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QUERIES ANSWERED, NO. 6
There is no class of books which it more behoves future compilers of glossaries to consult, than those which treat of geography, navigation, military and naval economy, and the science of warfare both on shore and afloat. As far as the technical terms have been used by poets and dramatists, much valuable illustration may be found in the annotated editions of their works, but much more is required for general purposes, and I could point out some fifty volumes which would enable an industrious student, possessing a competent acquaintance with those subjects in their modern state, to produce a most useful supplement to our existing glossaries.
With very small pretensions to the amount of information which Σ ascribes to me, I will at once answer his query on the meaning of grummett.
GRUMETE is pure Spanish. It also occurs as a Portuguese word. I shall transcribe the explanations of it as given by the best authorities on those languages:—
"GRVMETE.—El muchacho que sirue en el nauio, y sube por el mastil, o arbol, y por la antena, y haze todo lo demas que le mandan con gran presteza."—Sebastian de Couarruuias, 1611.
"GRUMETE.—El mozo que sirve en el navío para subir á la gavia y otros usos. Tirunculus nauticus."—La real academia Española.
"GRUMETE.—Grumete he o moço que serve como de criado aos marinheiros, sobindo pellos mastros atè à gavea, etc."—Raphael Bluteau.
We have a statement of the rank and ratings of the officers and men of a ship of war in the Sea grammar of captain Smith, 1627. 4to. The word in question, as a rating, had then become obsolete. The duties of the seamen are thus described:
"The sailers are the ancient men for hoising the sailes, getting the tacks aboord, haling the bowlings, and steering the ship.
"The younkers are the young men called fore-mast men, to take in the top-sailes, or top and yard, for furling the sailes, or slinging the yards, bousing or trising, and take their turnes at helme."
Now, a comparison of the definitions of the Spanish and Portuguese gromete, and the English younker, leads me to infer that the latter term had been substituted for grummett or gromet, and that the duties of both classes were nearly the same.
If the above information should seem less precise than might be expected, I must make my apology in the words which Edward Jorden addressed to captain Smith on the publication of his Sea grammar:
"Who can
Deriue thy words, is more grammarian
Than Camden, Clenard, Ramus, Lilly were:
Here's language would haue non-plust Scaliger!"
Bolton Corney.
BEAVER HATS
Permit me to suggest that, in asking a question, it is often desirable that the querist should state briefly the amount of information he already possesses on the subject. For instance, had Mr. "T.H. Turner," when inquiring after beaver hats (No. 7. p. 100.), stated, that he had met with the mention of them as early as the time of Hen. III., I, of course, should not have troubled you with a notice of them in the reign of Elizabeth. Indeed, I owe Mr. Turner an apology; for if I had reflected a moment upon the extensive antiquarian information of the querist, I should certainly have concluded that he must be well acquainted with the authorities I cited, which happened to be at my elbow at the time I read the query. Mr. B. Corney (No. 19. p. 307.) has supplied a beaver hat from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; we meet with another in his Testament of Creseide, v. 386., "in a mantill and a beaver hat." We may therefore conclude that they were not unusual in Chaucer's time. I now think it very probable that beaver hats were introduced into this country as early as the Norman Conquest; for we find mention of them in Normandy at a still earlier period. In the "Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Wandrille" (edited by Acheri, in his Spicilegium), we find, amongst the gifts of the Abbot Ansegisus, who died A.D. 833,
"Cappas Romanas duas, unam videlicet ex rubeo cindato, et fimbriis viridibus in circuitu ornatam; alteram ex cane Pontico, quero vulgus Bevurum nuncupat, similiter fimbriis sui coloris decoratam in orbe."
I do not conceive this cap to have been made of the skin of a beaver, for the term would then most probably have been "ex pelli canis Pontici."
This Chronicle contains several curious inventories of the gifts of many of the abbots; in which we may see the splendour of the vessels and vestments used at that period in religious services, as well as the style of reading then prevalent amongst the monks.
Gastros.
Cambridge, March 11.
