9*8. VII. JAN. 26, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
77
sorry Guy Fawkes died in 1606. Some o
has been denied the pleasure of inventing
Hebrew lineage for him. It was said of Lore
Hough ton that as soon as any one obtainer
notoriety he found himself invited to Milne
famous breakfasts. It is time this "Jewis
paternity business " ceased to be a prenata
desideratum of social or political ad vane
ment. Jews do not hanker after it. They r
not want to masquerade in borrowed plumag
Of Matthew Arnold lam convinced, from wha
I know of his writings, that he was the las
man to conceal his identity with Jews hac
such existed, and from what I knew of him
the flesh it was impossible to conceive s
erroneous an impression.
M. L. R. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney.
In a signed essay on 'The Study of Celti
Literature,' originally published in the Corn
hill Magazine (see the number for April, 1866
p. 483), Matthew Arnold, in explaining hi
attitude towards the subject of his sketch
alludes with some pride to Jewish ancestors
and seems to hint at the derivation of his
family name from Aaron. His words are :
" I must surely be without the bias which ha
so often rendered Welsh and Irish students extra
vagant; why, my very name expresses that peculia
Semitico-Saxon mixture which makes the typica
Englishman," &c.
The distinguished writer may have been mis taken in his supposed Semitic descent, o which he could possess no documentary evidence, as he was discoursing on times and race-fusions long anterior to the age of family pedigrees. Still, his half-sportive remark may have led to the inference, now authori- tatively contradicted, that his traceable ancestors were of Jewish origin. H. E. M.
St. Petersburg.
[Did not Matthew represent the Jewish element and Arnold the Saxon in the above allusion ?]
The pedigree of Arnold of Rugby will be found in that of 'Arnold of Lowestoft in Com. Suffolk,' vide Suffolk Manorial Fami- lies,' by J. J. Muskett, vol. i. pt. x. pp. 385-7
H. A. W. '
"GUTTER-SNIPE" (9 th S. vi. 127, 215, 452). We now hear "gubter-snipe" in Scotland, but it has probably been brought from beyond n ^ wee ^ in comparatively recent times. Gutter-blood " is an old friend, occasionally used by Scott when it is requisite that some ntolerable upstart should be put into his place by the candid criticism of an acquaint- ance. Up-setting " airs " are speedily reduced and dispersed by reference to lowly origin, and the reminder that the pretentious egotist
is a mere novus homo, one risen out of the
canaille, a regular " gutter-blood." Jamieson
says that in the north of Scotland the word
is used to describe one whose ancestors on
both sides have for generations belonged to
his native district. Thus it is practically
equivalent to autochthones or aborigines.
That, however, is a remote and divergent
consideration. With reference to actual
puddling in mud, it may be added that the
term is sometimes used as a nickname for a
scavenger or roadman. An old acquaintance
of the writer's, long gone to his fathers, was
thus known, in the district whose pathways
profited by his labours, as "Auld Gutter-
blude." THOMAS BAYNE.
AUTHORSHIP OF LINES WANTED (9 th S. vi.
488). Rear-Admiral Preble, U.S.N., in his
' History of the United States Flag,' published
at Boston, 1880, p. 156, states that the lines
were written by Campbell, the poet of hope.
is version is :
United States ! your banner wears
Two emblems one, of fame ;
Alas ! the other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame.
Your standard's constellation types
White freedom by its stars ;
But what 's the meaning of your stripes?
They mean your negroes' scars.
In reply to this bitter epistle the Hon. George Lunt, of Massachusetts, wrote : England ! whence came each glowing hue That tints your flag of meteor light, The streaming red, the deeper blue, Crossed with the moonbeams' pearly white ? The blood, the bruise the blue, the red Let Asia's groaning millions speak ; The white it tells of colour fled From starving Erin's pallid cheek.
The cry that comes across the sea From your low cabins reaches me Like a Banshee's wild, despairing wail, Brought on the surging northern gale,
Connemara !
Men stagger as they try to stand Upon your famine-stricken land, And women lying down to die Bare icy breasts, because their babies cry
Connemara !
'n acknowledgment Campbell sent a splendid opy of his works to Mr. Lunt.
ALFRED F. CURWEN.
THAMP" (9 th S. vi. 488). Halli well says lat in Yorkshire thampy means damp. As gards the meaning, perhaps damp is a more act equivalent than soft, except where soft used as descriptive of weather that is damp, the derivation of "damp" one does not t th, but t appears, as well as d, in the H.G. dampf, tampf. Thamp is, no doubt, a od dialect word, " ARTHUR MAYALL.
