Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/133

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��The first query in reference to Cowper in Notes and Queries is Cowper: why in the number for July 12th, 1851, when C. A. asks why the name pronounced is generally pronounced Cooper. On the 26th R. Vincent replies Cooper? that he can state decidedly that the poet himself pronounced it as it was spelt. On the 23rd of August Mr. W. D. Cooper writes that the poet's family was originally of Stroode, in Slinfold, Sussex, not Kent, as stated by Lord Campbell (' Lives of the Chancellors,' vol. iv. p. 258) :

" The first person who altered the spelling was John Cooper of London, father of the first baronet, and he probably adopted the spelling in affectation of the Norman spelling, the family having in those days been styled Le Cupere, Cuper, and Coupre in Norman-French, and Cuparius in Latin, as may be seen by the grants made to Battle Abbey. All the Sussex branches continued the spelling of Cooper until the time of Henry Cowper of Stroode, who died 1706. In Lord Campbell's ' Lives of the Chancellors ' the first letter is signed ' William Cooper.' "

On the 3rd of July, 1852, H. W. S. T. suggests that the subject should be treated scientifically :

" By a reference to the coat-armour of the various families of Cooper, Couper, and Cowper, as gathered from the pages of Burke, it will at once be seen that the same bearings are interchangeably used by all of them, with only slight variations the resemblance being sufficiently distinct to mark a common origin. The paternal coat of the ennobled name of Cowper, I would further remark, bears in some of its features a strong affinity with the arms of the ' Coopers' Company ' of London."

On the 21st of August appears a reply from Earl Cowper Karl Cowper's in which he says he does not think the question one merely of reply, antiquity, but of philology :

" True, it is an old question, for I find it referred to in a MS. dated 1742, but there both the spelling and pronunciation of Cowper, as different from Cooper, are maintained."

Earl Cowper adds :

" And this is my own opinion. I hold the name to be Scotch, and not English ; it is derived from the verb to cowp, (etymologically) the same as Eng. cheapen, and Germ, kaufen, from which come Chapman, Kaufmann, and these are synonymous with Cowper.

" In accordance with this view we have a tradition that our family is of Scottish origin.

" As regards the pronunciation, analogy and convenience favour a different one for Cooper, and this is favoured by xisage also, so far as those who bear the name are concerned, and they ought to have an opinion in the matter. But doubtless the confusion will continue for the more common and closely similar name of Cooper is sure to dictate to its less frequent neighbour, but not kinsman, Cowper."

On the 29th of January, 1853, Mr. George Daniel relates that m{? 8 when a boy, during his midsummer holidays of 1799, while on a remembrance

of Cowper.

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