HACKNEY, MIDDLESEX. It has been suggested that the origin of this place-name is"Hacon's ey." (See Walford's 'Old and New London,' v. 510.) The marshy situation of the place might be sufficient to support the suggested suffix, but there does not appear to be any evidence that a Danish chief of the name of Hacon_ever had anything to do with the place. In 1230-1 it was spelt Haken' (Cal. Clos. Rol.,' pp. 576, 581), and in 1253 Hakeneye (Lysons, Environs,' ii. 450). Walford mentions a spelling Hacqueneye, temp. Hen. III. Dr. Robinson ('Hist. and Ant. of Hackney'), quoted by Walford, says: "No one will venture to assert that it received its name from the Teutonic or Welsh language, as some have supposed." What is probably the origin? that it contained no salt, only a trace of nitro- LATIN GENITIVES IN FLORICULTURAL genous bodies, and very little moisture; as a matter NOMENCLATURE.-In floricultural catalogues of fact, practically the whole of it dissolved in ether the specific name of a flower, when derived and other fat solvents. Large numbers of samples of bog butter have been obtained from the swamps from a surname, sometimes ends with one i, of Ireland. It is found in 20 and even in 100 lb. sometimes with two i's, as, for example, Aster lots at different depths, some being 14 ft. below the Thomsoni and Aster Curtisii. Can any reader surface. As a rule, the original shape or form of of N. & Q.' supply an authoritative and the lumps of butter seems to be extremely well satisfactory reason why? P. G. preserved, and one case is recorded where the marks of the fingers could be distinctly seen on the butter. On another lot, a coarse hemp cloth was found wrapped around the butter which on exposure to the air crumbled to dust. Very little is known as to the length of time these substances have been in the swamps, but it is generally thought that they are upwards of a thousand years old. It is claimed by some that the bog butter is a substance formed from the peat itself, but the results of chemical analysis go to show that it still has some of the characteristics of butter, and the general belief of those who have studied the subject is that it really was butter placed there for some reason many years ago. But why should the swamp be used as a place of storage? It can hardly be supposed that all the samples that have been found were accidentally lost on the way to market, although in one case, at least, the remains of a basket were found with the butter. It has been suggested that butter was buried in swamps for safe keeping when the Danes invaded Ireland, or possibly at the time of Cromwell's men. The most likely theory is that long years ago experience proved that summer butter could be put down in the turf to keep for winter use, or, possibly, certain desired flavours were developed in this way. Then it might happen that whoever put it away either died or forgot all about it. It is well known that moist peat or swamp soil is an excellent preservative, owing probably to the humic acids formed as the result of the decomposition of the nitrogenous organic matter, and it is quite possible that this preserving action was known to, and used by, the people of Ireland many centuries ago, and that these lumps of butter were carefully put away in the peat before the time of the Norman Conquest." EMERITUS. H. W. UNDERDOWN. 'HAARLEM COURANT.' readers of N. & Q'inform me what library, Can any of the public or private, possesses copies of a paper called Haerlem Courant, or some similar name, being a translation of the Dutch paper of that name, published in England (Brit. Mus. and Bodleian)? · I find this paper alluded to in Dr. Murray's 'Dictionary' (s.v. Couranteer') and in Timperley's 'Anecdotes,' but I should like to have more references from contemporary authors. M. M. KLEERKOOPER. Beylies. "WAR": ITS OLD PRONUNCIATION. (10th S. v. 228.) 66 THE form of the word is modern, and the pronunciation illustrates of a process development which reached completion in the course of the eighteenth century. Cognate with Old French werre (Fr. guerre), our term "war" represents O.H. Ger. werra, vexation, broil. "Were," signifying doubt or fear, used by Chaucer and Langland, is probably the same word; when Chaucer has the form 66 he means war ware" or aware of," while his word for active hostilities is 66 werre." In his long list of the features that distinguish the dwelling described in The House of Fame' he mentions "werres in the same line with pes" and "mariages"; and in 'The Boke of the Duchesse' he makes the forlorn knight, in detailing his woes, distinguish between the noun 66 "" werre and the adjective of the same form which signifies "worse." Part of the paradoxical lamentation is in these terms: 66 My love ys hate, my slepe wakynge, Halliwell, in the Archaic Dictionary,' quotes from Religious Poems of the fifteenth century the reflection that peace is impossible in any country thereas werre is nysh-honde." Gavin Douglas, whose