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THE ATHENEUM

Is so conducted that the reader, however distant, is in respect to Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama, on an equality in point of information with the best informed circles of the Metropolis.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1884.

"A stoke is a place stockaded, surrounded with stocks or piles, like a New Zealand pah" (T., p. 80). When we find two contiguous places such as Chard and Chardstock, it is probable that one is a colony from the other; the colony would probably call the original settlement the stock.

Rimpton (Rintona; Rimtún, K., 628).—“ Rima (m.), No. 550, be wuduriman. The rim, edge or

CONTENTS.- N° 215. NOTES:-Somerset Place-Names, 101-Curiosities of Superstition in Italy, 103-Letter of Henry, Earl of Arundel, 104 -Error of Date in Howell's "Letters"-Lines on a StatueDistressed, 105-Alliteration in 1537-Second Centenary of Liberation of Vienna-"Malus ubi bonum," &c.-Northamptonshire Saying-Biography of Lord Lytton, 106. QUERIES:-Battle of Sedgemoor-Nostradamus-Religious Delusion-F. Bruzza-P. or F. Ford-Countess Family-end" (K., iii. xxxv). Or if it be from a personal Mascoll of Plumsted-Flemish Brasses-Abraham Smith, name, then from Rimmingas; Rimmington (York) 107-"Roast-beef" - Royal Surname -Ogier le Danois(K., S. E., i. 471). Silver Medal-Allusions in Webster-English Exiles in Holland-Marriage Custom-Cock Road-Song Wanted, 108 -"British Soldier's Grave"-Owen Family-Montenegro"Open Weather"-Blue-devils-Thomas Lever-Thomas Fairfax-Bosvile and Greenhalgh-Authors Wanted, 109. REPLIES:-Aldine Anchor, 109-Elecampane, 111-Oriental Seal-Heraldic, 112-Aurichalcum-Have-Heraldic Shield -Parallel Passages, 113-Price of Cranmer's Bibles-"Comparisons are odious"-" Paradisi in Sole"-French Proverb -New Words-Turtle, 114-English Hunting Custom

Luther Family Coleridge at Clevedon, 115-Bowling
Hanging in Chains-Erratum in Jer. Taylor-Jer. Taylor's
"Holy Dying"- Peter Jackson: Philip Jackson, 116-
Sir F. Burnham-Royal Quarterings-Joly-James and
Charles Adams-Impropriations-Inscription on Cleopatra's
Needle-English Burial-grounds, 117-Sir Henry Hayes

"Itinerary" of Richard of Cirencester-Marrow-Binding at
Little Gidding-Sir Walter Manny, 118.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-Gomme's "Gentleman's Magazine
Library"-Ashton's "Humour, Wit, and Satire of the
Seventeenth Century"-" History of the Year."
Notices to Correspondents, &c.

Lates.

NOTES ON THE NAMES OF PARISHES IN THE
COUNTY OF SOMERSET.
(Continued from p. 44.)

The names in parentheses are the old forms of
the names of the parishes, taken from Eyton's
Domesday Studies and from Collinson's Somerset.
Authorities quoted.-Taylor's Words and Places,
T. Edmunds's Names of Places, E. Bosworth's
Anglo-Saxon Dict., B. Skeat's Elym. Dict., S.
List of A.-S. root-words in vol. iii. of Kemble's
Codex Dip. Evi Saxonici, and also the list of
place-names in vol. vi., K.

Quantoxhead (Cantocheheva; Cantuctún, K., 314). I think the first syllable is Celtic cenn, Ir. ceann, a head, and the meaning of this having been forgotten, the syllable head was added. Cf. Wansbeckwater, Mountbenjerlaw, T., p. 141. What is the middle syllable, tuc? Either (1) the Celtic termination tach (see Joyce, ii. 8), or (2) tore (turk), a wild boar. "Kanturk in Cork is written by the Four Masters Ceann-tuirc, the head or hill of the boar" (Joyce, i. 479). This is probably the meaning of Turkdean (Glos.).

Raddington (Radingetuna).-" Rædingas: Raddington (Soms.), Reading (Berks), Reading-street (Kent)" (Kemble's S. E., i. 471).

Radstock (Estoca).-The first syllable is probably the same as the first syllable in Redingas.

