Part 3
_Gradely_.--It seems rather a rash step to differ from the mass of critical authority with which your last number has brought this shy, old-fashioned provincial word into a blaze of literary notoriety. Yet I cannot help conceiving the original form of this adverb to be _grathedly_ ([Old English: geraðlic], root [Old English: rað], with the preteritive prefix [Old English: ge]) or _gerathely_. In our Yorkshire dialect, to _grathe_ (pronounced _gradhe_) means, to make ready, to put in a state of _order_ or _fitness_. A man inconveniently accoutred or furnished with implements for the performance of some operation on which he was employed, {362} observed to me the other day, "I's ill grathed for't job"--rather a terse Saxon contrast to my latinized paraphrase.
_Grathedly_ would then mean, "In a state of good order, fitness, readiness, or perfection."
To the cognate German _gerade_ adv., I find the senses, "directly, just, exactly, _perfectly_, rightly."
The prevailing impression given by your numerous testimonials as to the character of the word _gradely_, is one of decency, order, rightness, perfectness.
I fancy the whole family (who might be called the children of _rath_), viz. [Old English: rað], _rathe_ (_gerathe, grathedly, gradely_), _rather_ (only a Saxon form of _readier_), have as a common primeval progenitor the Sanscrit [Sanskrit: radh] (_radh_), which is interpreted "a process towards perfection;" in other words, "a becoming ready."
G. J. CAYLEY.
Wydale, Oct. 21.
P.S.--_Greadly_ is probably a transposition for _geradly_. The Yorkshire pronunciation of _gradely_ is almost as if written _grared-ly_.
I think it probable that the words _greed, greedily_, are from the same radicle. By the way, is _radix_ perhaps derived from [Sanskrit: rad] (_rad_), a tooth (from the fang-like form of roots), whence _rodere_ and possibly _radius_?
* * * * *
COLLAR OF ESSES.
Although the suggestion made by C. (Vol. ii., p. 330.), _viz._ that the Collar of Esses had a "mechanical" origin, resulting from the mode of forming "the chain," and that "the _name_ means no more than that the links were in the shape of the letter S.," could only be advocated by one unacquainted with the real formation of the collar, yet, as I am now pledged before the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" as the historiographer of livery collars, it may be expected that I should make some reply. This may be accompanied with the remark, that, about the reign of Henry VIII., a collar occurs, which might be adduced in support of the theory suggested by the REV. MR. ELLACOMBE, and adopted by C. It looks like a collar formed of esses; but it is not clear whether it was meant to do so, or was merely a rich collar of twisted gold links. That was the age of ponderous gold collars, but which were arbitrary features of ornamental costume, not collars of livery. Such a collar, however, resembles a series of esses placed obliquely and interlaced, as thus: _SSSS_; not laid flat on their sides, as figured by C. Again, it is true an (endless) _chain_ of linked esses was formed merely by attaching the letters [three letter Ss horizontally] like hooks together. This occurs on the cup at Oriel College, Oxford, engraved in Shaw's _Ancient Furniture_ in Shelton's _Oxonia Illustrata_, and in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for August last; but the connexion of this with the English device is at least very doubtful. The cup is not improbably of foreign workmanship, and Menneus assigns such a collar to the knights of Cyprus; even there the S was not without its attributed import:
"Per literam autem S. quæ _Silentii_ apud Romanos nota fuit, secretum societatis et amicitiæ simulachrum, individuamque pro patriæ defensione _Societatem_ denotari."--_Fr. Mennenii Deliciæ Equest. Ordinum_, 1613. 12mo. p. 153.
However, the answer to the suggestion of MR. ELLACOMBE and C. consists in this important distinction, that the Lancastrian livery collar was _not a chain_ of linked esses, but a collar of leather or other stiff material, upon which the letters were _distinctly_ figured at certain intervals; and when it came to be made of metal only, the letters were still kept distinct and upright. On John of Ghent's collar, in the window of old St. Paul's (which I have already mentioned in p. 330.), there are only five,
S S S S S,
at considerable intervals. On the collar of the poet Gower the letters occur thus,--
SSSSS SSSSS.
On that of Queen Joan of Navarre, at Canterbury, thus,--
S | S | S | S | S | S |
There is then, I think, little doubt that this device was the _symbolum_ or _nota_ of some word of which S was the initial letter; whether _Societas_, or _Silentium_, or _Souvenance_, or _Soveraigne_, or _Seneschallus_, or whatever else ingenuity or fancy may suggest, this is the question,--a question which it is scarcely possible to settle authoritatively without the testimony of some unequivocal contemporary statement. But I flatter myself that I have now clearly shown that the esses were neither the _links of a chain_ nor yet (as suggested in a former paper) identical with the _gormetti fremales_, or horse-bridles, which are said to have formed the livery collar of the King of Scots.
JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.
"Christus purpureum gemmati textus in auro Signabat Labarum, Clypeorum insignia Christus Scripserat; ardebat summis crux addita cristis."
By the same sort of reasoning--viz. conjecture--that MR. JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS adheres to the opinion that the Collar of SS. takes its name from the word _Seneschallus_, it might be contended that the initial letters of the lines above quoted mystically stand for "Collar, S. S." Enough, however, has already been written on this unmeaning point to show that some of us are "great gowks," or, in other words, stupid guffs, to waste so much pen, ink, and paper on the subject.
There are other topics, however, connected with the Collar of SS. which are of real interest to a {363} numerous section of the titled aristocracy in the United Kingdom; and it is with these, as bearing upon the heraldic and gentilitial rights of the subject, that I am desirous to grapple. MR. NICHOLS, and those who pin faith upon his _dicta_, hold that the Collar of SS. was a livery ensign bestowed by our kings upon certain of their retainers, in much the same sense and fashion as Cedric the Saxon is said to have given a collar to Wamba, the son of Witless. For myself, and all those entitled to carry armorial bearings in the kingdom, I repudiate the notion that the knightly golden Collar of SS. was ever so conferred or received. Further, I maintain that there was a distinction between what MR. NICHOLS calls "the Livery Collar of SS.," and the said knightly golden Collar of SS., as marked and broad as is the difference between the Collar of the Garter and the collar of that four-footed dignitary which bore the inscription,
"I am the Prince's Dog at Kew, Pray whose Dog are you?"
In his last communication MR. NICHOLS lays it down that "livery collars were perfectly distinct from collars of knighthood;" adding, they did not exist until a subsequent age. Of course the collars of such royal orders of knighthood as have been established since the days of our Lancastrian kings had necessarily no existence at the period to which he refers. But Gough (not MR. GOUGH NICHOLS) mentions that the Collar of SS. was upon the monument of Matilda Fitzwalter, of Dunmow, who lived in the reign of King John; and Ashmole instances a monument in the collegiate church at Warwick, with the portraiture of Margaret, wife of Sir William Peito, said to have been sculptured there in the reign of Edward III. What credit then are we to attach to MR. N.'s averment, that the "Collar of Esses was not a badge of knighthood, nor a badge of personal merit, but was a collar of livery, and the idea typified by livery was feudal dependence, or what we now call party?" What sort of feudal dependence was typified by the ensign of equestrian nobility upon the necks of the two ladies named, or upon the neck of Queen Joan of Navarre? MR. NICHOLS states that in the first Lancastrian reigns the Collar of SS. had no pendant, though, afterwards, it had a pendant called "the king's beast." On the effigy of Queen Joan the collar certainly has no pendant, except the jewelled ring of a trefoil form. But on the ceiling and canopy of the tomb of Henry IV., his arms, and those of his queen (Joan of Navarre), are surrounded with Collars of SS., the king's terminating in an eagle volant (rather an odd sort of a beast), whilst the pendant of the queen's has been defaced.
MR. NICHOLS, in a postscript, puts this query to the antiquaries of Scotland: "Can any of them help me to the authority from which Nich. Upton derived his livery collar of the King of Scotland de gormettis fremalibus equorum?" If Mr. N. puts this query from no other data than the citation given in my former paper upon this subject (vide Vol. ii., p. 194.), he need not limit it to the antiquaries of Scotland. Upton's words are as follows:--
"Rex etiam scocie dare solebat pro signo vel titulo suo, unum collarium de gormettis fremalibus equorum de auro vel argento."
This passage neither indicates that a King of Scotland is referred to, nor does it establish that the collar was given as a livery sign or title. It merely conveys something to this purport, that the king was accustomed to give to his companions, as a sign or title, a collar of gold or silver shaped like the bit of a horse's bridle.
MR. NICHOLS takes exception to Favine as an heraldic authority. Could that erudite author arise from his grave, I wonder how he would designate MR. NICHOLS'S lucubrations on livery collars, &c. But hear Matthew Paris: that learned writer says Equites Aurati were known in his day "by a gold ring on their thumbs, by a chain of gold about their necks, and gilt spurs." Let us look to Scotland: Nesbit says, vol. ii. p. 87.:
"Our knights were no less anciently known by belts than by their gilt spurs, swords, &c. In the last place is the collar, an ensign of knightly dignity among the Germans, Gauls, Britains, Danes, Goths, &c. In latter times it was the peculiar fashion of knights amongst us to wear golden collars composed of SS."
