410
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL MAT 23, iocs.
of Jews. Now, however, the words of crowds
are usually sung not by Synagoga, but by
the choir. For the melodies see Groves
- Dictionary of Music,' art. ' Passion Music.
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
THE ANTIQUITY OF BUSINESSES (9 th S. xi. 165, 191). At 7 th S. ii. 6 I showed that a shoemaker's shop in Souttergate (i.e., Shoe- makers' Street), in Hedon, East Yorkshire, was occupied by shoemakers from 1670 to 1792, and probably later. W. C. B.
The drug business of Messrs. Hooper & Co., Russell Street, Covent Garden, though not so old as that of Messrs. Corbyn, has, according to the Chemist and Druggist, been continuously carried on under the same roof for a longer period, and theirs claims to be the oldest pharmacy in London. It dates from 1732. Another famous old drug business is that of the Fallowfields in Penrith (now carried on by Mr. Edmondson), which was first estab- lished in 1726. 0. C. B.
There is an extant firm of wholesale drug- gists dating uninterruptedly from the time of Queen Elizabeth, perhaps older ; it is also supposititiously connected with Richard Quiney, of Bucklersbury, a brother-in-law to Shakspere's daughter Judith. Apart from their own business and family records, there is evidence of the granting and renewing leases under the incumbent and church- wardens of their parish, which has been traced for several generations in the vestry books. LYSART.
ROBIN HOOD (9 th S. xi. 169, 258).!. The " Wood " theory rests on a very slender basis of fact, and its popularity far outstrips its merits. The authority of the Gentleman's Magazine of 1793 goes for little in the matter. The writer therein was a Mr. J. M. Gough, like Gutch, a bitter opponent of Ritson. "Robin Wood, Whode, o y th' Wood, q.d. of Sirewood," is his phrase, which appears to me as fanciful as Ritson 's gloss, "Some particular sort of hood." Both are clumsy distortions of a plain Saxon name, and blundering attempts to explain its genesis. " Hood," says Thierry in his 'Histoire de la Conqu^te de 1'Angleterre,' "is a Saxon name." Of course it shared the fate of old names, and garnered a plentiful crop of variants. The earliest sample of these occurs, so far as I know, in the ' Monasticon,' in a Latin poem of 1304, where it is spelt " Hud us " (as also in Major), ex quo "Hude." Fordun, the Paston Letters, and the ' Ly tell Geste ' (Wynkyn de Worde, circa 1489) have " Hode," and in 'Piers Plough- man ' we have " Hod." Pierce Egan assimi-
lated it with "Head." Ascham, in 'Toxo-
philus,' has " Hoode." The addition of w to
either "Hood" or "Hode" is as much an
eccentricity as is the h in " Whilliam." Both
are clear and simple instances of misspelling.
Similar corruptions abound amongst the
illiterate and careless in our own days, for
which also the oddities of pronunciation are
largely responsible. If it be a mark of
savoir faire to call Belvoir " Beever " ; Chol-
mondeley, "Chumley " ; Wemyss, "Weems,"
and Beauchamp, " Beech am," we cannot mar-
vel at the uninitiated writing them thus.
I find also that in Dyce's edition of Peele's
- Edward I.' the expression " Robin of the
Wood , alias Robin Hood," occurs, but this is on a par with similar attempts to create diffi- culties where none exists. In this, as in other matters, the "higher criticism" overreaches itself.
2. The assumed relationship between "Robin Hood "=" Robin Whode," and " Robin des Bois " is equally unfounded. The latter, as has been abundantly shown, is a wood spirit or goblin, the former an historical personage. The transfusion and confusion of the two is natural. The one infests the woods in bodily, the other in spirit, form. Hence our Robin Goodfellows and Hobgoblins and continental " Robins des Bois "all sprites of the forest, as Robin Hood was, in more substantial em- bodiment, of Sherwood. And the Roque Guinart of * Don Quixote ' is a notable coun- terpart of the Saxon forester and outlaw in his real and historical aspect. For " Roque " read "Robin," and the counterpart is com- plete. But no number of such ghostly or real will destroy the historical personality of the Saxon archetype. J. B. McGovERN.
St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.
VALISE'S ' BIBLIOGRAPHIE DES BIBLIO- GRAPHIES ' (9 th S. xi. 368). The first volume of this work was published by Terquem at Paris in 1883, 4to, 773 pp., price 25 fr. Two parts, an author catalogue and a subject index, were contained in this volume. A sup- plementary volume was published by Terquem m 1887, 4to, 354 pp., price 15 fr. No further supplement has been issued.
ERNEST A. SAVAGE.
SCHULZE, THE GERMAN ORGAN - BUILDER
(9 th S. xi. 247). Your correspondent refers probably to Heinrich Edmund Schulze, the oldest and most distinguished son of J. F. Schulze. The father was the founder of the firm of organ-builders known under the name of J. F. Schulze & Sons, whose manufactory was first established in 1825, nearj Paulinzella, in Thuringia. In 1851
