Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/510

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NOTES AND QUERIES. pi s. vn. JOKE as, int


The chronology is appropriate. Hengist, Ohta, and Geuuis invade the Britannias during the reign of Vortigern, the son-in- ]aw of the Emperor Maximus, f388. The ' Exordium ' of the ' Annales Cambriae ' synchronizes the invasion with the consuls of 428. Now Cerdic was son of Elesa, the son of Esla, the son of Giwis (also " Gewis "), and he came into contact with the Britons of Hampshire before A.D. 496 that is to say, within seventy years of his great- grandfather's appearance along with Heng- ist. We must remember that the ' Historia Brittonum ' does not place the Saxons on the "Litus Saxonicum." It says of Vorti- gern : " Invitavit Ochtam et Ebissam, et venerunt et occupaverunt regiones plurimum . . . .usque ad confinium Pictorum."*

The expulsion of the Jutes from the North occurred in 466, and the thirty years between that date and Cerdic's appearance near Portus Adurni were, no doubt, spent by the Geuuissae in the company of the Jutes, and in the conquest of Kent and Surrey. Elesa, Cerdic's father, fell at Camlan in 492, and Esla (e ; esla < *osila < Goth, ansila), whom the Britons called Osla GyllellvaWr (cultelli magni), We find opposed to Arthur at the Battle of Aconbury, i.e.. " Mynydd (H)agned," Mons Hagonicus (the MSS. of Gildas have Badonicus, with b : : h and d : : g), in 470.

The syllable -is is identical with that in Sig-is-mund, Thor-is-mund, Jar-is-kar, &c. It occurs in the most ancient forms only, and is well known in Gothic names. Bishop Asser reported that King Alfred's maternal grandfather, Oslac, " Gothus erat natione ortus, enim erat de Gothis et lutis, de semine scilicet Stuf et Wihtgar." The Jutes were not Goths, so we must assume that Asser' s informants supposed that the descendants of Bseld-, the son of Woden, sc. the Batyungs, Were Goths. The sug- gestion that the Geuu-issse were the Visi- Goths, eo nomine, is uncritical.

I identify Geuu-issas and *Glw-as, or

  • Geow-as, and I restore the palatal spirant

to both " eowuni " and " ytum " in ' Wid- sith.' This yields :

Oswine iveold Geowum ond Gytum Geftvulf, i.e.,

" Oswine ruled the Yeewas, and Gefwulf the Yyte or Yewtas (Jutes)."

ALFBED ANSCOMBE.

30, Albany Road, Stroud Green, N.


  • The actual seat of the Jutes at first was Bin

Chester, the Roman Vinovia, the 'Ovtwovlov o Ptolemy, and the Castellum Guinuion of earlj Welsh writers.


THE FORGED 'SPEECHES AND PRAYERS' OF THE REGICIDES.

(See ante, pp. 301, 341, 383, 442.) V. HABBISON'S SPEECH AND BEHAVIOUR

N August, 1660, Arise Evans, a loy tradesman who had passed the greater pa of the Interregnum in prison, published tract entitled an ' Epistle ' to King Charles I

E 2118 [2]), in which he asked for the deal of Harrison on the ground of the murde committed by him at Basing House, with tl remark, " Harrison glorieth in all his wickei ness, and shall he live?" This gloryin of course, arose from Harrison's "fiftl monarchy " fanaticism, and at, or befor

iis execution his fanaticism betrayed itst

n the announcement that he (Harriso: would rise again from the dead in three da; and come to judge his judges.

As the forged ' Speeches and Prayers Were fifth-monarchy productions. We a treated in them to the following roman about Harrison :

" [Harrison] was carried away in the sled having a sweet smiling countenance (!) with ] eyes and hands lifted up to heaven .... He call several times in the way and spoke aloud ' I to suffer upon the account of the most glorio Cause that ever was in the world.' As he v; going to suffer one in a derision called to h: and said ' Where is your good old Cause He with a cheerful countenance clapt his ha on his brest [sic\ and said ' Here it is, and I i going to seal it with my blood.' And when came to the sight of the gallows he was transport with joy " (!).

Of Harrison's actual behaviour, and of 1 assertion that he would rise again in thi days, we have several unimpeachable w nesses.

Andrew Newport, writing on 13 Oc 1660 (Hist. MSS. Commission, 5th Repo: Appendix, p. 157), said Harrison

" was hanged drawn and quartered to-day Charing Cross. He trembled much when first came upon the ladder, but excused it by 1 ill usage he had in Newgate since his condem: tion, and said he thanked God he came with much content to die there as he did to comi the act for which he suffered. He was goii he said, to sit at the right hand of Jesus to juc us all."

William Smith, writing about the sa: time (ibid., p. 174), said :

" Harrison is now hanged and quartered, vouchsafing any expression of repentance, 1 blasphemoxisly said he should rise again wit three dayes and at the right hand of God be ju( of his judges."