Brydson, too, in his _Summary View of Heraldry in reference to the Usages of Chivalry, and the General Economy of the Feudal System_, (a work of uncommon ingenuity, deserving to be called the Philosophy of Heraldry), observes, p. 186, ch. v., that knights were distinguished by an investiture which implied superior merit and address in arms--by the attendance of one or more esquires--by the title SIR--by wearing a crest--a helmet of peculiar form--apparel peculiarly splendid--polished armour of a particular construction--gilded spurs--and a GOLDEN COLLAR.
He states, ch. iv., p. 132.:
"In the fifth dissertation of Du Cange it is shown that the splendid habits which the royal household anciently received at the great festivals, were called 'LIVERIES,' being delivered or presented from the king."
But he nowhere countenances for a moment any of the errors entertained by MR. JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, which these remarks are intended to explode.
MR. NICHOLS has not yet answered B.'s query. Nor can he answer it until he previously admits that he is wrong upon the four points enumerated in my opening article (Vol. ii., p. 194.).
ARMIGER.
* * * * *
{364} Replies to Minor Queries
_Symbols of the Evangelists_ (Vol. i., pp. 375. 471.; vol. ii., pp. 13. 45. 205.).--Should the inquirer not have access to the authorities which, as is stated in p. 471., are referred to by DR. WORDSWORTH, or not have leisure to avail himself of his copious references, he may be glad to find that in the _Thesaurus Theologico Philologicus_ (vol. ii. pp. 57.-62.), there is a dissertation containing an analysis of more than fifty authors, who have illustrated the visions of Ezekiel and St. John, and an explanation of the Sententiarum Divortia of Irenæus, Jerome, and Augustine, respecting the application of the symbols, or of the quæstio vexata--quodnam animal cui Evangelistæ comparandum sit. Thomasius, the author of this dissertation, suggests that to recall to mind the symbol applied to Luke, we should remember the expression denoting elephantes, _boves lucas_. Abundant information is also supplied on this subject by that hierophantic naturalist, Aldrovandus, _de Quadrup. Bisulcis_, p. 180. et seq. Nor should Daubuz be neglected, the learned commentator on the Revelations.
T. J.
_Becket's Mother_ (Vol. ii., pp. 106. 270.).--In support of the view of MR. FOSS with regard to Becket's mother, against that propounded by J. C. R. (Vol. ii., p. 270.), I would mention that _Acon_ is the ordinary mediæval name for the city of _Acre_, and appears in the earlier deeds relating to the hospital in Cheapside, while the modern form occurs in those of later date; _e.g._ Pat. 18 Edw. II., "S. Thomæ Martyris _de Aconia_;" Pat. 14 Edw. III., "S. Thomæ Martyris Cantuarensis de _Acon_;" but Rot. Parl. 23 Hen. VI., "Saint Thomas the Martir of _Acres_," "the Martyr of Canterbury of _Acres_." (Deeds in Dugdale, _Monast._ vi. 646, 647.)
This would seem to identify the distinctive name of the hospital with the city in the Holy Land but the following passage from the _Chronicle_ of Matthew of Westminster (p. 257.) seems quite conclusive on this point, as it connects that city with Becket in a manner beyond all dispute:--
"Anno gratiæ 1190. Obsessa est _Acon_ circumquaque Christianorum legionibus, et arctatur nimis. _Capella Sancti Thomæ martyris ibidem ædificatur_."
If, as J. C. R. supposes, there was no connexion between the saint and Acre in Syria, the foundation of a chapel to his honour in or near that city would seem quite unaccountable. However this may be, the truth of the beautiful legend of his mother can, I fear, be never proved or disproved.
While on this subject, let me, at the risk of being tedious to your readers, quote the amusing tale told by Latimer, with regard to this hospital, in his "Sixth Sermon preached before Edward VI." (Parker Soc ed., p. 201.):--
"I had rather that ye should come [to hear the Word of God] as the tale is by the gentlewoman of London: one of her neighbours met her in the street and said, 'Mistress, whither go ye?' 'Marry,' said she; 'I am going to St. Thomas of Acres, to the sermon; I could not sleep all this last night, and I am going now thither; I never failed of a good nap there.' And so I had rather ye should go a-napping to the sermons than not to go at all."
On the name "S. Nicholas _Acon_," I can throw no light. Stow is quite silent as to its signification.
E. VENABLES.
Herstmonceux.
