114
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. APRIL 10, 1920,
and non-ecclesiastical sense. The more
technical use of the term, as " Catholic
Church," occurs more than once in the
' Muratorian Fragment ' (circa 180), where,
for example, it js said of certain heretical
writings that they " cannot be received in
the Catholic Church." A little later Clement
of Alexandria speaks very clearly. ' ; We
say," he declares, " that both in substance
and in seeming, both in origin and in develop-
ment, the primitive and Catholic Church is
the only one, agreeing as it does in the unity
of one faith." From this and other passages
which might be quoted, the technical use
seems to have been clearly established by the
beginning of the third century.
ARCHIBALD SPARKE.
BLAKISTON, THE REGICIDE (12 S. v. 291 ; vi. 19). Attention may be called to an article upon the Blakistone family contained in The Maryland Historical Magazine for 1907, vol. ii., pp. 54 and 172, in which it is shown that Blakiston's descendants came to Maryland and are a prominent family there down to the present time.
BERNARD C. STEINER.
Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore City.
FINKLE STREET (12 S. v. 69, 109, 279; "vi. 25). -As seventy years have elapsed since the first query " as to the derivation and meaning of the word Finkle, or Finkel, as applied to the name of a street," was asked ,by W. M. at 1 S. i. 384, the following brief resume of the correspondence relating thereto may be of interest to readers who .have not access to the early series of 'N. & Q.'
In the query six north country towns were mentioned as having streets so named. A suggestion followed (p. 419) that ftnkle means "fennel," whilst another corre- spondent pointed out (p. 477) " that the Danish word vincle applied to an angle or corner, is perhaps a more satisfactory deriva- tion than fceniculum," and added the .interesting comment : " It is in towns where there are traces of Danish occupation that a Finkle Street is found ; and some of those streets are winding or angular."
From 1850 to 1881 the question remained dormant, being revived by ANON. (6 S. iv. 166), who found it difficult to understand " how the plant fennel should give name to a village ; and harder still to account for its union with the name street in more instances than one." CANON VENABLES writes (6 S. vi. 476) : " There is little doubt that, as Mr. R. Ferguson suggested in his ' Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland,' it is derived
from the Scandinavian vinkel, a corner,"
adding : " Fennel is surely too common a
plant to have given a distinctive name to so
many streets." PROF. WALTER W. SKEAT,
commenting on a suggestion " to derive
Finkel from the Norse vinkel, an elbow,"
writes (6 S. viii. 522) : " Why Norse ?
Vinkel is Danish and Swedish, and means
' an angle, a corner.' ' ;
A recrudescence of the query occurs at 12 S. v. 69, by J. T. F., who desires " any explanation of a supposed derivation of Finkle from a word meaning a bend or elbow, or similar deviation from a straight line." At 12 S. v. 279 MRS. FAWCETT supplies a list " of seven north country towns having streets so designated, all these streets being crooked or having corners in them," adding : " The word comes from the Danish vinkel or vinkle, an angle or corner."
Now the street-name Finkle is doubtless one of considerable antiquity and has been transformed by later usage. An instance of such possible transformation is supplied in Winkle Street, not far from " Canute's " Palace in Southampton, which possibly dates back to the Danish occupation. The Rev. Sylvester Davies, in his history of the town, writes :-
" The sea washed the town walls on each side of the quay ; and the only way from the land side on the east, was through Godhouse Gate and Winkle Street, with its bend northward. The original entrance to Winkle Street from the High Street was by a narrow passage, the mouth of which opened a little due east of the Water Gate ; thus the street or alley veiy much followed the bend of the Avail."
PROF. SKEAT says that the Scandinavian v was formerly w, and corresponds to E. w, not to/. JOHN L. WHITEHEAD, M.D.
Ventnor.
Finkle Street in St. Bees may have been called Fennel Street by a conjectural " emendation." Within my recollection Wrengate in Wakefield has been converted into Warrengate, as if named from the Earls of Warren. J. T. F.
Winterton, Doncaster.
HAMILTON (8. S. xii. 507 ; 12 S. v. 289, 327). A few elates may prove of interest to our French-Canadian friends. Hector Theo- philus Cramake (sic) became captain in the 15th Foot Mar. 12, 1754, and was its senior captain when it was stationed in America in 1761, but retired Mar. 22 or May 4, 1761. Francis Le Maistre was made lieutenant in the newly-raised 98th Foot Oct. 28, 1760 ; lieutenant 7th Royal Fuzileers July 18, 1766 ; also adjutant thereof Oct. 8, 1767 (? till
