Chapter 4

The difficulty in investigating the origin of this word is that the letter _c_, "the most wonderful of all letters," says Eichhoff (_Vergleichung der Sprachen_, p. 55.), sounds like _k_ before the vowels _a_, _o_, _u_, but before _e_, _i_, in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, as _s_, in Italian as _tsh_, in German as _ts_. It is always _ts_ in Polish and Bohemian. In Russian it is represented by a special letter [Cyrillic: ts], _tsi_; but in Celtic it is always _k_. Conformably with this principle, the Russians, like the Germans, Poles, and Bohemians, pronounce the Latin _c_ as _ts_. So Cicero in these languages is pronounced _Tsitsero_, very differently from the Greeks, who called him _Kikero_. The letter _tsi_ is a supplementary one in Russian, having no corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet, from which the Russian was formed in the ninth century by St. Cyril. The word to be sought then amongst cognate languages as the counterpart of _tsar_ (or as the Germans write it _czar_) is _car_, as pronounced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The most probable etymological connection that I can discover is with the Sanscrit [Sanskrit: car] _car_, to move, to advance; the root of the Greek [Greek: karrhon], in English _car_, Latin _curro_, French _cours_. So Sanscrit _caras_, _carat_, movable, nimble; Greek [Greek: chraôn], Latin _currens_. And Sanscrit _câras_, motion, Greek [Greek: choros], Latin _currus_, _cursus_, French _char_, English _car_, _cart_, &c. The early Russians were doubtless wanderers, an off-shoot of the people known to the Greeks as Scythians, and to the Hebrews and Arabians as Gog and Magog, who travelled in _cars_, occupying first one territory with their flocks, but not cultivating the land, then leaving it to nature and taking up another resting-place. It is certain that the Russians have many Asiatic words in their vocabulary, which must necessarily have occurred from their being for more than two centuries sometimes under Tatar, and sometimes under Mongol domination; and the origin of this word _tsar_ or _car_ may leave to be sought on the plateaus of North-east Asia. In the Shemitic tongues (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, &c.) no connexion of sound or meaning, so probable as the above Indo-European one, is to be found. The popular derivations of Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, &c., are not to be trusted. It is remarkable, however, that these names are significant in Russian. (See "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 432, 433, _note_.) The cuneatic inscriptions may yet throw light on these Assyrian names. In Russian the kingdom is _Tsarstvo_, the king _Tsar_, his queen _Tsarina_, his son is _Tsarevitch_, and his daughter _Tsarevna_. The word is probably pure Russian or Slavic. The Russian tsar used about two hundred years ago to be styled duke by foreign courts, but he has advanced in the nomenclature of royalty to be an emperor. The Russians use the word _imperatore_ for emperor, _Kesar_ for Cæsar, and _samodershetse_ for sovereign.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

In Voltaire's _History of the Russian Empire_, it is stated that the title of Czar may possibly be derived front the _Tzars_ or _Tchars_ of the kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, Grand Prince of Russia, had completed the reduction of this kingdom, he assumed this title, and it has since continued to his successors. Before the reign of John Basilides, the sovereigns of Russia bore the name of _Velike Knez_, that is, great prince, great lord, great chief, which in Christian countries was afterwards rendered by that of great duke. The Czar Michael Federovitz, on occasion of the Holstein embassy, assumed the titles of Great Knez and Great Lord, Conservator of all the Russias, Prince of Wolodimir, Moscow, Novogorod, &c., Tzar of Casan, Tzar of Astracan, Tzar of Siberia. The name of _Tzar_ was therefore the title of those Oriental princes, and therefore it is more probable for it to have been derived from the _Tshas_ of Persia than from the Roman Cæsars, whose name very likely never reached the ears of the Siberian Tzars on the banks of the Oby. In another part of Voltaire's _History_, when giving an account of the celebrated battle of Narva, where Charles XII., with nine thousand men and ten pieces of cannon, defeated "the Russian army with eighty thousand fighting men, supported by one hundred and forty-five pieces of cannon," he says, "Among the captives was the son of a King of Georgia, whom Charles sent to Stockholm; his name was _Mittelesky Czarowitz_, or Czar's Son, which is farther proof that the title of Czar or Tzar was not originally derived from the Roman Cæsars." To the above slightly abbreviated description may not be uninterestingly added the language of Voltaire, which immediately follows the first reference:

"No title, how great soever, is of any signification, unless they who bear it are great and powerful of themselves. The word _emperor_, which denoted only the _general of an army_, became the title of the {227} sovereigns of Rome and it is now conferred on the supreme governor of all the Russias."

