QUERIES ANSWERED, NO. 4.—"POKERSHIP," BY BOLTON CORNET.
A query made by so experienced a writer as the noble historian of Audley End, cannot admit of easy solution; and instead of professing to answer the two-fold query on pokership, it might more become me to style this note an attempt to answer it.
In the Historical collections of the noble families of Cavendishe, etc. the passage which contains the doubtful word is printed thus:—
He [Sir Robert Harley, of Bramton, Herefordshire] was in the next year [1604], on the 16th of July, made forester of Boringwood, alias Bringwood forest, in com. Hereford, with the office of the pokership, and custody of the forest or chace of Prestwood, for life."
Are we to read parkership or pokership? If pokership, what is its meaning?
Skelton, the rhymer, has parker for park-keeper, so that parkership is an admissible word; but I reject it on this occasion, as inapplicable to a forest or chace. I incline to believe that pokership is the true lection. Poke denoted a purse; witness Chaucer:—
"Gerveis answered; Certes, were it gold,
Or in a poke nobles all untold,
Thou shuldest it have."—C. T. v. 3777.
We do not find poker in Barret or Cotgrave; but if poke denoted a purse, poker might denote a purse-bearer or treasurer, and pokership, the office of purse-bearer. So we have Bursa, [Glossarivm manvale, 1772. I. 849.] bursar, bursarship, etc.
MERTENS, MARTINS, OR MARTINI, THE PRINTER.
A correspondent, "W.," in No. 12. p. 185., wishes to learn "the real surname of Theodoric Mertens, Martins, or Martini, the printer of Louvain."
In Latin the name is written Theodoricus Martinus; in French, Thierri Martin; in Flemish, Diedrych Meertens, and occasionally, but I think incorrectly, Dierix Martens.
In a side chapel of the chancel of the church at Alost, midway between Brussels and Ghent, is the printer's tomb, and a double inscription, in Latin and in Flemish, commemorates his celebrity and the dates of his birth and death: in the Latin inscription the name is Theodoricus Martinus; in the Flemish, which is very old and nearly effaced it is Diedrych Meertens.
The name of Meertens, as a surname, is as common in Brabant and Flanders as that of Martin with us. A.B.
I beg to say that, in Peignot's Dictionnaire raisonné de Bibliologie, the name of the printer Mertens is given as "Martens, Mertens, ou Martin d'Alost (Thierry), en Latin Theodoricus Martinus." The article is too long for insertion in your pages, but it contains an account of the title-page of one of his editions, in 4to., in which the name is spelt Mertens: "Theo. Mertens impressore." Two other title-pages have "Apud Theod. Martinum." So it appears that the printer himself used different modes of spelling his own name. Erasmus wrote a Latin epitaph on his friend, in which a graceful allusion is made to his printer's mark, the anchor:—
"Hie Theodoricus jaceo, prognatus Alosto:
Ars erat impressis scripta referre typis.
Fratribus, uxori, soboli, notisque superstes
Octavam vegetus præterii decadem.
Anchora sacra inanet, gratæ notissima pubi:
Christe! precor nunc sis anchora sacra mihi."
ETYMOLOGY OF ARMAGH.
In reply to the inquiry of "D. S. Y." (p. 158. of your 10th number), I beg to say that the name of Armagh is written, in Irish, Ardmacha, and signifies the Height (or high ground) of Macha. It is supposed to have derived this name from Macha Mong-ruadh [i.e. Macha of the red hair], who was queen of Ireland, according to the Chronology of O'Flaherty, a.m. 3603. I. H. T.
Sir, There are the following authorities for different derivations of the word Armagh.
Camden, in his Britannia, says:—
"Armach ab Amarchâ reginâ; sic dictum fabuantur Hibernici; at mihi eadem esse videtur quam Dearmach vocat Beda: et Roborum Campum ex lingua Scotica sive Hibernica interpretatur, ubi circa annum salutis dlx. monasterium extruxit celeberrimum Columbanus."
Dr. Keating's Hist. of Ireland has as follows:—
"Macha the wife of Nemedius died before her son Ainnin … from her Ardmagh received its name, because she was buried in that place."
Circles of Gomer (London, 1771), contains as follows:—
"Ar, and Ararat.—The Earth, country, or upon and on the earth. … Armagh on the surrounding water confines."
M. Bullet, Mémoires de la Langue Celtique, writes thus:—
"Armagh,
"Une des plus anciennes villes d'Irland. Ar, article. Mag, ville."—vol. i.
But the 2nd and 3rd vols. of these Mémoires, which contain the Celtic Dictionary, afford a more probable interpretation:—
