Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/462

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s.ix. JUNE 7,1902.

and the joust and tournament of the gentry. The champions mounted a raised platform which served as a stage. The bear-garden at Hockley-in-the-Hole, the "Great Booth" at Tottenham Court, Figg's " Boarded House " in Marylebone Fields, &c., were the favourite resorts of the " back-sword " fancy. The following advertisement is from the St. James's Evening Post of 9 February, 1738 :

"At the Great Booth in Tottenham Court Road near S. Giles's Pound at 3 o'clock Will be per- formed a Trial of Skill between the two following Masters of Sword and Gafflet, at an inch Lance clear from the Button, for the sum of Forty Guineas, viz. (Some Time after Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Van- trogan fought the Small-Sword and Gafflet at Tot- tenham Court, there happened a Dispute between two of their Scholars which Dispute occasioned a Wager of Forty Guineas to be laid between these two Gentlemen which of these two Masters should get the better at that Exercise ; this is to certify the Publick that they will meet at the aforesaid Time and Place, then and there will decide that Wager, with an Inch of a Lance clear from the Button, the most Thrusts in Nine Assaults).

" Mr. SULLIVAN and Mr. VANTROGAN.

" Attendance at One, and the Masters to mount precisely at Three."

See further Harl. MSS., 5931,50; Palmer's 'Hist, of St. Pancras'; Capt. Godfrey's John Ashton's * Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne ' and his * History of the Fleet River ' ; also numerous announcements of the challengers in the Daily Advertiser of 25 Sept., 1741 ; 30 March, 5 April, 12, 13, and 17 July, 1742. In Hone's ' E very-Day Book,' vol. ii., 9 June, there is an advertisement conveying a challenge to a sword combat in the usual bombastic style. In this case it was the notable Figg himself who was challenged. J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL,
 * Science of Defence ' ; Spectator, No. 449 ;

"ENGLAND'S DARLING" (9 th S. ix. 290, 412). No reason or quotation has been adduced in favour of the guess that Edgar Atheling was called " England's darling." That King Alfred was so called is a solid fact. In the poem entitled * The Proverbs of Alfred,' printed at p. 103 of 'An Old English Mis- cellany,' edited by Dr. Morris in 1872, we

find in 11. 9-11 "Alfred Englene derling"

i.e., Alfred, darling of the Angles or Eng- lish. See the whole passage. CELER.

TENNIS : ORIGIN OF THE NAME (9 th S i 27, 75, 153, 238, 272, 418). I should like _ make clear my views concerning the etymo- logy of this word. There is not an atom of evidence (so far as I know) to show that the word is of Old Central French origin. The word is rather of Anglo-French origin, and

therefore confined to England. Even if tenez was never used in France when serving a ball,
 * hat is no reason at all why it may not have

been so used in England in Plantagenet times. Any one who wishes to understand that Anglo-French was a living language, with ideas and forms of its own, may study the bistory of the word duty.

Now the point is exactly this, that in the best and earliest MS. of the line in which the game is mentioned for the first time, the spelling used is precisely tenetz. I will not refer to my own edition, but rather to Macau- lay's edition of Gower's poem in 'Praise of Peace,' vol. iii. p. 490, 1. 295 : " Of the tenetz to winne or lese a chace Mai no lif [person] wite er that the bal be ronne." The spelling tenetz represents the Anglo-French tenez, just as fitz is now usual in place of A.-F. Jj.z; and the A.-F. z was pronounced as ts, as it still is in German. If the A.-F. tenez is not the imperative plural of the A.-F. tenir (L. tenere), perhaps MR. JULIAN MARSHALL, who alone is competent to decide, will kindly tell us what it is, and how the spelling is to be explained. WALTER W. SKEAT.

AUTOGRAPH COTTAGE (9 th S. ix. 368). William Upcott lived at Autograph Cottage, No. 102, Upper Street, Islington, and there died 23 September, 1845. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery on Wednesday, 1 October, 1845. I can with pleasure show his portrait and catalogues, formerly belong- ing to Abraham Lincoln, to MR. A. ABRAHAMS, if he wishes to see them.

JULIAN MARSHALL.

GREEK EPIGRAM (9 th S. ix. 147, 273, 331, 372). The looseness of the poetical versions of the second line may be due to the writers having followed Liddell and Scott in taking apri TroTCTrAacrflT/ to mean " has just been added." For we should, perhaps, adhere, as MR. WAINEWRIGHT suggests, to the fuller sense of the verb, and render the clause "one has lately been formed (or moulded) in addition to the well-known Three "; and we might then, with him, suppose the epigram to relate to the inauguration of a statue of the queen. Madame Dacier, however, in a note given in Ernesti's edition of Callimachus, takes the second member of the pentameter, " and still drips (or is moist) with myrrh (or unguents)," as an amplification of the first (which she evidently understands to mean u one has lately been formed, or created "), arid refers it to the custom of anointing new- born infants. Mvpov appears to have been profusely used by the luxurious Egyptian Court, and Athenseus (xv. 38) ascribes the