10 s. XL -TAX. 9, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.
his son Robert Scrope, was father of Adrian
Scrope the Regicide, first above-named, who
Avas bapt. 12 Jan., 1600/1, atLewknor, Oxon.
See an elaborate pedigree in Foster's
' Pedigrees of Yorkshire Families,' vol. iii.
1874, and Maddison's ' Lincolnshire Pedi-
grees ' (Harl. Soc., vol. Iii.). See also 9 S. v.
495 and vi. 54. G. E. C.
The Adrian Scrope referred to by the querist was perhaps Sir Adrian Scrope, made a K.C.B. by Charles II. at his Corona- tion in 1661. W. B. GERISH.
Bishop's Stortford.
. [MB. A. R. BAYLEY also thanked for reply.]
"COMETHER" (10 S. x. 469). German Kummet is a (borrowed) Slavonic form of the corresponding Teutonic word which we know as " hame," " hames " : the form is by no means universal in German dialects, and is not known to have spread. A native origin for " comether " is surely less forced and more forcible. H. P. L.
NEW ZEALAND FOSSIL SHELLS (10 S. x. 489). The shells referred to by MB. JAMES PL ATT are by no means fossil. The " eyes " are, as he states, the opercula of a kind of shellfish commonly met with on the sea- shore in many parts of New Zealand, and in my schooldays I often cut them off and collected them. A larger kind is imported from the more tropical Pacific Islands. I do not remember to have seen fossil " eyes," but they are occasionally washed up on the beach, when the green has usually changed to a tawny yellow.
W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.
This title rather reminds one of Mr. Punch's picture in which the governess was reproving her pupil for speaking of black- beetles, " as they were not beetles and not black." Similarly the operculum or " eye- stone " referred to does not come from (though it may easily find its way to) New Zealand, is certainly not a shell, and I doubt its being a fossil. I had a largish number of them brought to me years ago by a sailor brother who had been to the South Sea islands Viti Levu or Levuka, notably My recollection (possibly at fault) is that he had gathered the eye-stones himself quite likely he caught the shellfish as he die other curious fish, in the coral pools. Thai the operculum is not a fossil is, I think pretty obvious from its appearance : on one side white and shell-like, on the other brightly coloured, polished, and unscratched DOUGLAS OWEN.
ERNISIUS : A PROPER NAME (10 S. x.
388, 471). MR. TRICE MARTIN'S note seems
onclusive as to the fact that there is a
name Ernisius. Unless my memory de-
ceives me, it is in Wright's ' Courthand *
hat the suggestion is made (under query)
- hat Ernest is the equivalent of Ernisius ;
- here seems now a general agreement that
- his is incorrect, and the translation will
doubtless not appear in succeeding Patent Roll Calendars.
The particular Nevill was certainly Eervey. The REV. EDMUND NEVILL sends me the following from Salisbury Charters, XCIX. Lib. Evid. C. 479, A.D. 1215 : "Hugo Crassus filius Hervei de Nevill." This is the man called Hervesius in the Durinton Rolls. His descendant is called Ervisiu in the Quo Warranto Rolls, No. 4, and with- out absolute evidence I cannot believe there was more than the one name in this family.
MR. ELLIS' s list is not evidence, as I under- stand his instances to be taken from the printed charters, &c. The same remark applies to the Domesday instance of Erneis. It seems probable, in the face of MR. MAR- TIN'S exact evidence, that there was a name Erneis, and that MR. ELLIS' s examples are correctly so given ; but the late instances are to my mind a little suspicious, and sugges- tive of the Elizabethan herald.
" Ernisius " has a good start, but I think what I have said shows that in all cases the name requires careful authentication. The suggested connexion with Anjou seems possible. Perhaps some French authority can help us to the root and modern form of the name. RALPH NEVILL, F.S.A.
Castle Hill, Guildford.
The Erneys were an ancient Chester family in the twelfth, thirteenth, and four- teenth centuries, and married into the family of Norris of Speke (Lanes). The name occurs as Hernisius in charters, and as Erney, Herneys, and Ernay. See vols. ii. and x. (N.S.) Chester Arch. Soc. ; vol. ii. Hist. Soc. of Lanes and Cheshire ; and Cal. of Cheshire Recog. Rolls. R. S. B.
PHILIP STUBBS, AUTHOR OF 'THE ANA- TOMY OF ABUSES' (10 S. x. 308). MR. BELLE WES' s query is very similar to one of mine (5 S. vii. 87, 495) thirty years ago. So far as I know, not much fresh light has been thrown on Stubbs's life in the interval. I was specially anxious to learn if the par- ticulars of his life, "which had hitherto escaped notice, but were worth preserving," promised in 1849 by Mr. James Purcell Reardon in the old ' Shakespeare Society