[There is a Query which arises out of this subject which none of our correspondents have yet touched upon—What was the original meaning of Beaver, as applied to a hat or cap? and was it taken from the name of the animal, or did it give the name to it?]
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES
Anecdote of the Civil Wars.—In looking through your "Notes and Queries," to which I heartily wish continued success, I find, in No. 6. p. 93, a question which appears to be as yet unanswered.
The story to which your questioner alludes as an "anecdote of the Civil Wars," is a very beautiful one, and deserves authentication.
I have a note of it from Dr. Thomas's additions to Dugdale's Warwickshire, which dates the occurrence as having taken place Oct. 22, 1642, the day previous to the battle of Edgehill, and identifies the merry sportsman as Richard Schuckburgh, of Upper Shuckburgh; who, however, on his presentation to the king, "immediately went home, aroused his tenants, and the next day attended the army to the field, where he was knighted, and was present at the battle." Being out of the reach of books, I am unable further to verify the story; but it is to such unhappy rustics that your publication is most acceptable.
C.W.B.
[Thanks to the kindness of our correspondent "C.W.B.," we have referred to Dugdale's Warwickshire (ed. Thomas, 1730). vol. i. p. 309., and extract from it the following proof that Walpole had authority for his story. Who knows, after this, but we may in the same way trace from whence he procured the celebrated letter of the Countess of Pembroke, respecting which there is a query from Mr. Peter Cunningham, in No. 2. p. 28.
"As king Charles the First marched to Edgcot, near Banbury, on 22nd Oct., 1642, he saw him hunting in the fields not far from Shuckborough, with a very good pack of hounds, upon which it is reported, that he fetched a deep sigh and asked who that gentleman was that hunted so merrily that morning, when he was going to fight for his crown and dignity. And being told that it was this Richard Shuckburgh, he was ordered to be called to him, and was by him very graciously received. Upon which he went immediately home, armed all his tenants, and the next day attended on him in the field, where he was knighted, and was present at the battle of Edghill."]
Mousetrap Dante (No. 10. pp. 154, 155.).—I beg to refer your correspondent to the Visconte Colomb de Batines' Bibliographia Dantesea (Prato, 1845-48. 8vo.), tom. ii. pp. 264, 265., where he will find a list (correct so far as it goes) of the fifteen MSS. of the Comedia, purchased for the Bodleian Library about the year 1822, from the Abbate Matteo Canonici, of Venice.
I have reason for believing, that the only MSS. which exist in that collection, in addition to those enumerated in the list, are: 1. Canon Ital. 100. "Compendium Cujusdam Commentarii" (4to paper); and 2. "Codices Canonici Miscellanei 449." fol., vellum (it cannot therefore be this), which contains the complete commentary of Jacopo dalla Lana.
F.C.B.
Cromwell's Estates (No. 18. p. 277.).—The seignory of Gower is the peninsula which runs out between the bays of Swansea and Carmarthen; and which terminates at Swansea on the S.E. side, and at Longhor on the N.W., and comprises the district which, in common with a part of Scotland, anciently bore the name of Rheged. It is a locality rich in all that can attract the antiquary and the naturalist.
Mr. Dillwyn's Contributions towards a History of Swansea contains the following references to the Gower property of Cromwell:—"We are informed by the Minute-book of the Common Hall" (at Swansea), "that on May 19, 1648, there came to this towne the truly Honourable Oliver Cromwell, Esq.... Lord of this towne, the Seignory of Gower, and Manor of Killay, with the members thereof," &c. "On May 5. 1647, Parliament settled the estates of the Marquis of Worcester, in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, on Cromwell; and, by a subsequent order, the estate in Glamorganshire was added to this grant. The conveyance from Parliament to Cromwell is made, not only in the name of his Majesty, but has a portrait of Charles the First at its head."
SELEUCUS.
Genealogy of European Sovereigns (No. 6. p. 92.)—The best and most comprehensive work on this subject bears the following title:—Johann Hübner's genealogische Tabellen, 4 vols. folio, oblong, Leipzig, 1737 et seq. (Of the 3rd vol. a new and much improved edition, by G.F. Krebel, appeared in 1766.) Supplement: Tafeln zu J. Hübner's genealogischen Tabellen, by Sophia Queen of Denmark, 6 parts, folio, oblong, Copenhagen, 1822-24.
