9*s. V.APRIL 7, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.
273
" go " of the music, and of patriotic fervour,
to hide the absurdities in the sense.
M. C. L.
New York.
THE BLESSING OF THE THROATS (9 th S. v. 169). I do not call to mind an instance of this rite being practised in England in pre - Reformation days, but there is not much doubt that it was then in use in .this country, for the cultus of St. Blaise was widely spread. Alban Butler, in his 'Lives of the Saints ' (3 February), tells his readers that " in the holy wars his relics were dis- persed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many miraculous cures, especially of sore throats." Whether we had this rite here or not, it is probable that as now seen at St. Etheldreda's it is a recent introduction from Italy, where, I gather from a paper by Miss Ella B. Edes in the Dublin Review of October, 1889, p. 344, it is by no means uncommon. EDWARD PEACOCK.
"STEP" (9 th S. v. 189). As the forms steop- fceder, stepfather, steopmodor, stepmother, and steopsunu, stepson, all occur in the Corpus Glossary of the eighth century, they are literally as old as the Heptarchy ; so that doubt as to their antiquity is somewhat sur- prising. As steop meant "bereft," it is sup- posed that the term was first applied to stepchildren who had lost a father or mother, and had acquired a new one by marriage. WALTER W. SKEAT.
Shakespeare uses "stepdame" more fre- quently than " stepmother." Spenser uses the form "stepdame." This is most likely the immediately antecedent form of the word. Under ' To Step-bairn, Step-Barne,' Jamieson (Supplement), it will be found that construction with " step " has a wider use than is generally known. ARTHUR MAYALL.
GOTHIC " SPAURDS " (9 th S. v. 148). May I suggest a connexion between the Gothic fern, noun spaurds, a footrace, racecourse, stadium, and the Sanskrit s^Awr = to push with the foot? To its very large family belong the Gr. (nra.ipf.iv, to kick, jerk ; Lat. spernere, used figuratively ; Litt. spirti, to tread ; A.-S. sjwornan; the Mod. Eng. to spurn, &c.
K. E. HEINLE, M.A., Ph.D.
Ha wick, N.B.
One glance at the well-known etymological dictionaries of Wedgwood, Eduard Miiller, and Prof. Skeat will throw the required light on the fortuitous resemblance of Engl. sport and Gothic spaurds. They clearly show that there is no etymological relation whatever
between these words, but that Engl. sport=
Old French desport, and Old Engl. disport,
used by Chaucer in the same sense of diversion
or recreation (as Prof. Skeat points out).
As to the Gothic spaurds, it is=Anglo- Saxon spyrd, and=Old High Germ, spurt, i.e., stadium, racecourse. Of common origin with this word is the other Anglo-Saxon word spor =Old Norse s/?or=Danish spor=German spur, i.e., footprint, track, vestige, where the original final d of the Gothic spaurd-s has been dropped, as Vigfusson has explained in his ' Icelandic-Engl. Dictionary.' The connexion between Anglo-Saxon spor, i.e., track, and Gothic spaurds, a racecourse, is rendered evi- dent by the fact that the distance of a race- course was measured by footsteps (see Schade's ' Altdeutsches Worterbuch,' p. 861).
H. KREBS.
Oxford.
DRYDEN'S OAKS IN SCOTT (9 th S. v. 149). Dryden is a small estate in Midlothian, a little way north of the bank of the Esk, opposite Hawthornden House. The estate was formerly a possession of the Lockharts of Lee and Carnwath a family whose tradi- tional connexion with the regaining from the infidels of the heart of King Robert Bruce is well known. Visitors to Edinburgh who have made the pilgrimage to see the exquisite architectural beauties of Roslin Chapel will remember passing, within a short distance of Roslin, Dryden Tower, upon this estate, where there is an elaborate cradle-tomb, erected in memory of James Lockhart Wishart of Lee and Carnwath, who died in 1790, when general in the service of the Emperor Joseph II. of Germany. There is no village of Dryden. SENGA.
Dryden long the property of the old Scottish family of Lockhart is a mansion and estate in the county of Edinburgh, in the parish of Lasswade, the same parish in which both Roslin and Hawthornden are situated. Dryden and Roslin are on the left bank of the river Esk, and Hawthornden, with its caverns, is opposite the former, on the right bank. So far back as 24 May, 1690, George Lockhart of Carnwath was served heir to his father Sir George, Lord President of the Court of Session, " in terris de Dryden infra baroniam de Rossland " (Roslin) ; but I have never heard of John Dryden or his ancestors being associated with the place. J. L. ANDERSON.
Edinburgh.
EGYPTIAN CHESSMEN (9 th S. v. 28, 111). Some of the reasons for considering that
