340
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. OCT. 26, 1001.
ignorance, and virtue knowledge in its highest
degree. Could a philosopher who so taught
issue consistently a great dictum for the use
and comfort of those who believe m the heal-
ing power of ignorance ? No more than our
own Gray (" perhaps," says Dr. Johnson, the
most learned man in Europe"), who is quoted
many times daily (by those who have never
read him) as speaking against the acquisition
of knowledge in the lines " Where ignorance is
bliss, Tis folly to be wise"; and this not by
the illiterate only, but (at least once daily)
by the newspaper press of the British Isles.
The small amount of knowledge which a man can acquire in a lifetime, when com- pared with what is to be acquired, was illus- trated by Newton in the well-known story. The less-known story of the wise Mussulman is to the same effect, who, being taunted with his ignorance, replied that the caliph paid him in proportion to his knowledge, but that his whole revenue could not pay him in pro- portion to his ignorance.
It seems as if the usual span of life were too short for any man to have a chance of being IIoA.v/xa#r)s at the present day. It could easily be shown that most (if not all) of our greatest scholars were only beginning to feel sure of their ground and to get their stores arranged when their time came. In the case of De Quincey (if I may call him a great scholar) I have been struck with this. He planned and purposed writing a history of England and an historical novel such as should be worth reading, felt equal to the task at last and then died.
THOMAS AULD.
FRENCH FETISHES. In connexion with the Quotation given under ' Le Bon Roi Dagooert' (ante, p. 247), relating the offer- ing of horsehair knots to St. Eloi in his chapel near Landerneau, Brittany, your readers may be interested to know that at the altar over St. Mellon's grave in his chapel at Rouen, dating from the fourth century A.D., many linen leading - strings are hung, offered to secure children a good teething. St. Mellon is well known as the patron saint of St. Mellon's, near Cardiff. It would be interesting to know if any similar traditions are current about him in South Wales. H.
"MOUCHARD," POLICE SPY. "In view of the Czar's visit," the Paris correspondent of the Daily News of 28 August says, "the papers are full of information about detectives, the slang name for whom is ' mouchard.' The Libert^ assures us that this word dates back to the time of the Reformation. King Francis the First, under whom the persecution of Protestants began in
earnest, appointed a theologian of the University
of Paris named Antoine de Mouchi to be inquisitor.
This Mouchi showed such zeal in ferreting out
heretics and in sending them to the stake that the
people of Paris, among whom the Reformation had
many secret sympathisers, gave the name of
1 Mouchard ' to the inquisitor's private informers,
and the word was by degrees applied to all the
agents of the secret police."
Littre says :
" Mouchard parait venir de mouche, qui s'est dit pour espion. Cependant M6zeray (' Regne de Frangois II.') dit, en parlant de Mouchares, the'o- logien de Paris et inquisiteur pour la foi, qu'il se nommait de Mouchy et que les espions s'appelaient mouchards, etymologie adopted par Voltaire, ' Hist. Parlem.,' ch. xxi."
JOHN HEBB.
" COBWOOL " : " COGWARE." By letters patent of 4 December, 1341 (Pat. Roll, 15 Edw. III., pt. iii. m. 6d, in 'Calendar,' p. 365), provision is made against such merchants as, having the king's licence to export " Peltwollj Cobwoll, Lambwoll et Malemqrt," fraudulently placed better wool among it in order to evade duty.
In the 'Rolls of Parliament' for 1343 (vol. ii. p. 143, col. 1) is printed the merchants' " avisement des pointz et Articles dont ils sont chargez, en amendement de la Communaltee de la terre." They suggested, inter alia:
" Qe notre Seignur le Roi eayt Subside de chescun Sak de mier Leyne xls. ; et des autres Leynes, c'est assaver, aigne Lyne, Leyne des pelitz, et cobwolle, solonc le pris q'il vaut a meyndre Subside."
Cog ware is mentioned first in 1376 ('Rolls of Parliament,' vol. ii. p. 347, col. 2), in a peti- tion from the commons of the counties of Essex and Suffolk,* praying :
" Qe les Draps appellez Cogware et Kerseyes faitz as ditz Contes, et autres tieux estroites Draps y
faites et en autres pays auxint ne soient compris
en dit Estatut [27 Edw. III. c. 4], en aide et relief del dite Commune."
The royal answer runs :
"Le Roy voet q'ils eient tielles Lettres par lesquelles soit declarree, qe les estreites Draps appellez Cogware et Kerseyes, acustumes d'estre faites es dites Coutees, ne deivent mye estre entenduz pur estre compris en dit Estatut, ne souz la paine d'ycelle."
As the ' N.E.D.'does not hazard any etymo- logy for cogware^ and as it does not record cobwool, I have set out the passages at con- siderable length, for the benefit of the ' Sup- plement/ The curious interchange of cob and cog in many words of identical meaning (exemplified most strongly in the ' E D.D.')
- This is positive confirmation of the statement
in 'N.E.D.' that the name of the fabric kersey is derived from the Suffolk place-name.
f Its earliest instance of the word is 1389.