A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.

I beg to inform J. S. A. that the right word is _Tsar_, and that it is the Russian word answering to our king or lord, the Latin _Rex_, the Persian _Shah_, &c. There may be terms in other languages that have an affinity with it, but I believe we should seek in vain for a derivation.

T. K.

* * * * *

"LAND OF GREEN GINGER."

(Vol. viii., p. 160.)

I wish that R. W. ELLIOT of Clifton, whom I recognise as a former inhabitant of Hull, had given the authority on which he states, that "It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times." The name of this street has much puzzled the local antiquaries; and having been for several years engaged on a work relative to the derivations, &c., of the names of the streets of Hull, I have spared no pains to ascertain the history and derivation of the singular name of this street.

I offer then a conjecture as to its derivation as follows:--The ground on which this street stands was originally the property of De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on which he had built his stately manor-house. On the attainder of the family it was seized by the king; and Henry VIII. several times held his court here, on one of his visits having presented his sword to the corporation. It was then, 1538, called Old Beverley Street, as seen in the survey made of the estates of Sir William Sydney, Kt. In a romance called _Piraute el Blanco_, it is stated "The morning collation at the English Court was _green ginger_ with good Malmsey, which was their custom, because of the coldness of the land." And in the _Foedera_, vii. 233., it is stated that, among other things, the cargo of a Genoese ship, which was driven ashore at Dunster, in Somersetshire, in 1380, consisted of green ginger (ginger cured with lemon-juice). In Hollar's Map of Hull, 1640, the street is there laid out as built upon, but without any name attached to it. No other plans of Hull are at present known to exist from the time of Hollar, 1640, to Gent, 1735. In Gent's plan of Hull, it is there called "The Land of Green Ginger;" so that probably, between the years 1640 and 1735, it received its peculiar name.

I therefore conjecture that, as Henry VIII. kept his Court here with his usual regal magnificence, green ginger would be one of the luxuries of his table; that this portion of his royal property being laid out as a garden, was peculiarly suitable for the growth of ginger--the same as Pontefract was for the growth of the liquorice plant; and that, upon the property being built upon, the remembrance of this spot being so suitable for the growth of ginger for the Court, would eventually give the peculiar name, in the same way that the adjoining street of Bowl-Alley-Lane received its title from the bowling-green near to it.

JOHN RICHARDSON.

13. Savile Street, Hull.

This has long been a puzzle to the Hull antiquaries. I have often inquired of old persons likely to know the origin of such names of places at that sea-port as "The Land of Green Ginger," "Pig Alley," "Mucky-south-end," and "Rotten Herring Staith;" and I have come to the conclusion, that "The Land of Green Ginger" was a very dirty place where horses were kept: a mews, in short, which none of the Muses, not even with Homer as an exponent, could exalt ([Greek: Epea pteroenta en athanatoisi theoisi]) into the regions of poesy.

Ginger has been cultivated in this country as a _stove_ exotic for about two hundred and fifty years. In one of the histories of Hull, ginger is supposed to have grown in this street, where, to a recent period, the stables of the George Inn, and those of a person named Foster opposite, occupied the principal portion of the short lane called "Land of Green Ginger." It is hardly possible that the true zingiber can have grown here, even in the manure heaps; but a plant of the same order (_Zingiberaceæ_) may have been mistaken for it. Some of the old women or marine school-boys of the Trinity House, in the adjoining lane named from that guild, or some druggist, may have dropped, either accidentally or experimentally, a root, if not of the ginger, yet of some kindred plant. The magnificent _Fuchsia_ was first noticed in the possession of a seaman's wife by Fuchs in 1501, a century prior to the introduction of the ginger plant into England.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Stereoscopic Angles_.--The discussion in "N. & Q." relative to the best angle for stereoscopic pictures has gone far towards a satisfactory conclusion: there are, however, still a few points which may be beneficially considered.

