96
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. II. JULY 30, !
same with those to which MR. FERGUSON
refers :
De Elephante. Monstrorum princeps elephas proboscidis armis
Horret mole nigra, dente micat niveo. Sed vario fugienda malo cum bellua gliscat,
Est tamen ex certis mors pretiosa ferae. Nam quae conspicimus montani roboris ossa
Humanis veniunt usibus apta suis. Consulibus sceptrum, mensis decus, arma tablistris:
Discolor, et tabulae calculus inde datur. Haec est human* semper mutatio mortis ;
Fit inoriens ludus, qui fuit ante pavor.
ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.
RAVENSWORTH (9 th S. ii. 47). The place from which Lord Ravensworth takes his title is in Durham. I do not know any ancient form of the name, but ostensibly it presents no difficulty. The last syllable seems to be the A.-S. weorth, a " homestead," " enclosure," or " small estate," preceded by the name of an early owner, Hrafn, a common Scandi- navian personal appellation which we have in many names, such as Ravensthorpe, or Ravenspur, where Edward IV. landed when he invaded England before the battle of Barnet. There is another Ravensworth in the North Riding, which was originally Ravens- wath, corrupted in the thirteenth century to Ravensworth. Here wath (A.-S. wat) means a " ford " or " place that can be waded," while the first element, as is sometimes the case, may denote the bird and not an eponymous person. ISAAC TAYLOR.
SIR NICHOLAS STUKELEY (9 th S. ii. 7). In the church of Little Stukeley, in Hunting- donshire, is the brass of a man in civilian attire, c. 1610, turned three quarter to the dexter. Temple Bar for March, 1894, p. 395, says that William Stukeley (1687 to 1765^ restored the brass of his ancestor Sir Nicholas to Little Stukeley Church. There is no other brass in the church which would suit Sir Nicholas Stukeley, and it is possible thai this may be the brass which was in private possession. I glean these facts from the Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society, vol. ii. p. 186. I do not think the assertion in Temple Bar can be correct, bui it is quite likely that the brass was restorec at a later date than that mentioned.
W. R. BARKER.
Devonshire Club.
Walking up Parson's Green Lane, Fulham recently, I espied a board on which wa? painted " Stukeley Park Estate." It is close by the entrance to the Parson's Green Station on the District Railway, and it occurred to me that the brass in question may be in Fulham parish church or thereabouts. At the nortl
end of Parson's Green Lane used to be a
- ateway leading to a house called Percy
Jross House, but this morning I could not ind it. Further on I found at the corner of
a road a newly built house, and over the door s Persicross House, and on the other side of
the road, a road called Purser's Cross Road.
Are they not getting a bit confused out Fulham way ? ROBERT BURNINGHAM.
"HERON" (9 th S. ii. 4). PROF. SKEAT'S remarks on the derivation of this word remind me that I have long purposed to make a note of the fact that the bird -name heron or tierne does not occur in Shakspere's plays, or it may be safer, perhaps, to say that I have failed to find either of them in Mrs. Cowden Clarke's 'Concordance' thereto. Of course the well-known passage (' Hamlet,' II. ii. 399),
I know a hawk from a handsaw, has not been forgotten by me, but I am by no means satisfied that the poet did not mean what the printers have given us. If Shak- spere does not allude to the heron the fact is curious, as he cannot but have been well acquainted with the bird. In fact, herons must have been common in Warwickshire when he lived there. Art there not heronries there even now ? Herons, as I understand, may even now be occasionally seen in the neighbourhood of London, so their majestic bearing and graceful flight cannot but have been familiar to him. ASTARTE.
SOME AFRICAN NAMES OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED (9 th S. i. 466 ; ii. 52). I should like to thank COL. PRIDEAUX for his comments on my note, and particularly for his addition to my list of Magdala and Kassala, two examples in every way to the point. As to Kumassi, he seems to be right in saying there is doubt. I gave my authority for the antepenultimate accent ; for the penultimate accent I have just come across a reliable witness in the author of 'Ashantee and Jaman' (Dr. Freeman), who also writes Odumassi for a parallel name (Kumassi means "Under the Kum tree," Odumassi " under the Odum tree "). He also gives Bagida (p. 156) arid S6koto (p. 477). Koelle, in that useful book ' Polyglotta Africana,' also speaks for Kumassi, but agrees with me as to Kanuri and Sokoto. The African accent is not always easy to catch, as I know from personal investigation among speakers of the Accra, Fantee, Haussa, Nupe, and Yoruba tongues. I still incline to think the double consonant may have attracted it in Kumassi, as- it has done in Bambarra. Ashantee and Fantee should undoubtedly be preferred to the forms stressed on the final,
