112
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io< s. v. FEB. 10, im
out the spirited interpretation which that
poet placed upon the robin's note, and also
his pleasant recognition of the robin's fond-
ness for the company of men.
To take one illustration more, there may be instanced the picturesque account of Chapman. Chapman calls it the bird That loves humans best, That hath the bugle eye and rosy breast, And is the yellow autumn's nightingale.
W. B.
LINCOLNSHIRE DEATH FOLK-LORE (10 th S. iv. 465, 515). Once, when I was away from home, a pigeon flew either down a chimney or through some other opening into one of the rooms, and was found dead upon my writing-table. I believe it had been wounded at a snooting contest held hard by. So far as I know, nothing untoward came to pass beyond an unsightly staining of the leather.
ST. SWITHIN.
JOHN DYER, POET (10 th S. iv. 530). G. F. R. B. will find the Life of John Dyer in the beginning of his book of poems.
G. H. MARTIN.
The Cottage, Westhope, Craven Arms.
SEMPER FAMILY (10 th S. iv. 487 ; v. 52). I may add to my reply that the motto "Semper idem," according to Burke's ' Armory,' is that of Harvey of Bargy Castle, co. Wexford. The family of Semper is not mentioned by Burke, but I find the following in Rietstap's 'Armorial General' : ** Semper (Samper, Sampere, Samperes, Sempere, Sem- peres), Aragon, De gu, a la bande d'or, accompagne de deux etoiles (8) du memo."
From this it appears, as suggested in the query, that the family is of Spanish extrac- tion. No motto or crest is assigned by Rietstap to this name. The 8 signifies that the stars are of eight points.
CHR. WATSON.
264, Worple Road, Wimbledon.
SUPPRESSION OF DUELLING IN ENGLAND (10 th S. ii. 367, 435 ; iii. 16, 475 ; iv. 333). Another book may be mentioned : 'La Beaute de la Valeur et la Laschete du Duel,' 1658.
H. A. ST. J. M.
"BuL." (10 th S. v. 27, 74). I interpret "Bbl." thus. It is merelv the same as " BL," and means t( barrel." " The u Bb " is an ignorant way of denoting the capital letter B. Some small letters, notably "/," were made into capitals by doubling the downstrpke, as is well seen in the so-called "Old English"^. Similarly, a symbol which looked something like " Ib," i e , "b" with a double downstroke, was used sometimes to denote "B" at the
beginning of a word. But the same symbol
meant "bb" if it was used medially. Hence
ignorant people wrote it as " bb " at the
beginning also, and finally turned it into
"Bb."
The same thing happened with some other letters, especially "f." The name French was also written " ffrench," and is still so spelt by some. The ignorant turn it into "Ffrench," which practically amounts to treble "f," as if one were to write "fffrench."
Some very funny results have happened from ignorance of this peculiarity in de- noting capitals and double letters. Thus Jamieson's ' Scottish Dictionary ' gravely in- forms us that rolk means a "rock"! But the Ik means kk, and the old Scottish for " rock " was rokk. WALTER W. SKEAT.
ARCHBISHOP KEMPE (10 th S. iv. 348, 434 ; v. 13). I do not think that the archbishop had any special connexion with All Hallows Barking. His name only occurred in Messrs. Corner and Nichols's paper in the Trans- actions of the London and Middlesex Archsep- logical Society in an incidental way, in reference to a supposed portrait that was at one time in the possession of Sir Robert Tate, an alderman of the City of London, who died in the year 1500, and was buried in the church of All Hallows.
W. F. PRIDEAUX.
REGINALD FITZ URSE (10 th S. v. 47). Has MR. C. R. STONE thought of making inquiries in Ireland as to this murderer of Beckef? A good many years ago it might have been during Marshal MacMahon's Presidency of the French Republic, or at the time of his death I read, where I cannot remember, an interesting allusion to his family which a love of etymology arid of history has fixed in my memory. It was to this effect: that, overcome by remorse, Fitz Urse passed over into Ireland, and remained there, self -exiled, till his death. The better to conceal his identity, and possibly to avoid pursuit, he altered his Norman patronymic to its Celtic equivalent, remaining still^but as MacMahon, a Son of the Bear. It was surmised that the reputed author of the saying "J'y suis, j'y reste," might have been his descendant.
ELEANOR C. SMYTH.
363, Gillott Road, Edgbaston.
See ' D.N.B.,' xix. 218. A. R. BAYLEY.
STAINES BRIDGE (10 th S. iv. 469, 536 ; v. 52). This bridge has five stone arches ; the two end spans are 66 feet, the centre span is 74 feet. If the other two spans are also-
