the personal name. See 'History of Christian Names,' by the late Miss Yonge. ARTHUR MAYALL.

In the late Miss Yonge's 'History of Christian Names' Gwynaeth and Gyneth are given as alternative forms of a Welsh female name, meaning bliss or blessed. I have never met with the name in actual use. Gwynnedd is certainly the name of one of the ancient divisions of Wales, but two of the most famous Welsh kings had it for surname Maelgwn Gwynnedd in the sixth century, and Owain Gwynnedd in the twelfth. May not the Christian name have had the same origin ? C. C. B.

Re-reading the copy I made of the inscrip- tion previously referred to, I find that I should have read the name ** Jenett," and not "Geneth." This supposed example of the name therefore fails. J. P. LEWIS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Old Royal Palace of Whitehall. By Edgar

Sheppard, D.D. (Longmans & Co.) THE history of Whitehall Palace by the Sub-dean of the Chapels Royal is a companion volume to the 'Memorials of St. James's Palace* of the same author (see 8 th S. vi. 480). Associated as it must ever be with the death of Charles I., the his- tory of Whitehall will remain the more tragic record. The period during which it was a home of English kings was limited, the fire which in the reign of William III. destroyed all except the Banqueting House of Inigo Jones narrowing its connexion to mouarchs of Tudor or Stuart

strain. Small as is the surviving portion, it is rich in historical memories, which, moreover, are not necessarily confined to the Banqueting House. Apart from the earlier scenes which it witnessed when, at the height of his fortune* Wolsey entertained that "crowned Moloch," his royal master, the scenes under Stuart monarchs may never be forgotten. First of all stands the death of Charles, which, as described in the noble and pathetic words of Andrew Marvell, seems to redeem a life of error. We then hear of Cromwell entertaining " gaudily " the Commons, and his wife, the Lady Protectress, with bourgeois thrift watch- ing the servants through the " little labyrinths and trap stairs by which she might, at all times unseen, pass to and fro, and come always upon her servants and keep them vigilant in their places and honest in the discharge thereof." We can see again Charles II. sleeping without curtain*, which had been pulled down during the progress of the Fire of London in order to facilitate removal should the flames, as was hardly probable, extend to West- minster ; Monmouth, his hands tied behind him with a silk cord, brought captive into the presence of James II., in order that the caitiff king might rejoice in the humiliation of the nephew whom he had already doomed to death ; and James's own " craven terrors and final flight from his crown and country." In the Banqueting House, moreover, the Lords and Commons tendered to William III. and the Princess Mary the crown. With this solemnity the historic record of Whitehall practically ceases. With regard to the execution of Charles I., naturally the matter of most impertance with which the volume is concerned, the author draws largely upon 'Nvjfe Q.,' in which the question is fully discussed as to which wa the exact spot of the decollation, and which the place through which an opening was broken in order to admit of the passage of the monarch. The question who were the king's executioners is also decided in favour of or, perhaps it should be said, against Richard Brandon, the ordinary executioner, in spite of his reported refusal to have anything to do with the deed. From the literary stand- point the most interesting thing in connexion with Whitehall is the performance of the masques which it witnessed in the times of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. The scene of these was generally the Tennis Court, concerning which and the performance of Restoration comedy Pepys has many quaint entries. York House was, it is known, the original title of the palace, which only took the name of Whitehall on its transference from Cardinal Wolsey to Henry VIII. Attention is drawn by Dr. Sheppard to the fact that the present name of Charing Cross is misleading, and that the original Queen Eleanor's Cross stood where the equestrian statue of King Charles I. now stands, facing Whitehall. Had the scheme of Inigo Jones for rebuilding the whole of Whitehall, entertained by King James, been carried out, the palace would have covered near twenty -four acres, whereas Hampton Court comprises but eight to nine acres, St. James's Palace about four, and Buckingham Palace about two and a half. The account or the Cockpit is both interesting and valuable, and must be regarded as a contribution to the history of the stage. In dealing with the associations of Elizabeth with Whitehall it is said that the princess was " detained a prisoner there for the part she had taken in Sir Thomas Wyatt's conspiracy, and wa