In the first place, the kind of stereoscope to be used must tend to modify the mental impression; and secondly, the _amount_ of reduction from the size of the original has a considerable influence on the final result.

If in viewing a stereoscopic pair of photographs, they are placed _at the same distance_ from the eyes as the _length of the focus of the lens used in producing them_, then without doubt the distance between the eyes, viz. about two and a quarter {228} inches, is the best difference between the two points of view to produce a perfectly natural result; and if the points of operation be more distant from one another, as I have before intimated, an effect is produced similar to what would be the case if the pictures were taken from a _model_ of the object instead of the object itself.

When it is intended that the pictures taken are to be viewed by an instrument that requires their distance from the eyes to be _less_ than the focal length of the lens used in their formation, what is the result? Why, that they subtend an angle larger than in nature, and are consequently apparently _increased_ in bulk; and the obvious remedy is to _increase_ the angle between the points of generation in the exact ratio as that by which the visual distance is to be lessened. There is one other consideration to which I would advert, viz. that as we judge of _distance_, &c. mainly by the degree of _convergence_ of the optic axes of our two eyes, it cannot be so good to arrange the camera with its two positions quite parallel, especially for objects at a short or medium distance, as to let its centre radiate from the principal object to be delineated; and to accomplish this desideratum in the readiest way (for portraits especially), the ingenious contrivance of Mr. Latimer Clark, described in the _Journal_ of the Photographic Society, appears to me the best adapted. It consists of a modification of the old parallel ruler arrangement on which the camera is placed; but one of the sides has an adjustment, so that within certain limits any degree of convergence is attainable. Now in the case of the pictures alluded to by MR. H. WILKINSON in Vol. viii., p. 181., it is probable they were taken by a camera placed in two positions parallel to one another, and it is quite clear that only a _portion_ of the two pictures could have been really stereoscopic. It is perfectly true that two indifferent negatives will often combine and form one good stereoscopic positive, but this is in consequence of one possessing that in which the other is deficient; and at any rate two _good_ pictures will have a _better_ effect; consequently, it is better that the two views should contain exactly the same _range_ of vision.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Protonitrate of Iron_.--"Being in the habit of using protonitrate of iron for developing collodion pictures, the following method of preparing that solution suggested itself to me, which appears to possess great advantages:--

Water 1 oz. Protosulphate of iron 14 grs. Nitrate of potash 10 grs. Acetic acid ½ drm. Nitric acid 2 drops.

In this mixture nitrate of potash is employed to convert the sulphate of iron into nitrate in place of nitrate of baryta in Dr. Diamond's formula, or nitrate of lead as recommended by Mr. Sisson; the advantage being that no filtering is required, as the sulphate of potash (produced by the double decomposition) is soluble in water, and does not interfere with the developing qualities of the solution.

"The above gives the bright deposit of silver so much admired in Dr. Diamond's pictures, and will be found to answer equally well either for positives or negatives. If the nitric acid be omitted, we obtain the effects of protonitrate of iron prepared in the usual way.--JOHN SPILLER."

(From the _Photographic Journal_.)

_Photographs in natural Colours_.--As "N. & Q." numbers among its correspondents many residents in the United States, I hope you will permit me to inquire through its columns whether there is really any foundation for the very startling announcement, in Professor Hunt's _Photography_, of Mr. Hill of New York having "obtained more than fifty pictures from nature in all the beauty of native coloration," or whether the statement is, as I conclude Professor Hunt is inclined to believe, one of those hoaxes in which many of our transatlantic friends take so much delight.

MATTER-OF-FACT.

_Photographs by artificial Lights_.--May I ask for references to any manuals of photography, or papers in scientific journals, in which are recorded any experiments that have been made with the view of obtaining photographs by means of artificial lights? This is, I have no doubt, a subject of interest to many who, like myself, are busily occupied during the day, and have only their evenings for scientific pursuits: while it is obvious, that if such a process can be successfully practised, there are many objects--such as _prints_, _coins_, _seals_, _objects of natural history and antiquity_--which might well be copied by it, even though artificial light should prove far slower in its action than solar light.