translation of Virgil was completed in 1513, uses the forms" were and "weyr" for warfare, while he has 66 war" to denote ". worse." In a famous passage of 'Eneid' viii. he makes Evander explain to Eneas that there was a time in the remote history of his domain when unscrupulous selfishness became the leading principle of conduct, conditions gradually becoming "war and war" till in the steid of peax, the rage of weyr Begouth succeid, and covatys of geyr. This form of the word, modified by Sir David Lyndsay and others to "weir," lingers to a later date in Scotland than it does in England, although the original sound continues to be represented in Southern writers long after the spelling has been changed. Robert Sempill (1599-1670), in his famous 'Piper of Kilbarchan,' bewails the fact that, since the demise of the incomparable Habbie, no one is left to "play before such weir-men"; while Allan Ramsay, who wrote in the first half of the eighteenth century, can still celebrate "brave deeds of weir." Meanwhile English writers gradually adopted the form of the word which has come to receive standard recognition. “The sound of Northern vowels," says Mr. Kington Oliphant (Old and Middle English,' p. 398), was, about 1600, to make the conquest of the South. A here replaces e, as hared (vasEven Spenser, who still uses tavit), farr (remotus), warren (pugnare)." "war" for 66 66 rimes worse," refers to the "Roman warres" and the "war-hable youth" of the early Britons (Faerie Queene,' II. x. 62). Shakespeare "war" with "jar" ("Venus and Adonis,' 1. 98), "scar" and "afar" (Rape of Lucrece,' 1831), and "bar" (Sonnet xlvi.); while he closes the Prologue to Troilus and Cressida' with the couplet : Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are: Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. Shakespeare's rimes are steadily repeated by subsequent poets, and only notable variations need be mentioned here. A significant example occurs in Dryden's version of Ovid's 'Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses,' ll. 53-4 : 66 16 33 Till one more cunning caught him in the snare (Ill for himself) and dragg'd him into war. Several appear in Prior's Ode humbly inscribed to the Queen,' where "war" rimes not only with "star," "care," compare," and "prayer," but also with " appear" and 'spear" (which would in the poet's time be pronounced in the same way as the last trio of these four words); and "wars" responds to “bears,” “jars,' In Prior's 'Hymn to the Sun,' st. 4, "wars spears," and "years." and "cares "stand as adequate rimes, while war " and "here" have the same relations in the seventh stanza of the English Ballad "bar," "car," "jar," "star," and words of a on the Taking of Namur.' Pope freely uses similar sound to rime with "war"; and now and again he employs "abhor," which is indicative of the changing fashion. In 'Windsor Forest,' 1. 105, he utilizes "compare" for his purpose, while in his 'Statius's Thebais, Book I.,' 11, 116, 190, and 340 respectively, he has " prepare," "pair," and "tear." "Care occurs twice in the Imitations of Horace,' viz., in Satire II. ii. 128 and 2 Epist. i. 273 while in The Dunciad,' iii. 235, "glare does the necessary duty, and in the same book, 1. 281, "mayors" and " joined. In several of his minor poems Young of 'Night Thoughts' not only uses "car," "far," ," "star," and so on, in response to "war," but also has "care" and "fear" in the same position, and in the 'Imperium Pelagi,' ii. 13, brackets "sweet orator" with wars are con 66 are,' seen "big man of war. Gray has "afar," "bear," explains why the gaping urchin, asked by and 66 car" in familiar passages as proper the local militia-man if he had never seen a rimes to " war"; and in The Fatal Sisters,' war horse before, replied that he had " 11. 27 and 34, he has respectively "share" and mony a war horse, but nivver a war rider." spare," both representing the earlier pro- I know that this jokelet has been translated nunciation. Another illustration of the same into Scots, where "waur" for worse is practice is seen in his use of "repair" in pronounced as is 66 war in modern Enghis translation from Propertius, Eleg. II. i. 51. lish; but it originated independently, if not With Cowper and Burns the modern usage is entirely, in Yorkshire. practically established. Burns's broad sound H. SNOWDEN Ward. of a is, no doubt, represented in "afar," bar," "jar," and "scar," as well as in "scaur," which are the words he couples with " but it is interesting to find relics of the old influence in some passages in Cowper. In translating Horace's Satire I. ix., for example, he brackets" war,' catarrh," and "beware" while in his version of Milton's 'To Giovanni Battista Manso,' 1. 