A. Asher.
Berlin.
Shipster (No. 14. p. 216.).—Are not Baxter and Tupster the feminines of Baker and Tapper?—and may not Shipster signify a female ship-owner?
F.C.B.
Kentish Ballad (No. 16. p. 247.).—The song beginning "When Harold was invaded" has long been a favourite in this county. It is entitled "The Man of Kent," and was composed by Tom Durfey, in the time of Charles the Second. It may be found, with the music, in Chappell's Collection of English Airs. He cites it as being in Pills to purge Melancholy, with Music, 1719, and states that in the Essex Champion, or famous History of Sir Billy of Billericay and his Squire Ricardo, 1690, the song of "The Man of Kent" is mentioned. I have none of these works at hand for immediate reference, but the above note contains all that I have been able to collect on the subject of our popular ballad.
There is another song, much to the same purport, beginning—
"When as the Duke of Normandy,
With glistening spear and shield,"
in Evans's Songs, vol. ii. p. 33, printed by him from The Garland of Delight, by Delone, in the Pepys collection at Cambridge—a black-letter volume; and probably the song was by himself.
Your correspondent "F.B." asks for the remainder of the song. In pity to yourself and your readers, I forbear sending you the countless stanzas—numerous enough in the original song, but now, by the additions of successive generations, swelled to a volume. He will find in Chappell's collection all that is worth having, with the assurance, repeated oft enough for the most enthusiastic of our modest countrymen, that
"In Britain's race if one surpass,
A man of Kent is he."
LAMBERT LARKING.
Ryarsh Vicarage.
Bess of Hardwick (No. 18. p. 276.).—The armorial bearings of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, co. Derby, father of Bess, were: Argent, a saltier engrailed, and on a chief blue three roses of the field.
M. COMES.
Oxford, March 9. 1850.
Trophee (No. 19. p. 303.).—"Trophe," in the Prologue of Lydgate's Translation of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, is a misprint: corrige—
"In youth he made a translation
Of a boke, which called is Troyle,
In Lumbardes tonge, as men may rede and se,
And in our vulgar, long or that he deyde,
Gave it the name of Troylous and Cres-eyde."
The book called Troyle is Boccaccio's Troilo, or Filostrato.
M.C.
Oxford, March 11. 1850.
Emerald (No. 14. p. 217.).—Before we puzzle ourselves with the meaning of a thing, it is well to consider whether the authority may not be very loose and inaccurate. This emerald cross, even if it was made of emeralds, might have been in several pieces. But we are told generally, in Phillips's Mineralogy, that "the large emeralds spoken of by various writers, such as that in the Abbey of Richenau, of the weight of 28 lbs., and which formerly belonged to Charlemagne, are believed to be either green fluor, or prase. The most magnificent specimen of genuine emeralds was presented to the Church of Loretto by one of the Spanish kings. It consists of a mass of white quartz, thickly implanted with emeralds, more than an inch in diameter."
The note to the above exemplifies what I have just said. It is called emerald, he says, because it is green, from the Greek. I might make a query of this; but it is clearly a mistake of some half-learned or ill-understood informant. The name has nothing to do with green. Emerald, in Italian smeraldo, is, I dare say, from the Greek smaragdus. It is derived, according to the Oxford Lexicon, from μαιρω, to shine, whence μαρμαρυγη. In looking for this, I find another Greek word, smirix, which is the origin of emery, having the same meaning. It is derived from σμαω, to rub, or make bright. I cannot help suspecting that the two radical verbs are connected.
C.B.
Ancient Motto—Barnacles.—In reference to your querist in No. 6., respecting the motto which "some Pope or Emperor caused to be engraven in the centre of his table," and the correspondent in No. 7. who replies to him by a quotation from Horace, I beg to observe that honest Thomas Fuller, in The Holy State, 275. ed. Lond. 1648, tells us, that St. Augustine "had this distich written on his table:—