1. Road (Roda); 2. Rode Huish (Radehewis); 3. Rodden (Reddena).-"Ród, a road; sealtród, No. 663; súga ród, No. 556. This is for rád from ridan" (K., iii. xxxvi). Rád, (1) a riding, being on horseback, &c.; (2) that on which one travels, a road, B.

Rodney Stoke.-For the Rodney family see Collinson's Somerset, iii. 604; Visitation of Somerset, p. 132.

1. Rowbarton; 2. Rowberrow.-From rúh, rough, rugged. Row-byrig, now Rowberrow (Som.), the camp on the uncultivated land. Cf. Rough-ham (Norf.), E., p. 275. When row occurs at the end of a word, it is from rawe, a row, as hæselræwe, hægrawe, &c. (K., iii. xxxv).

Ruishton.-" Risc, a rush; the marshy ground where rushes grow. Wenrisc, Nos. 137, 556 " (K., iii. xxxv). Also Rusce, probably soft, rushy ground (xxxvi). Hence the surname Risk (E., p. 276). But Rushope (Heref.), formerly Ruiscope = Rua's hill-top (cop); see E., p. 276.

Runnington (Runetona).-"Runingas: Run nington (Som.)" (K., S. E., i. 472). "E. rune, counsel, the town of counsel" (E., p. 276).

Saltford (Sanfort).-" A site near the sea or on a river where its waters are salt" (E, p. 277). This place is on the Avon between Bath and Bristol, but not near enough to the sea for the water to be salt. If the Domesday form is right, Sandford would be the proper explanation.

1. Sampford Arundel (Sanfort); 2. Sampford Brett (Sanforda); 3. Sandford Orcas (Sanford). -From a sandy soil (E., p. 277).

1. For the Arundel family see Marshall's Genealogist's Guide.

2. For the Brett family see Collinson, iii. 543. 3. Orchard only occurs in Wilts, Som., and Dorset (E., p. 259).

1. Seaborough (Seueberga); 2. Seavington St. Michael (Seuenametona); 3. Seavington St. Mary (Suenehamtun). Probably from Sebba, the owner's name (E., p. 280). Cf. Sevincote (Glos.), Sevington (Kent., "Seafingas: Seavington (Som.) (K., S. E., i. 472).

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Selworthy (Seleurda).-From sæl, good. Salwong, a fertile field or plain, B. For worthy (fr. weordig) co E., p. 131.

1. Shapwick (Sapaswica); 2. Shepton Beauchamp (Scepton); 3. Shepton Mallet (Sepetona);

4. Shepton Montague; 5. Shipham (Sipeham).The first syllable in all these names is from A.-S. sceáp, a sheep.

2. For Beauchamp see Marshall's Geneal. Guide. 3. Mallet, Collinson, i. 32, 90; iii. 496. 4. Montague or Montacute, Visitation of Somerset, p. 151.

Skilgate (Schilegate).—This may be from A.-S. scyld, a shield; ex. scýldburh, a shield, fence, or covering; scoldweall, a wall or defence of shields, B. Cf. Skillington, T., p. 98; from Scyllingas, K., S. E., i. 473. "The hero Scyld, the godlike progenitor of the Scyldingas, the royal race of Denmark" (K., S. E., i. 413).

Sock Dennis (Socca, Soche). —

"Socbourn (Dur.) and Soc-lege, now Suckley (Worc.), preserve in the root-word the memory of another Old English tenure. The soc-men were freemen and tenants, but were privileged, .e. they were exempt from the jurisdiction of all courts but that of the district included in the soc."-E., p. 127.

See also T., p. 199. For the Dennys or Denys family see Marshall's Genealogist's Guide.

Somerton (Summertone). This has already been explained under Midsomer Norton (6th 6. viii. 462). Somerton Early, near Somerton, is so named from the Erlegh family.

Sparkford (Spercheford).-This is the "ford of the sparrow-hawk." Bosworth has spear-hafoc, sper-hafoc, a sparhawk or sparrowhawk. See also Bardsley's English Surnames, p. 493 :

"Sparrowhawk' or 'sparke,' as it is now more generally spelt. So early as Chaucer, however, this last was written spar-hawk,' and that once gained, the further contraction in our nomenclature became inevitable."

