338
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL APRIL 24, 1000.
PARISH BEADLE (10 S. xi. 130). The
beadle of old acted in many capacities, which
are duly set forth in the ' Historical English
Dictionary.' Cowel, in his ' Interpreter,'
quoting Manwood's ' Laws of the Forest '
(cap. 21), says that a beadle is
" an Officer or Servant of the Forest, that doth
make all manner of Garnishments for the Courts
of the Forest ; and also all manner of Proclama-
tion, as well within the Courts of the Forest as
without, and also to execute all the Process of
the Forest He is like unto a Bayliff Errant at a
Sheriff in his County. Edgarus, &c., viz. Vice-
comitibus, Bedellis, &c. Ne introeant, &c. Ingulph.
Hist. Croyl. The word Bedel, properly a Crier,
was Saxon Bydel, from Bydde, to publish or
declare : As to bid and forbid the Banns of Matri-
mony, bidding of Prayers, &c. Hence the Uni-
versity Bedels, the Bedle of Beggars ; the Church
Bedels, which we now call Summoners and Ap-
paritors."
The duties of the modern beadle, who is chosen by the vestry of a parish, consist in attending the vestry, to give notice of its meetings to the parishioners, and execute its orders. In Scotland his duties more especially consist in attending upon the clergyman. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
"REALM": ITS PRONUNCIATION (10 S. xi. 107). See the early spellings (indicative of the pronunciation) recorded in the ' N.E.D.' The ' Dictionary ' furnishes refer- ences to Spenser, ' F.Q.' III. v. 53 and IV. viii. 45, where we have the rimes beames Reames ; blaspheme streame reame. The history of fault is similar.
L. R. M. STRACHAN.
Heidelberg.
Desired rimes will be found in * Canterbury Tales,' B. 4326, and in ' Faerie Queene,' III. v. 53, beams being the other word in each case. H. P. L.
BERGERODE (10 S. x. 407; xi. 218). It is suggested to me by Mr. C. A. Storey of Trinity College that the hypothetical derivations already published in ' N. & Q.' are the result of a pseudo-dichotomy : this is confirmed by a statement in Fish- wick's ' History of Lancashire ' that Berge- rode = A.-S. beor (shallow), grade (harbour). The Lieutenant-Colonel's dictum has an air of finality, but is, of course, liable to scientific correction : the word would then be evolved by the epenthesis of e after the guttural, and double vowel modi- fication, and would date from Eadwine's conquest in 620 (' Bygone Lancashire,' chap, i.), which produced the Lancashire -wick, -ton, -ham, -by, -rod, and -shawe suffixes. Perhaps analogy (as seen in the
theories of MESSRS. NICKLIN and TAYLOR)
has had its effect : perhaps, too, geologists
at Rossall may be able to give us further
light. C. K. OGDEN.
Magdalene College, Cambridge.
' THE MONSTROUS REGIMEN OF WOMEN r (10 S. xi. 188, 234). I had John Knox on the end of my nib a fortnight ago, when it suddenly occurred to me that a regimen is- not a regiment, and that somebody, having written a satire on women and their ways r might have parodied the title adopted by the hater of the ruling Maries. I wonder if this were the case. ST. SWITHIN.
"GRZYMALA" (10 S. xi. 49). It means the whole coat of arms or merely the shield.
L. L. K.
j&ixtdlmtauz.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
A Dickens Dictionary. By Alex. J. Philip-
(Routledge & Sons.)
THE sub-title of this volume is " The Characters and Scenes of the Novels and Miscellaneous Works Alphabetically Arranged," and the author's object is to provide a concise guide " in a form as complete as possible." He mentions in dis- paraging terms a similar key to Dickens ; but we do not think that his own, at any rate in its present form, is a satisfactory contribution to Dickensian literature. We are told that it was originally intended to deal with descriptive topography, and the reason given for not doing so is that " while the places mentioned in the works are undergoing constant change (in fact many of them are even now quite unrecognisable), the works themselves are always the same, and it seemed advisable therefore to limit the scope of the ' Dictionary ' to the works themselves rather than to render it prematurely out-of-date by the inclusion of temporary information."
This seems to us Odd reasoning ; the fact that Dickensian houses and sites are forgotten every day, vanished or vanishing, would naturally suggest that details of them should be recorded in a ' Dictionary ' before lack of accurate know- ledge leads to wild conjecture.
Originals of characters and places are, as a matter of fact, added freely, and this might have been a valuable feature of the book if proper discrimination had been used with regard to th sources of such information. Mr. Philip has used miscellaneous press cuttings, does not give his authorities, and consequently lends further life, in a volume which should be of a permanent character, to many inaccurate guesses, and some absurdities. An author of some experience who thus deliberately mixes up the chaff and the grain makes one despair of decent scholarship.
The descriptive passage beneath each entryfis a quotation from Dickens's own words. So far well ; but this is not sufficient. A ' Dictionary ' should not merely describe a character, but give also some idea of what happened to him in the
