378 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9«-s. iv. NOV. 4, meil-im, " I grind, pound, bruise " ; and from the same root we have the Lat mol-ere, the Lat. change from el to ol being duly discussed and illustrated by Krugmann in the last edition of his 'Comparative Grammar,'vol. i., sect. 121. The Germanic weak grade of the root met is, of course, mid, in accordance with all analogy, and this weak grade regularly becomes mol- in E. derivatives. Hence the form *molla, E. Fiiesic mulle, is from this weak grade, with an agential suffix, so that the meaning of our male is simply crumbier, with reference to the crumbled earth which, as our eyes can testify, he is wont to throw up. The word mould answers to the Gothic mul-da, where the suffix -da is passive ; and so the meaning of mould is crumbled earth ; and hence the verb mould-er, a frequentative form, lit., " to keep on forming crumbled earth." Hence the literal sense of nunddwarn is "a thrower up of crumbled earth," which comes to the same thing as the simpler form mole. From the second grade comes the Goth. inal-ma, A.-S. mealm; cf. prov. E. maum, explained by Halliwell as "a soft brittle stone." Similarly, the prov. E. adj. maum means "soft." Very much more might be added in illustration ; thus another word for crumb- ling earth is simply the Low G. mul (cf. A.-S. mi/I, dust), Pomeranian mull, whence the Pomeranian mull worm, a, mole. The number of derivatives from the root mel is large. WALTER W. SKEAT. "HUMDRUM." (See 5th S. vii. 32.)—JABEZ, writing from the Athenajum Club, cites Nashe for this word, and refers to ' Have with You to Saffron Walderi,' book iii. The phrase he gives occurs in the 'Epistle Dedicatorie' (ed. 1596, B 3 and iii. 14 in Grosart's edition of Nashe's ' Works '): " Wherefore generous Dick (without hum drum be it spoken) I vtterly despaire of them." Hum drum here apparently=our hum/nig. ROBT. J. WHITWELL. C.C.C., Oxford. THE OFFICES OF THE DUCHY OF CORNWALL. —The house No. 17, Fleet Street, opposite the south end of Chancery Lane, at present in the occupation of Mr. John Carter, hair- cutter, and erroneously described on the front as having been "formerly the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey," was originally the offices and council chamber of the Duchy of Cornwall. The house appears to have been built between the year 1603 (which was the date of the accession of James I. to the English throne) and the year 1612, for Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of James I., who died in 1612, in his nineteenth year. In the 'Calendar of State Papers,' edited by Mrs. Green and Mr. Robert Lemon (vol. x., 1619-23), is an entry, dated 1619, from "the Prince's Council Chamber, Fleet Street," of an order of the Council directed to the Keepers of Brancepeth, llaby, and Barnard Castle. There is no information available as to when the office was removed from Fleet Street to Somerset House. The few enrol- ments of the period of James I. go to show that the various patents issued at that time were dated, not -as from any permanent office, but from the residence of the Duke of Cornwall for the time being. This practice seems to have been followed in the eignteenth century. In 1715 the documents relating to the Duchy were sealed at St. James's Palace, and the Council of the Duchy appears to have met there. These documents are mostly grants by copy of court roll, some being simply dated from London. Later on the orders of the Council were sealed at Rich- mond, Hampton Court, and (in 1746) Leicester House. Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II., dated some warrants from his house, Norfolk House, in 1739, from Cliffden in 1740, and Warwick House,* Pall Mall, in 1741. The Prince of Wales is styled in these documents :— " Frederick Lewis, of the most puissant George the Second, by the Grace of Goa King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, first-born son, and by the same Grace, Prince of Wales, Electoral Prince of Brunsvic, Lunenburgh, Duke of Kdenburgh, Marquiss of the Isle of Ely, Karl of Chester, Viscount of Launceston, Baron of Snaudon and of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Steward of Scotland, and K' of the most noble Order of the Garter." By an Act passed in 1775 (15 George III. ch. 33) the office of the Duchy was built and established in Somerset House, which was commenced in 1776 from the designs of Sir William Chambers, replacing and named after a mansion built by the Protector Somerset, brother-in-law of Henry VIII., called Somerset Place. This office being required for the Inland Revenue Depart- ment, the Office of Works purchased a piece of land at Pimlico from the Crown at a cost of 4,300/. for the purpose of rehousing the Duchy. In 1854 an Act was passed (17 and 18
- Warwick House, near Pall Mall, was rented by
the Prince of Wales from Lord Bruce in 1739 at a rental of 300/. a year, and in the same year the prince took a lease of the Durdans, near Kpsom, from Lord Nortli at 30W. a year.