Spaxton (Espachestona).-A.-S. spec, speech: speech-town, town where meetings were held, E.,

p. 286.

1. Stanton Drew (Estantona); 2. Stanton Prior (Stantona).-Stone-town, sometimes a boundary stone, E., p. 288.

1. For the Drew family see Marshall's Genealogist's Guide.

"Stanton Drew-A mile from Pensford, another from Chew-like Littleton Drew, co. Wilts, derived its name from the family of Drew, owners of the manor temp. Ed. III."-Murray, p. 386.

2. The Abbot of Bath was the Domesday "tenant in capite."

1. Staple Fitzpain (Staple); 2. Staplegrove. A.-S. stapol, a prop, a stake the site of a market fixed by law, E., p. 288. See also T., pp. 254, 334. Gráf, a grove; see K., iii. xxvi. For Fitzpain see Marshall's Genealogist's Guide.

Stawley (Staweia, Stawei). Stow, a form of stoke, E., p. 289. Cf. Morwenstow (Cornwall). "Stow, a place, cotstow, No. 578; hegstow, No. 570" (K., iii. xxxviii).

1. Stockland Bristol (Estochelanda). Stocklinch Magdalen; 3. Stocklinch tersay; 4. Stogumber (Waverdinestoc); 5. Stoke St. Michael

(Stoca); 6. Stoke Courcy or Stogursey (Stoche); 7. Stoke-sub-Hamdon; 8. Stoke Piro; 9. Stoke St. Gregory.-Stock (from stick), a post, &c., E. The sense is a thing stuck or fixed, S.

"Stock and stoke: when a prefix, indicating the chief town of a district; when a suffix, usually pointing out a town founded by the person whose name precedes it. Ex.,, Stock-ton, eight places; Grey - stoke (Cumb.), Grey's stoke. Where the Saxon town became the seat of a Norman lord, his name is usually appended, thusStoke Say (Salop), Stoke D'Abernon (Surrey), Stoke Courcy, now Stogursey (Som.), &c. Stock occurs as a prefix in twenty-four places; Stoke as a prefix in sixty-five places."-E., p. 289.

1. "Stockland was surnamed Gaunts alias Bristol. It was part of the Paganel barony: given by one of the barons known as Le Gaunt (.e. of Ghent) to endow a hospital in Bristol. At the Dissolution the lands were transferred to the corporation of Bristol, in whom they remained till sold under the Municipal Reform Act, circa 1838 " (Bp. Hobhouse).

2, 3. "Hlinc, a link, a rising ground. Junius is right in his Etymologicon when he says, 'agger limitanens, parcechias etc dividens '" (K., iii. xxxi). 3. Ottersay otter island.

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4. Anciently Stoke-Gomer, Murray, p. 405. 6. Courcy, see Marshall's Genealogist's Guide. 7. Stoke under Ham Hill.

8. "The surname is from the Piro family, Normans who came in the train of the Mohuns, and held Stoke, inter alia, of the Honor of Dunster" (Bp. Hobhouse). F. W. WEAver. Milton Vicarage, Evercreech, Bath. (To be continued.)

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Norton Malreward (ante, p. 43). —I shall be much obliged if MR. WEAVER will tell me whether there is any other explanation of the name Norton Malreward than that which occurs in the legend of the founding of the city of Bath. In it the old swineherd, who had been Prince Bladud's master during the time of his exile from his father's (King Lud Hudibras') court on account of leprosy, was so angered at what he considered the paltry recompense he received, that, like Hiram, King of Tyre, he gave the place an ill name for ever.

I may also by anticipation ask for information as to the probable reason for the name of Kingston being given to a small village near Ilminster. I know of no tradition connecting it with the hallowing or crowning of any king., As Somerset and its People, I shall be much obliged I am collecting materials for Legends and Tales of for any assistance. CHARLOTTE G, BOGER. St. Saviour's, Southwark,

CURIOSITIES OF SUPERSTITION IN ITALY.

(Continued from p. 22.)