A CLERK.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Vandyke in America_ (Vol. viii., p. 182.).--I would take the liberty of asking MR. BALCH of Philadelphia whom he means by Col. Hill and Col. Byrd, "worthies famous in English history, and whose portraits by Vandyke are now on the James River?" I know of no Col. Hill or Byrd whom Vandyke could possibly have painted. I should also like to know what proof there is that the pictures, whomsoever they represent, are by _Vandyke_. MR. BALCH says that he favours us with this information "_in answer to the query_" (Vol. vii., p. 38.); but I beg leave to observe that it is by no means "in answer to the query," which was about an _engraved_ portrait and not _picture_, and {229} his thus bringing in the Vandykes _à propos de bottes_ makes me a little curious about their authenticity.

C.

_Title wanted--Choirochorographia_ (Vol. viii., p. 151.).--The full title of the book inquired after is as follows:

"[Greek: Choirochôrographia]: sive, Hoglandiæ Descriptio.--Plaudite _Porcelli Porcorum pigra Propago_ (Eleg. Poet.): Londini, Anno Domini 1709. Pretium 2^d," 8vo.

The printer, as appears from the advertisement at the end of the volume, was Henry Hills. The middle of the title-page is occupied by a coarsely executed woodcut, representing a boar with barbed instrument in his snout, and similar instrument on a larger scale under the head, surmounted with some rude characters, which I read

"TURX TRVYE BEVIS O HAMTVN."

The dedication is headed, "Augusto admodum & undiquaq; Spectabili Heroi Domini H---- S---- Maredydius Caduganus Pymlymmonensis, S.P.D." The entire work appears to be written in ridicule of Hampshire, and to be intended as a retaliation for work written by Edward Holdsworth, of Magd. Coll. Oxford, entitled _Muscipula, sive_ [Greek: kambro-muo-machia], published by the same printer in the same year, and translated by Dr. Hoadly in the fifth volume of Dodsley's _Miscellany_, p. 277., edit. 1782.

Query, Who was the author? and had Holdsworth any farther connexion with Hampshire than that of having been educated at Winchester School?

J. F. M.

_Second Growth of Grass_ (Vol. viii., p. 102.).--R. W. F. of Bath inquires for other names than "fog," &c. In Sussex we leave "rowens," or "rewens" (the latter, I believe, a corruption), used for the second growth of grass.

Halliwell, in his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, has "_Rowens_, after-grass," as a Suffolk word. Bailey gives the word, with a somewhat different signification; but he has "_Rowen hay_, latter hay," as a country word.

WILLIAM FIGG.

Lewes.

In Norfolk this is called "aftermath eddish," and "rowans" or "rawins."

The first term is evidently from the A.-S. _mæth_, mowing or math: Bosworth's _Dictionary_. Eddish is likewise from the A.-S. _edisc_, signifying the second growth; it is used by Tusser, _October's Husbandry_, stanza 4.:

"Where wheat upon _eddish_ ye mind to bestow, Let that be the first of the wheat ye do sow."

_Rawings_ also occurs in Tusser, and in the _Promptorium Parvulorum_, _rawynhey_ is mentioned. In Bailey's _Dictionary_ it is spelt _rowen_ and _roughings_: this last form gives the etymology, for _rowe_, as may be seen in Halliwell, is an old form for _rough_.

E. G. R.

I have always heard it called in Northumberland, _fog_; in Norfolk, _after-math_; in Oxfordshire, I am told, it is _latter-math_. This term is pure A.-Saxon, _mæth_, the mowing; the former word _fog_, and _eddish_ also, are to be found in dictionaries, but their derivation is not satisfactory.

C. I. R.

_Snail eating_ (Vol. viii., p. 34).--The beautiful specimens of the large white snails were brought from Italy by Single-speech Hamilton, a gentleman of _vertù_ and exquisite taste, and placed in the grounds at Paynes Hill, and some fine statues likewise. On the change of property, the snails were dispersed about the country; and many of them were picked up by my grandfather, who lived at the Grove under Boxhill, near Dorking. They were found in the hedges about West Humble, and in the grounds of the Grove. I had this account from my mother; and had once some of the shells, which I had found when staying in Surrey.