92, he conjoins "prepares" with wars. This recalls the following stanza in the fifth of the 'Olney Hymns': 66 19 66 war Now, Lord, thy feeble worm prepare! They hate the soul that hates his sins. Similar things may, no doubt, be found in nineteenth-century verse, but these are to be explained as examples of assonance or poetic licence, and not as deliberate archaisms. THOMAS BAyne. It is impossible to discuss this question within reasonable space. Of course, Pope's pronunciation differed from that now in use in thousands of words. Any one who will refer to Sweet's History of English Sounds,' pp. 215, 216, will begin to discover the extreme difficulties which attend the study of vowel-sounds in Pope's time. But the word 66 war proves very little. It could be rimed with "far" by convention and tradition, owing to the fact that there had been a time when the rime was perfect. In Chaucer's 'Prologue,' 1. 47, "werre," ie., war," rimes with "ferre," ie., so that when it lost its final e, it naturally farther" rimed with "fer," i.e., “far." 66 WALTER W. SKEAT. Hadlow, Kent. "War" is pronounced here to rime with "car," that is, with the open sound of the a, as in "far" and "father." I daresay it will be thus pronounced in other provincial R. B-R. dialects. South Shields. NELSON TRAFALGAR MEMORANDUM (10th S. v. 244).-MR. EDGCUMBE has fallen into the mistake, which originated in The Daily Telegraph of 6 March, of confounding Sir Rodney Mundy, late Admiral of the Fleet, G.C.B., with his more distinguished uncle, Admiral Sir George Mundy, who was one of Nelson's captains at the battle of the Nile, eight years before his nephew, the later Admiral Sir George Rodney Mundy, was born. The document in question was sold at Christie's by the son of Sir George Mundy's butler, who is said to have received it from the master he served faithfully till his death, some sixty years ago. Sir Rodney was the elder brother of my late husband, Major-General Pierrepont Mundy, late Royal Horse Artillery, and his heir by will; whilst I am the sole legatee of his brother, and therefore in possession of all family facts. GERALDINE H. T. MUNDY. Thornbury House, Thornbury, Gloucestershire. PARRY would be able to compile nearly a UNREGISTERED ARMS (10th S. v. 228).-COL. Fox-Davies's 'Armorial Families' (published complete list of these if he consulted Mr. by Messrs. Jack), in which the distinction is shown between arms (officially) granted, and those on record in the Colleges of Arms in R. B. London, Edinburgh, or Dublin. Upton. It may easily be that the arms of the Marquess of Salisbury, as well as many others, are not to be found on record at the College of Arms. The College was not founded with the beginning of coat-armour, any more than the law courts began with the law; and the College records, like those of the courts of law, have been subject to embezzlement, loss, and decay. It would cost, probably, a good deal in fees to discover the names of families whose arms are not officially recorded, or even to settle the point as to any one family. In regard to the fee question, which becomes more pressing every day, many students hope for the passing of an Act of Parliament providing that an inventory be made of official records of every class more than a hundred years old, and that they shall in future be freely open to accredited students every day throughout the year, except Sundays and public holidays, from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., without restriction. If the present official custodians of such records cannot freely accommodate students, the records should be turned over to the Public Record Office. The exaction of any fee for inspecting ancient records is an anomaly at the present day, and against public policy. GEORGE F. T. SHERWOOD. 50, Beecroft Road, Brockley, S. E. ARCHER OF UMBERSLADE (10th S. v. 148, 195, 232).-While thanking A. H. for his answer to my query, I must, in the cause of accuracy, correct him. Thomas Archer, first Baron Archer of Umberslade, married Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Tipping, Bart, of Wheatfield, Oxon, by his wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Cheke, Esq., of Pirgo, Essex. Lady Archer was coheiress with her sister Lætitia, wife of Samuel, Lord Sandys, and she inherited Pirgo as her share, which estate she brought into the Archer family. Anne Cheke, wife of Sir Thomas Tipping, was daughter of Thomas Cheke by his wife Lætitia, daughter and heiress of Edward Russell (brother of the first Duke of Bedford) and sister and heiress of Edward Russell, Earl of Orford. The Earl of Orford left his house in Convent Garden, afterwards Evans's Rooms, and now the National Sports Club, to his relative Baron Archer, whose town house it was until the building of Grosvenor Square, when he removed to that address. LAUNCELOT ARCHER. Cotgrave has "chesnaye, a wood, grove, or thicket of oakes"; and " chesne, an oake." An older F. form was chaenei, also chesnoi; see a large number of examples in Godefroy, under chesnoi. The modern Norman for "oak" is caîne, formerly keyne; so that the surname Caine really represents an oak-tree, and has no relation to Abel. We have the equivalent names Keynes and Oakes, showing that English, as usual, has its Norman as well as its Saxon constituents. I doubt if we sufficiently realize how admirably our own magnificent and widespread native tongue is welded together from Latin and Teutonic elements; it is worthy of ten times the honour that it usually receives. Pale is French, and ale is Saxon; but only pale ale is truly English; and this is one of ten thousand examples. We actually have such compounds as grandfather! WALTER W. SKEAT. SAMUEL WILLIAMS, DRAUGHTSMAN (10th S. v. 109).