512
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. JUNE 25, 1910.
churches, &c. ; and Adam Walker in 1777
published a philosophical estimate, &c.,
which treats of a new, easy, and effectual
mode of supplying warm, or cool fresh air
to churches, &c., and patented the Empyreal
stove in 1786. Also see Cockle stove in the
' N.E.D. 3 under ' Cockle,' sub. 5 2, with this
quotation : " 1833. Churches. . . .and other
large buildings are now commonly heated
by means of a cockle." TOM JONES.
"SAUNTER" (11 S. i. 407). The earliest dictionary in which I have been able to find this word is Skinner's ' Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanse, 3 1671, where it appears as
' to saunter up and down, a Fr. G. sauter, sauteller, saltare, saltitare, q. d. hue illuc saltitare sen dis- currere."
I next find it in the second edition of John Kersey's ' Dictionarium Anglo -Britannicum, 3 1715 (I have not the first edition to consult, but the word would probably be there) where the word is given
" To saunter about, to go idling up and down." The first edition of Bailey's ' Universal Etymological English Dictionary,' 1721, gives :
"To saunter [of sauter or sautdler, F. to dance, q. d. to dance to and fro, or ot saincte terre, F.] to go idling up and down. See To santer."
which, when referred to, says :
" To SANTER [of sancte terre F. or sancta terra L., i.e., the Holy Land, because when there were frequent Expeditions to the Holy Land many Idle Persons went from Place to Place upon pretence they had taken the Cross upon them or intended to do so, and to go thither] to wander up and down."
Bailey gives it in the first edition of his c Dictionarium Britannicum, 3 1730, folio, as " to wander or rove up and down.' 3 John- son, first ed., 1755, gives nine quotations of the use of the word, but in the first five, all of the seventeenth century, there is no sug- gestion of any different meaning from its present accepted one, at least, not as im- plying speed or fastness, the general sense being of laziness, in fact the only one of the nine indicating, possibly, rapidity of move- ment is that from Prior,
So the young 'squire when first he comes From country school to Will's or Tom's, Without one notion of his own, He saimters wildly up and down.
The poem, however, continues :
Till some acquaintance, good or bad, Takes notice of a staring lad.
' The Chameleon ' (Poems on Several
Occasions), 5th ed., 1733, p. 185. So that here "wildly"' must not be taken in the sense of rapidity of motion, for the "staring lad" expresses a very different
idea. It is, of course, possible that Prior
meant to have written "idly,' 3 and not
"wildly."
It was probably whilst poor Charles II. was enjoying his beloved " sauntering," that the importunate persons waylaid him, and the reason for his "walking so fast" was to get away from them, so that he could "saunter" once more, at his leisure, and undisturbed. JOHN HODGKIN.
[Similar reply from H. I. B.]
Surely it will be best to wait till the true history of this word is published in the ' N.E.D.' It is likely to appear soon.
WALTER W. SKEAT,
Apropos of Charles II. " sauntering,' 5 I should like to point out that the king was in the habit of rising early, and walking, generally three or four hours a day, very fast, with what leonge ('Diary, 3 p. 232) calls "his wonted large pace."- It was " a trouble to keep up with him n (Bur net, and others). The advice which Charles II. gave to his nephew, Prince George of Den- mark, who was inclined to corpulency, was : " Walk with me, and hunt with my brother, you will never be fat." This form of " sauntering ?3 is to me a revelation.
RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Edgbarrow, Crowthorne.
As I read the passage in D'Israeli's ' Curiosities of Literature 3 there is no anti- thesis between " sauntering " and " walking so fast.' 3 (I suppose, from his italics, that MR. EDGCUMBE felt some such antithesis, if not contradiction.) "Sauntering 33 is the " bewitching kind of pleasure " to which Charles was addicted ; the excuse for it is said to lie in the irritating nature of a prince's duties, from which any man would run, and from which Charles walked fast, " Walk so fast 33 is thus a humorous litotes, parallel to "run away.' 3 Every one hurries to escape from such depressing sights and sounds, and seeks distraction in " sauntering' 3 or some other amusement. The "running" is certainly, and the " fast walking' 3 pro- bably, to be taken in a figurative sense. There may, however, be an allusion to the fact that Charles's usual walk was a rapid one. " His ordinary pace, 33 says Macaulay in the opening paragraph of his fourth chapter, " was such that those who were admitted to the honour of his society found it difficult to keep up with him.' 3 And the description of Charles in the second chapter (p. 83 of the " Popular Edition 3? ) as " fond of sauntering and of frivolous amusements, incapable of