_Becket's Mother._--I am, in truth, but a new subscriber, and when I wrote the remarks on MR. FOSS's note (Vol. ii., p. 270.), had not seen your first volume containing the communications of MR. MATTHEWS (p. 415.) and DR. RIMBAULT (p. 490.). The rejection of the story that Becket's mother was a Saracen rests on the fact that no trace of it is found until a much later time, when the history of "St. Thomas of Canterbury" had been embellished with all manner of wonders. MR. MATTHEWS may find some information in the _English Review_, vol. vi. pp. 40-42. DR. RIMBAULT is mistaken in saying that the life of St. Thomas by Herbert of Boshain "is published in the _Quadrilogus_, Paris, 1495." It was one of the works from which the _Quadrilogus_ was _compiled_; but the only entire edition of it is that by Dr. Giles, in his _S. Thomas Cantauriensis_.
J. C. R.
_Passage in Lucan_ (Vol. ii., p. 89.).--The following are parallel passages to that in Lucan's _Pharsalia_, b. vii. 814., referred to by MR. SANSOM.
Ovid. _Metam._ 1. 256.:--
"Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeli Ardeat; et mundi moles operos laboret."
Cic. _De Nat. Deor._ 11. 46.:--
"Ex quo eventurum nostri putant id, de quo Panætium addubitare dicebant, ut ad extremum omnis mundus ignesceret; cum, humore consumto, neque terra ali posset neque remearet ær; cujus ortus, aqua omni exhausta, esse non posset," etc.
Cic. _De Divinatione_, 1. 49.:--
"Nam et natura futura præsentiunt, ut aquarum fluxiones et deflagrationem futuram aliquando coeli atque terrarum," etc.
Cic. _Acad. Quæst._ iv. 37.:--
"Erit ei persuasum etiam, solem, lunam, stellas omnes, terram, mare, deos esse ... fore tamen aliquando ut omnis hic mundus ardore deflagret," etc.
Cic. _Somn. Scipionis,_ vii.:--
"Propter eluviones exustionesque terrarum quas accidere tempore certo necesse est, non modo æternam, sed ne diuturnam quidem gloriam assequi possumus."
Seneca, _Consol. ad Marciam_, sub fine:--
"Cum tempus advenerit quo se mundus renovaturus {365} extinguat ... et omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet, ardebit."
Id. _Natural Quæst_. iii. 28.:--
"Qua ratione inquis? Eadem qua conflagratio futura est ... Aqua et ignes terrenis dominantur. Ex his ortus et ex his interitus est," etc.
There are also the Sybilline verses (quoted by Lactantias _de Ira Dei_, cap. xxiii.):--
"[Greek: Kai pote tên orgên theon ouk eti praunonta,] [Greek: All' exembrithonta, kai exoluonta te gennan] [Greek: Anthrôpon, hapasan hup' emprêsmou perthonta.]"
Plato has a similar passage in his _Timæus_; and many others are quoted by Matthew Pole in his _Synopsis Criticorum Script. Sacræ Interpretum_; on 2 Pet. iii. 6. 10.; to which I beg to refer MR. SANSOM; and also to Burnet's _Sacred Theory of the Earth_, book iii. ch. 3.
T. H. KERSLEY.
King William's College, Isle of Man.
_Combs buried with the Dead_ (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 269.).--On reference to Sir Thomas Browne's _Hydriotaphia_, I find two passages which may supply the information your correspondent seeks as to the reason for combs being buried with human remains. In section i., pp. 26, 27. (I quote from the Edinburgh reprint of 1822, published by Blackwood) the author says:
"In a field of Old Walsingham, not many months past (1658), were digged up between forty and fifty urns, deposited in a dry and sandy soil, not a yard deep, not far from one another, not all strickly of one figure, but most answering these described; some containing two pounds of bones, distinguishable in skulls, ribs, jaws, thigh-bones, and teeth, with fresh impressions of their combustion, besides extraneous substances, like pieces of small boxes, or _combs_, handsomely wrought, handles of small brass instruments, brazen nippers, and in one some kind of opale."
And again he says (pp. 36, 37.):
"From exility of bones, thinness of skulls, smallness of teeth, ribs, and thigh-bones, not improbable that many thereof were persons of minor age, or women. Confirmable also from things contained in them. In most were found substances resembling _combs_, plates like boxes, fastened with iron pins, and handsomely overwrought like the necks or bridges of musical instruments, long brass plates overwrought like the handles of neat implements, _brazen nippers to pull away hair_, and in one a kind of opale, yet maintaining a bluish colour.
