9* s. vni. AUG. 17, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.
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strange ; in fact, I fail to understand how,
when, and why English ideas became so dis-
sociated from continental ideas on the subject.
At one time England assuredly had & noblesse
like that abroad, nobility, of course, originally
being something that could neither be given
nor acquired, but must be by blood and
descent. Surely this is the most rational
view to take of nobility. In England there
seem to be a number of families who are
regarded as " gentle," but who appear to have
sprung from traders, &c. ; while frequently
the descendants of the really ancient families
are poor and occupy obscure positions, and
are unaware of their noble origin, and even
if they are aware of it will coolly say that
they are not noble because of their poverty.
But a true noblesse, of course, includes poor
and honoured members as well as rich ones.
Then, again, many people seem to delight in
trying to prove that this, that, or the other
family is not noble, in a way that strongly
reminds one of the fox and the grapes
Many people either do not know or wilfully
shut their eyes to the fact that Time brings
many changes to families as well as things,
and that the powerful family of centuries
ago, even if it has equally powerful repre-
sentatives at the present day, is likely to
have also very poor representatives descended
either direct from that family or from col-
lateral branches. Contrast a modern French
history with one of England. The former, in
speaking of the nobles of ancient times, refers
to all men of noble race ; whereas the English
history more often than not refers to the
nobility of, say, the eleventh century, as
though it merely included rich and powerful
people, and all the remainder were com-
moners. Contrast the description given by
Thierry of the Norman nobles with that
given by a modern English writer. I am
seeking for information, as I haye not yet
come across any book that explains why
English nobility possesses the peculiar
features of the present day. I am as one
f roping in darkness, trying to find the light, requently have I met with men in the position of tillers of the soil, &c., who are undoubted descendants of noble families, which, passing through various vicissitudes, now number amongst their members those who are quite ignorant of the stock from which they spring. FEENCHMAN.
" To BEAT A BANK." The following is to be found in Rae's * History of the Late Rebellion,' Dumfries, 1718, chap. v. p. 251 :
"About Eleven at Night, a Bank was beat thro' the Town, arid Intimation was made to all Towns- men and Strangers, who were provided with Horses,
to appear in the Streets with their best Horses and
Arms by the next Beat of the Drum."
I have known the word " bank " in the above-quoted passage to be taken as a mis- print for " ban," which according to old military dictionaries meant a proclamation, at the head of a body of troops or in quarters, by beat of drum. Rae, however, was a Scots- man he was minister of Kirkconnell in Upper Nithsdale and he here uses an old Scotch phrase which meant sounding a ruff or ruffle on the drum, such as is sometimes called a roll. In the ' Gentleman's Dic- tionary,' 1705, we are told that to beat a call is to advertise the soldiers to stand to their arms when a general officer is passing by ; and in Watson's * Military Dic- tionary ' we read : " Ruffle, a beat on the drum ; lieutenant-generals have three ruffles, major-generals two, brigadiers one, as they pass by the regiment," &c. ; also that to beat a ruff is to warn officers to their posts. Eland's 'Military Discipline,' fourth edition, 1740, pp. 14, 15, speaks of the major directing "the orderly drummer to beat a ruff, to give the officers notice," and of "a ruff of a drum to warn them."
The phrase " to beat a bank " is to be found in its old Scotch form in 'Monro his Ex- pedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment,' 1637, part ii. p. 33: "The drummer-major, accompanied with the rest of the drummers of the regiment, being commanded, beate a ban eke in head of the regiment."
McDowall in his 'History of Dumfries,' 1873, p 484, thus alludes to the incident related by Rae :
" The town crier proceeded through the principal streets at eleven o^clock that night, and in the usual way warned such burgesses and residents as possessed horses to appear mounted and with their best arms at next beat of drum."
FLOYD v. LLOYD. There are many names which have undergone fashionable change to suit the aristocratic pretensions or aspira- tions of their owners, especially the name Smith, converted into Smyth, &c. There are twenty ways, perhaps, of spelling the name Johnston and endless other common names, but neither Floyd nor Lloyd is so common or even aristocratic as to require any ameliora- tion at the hands of etymologists. To one who has been to much trouble to seek the why and the wherefore of the convertible peculiarity in which these names are involved it is unexplainable upon any grounds known at the present time. Floyd is a name as distinct from Lloyd as possible, and never conjoined with any alias ; in fact, up to
