154
NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. IT. AUG. 20,
name into English fiction seems to belong not
so much to Mr. Black as to the late Mrs. Henry
Wood. In her story ' The Channings ' one of
the principal characters has "Hamish" for
his name. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.
[Scott has "Hamish"; see ante, p. 143.]
SIR WALTER SCOTT : THE BRIDAL OF TRIER- MAIN' (9 th S. i. 404). The G in "Gyneth" is hard, as in " Geraint " and all Celtic names.
C. C. B.
ASCETIC (9 th S. i. 227, 418). The connexion of this word with the Russian skeet is only true in the sense that both are derivatives of the Greek ao-Kew. Skeet, originally a hermitag3, is an apocopated form of ao-K^rjjptov. See Stanley, 'Lectures on the Eastern Church,' p. 117. A. SMYTHE PALMER.
South Woodford.
BATTLE-AXES AND ROMANS (9 th S. i. 269, 432). The lange barthen appears to have been our "poleaxe," halberd, or partisan. So the root barte or barthe, as quoted, is related to Sanskrit kart, krit, "to cut or divide," by the well- known equation of Tc and p ; we thus get the verb " to part," Latin partior, partiri ; and the late \j&ivt\ partizare. Compare the coulter or cutter and the axe. In the same way it can be shown that the animal pard or panther may be brought into the same connexion from TTfpdv, " to ravage," Latin perdo, our perdition ; if so, we must separate Parthian from Persian ethnically, because the Fars, in Farsistan, is supposed to be connected with vir, virilis.
A. HALL.
13, Paternoster Row, E.G.
The best account of the Romans in England or rather of them as citizens, soldiers, &c. I found in a curious book by White Kennett, dated, I think, in the last century.
E. E. THOYTS.
SYNTAX OP "NEITHER" (9 th S. i. 24). A very great English writer uses the plural verb both after the pronoun neither and after the "conjunctional pair" :
" Neither Virgil nor Homer were deficient in any of the former beauties."
"Both writ with wonderful facility and clearness: neither were great inventors. Dryden, preface prefixed to the ' Fables.'
E. YARDLEY.
ST. MARY MATFELON (8 th S. xii. 202, 255, 276, 466). In the London Argils of 30 Oct., 1897, p. 3, aub 'The Story of the City Guilds. VI. The Clothworkers' Company,' the follow- ing appears :
"There is reason to believe that they [the Fullers] were located at this early period, [i. e. temp.
Edw. IV.] in Whitechapel, and that their presence
there accounts for the designation of the parish in
the old ecclesiastical records as ' Villa Beatse Marias
de Matfellon ' matfellon being the herb commonly
known as ' fuller's teasel,' which was grown exten-
sively in the locality for the purpose of trade."
C. H. C.
South Hackney.
" FOND " (9 th S. i. 365; ii. 34). In some parts of the north of England a young woman who is unduly desirous to " keep company " with a young man is said to be " fellow-fond."
W. C. B.
"THE HEMPSHERES" (9 th S. i. 327, 431). As the Western hemisphere was booming in the time of Elizabeth, AYEAHR'S guess is, or course, a very good one, and he has forestalled me in it. Whether hemp was ever grown at Brighton for any purpose I do not know. It was grown by every well-to-do peasant in my village in Burgundy when I was a boy for the clothing of himself and household. I believe there are still sheets of homespun, and hanks of unspun, hemp in the house I was born in, together with the spinning-wheel and winder. The men's shirts were supple- mented with a Gladstonian collar of linen no front, that was hidden by the " blouse." The women in the winter held spinning " bees " in the cellars. THOMAS J. JEAKES.
"BROACHING THE ADMIRAL" (9 th S. i. 128, 271, 350). The accepted nautical expression is not " tapping," but " broaching " a barrel of rum (or other spirit) when the hogshead, cask, or puncheon is bored and drunk from at one and the same time. If this is done surreptitiously by "Jack," the theft is termed " sucking the monkey."
HARRY HEMS.
S.S. Doune Castle, East Coast of Africa.
A reference to Pettigrew's 'Life of Nelson,' ii. 537, will show that the two stories are not contradictory. The body, originally deposited in a leaguer, was put into a leaden coffin upon its arrival in England, but before the final arrangements for burial.
EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.
Hastings.
KINGSTON-ON-THAMES (9 th S. i. 475 ; ii. 4). I quoted the popular derivation from "stone " without the least belief, as I always thought it was King's town. The place might be called a temporary capital between Win- chester and London. It did not enjoy the distinction quite long enough to produce an almshouse like St; Cross, the aboriginal union workhouse of England. E. L. GARBETT.
