S. V. SANTEUL (Joannes), Claudii frater, Subdiaconus, et Canonicus regularis S. Victoris, carminibus ac præsertim hymnis clarissimus. Divione obiit, die 3 Augusti, 1697, annos natus 67.

S. Th. Aq.-S. THOMAS Aquinas.

Obiit anno 1274.

Vide in Breviario ad diem 18 Julii. Viv.-VIVANT (Franciscus), Lutetiæ oriundus, Canonicus et Cantor Ecclesiæ Parisiensis, atque Universitatis Cancellarius, in rebus liturgicis peritus, pietatis laude conspicuus. Obiit anno 1739, ætatis 77.

ROBINET (Urbanus), Doctor Sorbonicus, Canonicus et Vicarius generalis Parisiensis, Breviarium Rotomagense digessit. Natus in Armorica anno 1683, obiit Parisiis die 29 Septembris, 1758. Ipsi tribuuntur hymni Communis Presbyterorum Jam satis fluxit, et O Sacerdotum; necnon Præsentationis B. Mariæ Quàm pulcrè, et Infans."

The preceding list occurs at p. 38 (Pars Verna); of an edition of the Breviary of Paris, published at Paris in four volumes 12mo, in 1836, "sumptibus societatis bibliopolarum editorum Liturgia Parisiensis." A. G.

Westminster.

MODERN INVENTION OF THE SANSCRIT

ALPHABET.

(4th S. i. 125, 468.)

In February CoL. ELLIS proposed two queries regarding the antiquity of the Sanscrit alphabet, to which I sent a reply showing that all the Indian alphabets were derived from a normal type, the so-called Lát character, which was in use some centuries before the Christian era. I quoted the writings of the late James Prinsep first of Indian palæographers-in support of that view. I also showed from the evidence of the oldest records extant, inscribed on stone and per, and from internal evidence deduced from the form of the characters themselves, that the Lát alphabet was of indigenous origin, and not derived from any foreign source.

cop

Since that note was written I have met with a

confirmation of these views in a correspondence between the Asiatic. Society of Bengal and Mr. Edward Thomas, the able editor of James Prinsep's Archeological Essays-himself a large contributor to the elucidation of Indian antiquities. In a letter to Mr. Grote of Calcutta, Mr. Thomas states as the result of his investigations, that "the Aryans left their homes long after the other nations of the world had achieved a large amount of civilization." He adds.

"I am quite clear about the adaptation of the Bactrian alphabet from the Phenician, and am equally convinced of the originality of the conception of the Lát alphabet

which was primarily designed for Dravidian or Scythic forms of speech."

39*

With regard to the other alphabets to which COL. ELLIS refers, Mr. Thomas considers -1. That the Persian cuneiform originated from the Assyrian cuneiform, and it from an original Turanian type; 2. That the Greek and Latin were derived from the Phenician; 3. That the Bactrian was a reconstruction and extension of the Phenician; 4. That the Debanagari was appropriated to the Sanscrit from the pre-existing Lát character, which was originated to meet the requirements of the Dravidian dialects; 5. That the Pehlevi was a later adaptation of the most recent Phenician; 6. That Zend was the offspring of the Pehlevi, but elaborated by a totally different method from that followed in the formation of the Semitic Bactrian.

The only point of difference between Mr. Thomas and other oriental philologists is with regard to the Dravidian origin of the Lát alphabet-a matter not affecting COL. ELLIS' theory, as, whether of Dravidian or Aryan invention, it is equally Hindu.t

Assuming that the supposition hazarded at 125 "may be regarded as an established fact," COL. ELLIS proceeds to found on it the novel conclusion that several terms common to Sanscrit and to Greek, Latin, German, and English, have been derived from the latter, and not vice versa, as has hitherto been held.

