474
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. JUNE 15, 1912.
The Ardens are, I believe, Saxon, and the
Xevills of Abergavenny, to which family I
do not belong, can go back to a pre-Conquest
ancestor in Dolfin fitz Crinan ; but the
really difficult thing is to establish a pedigree
on undoubted charters or public records
which proves Saxon ancestry.
EDMUND R. NEVILL, F.S.A.
Salisbury.
In an obituary notice of Lord St. John of Bletso, who died quite recently, The Observer of 12 May states that he
" was one of the few peers whose family descends in the male line from an ancestor living in the time of the Domesday survey."
I have also heard it stated that male descent has been continuous in the Daubeney family since its progenitor came over with William the Conqueror. Are the above statements correct ? CURIOUS.
THE THAMES (11 S. v. 45, 225, 332, 378, 436). Prof. Raoul de Felice of the Lycee at Chartres has some interesting notes on the Thames in his book, ' Les ^oms de nos Rivieres,' Paris, 1907, p. 42, w T hich it may be worth while to reproduce here, although I do not profess to accept all his conclusions :
" Suivant Pictet* encore, la racine aryenne tanii laquelle en Sanscrit signifie proprement ' 6touffer, s'engourclir, perdre le mouvement,' et qui la, comme en celtique et dans plusieurs langues congeneres, donne naissance a des termes qui exprimeiit la couleur noire ou sombre, a servi a nommer plusieurs cours d'eau : en Angleterre, la Tamise, Tamesis, qui rappellerait exactement les noms sanserifs Taniasa, Tamasi, ported par des rivieres de 1'Inde ancienne, la Tame, affluent de la Trent, la Taam, appelee aujourd'hui Tdf, le Tdpapos de Ptolemee, [Tamaris de 1'Anonyme de Bavenne, devenu aujourd'hui Tamer ; en Allemagne, la Diemel (Timella), affluent du Weser ; en Suisse, la Tamina, affluent du Bhin, transcrip- tion de 1'adjectif Sanscrit tamin, derive de tarn ; en Toscane, la Temc ; en Tarraconnaise, le Tamaro actuel, Tamaris pour Mela et Ptol4m6e ; en Lusi.tanie, le Tamagna, affluent du Douro, dont le nom ancien, Tamasca, nous parait re- marquable par la presence d'un suffixe que nous apprendrons plus loin a considerer comme ligure. A cette racine se rattacherait en France : le Tamon, affluent du Gardon (dep. Gard), et le Tamaron, affluent de la Bourbince (dep. Sa6ne- et-Loire)."
The root-signification of the Sanscrit tarn, both literally and metaphorically, is un- doubtedly darkness or gloom. Whether the general appearance of the rivers enu- merated by M. de Felice is such as to justify this meaning is a question of fact rather
- Pictet, Revue Celtique, t. ii. pp. 441, 443.
than of opinion. The epithet might apply
not only to the general colouring of the
water, but perhaps more specifically to the
character of the foliage by which it is over-
shadowed. With the exception of the
Thames, nearly all the streams that have
been named by M. de Felice are of a small
and insignificant character.
W. F. PBIDEAUX.
If, as PROF. SKEAT thinks " probable," this river-name is of Celtic origin, the only Gaelic word that suggests itself to me is taom, which means " rushing water or torrent/' with corresponding verb taom, " pour out." This, at all events, would be more appropriate to the character of the Thames than any word signifying " quiet " or " calm." C. S. JERRAM.
MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW : MEDAL (11 S. v. 390). A gal vano -plastic reproduc- tion of the medal commemorating the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (original in the Cabinet des Medailles) exists in the Musee des Antiquites nationales, Saint- Germain - en-Laye (Seine-et-Oise), and copies may be supplied on request. S. REINACH.
In ' The Student's France : a History of France,' edited by William Smith, LL.D., 3rd ed., John Murray, 1868, p. 339, is a woodcut giving both sides of the medal.
I have a modern replica in pewter, bought, perhaps, in Paris.
On the obverse is Pope Gregory XIII., bust to the left, head and shoulders, under which are the initials F p
The inscription is GREGORIVS * xm
PONT" MAX ' AN ' I (no Stop).
On the reverse is an angel, a cross in the left hand, a sword in the right, destroying a group of Huguenots.
The inscription is VGONOTTORVM * STRAGES 1572 (no stop).
The w r oodcut and the replica agree as to the designs and the words of the inscrip- tions. Assuming that the replica is exact, some of the stops are inexact in the woodcut. Also, whereas the initials of, presumably, the designer appear on the replica as ' F ' P ', on the woodcut they are p. P.
The diameter of the replica is If in., about in. larger than that of the woodcut. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
The following is in The Saturday Magazine, vol. xv. 255 (1839) :
" In order to perpetuate the memory of the triumph, the Pope [Gregory XIII.] caused a
