194
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vni. SEPT. 6, 1913.
I know nothing of L. E. Aveline's verses,
but your correspondent will easily come face
to face with Canning's in Morley's ' Shorter
English Poems,' p. 432. The gentleman
who suffered eleven years in captivity for
the sake of Matilda Pottingen was Rogero
in ' The Rovers,' a parody of Schiller's
' Robbers ' and of Goethe's ' Stella,' due
to the humour of Canning, Ellis, and Frere.
ST. S WITHIN.
Canning's ' University of Gottingen * is printed in ' Cassell's Penny Readings,' vol. i. p. 353, published by Cassell, Fetter & Galpin, London (1867).
THOS. WHITE.
[C. C. B. also thanked for reply.]
"ASK"=TART (11 S. viii. 126). This word is quite familiar to me as denoting sour, usually with the added notion of astringency. I should say that crab apples or modern red ink were " ask." See Pea- cock's * Glossary,' which shows various appli- cations of it, and defines it as " harsh to the touch or taste ; astringent, sour, sharp."
J. T. F.
Winterton, Lines.
See 'E.D.D.,' s.v. c Hask,' adj. 3, and 4 Lincolnshire and the Danes,' by G. S. Streatfeild, 1884, Glossary, p. 315, s.v. "Ask or hask= harsh to the senses, e.g., of ale, wind, sound." In the latter work the Ox- ford 'Icelandic Diet.' is quoted, in which Eng. hash is compared to O.N. hdski and heskr ; but the author suggests that it may be a local pronunciation of " harsh, which is a Scandinavian loan-word (Dan. harsk). See Skeat, ' Etym. Diet.' ' Jamieson's
- Diet.' suggests O.N. karskr (pron. kaskr)
and I would also mention another O.N. word, beiskr, and Danish and Swedish besk, acid. In Shetland ask means haze, mist, drizzling rain ; and Jakobsen in his ' Ord- bog ' suggests the deriv. O.N. aslca in its fundamental meaning, dust with which he compares Orkney ask, (1) dust, (2) drizzle, (3) fine snowflakes, and Swedish askregn, drizzling rain. The word for mist or sea- fog in Lincolnshire is harr, which Streatfeild suggests is O.N. ur, drizzling rain, which occurs in Shetland as urek, with the same meaning. AJDFRED W. JOHNSTON.
29, Ashburnham Mansions, Chelsea, S.W.
A servant whom I knew many years ago frequently used the work " ask," but never, as far as my memory serves, in the sense of " tart " and as applied to taste. It was in matters of touch that she found it useful.
Thus she would say that a new material,
such as Hessian linen or coarse worsted, was
" ask," and this " askness " disappeared
when the material was softened by wear or
by washing. Also she would say that the
water first boiled in the copper, after the
copper had been newly lime -washed, was
" ask." It always seemed to me to be a
word used as an equivalent to " harsh," and
I imagined it to be a corruption of that word.
EDITH M. SCATTEBGOOD.
This word, with illustrations of its use, is given on p. 15 of Peacock's ' Glossary of Manley and Corringham Words ' (2nd ed., 1889), and also in ' A Glossary of Words used in South -West Lincolnshire,' by the Rev. R. E. G. Cole (1886). As both glos- saries were subsequently incorporated in the ' E.D.D.,' the word (in the form " Hask ") will be found on p. 76 of vol. ii.
A. C. C.
This is a very common word in Lincoln- shire, and frequently occurs in the following taunt : " You 're as ask as vinegar."
J. C. H.
Thornton, Horncastle.
[PROF. G. C. MOORE SMITH, MR. OLIVER HESLOP, MR. THOMAS RATCLIFFE, B. L., and ST. S WITHIN who mentions that the word is as well known in Yorkshire as in Lincolnshire, and that Wright's ' Dialect Dictionary ' has " ask " in the Supple- ment also thanked for replies.]
LACIS OR FILET-WORK (US. viii. 108). Et lors, sous vos lacis a mille fenestrages Raiseuls et poinct couppe"s et tous vos clairs ouvrages. Jean Goddard, 1588.
" Lacis, espece d'ouvrage de fil ou de soie fait en forme de filet ou de r^seuil, dont les brins 6taient entrelacez les uns dans les autres." 1 Diet.' d'Ant. Furetiere, 1684. The lacis of the sixteenth century, done on a network ground (reseau), was identical with the opus araneum, or spider-work, of Continental writers, the " darned netting," or modern filet brode a reprises of the French embroideries.
The ground consisted of a network of square meshes, on which was worked the pattern, sometimes cut out of linen and applique, but more usually darned with stitches, like tapestry. This darning-work was easy of execution, and the stitches being regulated by counting the meshes, effective geometric patterns could be reproduced. Altarcloths, baptismal napkins, as well as bed coverlets and tablecloths, were deco- rated with these squares of net embroidery. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there are several gracefully designed borders to