Admitting that the Sanscrit or Lát character, although not derived from any previously existing alphabet, may yet be of later origin than some of these, it by no means follows that the Sanscrit words referred to have been borrowed from the languages of Europe. The hymns of the Vedas have been traced to the earliest age of which we have any knowledge. Max Müller considers that the only compositions to be compared with them in age are portions of the Old Testament, but that "in the Aryan world the Veda is certainly the oldest book." In another place he observes, that Sanscrit, "although not the primary source of the great family of the Indo-Germanic languages, is still the oldest among many sisters, in so far as it has preserved its words in their most primitive state." Not only the roots common to all these tongues, but the mythic legends extant among the people using them, are traced to that earliest Aryan race, which, dwelling in Central Asia, sent out its offshoots, north to Scythia, south to India, and west to Europe. The list of words given at p. 125 (the etymons of some of which are not admissible) might be largely extended; but it seems

unnecessary to dwell further on what has long been admitted by all the best philologists, and confirmed by all history.

W. E.

PREBENDS OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
(4th S. i. 540, 569.)

Your correspondent A. H. asks me one or two questions to which I am glad to be able to reply. Had my first communication been a little more extended, I might have saved him the trouble which he has taken in the matter; but I did not expect, when I transcribed the list, that it would excite as much interest as I find, from letters that have reached me, it has excited.

The names Hesdone and Hiwetone should be Nesdone and Niwetone; the error, however, is not that of the printer but of the transcriber. The Nused in the original manuscript is so much like an H that I read it as being really an H, and did not discover the mistake till too late. The error is, I trust, pardonable as Nesdone is occasionally written Hesdone in old documents.

Kentisseton is correctly printed, and represents Cantlers, alias Kentish Town.

A. H. is quite correct in saying that Haliwelle corresponds with Finsbury.

It is hardly necessary for me to say that in Dugdale's History of St. Paul's Cathedral, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, will be found a series of lists of the names of the prebendaries who have occupied each prebendal stall.

I have compared the list of Psalms now printed in "N. & Q." with the inscriptions over the stalls in St. Paul's Cathedral, and I find that they exactly correspond. The inscriptions, however, are in one or two instances more detailed than the headings of the Psalms in the MS. list; and I am able to say that the section of the psalter commencing with the psalm "Omnes gentes was to be recited by the prebendary who occupied the stall of Cadington Major; whilst the section commencing "Miserere mei Deus" fell to the lot of him who held the prebendal stall of Cadington Minor.

""

Sir Henry Ellis prints in the Appendix to Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, No. xlvi. p. 371, a list giving the "nomina Prebendariorum Ecclesiæ S. Pauli Londin." (Lel. Coll. vol. i. p. 501.) It is worth a note that the order in which the names in this list occur is identical with that of the list printed in my previous communication; the spelling of the names differs widely.

It may often perplex persons who are searching into the prebendal lists to find the same prebend designated by different names. I close the present note with a few of these variations:

It may be perhaps as well that I should add the names of the stalls as they stand upon the present labels in the choir of the cathedral. On the Dean's or south side, reading from west to east, the stalls bear the following names: - Finsbury, Chamberlain wood, Holbourne, Harleston, Portpool, Mora, Cantlers als Kent-Town, Twiford, Mapesbury, Oxgate, Sneatinge, Wenlocksbarn, Brownswood, Rugmere, Ealdstreet. On the north side, reading from west to east:-Totenhall, Cadington Minor, St. Pancratius, Reculversland, Weldland, Hoxton, Ealdland, Islington, Wilsden, Consumpta per Mare, Broomesbury, Nesden, Newington, Cadington Major, Chiswick.

Songs of the Press [By C. H. Timperley], London, 1833, p. 85.

Passing by such notable men as Milton, Johnson, and Franklin, and eccentrics like Roger Crab, and coming nearer to our own times, we have George Nicholson, the printer-a provincial Aldus, who was a patron of Bewick, Craig, and Corbould, who, for the last forty years of his life, abstained both from animal food and intoxicating liquors. His little anonymous treatise, On the Conduct of Man to the Lower Animals, is a highly interesting work, and forms a lasting memento of his humane disposition.

