Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/86

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78


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. JAN. 27, 1900.


data, one might have supposed it to have been a later crusade, and have attributed the act of sacrifice to Sybilla, daughter and heir of the lord of the manor of Crickhowell, co. Brecon, who was wife of that Sir Grimbald, the first so named in the pedigree, who in 1281 obtained a charter for market and fair at Cowarne, and who may have followed Edward I. to the Holy Land in 1270. In a roll of that reign he bears Gules, three lions rampant argent, he "having received the lions from Sir Edward Bohun, who had knighted him."

Duncumb's 'Hist, of Herefordshire' (Brit. Mus. press - mark 2064 d.) has a very interesting account of the ruined effigies at Cowarne, and, I think, mentions Eustachius Pauncefort, who held one-fourth part of a knight's fee at Cowarne as early as 1109. I have an impression that Cowarne is some- times called Much-Cowarne, unless that is the name of a mansion.

(Mrs.) C. LEGA-WEEKES.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Dr. James A. H. Murray. Vol. IV. Glass-coach Graded. By Henry Bradley, Hon. M.A. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) A DOUBLE section of Dr. Murray's monumental dictionary brings the fourth volume the issue of which is superintended by Mr. Bradley within measurable reach of completion. The part, which includes 3,675 words, illustrated by 15,816 quota- tions, is noteworthy as containing "three of the most important words of the Teutonic vocabulary go, God, and aood" which words, with their com- pounds and derivatives, occupy nearly a quarter of the space of the section. A curious history is narrated of the word glee= entertainment, play, sport, ftc. This word is wanting from the other Teutonic languages. After presenting itself with great frequency in many different forms, it seems after the fifteenth century to have been rarely used, and by the beginning of the eighteenth was spoken of by Phillips as obsolete, while Johnson considered it a merely comic word. Pope, how- fve r, it should be noted, employed it twice in the Dunciad, and Shakespeare, an instance from whose limon is advanced, once uses gleeful. A characteristic use of it is made in the version familiar to us of " A frog he would a-wooing go " in which occur the lines

As they were in glee and a-merry-making, A cat and her kittens came tumbling in. The date of this we do not know.

We find, to our surprise, gle.ek at cards used as equivalent to the French Irrelan : " A mournaval of aces and a gleek of queens." Glengarry, as the name of a cap, is not found earlier than 1858. Some interesting comments are made on the verb glide A happy instance of the use of this word is fur mshed, we think, by Lodge


With hair that gilds the water as it glides where the play on gilds and glides is possibly inten- tional. Globe, for a spherical body, is not found before the middle of the sixteenth century. An interesting comparison is suggested between the word gloaming, familiar in Scottish verse, and glooming, used, with a certain sort of anticipation of Milton, by Spenser in

A little glooming light, much like a shade. Some interesting historical information is naturally found under glove. See the quotation from Gay concerning the claim for a pair of gloves by one kissing a sleeper. We should have expected to find an instance of gnome= goblin, dwarf, earlier than Pope's ' Rape of the Lock,' but can cite none. Among innumerable meanings of go as a substantive we find a go of brandy only a hundred years old. The word as applied to the measure containing the liquid is a few years older. Under goat we find one definition to which we object as inadequate. Goat is said to signify a licentious man. This is wrong, and is a mere euphemism. The meaning is a libidinous man, and even an excessively libidinous man, a lecher, and no weaker phrase should be employed. Licentious is broader and more varied in meaning. It is rarely we find the occasion for a comment of this kind. The references, too, are sometimes too vague. Under goal, advanced as of difficult etyniology, we find, " Fick Idg. Wb. 2 ii.," which is sufficiently enigmatical to puzzle us. Again, under govm we find, "Fick's Idg. Wb* ii. 281." Votaries of golf may be interested to know that the name is of obscure origin, but will find no final decision as to the way in which it is to be pro- nounced. The earlier forms of orthography seem to favour the now fashionable pronunciation of goff. The information concerning goliard, goliardic, &c., is worthy of study. Under good luck we would fain have had Milton's

Good luck befriend thee, Son, for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth. The articles on gooseberry and gossip may be con- sulted with great advantage. We hail with much contentment the progress that is being made with this all-important work.

Nooks and Corners of Shropshire. By H. Thornhill

Timmins, F.R.G.S. (Stock.)

MR. TIMMINS is continuing his pleasant and con- scientiously discharged task of illustrating with pen and pencil the beauties, natural and archi- tectural, and the antiquities of Wales and the Welsh borders, and has followed ' The Nooks and Corners' of Pembrokeshire and of Herefordshire by the 'Nooks and Corners of Shropshire.' His drawings are well executed, and the work will commend itself warmly to the inhabitants of this delightful county. Our own knowledge of Shrop- shire is slight. About forty years ago we accom- panied the late Thomas Wright, one of the first of English antiquaries, to Ludlow, his birthplace, and Shrewsbury, and explored with him the Roman remains of Uriconium. Memories, pleasant though sadly remote, are summoned up as we turnover Mr. Timmins's agreeable pages. Of the quaint architecture of Shrewsbury he gives many striking pictures. Ludlow Castle, the scene of * Comus,' is presented in more than one aspect, and there are views of Wroxeter with its quaint church and the remains of Uriconium. Bridgnorth, one of the most picturesque and ancient of Western towns, is