Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/185

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. xii. AUG. 29, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


177


one of the boon companions of the Prince

Regent, through whose influence he obtained the living of Brentford in Essex. Sir Robert married the lady for her money, but owing to her peculiar habits did not long live with her. He died in 1837, and she survived him till'l842.

The article above referred to commences :

"Miss Smith, of East Herrington (afterwards

Lady Peat), lived in a large house on the left-hand

side of the road leading from Sunderland to

Durham She was descended from the ancient

Catholic family the Smythes of Eshe and

Acton Burnall."

So far as I can ascertain there is no evi- dence in support of this statement of descent, and I shall be glad to know who Lady Peat's father was. GL W. M.

BLUE ASSOCIATED WITH THE BLESSED VlR-

GIN (9 th S. xi. 388, 496; xii. 96). In the Roman 'Ordines' from the MS. of St. Amand, which are set out in the appendix to Mgr. Duchesne's 'Christian Worship (SPCK., 1903), the ninth 'Ordo,' that for the Purification of our Lady, directs: "Interim ingreditur pontifex sacrario et induit se vestimentis nigris, et diaconi simi- liter planitas induunt nigras." The date of these 'Ordines,' according to Duchesne, is 800 or a little later. At this period it seems there were only two liturgical colours, white and black. Innocent III., Pope from 1198 to 1216, in his 'De Sacro Altaris Mysterio, i. 65, mentions two more, red and green, and treats violet as a species of black. I do not know that blue was ever in use in the Roman Church. Elsewhere, however, blue seems to have been used as an alternative to black or violet. Thus in the inventory of the vestiary of Winchester College, taken in 1525, we find both sets of blue and sets of black vestments for use at requiems. See Kirby's 'Annals of Winchester College,' pp. 230 sqq It would be useless to multiply instances from old in- ventories to illustrate this point. Feasey s 'Ancient Holy Week Ceremonial 1 supplies three, viz. (1) at York Minster in the reign of Edward VL, "a blew vestement with two dalmaticks for Lent"; (2) at Exeter Cathe- dral in 1506, "blue clothes for the high altar a large purple chasuble for Sundays in Lent and Advent " ; (3) at St. Margaret's Southwark, in 1485, " ii blew Cortyns [to] draw afore the sepulture," i.e , on Good Friday I am informed that a paper read before the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, by Mr. St. John Hope about 1883, on 'English Liturgical Colours,' further illustrates this point. ,

Non-liturgically considered, blue may be


associated with water," as MR. SNOWDEN WARD asserts. If so, it is interesting to note that, according to Hulme's ' Symbolism n Christian Art,' second edition, p. 25, black, rom a period of over a thousand years )efpre the Christian era, has in China sym- aolized water.

The last- mentioned work on p. 20 mentions ihe use of blue at Toledo and violet at Soissons for the feast of the Holy Trinity.

To notice subsidiary points of MR. WARD'S reply : (1) For the origin of the representa- tion of Our Lady as standing on the crescent moon, I do not think it necessary to go urther back than Rev. xii. 1. (2) By my concluding sentence at 9 th S. xi. 496 I did lot mean to imply that black, blue, white,

  • reen, and brown were in any sense "equi-

valent" colours. I did mean to indicate that 3lue is not universally " associated with the Blessed Virgin " by the Italian masters.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

Albert is a contraction of Adelbrecht, and means nobly bright. Its alb has nothing so do with white ; and if mystics fancy that it has, and base prognostications on the error, one's respect for their mysticism is not increased. ST. SWITHIN.

VENISON FEAST (9 th S. xii. 47). DR. PHILLIPS hould consult Simeon Shaw's 'History of the Staffordshire Potteries ' for the origin of Hanley Venison Feast. A society was formed which advocated the incorporation of the town seventy years before the event took place. An annual dinner was instituted to keep the movement alive. It acquired the name of Venison Feast from the yearly gift of a haunch of venison by the Marquis of Stafford. B. D. MOSELEY.

HORNE OR HEARNE (9 th S. xi. 188, 275 ; xii. 93). The communication under the last re- ference is what PROP. SKEAT called in your columns (8 th S. vi. 204) " a revelry of delight." As to the German : Hum I fail to find in my three German dictionaries, including FliigePs large edition. That is a trifle ; but Ehren as " wandering conquerors "! With the excep- tion of the phrase "your honour," which is Ew. Gnaden, Honour and Ehren only be- come personal in connexion with a personal name, as Ehren-dame, Ehren-mann. As to the etymology of Ehre, your correspondent will find, from Prof. Kluge's ' Etymologisches Worterbuch,' that it is cognate with Goth. ais-tan, to respect, and Lat. ces-timare. From the same source he will find that Ahn is cog- nate with Lat. anus, an old woman, and Him with M. Lat. cranium and Greek