Another distinguished water-drinker published the following:

Similar

I may remark that this claim is one not capable of being sustained if advanced in any exclusive sense. There is ample historical evidence of a long succession of abstainers from the earliest times, embracing some of the most celebrated names in scriptural and secular annals, down to the close of the last century; after which we find, in the writings of Dr. Trotter, Dr. Darwin, Dr. Beddoes, and Mr. Basil Montagu, &c., much lucid and learned advocacy of total abstinence from all inebriating drinks. It remains true, took place for the spread of this principle till however, that no important associated movement 1826, when the American Temperance Society was formed at Boston, Massachusetts. institutions arose in the British Isles a few years later; but the "pledge," or "declaration," at first ardent spirits only. Some of the members went adopted, was one of abstinence from distilled or further, and practised abstinence from alcoholic beverages of all kinds; and in Preston, where a vately pursued, and even publicly advocated, before was formed in this course was Mr. James Teare made it the subject of an address. Mr. Teare did not even assist in the first organised efforts on behalf of this total (or teetotal) temperance plan; but he deserves great credit, and will ever be gratefully remembered, for the boldness and energy with which he proclaimed the then unpopular doctrine over extensive districts of the United Kingdom. His temperance labours continued, with few intermissions, down to the summer of 1867. D. B.

""

Setting aside on this occasion, all reference to facsimiles," two books are now before me: the copy in question of the Theologia Teutsch, and another of Luther's publications. The latter not only contains the handwriting of Luther, but also the written testimony of the person who "in suis ipsius ædibus Vuittenbergæ saw him write it, that it is "ejus chirographum."

99

A comparison of the two leads to a conviction, though I refrain from your correspondent's very positive style of expressing it, perhaps quite as strong as his, but in the opposite direction.

What he calls "a note in a not very modern handwriting," is an original memorandum, much too old to be influenced by the autograph trade; evidently intended to record a then living tradition that it was "NB avtographum Lutheri."

Your correspondent is also incorrect in the circumstances of his narrative. "The three books" were not sent to him "on inspection"; and his communication to you also shows that he misunderstood, or has forgotten, the conditions under which the one book was, at his particular request, entrusted to him. THOMAS KERSLAKE. Bristol.

DOUGLAS HAMILTON, DUKE OF HAMILTON AND BRANDON (4th S. i. 580.)-I find by one of my commona-place books that the lines on the Duke of Hamilton were written by Dr. Pett. I presume Dr. Phineas Pett, principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford: a very able and eminent man, in his day-my early days. The duke died in 1799, at the age of forty-three. He was celebrated as the most handsome man of his time, and full of attractions and accomplishments; an object of great admiration among the leading beauties of the day, before which he fell, and drew from the poet the sad warning :

"And the rash youth who runs his rash career, May tremble at the lesson taught him here." One seated at my side while I write remembered him well when a girl, and speaks with rapture of his accomplishments.

SEPTUAGENARIAN.

VOLTAIRE (4th S. i. 587.)-I have the originals of both these letters, and they have been already published by Sir Robert Phillimore in his Life of George Lord Lyttelton.

LYTTELTON.

HOGSHEAD (4th S. i. 554.)-Minsheu, writing 250 years ago, when many words may have been nearer to their origin, asserts that there is in Brabant a measure called ocks, and that ockshoud meant a vessel which could hold an ocks.

Adelung, in explaining the corresponding German word oxhoft, says expressly that the word was imported from the Dutch: which is clear, as the word was significant in Dutch, and unmeaning in German. The Swedish word is oxhufwid; and I have repeatedly heard the word pronounced in the midland counties of England ok-shutt. From this concurrence, it is probable that the initial is an interpolation of us English; and that neither hog, nor head, nor hide really enter into the composition. It is merely an Anglicised form of ockshold.

Johnson was sure to derive hogshead from hog and head, just as he derives isinglass from ice and glass. J. C. M.

The great point in etymology-but the lesson will never be learnt is, that we should be guided by facts, and not by guess. The guess hog's-hide is very ingenious, but against it we must set these facts. The first is, that, in Dutch, the word for a hogshead is okshoofd; the second is, that the Swedish is oxhufvud; and, thirdly, the Danish is oxehofved. Hence hogshead is a corruption, not of hog's-hide, but of ox-head. The suggestion hog'shide does not explain things at all; because it leaves the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish words quite untouched; and indeed, if we are to guess at all, ox-hide would be, undoubtedly, half right. Permit me, then, to put the query in a form more likely to produce a true answer. How comes it

that the Swedish word orhufvud means both an ox's head and the measure called a hogshead? It is clear that an ox, not a hog, is the animal meant. WALTER W. SKEAT.

