Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/190

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NOTES AND QUERIES. P* s. xn. SEPT. 5, was.


converging glens that they settled in or were driven to.

Although the Greeks do not seem to have used <rv/x<epet>oritsderivatives topographically, they did so use derivatives of o-v/zjftaAAw ; and in reference to that fact we have an- other suggestive equation from the Crimea. Balaclava harbour was known in antiquity as SlyAjSdAwi' At/x?)^ usually explained *' Signal Harbour" (from crv/x/3oAov). But 2v/z/ft>Awv \ifj.r)v would mean the "harbour of the confluences" (from o-v/*/JoAi}), and, although no streams fall into Balaclava, a glance at Russell's plan shows any number of watercourses, several of which unite about a mile from the landward end of the harbour. It must be remembered that the name might be suggested by the temporary confluence of floods, with quite as much propriety as by that of perennial streams. The fact that the neighbouring heights still bear the name of "Kamara" lends countenance to this sug- gestion. I may also point out that the root idea still survives in Western Europe in the "bore" of the Severn, and the "barre" of the Seine, which are recurrent, and not con- tinuous phenomena.

In confirmation of the Celtic kinship of the Kimmerioi, the name of the chieftain Lygdamus may be adduced a name which appears "plain Greek" to Grote, but which Mr. Rhys's remarks on Lugdunum in his 1 Lectures on Celtic Heathendom ' almost constrain one to believe to be Celtic. Nor is that all. A curious statement has come down to us, made bv the anonymous writer of a Periplus of the Euxine, in reference to Theodosia. He says that the native Alans called that place Ardabda, *' the town of the seven gods." The writer may have misunder- stood his informant, or the Alans may have confused with " seven " a term handed down from their Kimmerian predecessors. I have been unable to find a word meaning " seven " that looks anything like Ardabda. But we know that the chief of the Alans settled in Gaul at the time of Attila's invasion was named Sangiban. That name probably in- cludes the name of a god a name that appears in sanguis and Sancus. Sabus is the form that Sancus assumes in the labializing dialects of Italy. Cognate forms are very common in Celtic personal and place names, and seem to have been extensively adopted into Teutonic, especially in the loan-word sieg (** victory ") and its derivatives. This is a very intricate subject, to which 1 hope to return in another paper. I would only mention now that as Sancus is to Sabus, so Sangarius is to Sabazius, and that my


immediate point is that a form of the word "Sancus" has been confounded with the numeral "seven," Ardabda itself being a descriptive or allusive appellation, like the Italian Dius Fidius or the Irish Dagda.

J. P. OWEN.


MR. SECRETARY MORICE AND LORD CLARENDON.

AT 1 st S. ix. 7 was given an extract from a letter of 7 March, 1731, from William Bick- ford to the Rev. Mr. Amory, of Taunton, which contained the following passage :

"I cannot forbear acquainting you of a very- curious passage in relation to Charles the Second's Restoration. Sir Wm. Morrice, who was one of the Secretaries of State soon after, was the person who chiefly transacted that affair with Monk, so that all the papers in order to it were sent him, both from King Charles and Lord Clarendon. Just after the thing was finished, Lord Clarendon got more than 200 of these Letters and other papers from Morrice under pretence of finishing his His- tory, and which were never returned. Lord Somers, when he was Chancellor, told Morrice's Grandson that if he would file a Bill in Chancery, he would endeavour to get them ; but young Morrice, having deserted the Whig Interest, was prevailed upon to let it drop. This I know to be fact, for I had it not only from the last-mentioned Gentleman, but others of that family, especially a son of the Secretaries."

Although the matter so long has slept, it will be of interest now to supply an indirect confirmation of the strange story thus told, and that in regard to the explanation why legal proceedings had not been taken to re- cover the documents, this being that young Morice (grandson of the Secretary of State) had "deserted the Whig interest." The re- ference is to Sir Nicholas Morice, of Werring- ton, Devon, son of Sir William Morice, first baronet, and grandson of Sir William Morice, Knt., and Secretary of State to Charles II. That the last-named had become heartily tired of the monarch he had assisted to restore to the throne the letter from which I have above quoted amply attests ; and that the family was regarded as of Whig tendencies may be judged from the fact that the son was left out of the commission of the peace in 1680 (His toricalMSS.Commission,Eleventh Report, Appendix, part ii. p. 177). The grandson was likewise considered originally to be a Whig, as in the charter of William III. granted to Plymouth on 8 December, 1696, he was named a freeman of the borough (ibid., Ninth Report, Appendix, p. 282). But there is abundant evidence that a few years later Nicholas "deserted the Whig interest." He most actively and it was at the time alleged illegally supported at the general election of January, 1701, the Tory candidates for the