—If your querist, who is an expert in this artist's work, does not know of a portrait I fear the case is hopeless. Williams executed an enormous number of drawings for books, and their excellence is in part caused by his engraving them himself on wood. His name occurs no fewer than five times in my 'Swimming,' 1904. makes a point of recording portraits, but he In 'Modern English Biography' Mr. Boase mentions none under this artist's name. Mr. Boase quotes 1st S. viii. 312 (1853), where a memoir of Williams is given; but to this reference may be added 5th S. viii. 260, 296, 477, and 9th S. vii. 408; and p. 498, where it is said that Williams died 21 Jan., 1846, and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery. In all probability, however, this refers to a namesake I find in Mr. Algernon Graves's invaluable 'Dictionary of Artists,' as exhibiting between the years 1834 and 1844. According to Sir John Millais, every artist depicts himself and his own figure in the men he draws, so that MR. SANDFORD will be able to get some idea of Williams's appearance from his drawings. Certainly the face and figure of Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., are both well represented by the men in his picture entitled 'Derby Day' at the Tate Gallery. The national collections are miserably deficient of work by artists such as Williams. There are only some twelve entries under Williams's name in the Catalogue of the National Library -all cross-references except one, "The Boy's Treasury, 1844," which ought also to be a cross-reference (see 'Swimming,' p. 263). In the Print Room he is also poorly represented. The same may be said of Sir John Gilbert's work in books (see 8th S. viii. 306), though through himself and his brother George his painting is well represented in our public galleries. Of all Sir John Gilbert's work the early water-colour sketches at the Guildhall Gallery appeal to me most. RALPH THOMAS. An account of Charles, Duke of Lorraine, will be found in the 'Nouvelle Biographie Générale' (Hoefer), 1860, vol. xxxi., where are several articles on other members of this family. E. J. H. A pedigree of the Dukes of Lorraine will be found in Lesage's 'Atlas Historique, Généalogique,' &c, Carte xxii. My copy has no date, but the genealogies came down to about 1840. If LOBUC cannot see this, I will copy it out for him, but it is rather long. E. A. FRY. 124, Chancery Lane, W.C. The Lorraine pedigree is given by Mr. H. B. George in his Genealogical Tables illustrative of Modern History' (1904). A. R. BAYLEY. [We have forwarded to LOBUC the long pedigree kindly copied out by MR. BAYLEY.] OSCAR WILDE BIBLIOGRAPHY (10th S. iv. 266; v. 12, 133, 176, 238). —'Sonnets of this Century,' edited by William Sharp, contains Wilde's sonnet On the Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters.' This is found, however, only in the first edition of 1886, which was announced to appear as the February number of the "Canterbury Poets Series." The large-paper 4to edition of November, 1886, and all subsequent editions omit this sonnet. Can any reader give the reason of this? In the notes the editor says that this sonnet "is printed here for the first time"; but I have The Dramatic Review for 23 January, 1886, which contains it, with the title 'Sonnet on the Recent Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters.' The two versions differ only in the use of certain capital letters and punctuation marks. STUART MASON. c/o Holywell Press, Oxford. M. ELLEN POOLE. Alsager. [MR. H. J. B. CLEMENTS also refers to the pedi. gree in Misc. Gen. et Her.] AFRICAN SLOTHS (10th S. v. 230).—There is little doubt that the Central American "sloths" have a prescriptive right to this popular name, though Purchas, apparently by a typographical error, gives it to the Antæ,' or tapirs. But, like most terms of this description, especially when used with a distinctive qualification, the name "sloth" is applied by travellers and writers of popular natural histories to various other animals, amongst which must be reckoned these African ones. Lydekker, in his Mostly Mammals,' 1903, p. 314, observes that the African galagos are called "sloths," as well as the slow lemurs of India and the Malay Peninsula. Besides these, an Australian marsupial, the koolah, has gained the appellation; and an Indian bear (Melursus labiatus) was formerly described as the ursine sloth. Yet another application of the name-to the wolverine, or glutton |