"Now that they accustomed to burn or bury with them things wherein they excelled, delighted, or which were dear unto them, either as farewells unto all pleasure, or vain apprehension that they might use them in the other world, is testified by all antiquity."
The instances which he appends relate only to the Pagan period, and he does not appear to have known that a similar practice prevailed in the sepulture of Christians--if, indeed, such a custom was general, and not confined to the particular case mentioned by your correspondent.
J. H. P. LERESCHE.
_The Norfolk Dialect_ (Vol. ii., p. 217.).--
_Mauther._--A word peculiar to East Anglia, applied to a girl just grown up, or approaching to womanhood.
"Ipse eodem agro [Norfolciensi] ortus, a Dan. _moer_," virgo, puella, "deflectit."--_Spelman_.
Spelman assures us, in endeavouring to rescue the word from the contempt into which it had fallen, that it was applied by our very early ancestors, even to the noble virgins who were selected to sing the praises of heroes; they were called _scald-moers_, q.d. singing mauthers!
"En quantum in spretâ jam voce antiquæ gloria."
"Ray spells the word _mothther_.
"_P._ I am a _mother_ that do want a service.
"_Qu._ O thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy), Where maids are _mothers_, and _mothers_ are maids."--R. Brome's _Engl. Moor_, iii. 1.
It is written also _modder_.
"What! will Phillis then consume her youth as an ankresse, Scorning daintie Venus? Will Phillis be a _modder_, And not care to be call'd by the deare-sweete name of a mother?"--A. Fraunce's _Ivy Church_, A. 4. b.
"Away! you talk like a foolish _mauther_"--
says Restive to Dame Pliant in _Ben Jonson. Alchemist_, IV. 7. So Richard says to Kate, in _Bloomfield's Suffolk ballad:--_
"When once a giggling _mawther_ you, And I a red-faced chubby boy."--_Rural Tales_, 1802, p. 5.
Perhaps it is derived from the German [Fraktur: magd] with the termination een or -den added, as in the Lincolnshire dialect, hee-der, and shee-der, denote the male and female sex.
_Gotsch._--A jug or pitcher with one ear or handle. Forby thinks it may be derived from the Italian _gozzo_, a throat.
_Holl._--From the Saxon holh. German [Fraktur: hohle], a ditch.
_Anan!_ = How! what say you? Perhaps an invitation to come near, in order to be better heard, from the Saxon nean, near. Vid. Brockett's,--Jennings, and Wilbraham's Chesh. Glossaries.
_To be Muddled._--That is, confused, perplexed, tired. Doubtless from the idea of thickness, want of clearness; so, muddy is used for a state of inebriety.
_Together._--In Low Scotch, thegether, seemingly, but not really, an adverb, converted to a noun, and used in familiarly addressing a number of persons collectively. Forby considers _to_ and the article _the_ identical; as to-day, to-night, in Low Scotch, the day, the night, are in fact, this day, this night; so {366} that the expression together may mean "the gathering," the company assembled.
The authorities I have used are Forby's _Vocabulary of East Anglia_; Moor, _Suffolk Words and Phrases_; and Lemon, _English Etymology_; in which, if ICENUS will refer, he will find the subject more fully discussed.
E. S. T
_Conflagration of the Earth_ (Vol. ii., p. 89.).--The eventful period when this globe, or "the fabric of the world,"[1] will be "wrap'd in flames" and "in ruin hurl'd," is described in language, or at least, in sense similar to the quotations of our correspondent in p. 89., by the poets, philosophers, fathers, and divines here referred to:--
Lucan, lib. i. 70. et seqq. 75.:--
"Omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent."
Seneca _ad Marciam_, cap. ult.:--
"Cum tempus advenerit, quo se mundus renovaturus extinguat, viribus ista se suis cedent, et sidera sideribus incurrent, et omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet, ardebit."
_Quæst. Nat._ iii. 27., which contains a commentary on St. Peter's expression, "Like a thief in the night:"--
"Nihil, inquit, difficile est Naturæ, ubi ad finem sui properat. Ad originem rerum parcè utitur viribus, dispensatque se incrementis fallentibus; subitò ad ruinam et toto impetu venit ... Momento fit cinis, diu silua."
Compare Sir T Browne's _Rel. Med._ s. 45.
Seneca, _Hercul. Oet._ 1102.
Ovid. _Metamorph._ lib. i. s. viii.
Diplilus as quoted by Dr. H. More, _Vision. Apoc._ vi. 9.
Cicero, _Acad._ lib. ii. 37. "Somn. Scipionis."
---- _de Nat. Deorum._ lib. ii. 46.
Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ lib. vii. cap. 16.