Tartarotti supplies a good story, which further illustrates the view previously expressed. He is sadly wanting in order and sparing of dates, and this date I cannot exactly supply, but the authority is an early ecclesiastical writer. A certain old wench (vetula) went to her priest and vaunted a service she had rendered him in the night by means of her familiarity with the spirits. "How did you get into my room, seeing the door was locked?" inquired the priest. "Oh, for that matter, passing through closed doors is one of our easiest feats," she replied. Without answering her another word, the priest beckoned her within the rails, and, having closed the gate, belaboured her with the stem of the crucifix, saying the while, "Get thee out of this, my lady sorceress!" When, at last, she had to confess she could not pass the closed gate, he let her out, saying, "You see now how silly you are in believing these foolish dreams." He clearly treated it as foolish imposition, not as a crime committed. The language of the celebrated Benedictine Gratian, in the twelfth century, is quite in conformity with that already cited. So is that of Astesano d'Asti, Angelo di Chivasso, S. Antonino, and Giovanni Mansionario, a Veronese writer of the fourteenth century, who quotes S. John Chrys., S. Jerome, S. Ambrose, Pope S. Leo, &c., to the same effect.

not being necessary to salvation. On the other hand, the proneness to faith of the period designated mediaval did certainly manifest itself in the handing on by the people of the traditional superstitions of the earlier religions, and in the generation of new superstitions, which had nearly superseded the others. But they again received a fresh and immeasurably increased expansion under the new influences of the Renaissance. In an age in which the tendency is in the opposite direction it seems incomprehensible that such ideas should ever have entered men's minds. They did, however, obtain and expand to a formidable extent, and were so outrageous and degrading in their development that it is scarcely astonishing if the most deplorable severity was resorted to in coping with them, even though it subsequently appeared that their discredit was better attained when that severity was relaxed.

It will not, I think, be found uninteresting to briefly note some of the more curious instances that fall under one or other of three heads. 1. Of the first, those derived from the earlier religions, I have already been led to speak, and shall have to speak again under the third head. 2. The second seem to have arisen for the most part out of a too literal and material application of the promises of the Bible. God, it was said, gives good gifts to those who ask Him; therefore simple minds seem to have thought it followed that whatever they asked for they must, of necessity, To sum up, the medieval idea concerning witch-receive; and further, that such immediate results craft would seem to have been that it was partly a disease and partly a folly to be deplored and reprobated. It was much later that it came to be magnified into a crime; and it was under this later treatment that it attained its greatest importance. Though Holy Writ and the Church, writes Prof. Aberle, under the head of "Zauberei," have both forbidden the use of magical arts undertaken with the view of procuring Satanic agency, neither has ever pronounced whether such agency exists. There is nothing in the Biblical account of the Egyptian magicians or of the Witch of Endor which does more than record the fact that such agency was believed in by certain persons at a certain time; it in no way endorses the belief. And in like manner, though many theologians of the period between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries show by their writings that they manifestly believed that such agency could be induced by human action, the Church has never authoritatively and in plain terms said that it was so. The reason of this is simply that the question is one of those which revelation passes over, as

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actually did habitually occur. The approbation expressed by the inspired writers of those who lead a good life was expected to display itself in the ready reward of temporal good luck. Many stories I collected in Rome itself, such as those under the head of "Quando Gesù Cristo girava la Terra," those entitled "Cento per Uno," "Il Mercante e il Mago," &c., are the produce of this spirit. On the principle of " a bird in hand," the one allusion to "an hundredfold in this life" attracted more attention than whole chapters pointing to the maxim that the treasure of the Christian is to be in heaven. Certain sacraments and ordinances are appointed by the Church as means of grace, and the people argued that if certain great spiritual benefits resulted from their general adoption, more particular favours ought to follow from their more minute observance, and also from a frivolous and undue application of them. These fancies became so multiplied that one collection, made by Jean Baptiste Thiers, Doctor of the Sorbonne, in 1703,o of those expressly condemned as superstitious, fills five thick and closely printed volumes, to which I refer the reader.d

Traité des Superstitions qui regardent les Sacremens, Paris, 1704.

4 Dr. Thiers, however, is so matter of fact that he is personally inclined to reckon in his category of super

masses could have formed no conception of it in the times when there was no printing, engraving, or photography to convey it after their manner, there naturally crept in some which were capable of abuse. Thus, when rendering the nativity and infancy of the Saviour detail by detail, it at one time became the custom in certain dioceses to represent along with the rest the part assigned by

I have said superstitions of this class arose, for the most part, from attaching too material an interpretation to the promises of Holy Writ; but there were others, again, which would seem to have been nothing but the expansion of an unreasoning devotion-a luxuriant overgrowth of parasitical observances in the soil of undisciplined minds, but without any selfish arrière pensée. Of such I will only detain the reader with two in-tradition to the ass in aiding the flight of the stances, an early and a late one, both implying a singular amount of infatuation.

(1.) Amid the picturesque acts of symbolism by means of which the early Church sought to bring home to the minds of the people the story of the Redemption, and without which the

Holy Family into Egypt and its return thence.
The ceremonial in which this was embodied at
Rouen and Beauvais is thus described by Ducange:

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"They chose a beautiful girl and mounted her on an ass richly decorated, with a child in her lap, and the assembled clergy and people led her with great pomp from the cathedral to the parish church of St. Stephen. riding on the ass, was led to the Gospel side of the altar. When the assemblage had arrived there, the girl, still eleison, Gloria in excelsis, Credo,' &c., all were conThe high mass immediately began; the introit, ' Kyrie included with the modulation Hinhan, to imitate braying. In like manner, at the end of the mass, when the priest, turning to the people, said, 'Ite missa est―ter hinhannabit, and the people answered Hinhan, hinhan, hinhan." With whatever purity of religious feeling this tableau vivant may have been originally introduced, it is not difficult to imagine how greatly it might be abused; and Cancellieri, in his elaborate collection of ceremonies connected with the observance of Christmas, assures us it did lead to superstitions, but was so dear to the people that the Church had great difficulty in suppressing it. R. H. BUSK.

stitions the so-called marriage of the Doge of Venice with the Adriatic. As the Church has not condemned it, neither does he condemn it; but he is at great pains to explain that it is to be regarded only the light of a purely civil ceremony, and that it would be better if it were not called a marriage. Some passages of his interesting account of the function will not be out of place here. It was instituted, he tells us, in memory of the naval victory gained by the Doge Sebastian Ziani over Otho, son of Frederic Barbarossa, and the sovereignty over the sea which Alexander III., driven to take refuge in Venice, is said to have conferred upon him. He quotes Del Rio, Disquisit. Magic., c. ii. q. vi. § 3; Sabellius, Decad., i. 1.7; and Villamont, Peregrinat. Sacra, c. xxxiv. d. 3. "The Signoria leaves the palace amid a countless throng of Venetians and foreign visitors to ascend the Bucentaur, a superb barque, longer than a galley and as high as a vessel, without mast or sail. The rowers' seats are below the deck, on which is raised a splendid canopy of joiner's work, all gilt inside, &c. The Doge has his seat in the centre, with the Nuncio and the Ambassador of France on his right and left, with the Councillors of the Signoria and other chief authorities all in due order. The Bucentaur is resplendent with gilding and hung with crimson damask fringed with gold; the great banner of St. Mark and the standard proper to the ceremony floating on high, the trumpets and hautboys shining on the prow, the majesty of the Senate, habited in purple, and the great number of other official persons and foreigners, render it one of the finest sights that can be met anywhere. The majestic craft, surrounded by innumerable galleys, galiots, peots [Dalmatian coasting vessels], and gondolas, starts at the signal of the cannon. So soon as the Bucentaur reaches the mouth of the sea. the musicians sing certain motets. The Patriarch of Venice, who follows in a barque of his own, blesses the sea; then the Bucentaur presents its poop towards him, and the back of the Doge's chair of state is lowered; the master of the ceremonies presents the Doge with a plain gold ring, equal in weight to two and a half pistoles; this the Doge takes and throws into the sea, flinging it over the helm, first pronouncing in a loud and distinct voice, these words: Desponsamus te mare nostrum in signum veri, perpetuique dominii.' After this, a quantity of flowers and twigs of sweet-scented shrubs are cast abroad on the sea, by way of crowning the bride. The Bucentaur now, still followed by its cortege, threads its way through the lagunes to the church of San Nicola del Lido......The Patriarch here celebrates a high mass with great pomp, at the close of which the Signoria returns to S. Marco amid salutes of musketry and artillery from the Castello del Lido, and from all the vessels in port,"

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