1, Cintra Terrace, Cambridge.

I suspect that Johnson is quite correct in his derivation of this word from hog's head, although he does not give its real source. I believe that it originated in the act of parliament 1484, which granted to Richard III. the tonnage and poundage during his life, and arises from a custom-house mark then introduced. It is well known that one of the devices of this king was the boar, as witness the well-known lines,

"The cat, the rat, and Lovel, that dog, Rule all England under the hog."

Hence came the brand, which may either have consisted of the head alone, or if the whole animal was represented, may refer to its position on the end or head of the barrel; while subsequently it might easily pass on to a name for the cask on which the device was placed. I am inclined to think that another well-known custom-house mark, that of the broad arrow, must be referred to the same source. In the earliest instances of this which I have seen the three converging lines are always surmounted by a horizontal one drawn through their aper. Now what is this but a rude representation of another device of King Richard's, viz., the beacon? The perpendicular line represents the central support, the two converging ones the ladders by which the platform, indicated by the horizontal one, was reached. An example of both these will be found among the royal devices which ornament the windows of the members'

staircase leading from Westminster Hall to the lobby of the House of Commons.

GEORGE VERE IRVING.

"The night before Billy's birth-day,

Some friend to the Dutchman came to him; And though he expected no pay,

•

He told the policeman he'd do him:
For,' said he, I must have him in style;
The job is not wonderful heavy,
And I'd rather sit up for a while

Than see him undress'd at the levée,
For he was the broth of a boy.'
"Then up to his highness he goes,

And with tar he anointed his body; So that when the morning arose,

He look'd like a sweep in a noddy. It fitted him just to the skin,

Wherever the journeyman stuck it; And after committing the sin,

'Have an eye,' said he, Watch, to the bucket, For I have not done with him yet.'

"The birth-day being now very nigh,

And swaddling clothes made for the hero, A painter was sent for to try

To whitewash the face of the Negro. He gave him the brush to be sure,

But the first man so deeply did stain him, That the whitewash effected no cure;

Faith the whole river Boyne would not clean him, And still he remains in his dirt."

All information relative to the subject of this ballad will be found in Gilbert's Dublin, vol. iii. LIOM. F. THE CUCKOO (4th S. i. 533.)-H. SCOTT's quotation apparently refers to the old Norfolk proverb little known out of the neighbourhood where it is supposed to have had its origin, Wilby, Norfolk, one mile east from Eccles Road Station, and 107 miles from London! Probably the nurse referred to was a native of that village. It is entitled "The Wilby Warning." The correct reading is as follows, and I have little doubt that the cuckoo and mooncall are the same:

"When the weirling shrieks at night,
Sow the seed with the morning light;
But 'ware when the cuckoo swells its throat,
Harvest flies from the mooncall's note."
M. B. PICKERING.

Maida Hill, W.

BURNS'S "TAM O'SHANTER": "FAIRIN " FOR "SAIRIN" (4th S. i. 508, 565.)-I have before me the original MS. of Lady Nairn's song, "Caller Herrin," in which is the following couplet :"Wha'll buy my caller herring, Bonny fish and dainty faring? The word "faring" or "fairin" is now rare; it was formerly common in the east of Scotland. (Fairs) are still called "fairin." From many a But presents given and received on Martindays kindly neighbour have I in early life obtained fairin. CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D. Snowdown Villa, Lewisham, S.E.

If MR. SETH WAIT will take the trouble to

refer to the two-volume edition of Burns's Poems, published in 1793-three years before the poet's death-he will find the word "fairin" printed as it first appeared in Grose's Antiquities. It is also given in the glossary attached to the same edition, and explained as "a fairing, a present." This fact ought to settle all speculation on the subject. The word is very frequently used by the peasantry of the north of England and the south of Scotland ironically, in which sense Burns undoubtedly uses it. I see that Jamieson gives the word "sairin," but I never heard it used in ordinary conversation. SIDNEY GILPIN.

L'HISTOIRE POÉTIQUE (4th S. i. 564.) — MR. AXON has overlooked this in Barbier (No. 12,694). And see Quérard (La France Littéraire, iii. 293), who upon the former's authority attributes the editing to Bannier and Barillon.

OLPHAR HAMST