48
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 20, 1007.
vrault ; but there is no mention of this fact
in any books on the locality I have seen,
or in a list of religious houses given in Father
Gasquet's ' English Monastic Life.' Is it
possible that Dr. Lipscomb has assigned
the grant to another Eton or Eaton than
the one indicated in the charter ? R. B.
Upton.
" DAPIFEB " : " OSTIABIUS." Certain old charters in mediaeval Latin contain the words " ostiarius " and " dapifer " attached to names of witnesses in them.
" Dapifer " I cannot find in any classical dictionary : it is possibly a monkish word derived from daps, dapis, a stately feast for religious purposes, and fero, to bring. A dapifer would perhaps be a kind of steward, or butler, or master of ceremonies ; but under none of these headings can " dapifer " be found.
" Ostiarius " is given as doorkeeper or porter. Would it be likely that in the granting and signing of charters so humble an official in a great monastic establishment would be called to affix his name as a witness, immediately after the names of kings, chancellors, dukes, and knights, and the great landowners in the county ?
Can any one now say what was the exact position held in a monastic establishment by the dapifer and the ostiarius ?
WILLIAM GEMMELL, M.B.
[Dapifer is fully explained and illustrated by quotations in the 'N.E.I).' The quotations for ostiary or ostiarius begin with 1432-50.]
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Can any of your readers tell me the source of the lines quoted in ' Emma,* chap, ix., beginning,
Kitty, a fair but frozen maid ? They are also quoted by Prof. A. R. Wallace in his ' Life.'
I have been unable to find them in ' Ele- gant Extracts,' in spite of Emma's statement that they are to be found there.
A. G. BECKER. Disley.
In Macmillan's Magazine for February last, p. 274, occurs the following quatrain. Whence does it come ?
The toad beneath the harrow knows Precisely where each tooth-point goes ; The butterfly upon the road Preaches contentment to the toad.
A somewhat similar idea may be found in ' Rob Roy,' chap, xxvii., where Andrew Fairservice observes : " Ower mony maisters ower mony maisters, as the paddock said
to the harrow, when every tooth gae her a
tig." JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
" COROON," A CHERRY. On p. 201 of ' The Gardeners Kalendar ' (London,. MDCC.XLV.), among the names of the kinds of cherries then cultivated in England, one reads " coroon." What is the origin of this word ? Can it possibly be from Coruiia in Spain ?
EDWARD S. DODGSON.
" CRUSCANTISM." In Messrs. Sisley's edi- tion of Rousseau's ' Confessions,' p. 96, the following sentences occur :
" The Abbe de Gouvon was a younger son, and designed by his family to a bishopric ; his studies, for this reason, had been carried farther than is usual to children of quality. He had been sent to the University of Sienna, where he remained several years, and from whence he brought a pretty strong dose of cruscantism" &c.
Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' help me to the meaning of the last word ? I have consulted several dictionaries the 'Century, ' Imperial,' Webster's, and Chambers's and can find no reference to the word.
W. M.
[We imagine that Delia Crusca and its school are 1 referred to.]
SELVAGGI AND MILTON. What is known (date, nationality, &c.) of Giovanni Selvaggi,. whose tribute to Milton ("Grsecia Maeoni- dem," &c.) is prefixed to the Latin poems ? FRANCIS KING.
" SEYNT-PRO-SEYNT," A WINE. Whence is the above wine-name ? It occurs in the 'Land Troy Book' (E.E.T.S. 1903), 366/12424 :
Off corn, of flour, & gentil wynes, Off seynt-pro-seynt, and maluesynes As gode as come of grapes.
H. P. L.
PARISH RECORDS WANTING. In con- nexion with my history of the City parishes, of St. Anne and St. Agnes and St. John Zachary, to which I have several times been permitted to refer in these columns, I should be grateful to any correspondent who could assist in throwing light upon the following matter.
Herbert, the Corporation librarian, in his Illustrations of the Site and Neighbour- hood of the New Post Office,' published in 1830, refers to some records as then existing which the closest and most exhaustive in- vestigation fails to produce at the present time, though there is absolutely no known reason why they should not still be con-