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge.

The snails asked after by MR. H. T. RILEY are to be met with near Dorking. When in that neighbourhood one day in May last, I found two in the hedgerow on the London road (west side) between Dorking and Box Hill. They are much larger than the common snail, the shells of a light brown, and the flesh only slightly tinged with green. I identified them by a description and drawing given in an excellent book for children, the _Parent's Cabinet_, which also states that they are to be found about Box Hill.

G. ROGERS LONG.

The large white snail (_Helix pomatia_) is found in abundance about Box Hill in Surrey. It is also plentiful near Stonesfield in Oxfordshire, where have, at different periods, been discovered considerable remains of Roman villas; and it has been suggested that this snail was introduced by the former inhabitants of those villas.

W. C. TREVELYAN.

Wallington.

_Sotades_ (Vol. vii., p. 417.).--Sotades is the supposed inventor of Palindromic verses (see Mr. Sands' _Specimens of Macaronic Poetry_, p. 5., 1831. His enigma on "Madam" was written by Miss Ritson of Lowestoft).

S. Z. Z. S.

_The Letter "h" in "humble"_ (Vol. viii., p. 54).--The question has been raised by one of your correspondents (and I have not observed any reply thereto), as to whether it is a peculiarity of Londoners to pronounce the _h_ in _humble_. If, as a Londoner by birth and residence, I might be allowed to answer the Query, I should say that {230} the _h_ is never heard in _humble_, except when the word is pronounced from the pulpit. I believe it to be one of those, either Oxford or Cambridge, or both, peculiarities, of which no reasonable explanation can be given.

I should be glad to hear whether any satisfactory general rule has been laid down as to when the _h_ should be sounded, and when not. The only rule which occurs to me is to pronounce it in all words coming to us from the Celtic "stock," and to pass it unsounded in those which are of Latin origin. If this rule be admitted, the pronunciation sanctioned by the pulpit and Mr. Dickens is condemned.

BENJAMIN DAWSON.

London.

_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 317. Vol. viii., p. 184.).--Is M. E. of Philadelphia laughing at us, when he refers us to a _woodcut_ in some American pictorial publication on the American Revolution for a true portraiture of the figure and features of King George III.; different, I presume, from that which I gave you. His woodcut, he says, is taken "from an English engraving;" he does not tell us who either painter or engraver was--but no matter. We have hundreds of portraits by the best hands which confirm my description, which moreover was the result of personal observation: for, from the twentieth to the thirtieth years of my life, I had frequent and close opportunities of approaching his Majesty. I cannot but express my surprise that "N. & Q." should have given insertion to anything so absurd--to use the gentlest term--as M. E.'s appeal to his "woodcut."

C.

_Singing Psalms and Politics_ (Vol. viii., p. 56.).--One instance of the misapplication of psalmody must suggest itself at once to the readers of "N. & Q.," I mean the melancholy episode in the history of the Martyr King, thus related by Hume:

"Another preacher, after reproaching him to his face with his misgovernment, ordered this Psalm to be sung,--

'Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, Thy wicked deeds to praise?'

The king stood up, and called for that Psalm which begins with these words,--

'Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray; For men would me devour.'

The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm which the former had called for."--_Hume's History of England_, ch. 58.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Dimidiation by Impalement_ (Vol. vii., p. 630.).--Your correspondent D. P. concludes his notice on this subject by doubting if any instance of "Dimidiation by Impalement" can be found since the time of Henry VIII. If he turn to Anderson's _Diplomata Scotiæ_ (p. 164. and 90.), he will find that Mary Queen of Scots bore the arms of France dimidiated with those of Scotland from A.D. 1560 to December 1565. This coat she bore as Queen Dowager of France, from the death of her first husband, the King of France, until her marriage with Darnley.

T. H. DE H.

"_Inter cuncta micans_," &c. (Vol. vi, p. 413.; Vol. vii., p. 510.).--The following translation is by the Rev. Geo. Greig of Kennington. It preserves the acrostic and mesostic, though not the telestic, form of the original: