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HOWKEY OR HORKEY
Howkey or Horkey (Vol. i. p. 263.) is evidently, as your East Anglian correspondent and J.M.B. have pointed out, a corrupt pronunciation of the original Hockey; Hock being a heap of sheaves of corn, and hence the hock-cart, or cart loaded with sheaves.
Herrick, who often affords pleasing illustrations of old rural customs and superstitions, has a short poem, addressed to Lord Westmoreland, entitled "The Hock-cart, or Harvest Home," in which he says:—
"The harvest swains and wenches bound,
For joy to see the hock-cart crown'd."
Die Hocke was, in the language of Lower Saxony, a heap of sheaves. Hocken was the act of piling up these sheaves; and in that valuable repertory of old and provincial German words, the Wörterbuch of J.L. Frisch, it is shown to belong to the family of words which signify a heap or hilly protuberance.
We should have been prepared to find the word in East Anglia; but from Herrick's use of it, and others, it must have formerly been prevalent in the West of England also. It has nothing to do with Hock-tide, which is the Hoch-zeit of the Germans, and is merely [Transcriber's note: illegible] feast or highday of which a very satisfactory account will be found in Mr. Hampson's "Glossary" annexed to his Medii Aevi Kalendarium. An interesting account of the Hoch-zeit of the Germans of Lower Saxony occurs where we should little expect it, in the Sprichwörter of Master Egenolf, printed at Francfort in 1548, 4to.; and may perhaps serve to illustrate some of our obsolete rural customs:—
"We Germans keep carnival (all the time between Epiphany and Ash-Wednesday) St. Bernard's and St. Martin's days, Whitsuntide and Easter, as times, above all other periods of the year, when we should eat, drink, and be merry. St. Burchard's day, on account of the fermentation of the new must. St. Martin's, probably on account of the fermentation of the new wine: then we roast fat geese, and all the world enjoy themselves. At Easter we bake pancakes (fladen); at Whitsuntide we make bowers of green boughs, and keep the feast of the tabernacle in Saxony and Thuringia; and we drink, Whitsun-beer for eight days. In Saxony, we also keep the feast of St. Panthalion with drinking and eating sausages and roast legs of mutton stuffed with garlic. To the kirmse, or church feast, which happens only once a year, four or five neighbouring villages go together, and it is a praiseworthy custom, as it maintains a neighbourly and kindly feeling among the people."
The pleasing account of the English harvest feast in Gage's Hengrave, calls it Hochay. Pegge, in his Supplement to Grose's Provincial Words, Hockey. Dr. Nares notices it in his Glossary, and refers to an account of its observance in Suffolk given in the New Monthly Magazine for November, 1820. See also Major Moor's Suffolk Words, and Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, who says that Bloomfield, the rustic poet of Suffolk, calls it the Horky; Dr. Nares having said that Bloomfield does not venture on this provincial term for a Harvest-home.
S.W. SINGER.
May 14. 1850.
CHARLES MARTEL
(Vol. i. pp. 86. 275.)
If Charles Martel must no longer be the Mauler, he will only be excluded from a very motley band. Here are a few of his repudiated namesakes:—
1. The Maccabæi from Hebr. Makkab, a hammer.
2. Edward I., "Malleus Scotorum."
3. "St. Augustine, that Maul of heretics, was in chief repute with" Josias Shute, among the Latin Fathers. (Lloyd's Memoires, p. 294.) "God make you as Augustine, Malleum Hæreticorum." (Edward's Gangraena, Part II. p. 17. 1646.)
4. "Robertus Grossetest, Episcopus Lincolniensis, Romanorum Malleus, ob. 1253." (Fulman, Notitia Oxon. p. 103. 2nd ed.)
5. "Petrus de Alliaco, circ. A.D. 1400, Malleus a veritate aberrantium indefessus appellari solebat." (Wharton in Keble's Hooker, i. 102.)
6. T. Cromwell, "Malleus Monachorum:" "Mauler of Monasteries" [Fuller, if I recollect rightly, quoted by Carlyle]. Also, "Mawling religious houses." (Lloyd's State Worthies, i. 72. 8vo. ed.)
"FEAST" AND "FAST."
I am not going to take part in the game of hockey, started by LORD BRAYBROOKE, and carried on with so much spirit by several of your correspondents in No. 28.; but I have a word to say to one of the hockey-players, C.B., who, per fas et nefas, has mixed up "feast and fast" with the game.
C.B. asks, "Is not the derivation of 'feast' and 'fast' originally the same? that which is appointed connected with 'fas,' and that from 'fari?'" I should say no; and let me cite the familiar lines from the beginning of Ovid's Fasti:—
"Ne tamen ignores variorum jura dierum
Non habet officii Lucifer omnis idem.
Ille Nefastus erit per quem tria verba silentur:
Fastus, erit per quem lege licebit agi.
Neu toto perstare die sua jura putâris;
Qui jam Fastus erit, manè Nefastus erat.
Nam simul exta Deo data sunt, licet omnia fari;
Verbaque Honoratus libera Praetor habet."
The dies festus was not only not dies fastus, but dies nefastus.
Without going beyond feast and fast, I see nothing in C.B.'s suggestion better than the old derivations of the words feast from festus -um, and fast from the Anglo-Saxon; nor indeed anything half so good. Feast and fast are opposed in meaning: our word fast has a meaning which neither fas, fari, nor fastus, nor all three together, will explain.
CH.
Replies to Minor Queries
The Badger's Legs (Vol. i., p. 381.).—In answer to one of your correspondents, who inquires whether there is any allusion to the inequalities of the badger's legs previous to that made by Sir T. Browne:—
"And as that beast hath legs (which shepherds fear,
'Yclept a badger, which our lambs doth tear),
One long, the other short, that when he runs
Upon the plain, he halts, but when he runs
On craggy rocks, or steepy hills, we see
None runs more swift or easier than he."
Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, B.I.
Song 5. A.D. 1613.
J.F. BOYES.
Twm Sion Catti (Vol. i., p. 456.).—Seleucus observes that Twm Catti flourished between the years 1590 and 1630.
I have seen the original pardon, under the great seal, countersigned Vaughan, and bearing date 15th Jan., 1st of Elizabeth (1559).
The pardon extends to—
"Thome Johns, alias Cattye, nuper de Tregaen in Com. Cardigan, Genº., alias dict. Thome Johns, alias Catty ae Tregaem, in Com. Cardigan, Generoso, alias dict. Thome Jones, alias Catty, Gent., sen quocunque alio nomine vel cognomine seu additione hominis cognitionis dignitatis, officii sen losi idem Thomas cognatur, vocetur seu nuncupetur," &c. &c.; and includes "omnia escapia et cautiones."
I have written the extract without all the contractions in the original.
J.M.T.
May 21. 1850.
Christian Captives (Vol. i., p. 441.).—R.W.B. may probably obtain valuable information from the trustees of Lady Mico's Charity. See Attorney-General v. Gibson, 2 Beavan, 317. (n.)
A note on that case may not be uninteresting, as showing the vast increase of a fund originally small.
Lady Mico, in 1670, gave 1000l. to redeem poor slaves. In 1686 this fund was laid out in the purchase of land.
In 1827 an information was filed against Mr. Gibson and others and at that time the rental of the purchased land amounted to something like 3000l. a year, and the trustees had accumulated upwards of 115,000l. Consols.
Trustees were appointed in 1834, and their office is No. 20. Buckingham Street, Strand. The funds are applied towards the education of our emancipated slaves.
Q.D.J.K.R.W.
Lee Trianons.—I have always understood that these gardens, &c., took their name from the village of Trianon, the site of which they occupy, and which village Louis XIV. purchased from the monks of St. Geneviève.
AREDJID KOOEZ.
In an enumeration of "strange birds" to be found in Barbadoes, there is mention of "the Egge Bird, the Cahow, the Tropick Bird, the Pemlico which presageth storms." America painted to the life. (The True History of the Spaniards' Proceedings in America, by Ferdinando Gorges, Esq., Lond. 4to. 1659.)
BR.
The Arms of Godin.—My attention has been drawn to a Query from Mr. KERSLEY, in page 439. of Vol. i., relative to the arms of Godin. I have seen these arms blazoned variously. Mr. Godin Shiffner bears them quarterly with his own coat of Shiffner, and blazons them thus:—Party per fess, azure and gules, a barr or; in chief, a dexter and sinister hand grasping a cup, all proper.
I am inclined to think this is an innovation upon the original arms, as I have them painted on an old piece of china azure, a cup or. They are here impaled with the arms of Du Fon, an ancient French family that intermarried with the Godins.
In the Théâtre de la Noblesse de Brabant, I find that "François Godin, Secrétaire ordinaire du Roy Philippe II., en grand conseil séant à Malines," was ennobled by letters patent, dated Madrid, 7th January, 1589, and "port les armoiries suivantes, qui sont, un escu de sinople à une coupe lasalade, ou couverture ouverte d'or; ledit escu sommé d'un heaume d'argent grillé et liséré d'or; aux bourlet et hachements d'or et de sinople: cimier une coupe de l'escu."
This blazoning is corrected in the index, where the arms are stated to be "un escu de sinople à la coupe couverte d'or."
In the Nobiliaire des Pays-Bas, I find that Daniel Godin, Seigneur de Beauvois, was enobled by Philip IV. in 1623, and "les armes sont, de sinople à une coupe couverte d'or."
In 1642, "Jean-François Godin, Seigneur de Baumez, Baillé et haut Justicier de Reumes" (son of François Godin, who was ennobled by Philip II.), obtained permission from Philip IV. to alter his paternal coat, and to carry "un écu de sinople à trois coupes couvertes d'or; cet écu timbré d'un casque d'argent, grillé, liséré, et couronné d'or, orné de ses lambrequins d'or et de sinople, et au-dessus en cimier, une tête et col de licorne au naturel."
His son, Jaques-François Godin, appears afterwards to have obtained the title of Baron.
The earliest mention I can find of the Godin arms is in 1588, when Christopher Godin carried "de sinople à une coupe couverte d'or." He was a son of Jacques Seigneur d'Aubrecicourt and of Françoise Lettin, and brother to the first-named François Godin. There appears to have been another brother, Jaques; and they were all three ennobled by Philip II., probably for their public services, as Christopher was Conseiller et Receveur-général des Domaines et Finances des Pays-Bas; Jacques, Conseiller et Maître de la Chambre des Comptes en Hollande; and François, Secrétaire du Grand Conseil à Malines.
I am not aware what connection existed between these Godins and the family of that name in Normandy (now extinct); but the cup in the arms, though borne differently, proves that they were of the same race.
J.R.C.
May 23, 1850.
The Title of D.D.—The remarks of your correspondent "BROWN RAPPEE" (Vol. I. p. 438.) induced me to turn to the List of the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, and I find it in my power to exonerate the compiler of the list on one point from the carelessness he imputes. "BROWN RAPPEE" says, "We see one or two D.D.'s deprived of their titles of 'Rev.'" I find but one D.D. in that condition, and in that instance the list is correct, and the usual prefix would have been an error; the gentleman in question not being in orders, although his services in Biblical literature have been acknowledged with the degree of D.D. Your correspondent does not seem to be aware that this doctorate is, like all others, an academical, and not a clerical, distinction and that, although it is seldom dissociated from the clerical office in this country, any lay scholar of adequate attainments in theology is competent to receive this distinction, and any university to bestow it upon him.
EYE-SNUFF.
Emancipation of the Jews (Vol. i. p. 479.).—The following extract from Tovey's Anglia Judaica, p. 259., may be acceptable in connection with this subject:—
"As soon as King Charles was murther'd, the Jews petitioned the Council of War to endeavour a repeal of that act of parliament which had been made against them; promising, in return, to make them a present of five hundred thousand pounds: Provided that they could likewise procure the cathedral of St. Paul to be procured them for a synagogue, and the Bodleian Library at Oxford to begin their traffic with, which piece of service it seems was undertaken by those honest men, at the solicitation of Hugh Peters and Henry Masters, whom the Jews employed as their brokers but without any success."
Afterwards, however, the Jews of Holland sent a deputation, consisting of the famous Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel, and several wealthy Jewish merchants. When Cromwell came into full power their hopes were raised, for he was known to be favourable to their re-admission; but after much discussion, the popular feeling, and the voices of many influential preachers, were found to be so much against the measure that nothing was eventually done; and Charles II. must be regarded as the restorer of the Jews to this country. Tovey says that the Rabbi Netto, "the governor of the synagogue" in his time, had searched the Jewish registers at his request, and had found that, so late as 1663, there were but twelve Jews in England. It seems that while these negotiations were in hand, all sorts of absurd and idle rumours were afloat. Among these I incline to reckon the alleged proposal to purchase St. Paul's for a synagogue. It seems to be sufficiently refuted by the intrinsic absurdity of the thing. But beyond this we have the express denial, made on the spot and at the time, by Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel himself. On turning to his Vindiciæ Judæorum, written in this country, I find that after recapitulating various calumnies on his people—such as their sacrificing Christian children, etc.—he thus goes on:—
