REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

John Ross Mackay (No. 8. p. 125.).—In reply to the Query of your correspondent "D.," I beg to forward the following quotation from Sir N.W. Wraxall's Historical Memoirs of his Own Time, 3rd edition. Speaking of the peace of Fontainbleau, he says,—

"John Ross Mackay, who had been private secretary to the Earl of Bute, and afterwards during seventeen years was treasurer of the ordnance, a man with whom I was personally acquainted, frequently avowed the fact. He lived to a very advanced age, sat in several parliaments, and only died, I believe in 1796. A gentleman of high professional rank, and of unimpeached veracity, who is still alive, told me, that dining at the late Earl of Besborough's, in Cavendish Square, in the year 1790, where only four persons were present, including himself, Ross Mackay, who was one of the number, gave them the most ample information upon the subject. Lord Besborough having called after dinner for a bottle of champagne, a wine to which Mackay was partial, and the conversation turning on the means of governing the House of Commons, Mackay said, that, 'money formed, after all, the only effectual and certain method.' 'The peace of 1763,' continued he, 'was carried through and approved by a pecuniary distribution. Nothing else could have surmounted the difficulty. I was myself the channel through which the money passed. With my own hand I secured above one hundred and twenty votes on that most important question to ministers. Eighty thousand pounds were set apart for the purpose. Forty members of the House of Commons received from me a thousand pounds each. To eighty others, I paid five hundred pounds apiece.'"

DAVID STEWARD.

Godalming, March 19. 1850.

Shipster.—Gourders.—As no satisfactory elucidation of the question propounded by Mr. Fox (No. 14. p. 216.) has been suggested, and I think he will scarcely accept the conjecture of "F.C.B.," however ingenious (No. 21. p. 339.), I am tempted to offer a note on the business or calling of a shipster. It had, I believe, no connection with nautical concerns; it did not designate a skipper (in the Dutch use of the word) of the fair sex. That rare volume, Caxton's Boke for Travellers, a treasury of archaisms, supplies the best definition of her calling:—"Mabyll the shepster cheuissheth her right well; she maketh surplys, shertes, breches, keuerchiffs, and all that may be wrought of lynnen cloth." The French term given, as corresponding to shepster, is "cousturière." Palsgrave also, in his Èclaircissement de la Langue françoyse, gives "schepstarre, lingière:—sheres for shepsters, forces." If further evidence were requisite, old Elyot might be cited, who renders both sarcinatrix and sutatis (? sutatrix) as "a shepster, a seamester." The term may probably be derived from her skill in shaping or cutting out the various garments of which Caxton gives so quaint an inventory. Her vocation was the very same as that of the tailleuse of present times—the Schneiderinn, she-cutter, of Germany. Palsgrave likewise gives this use of the verb "to shape," expressed in French by "tailler." He says, "He is a good tayloure, and shapeth a garment as well as any man." It is singular that Nares should have overlooked this obsolete term; and Mr. Halliwell, in his useful Glossarial Collections, seems misled by some similarity of sound, having noticed, perhaps, in Palsgrave, only the second occurrence of the word as before cited, "sheres for shepsters." He gives that author as authority for the explanation "shepster, a sheep-shearer" (Dict. of Archaic Words, in v.). It has been shown, however, I believe, to have no more concern with a sheep than a ship.

The value of your periodical in eliciting the explanation of crabbed archaisms is highly to be commended. Shall I anticipate Mr. Bolton Corney, or some other of your acute glossarial correspondents, if I offer another suggestion, in reply to "C.H." (No. 21. p. 335.), regarding "gourders of raine?" I have never met with the word in this form; but Gouldman gives "a gord of water which cometh by rain, aquilegium." Guort, gorz, or gort, in Domesday, are interpreted by Kelham as "a wear"; and in old French, gort or gorz signifies "flot, gorgées, quantité" (Roquefort). All these words, as well as the Low Latin gordus (Ducange), are doubtless to be deduced, with gurges, a gyrando.

ALBERT WAY.

Rococo (No. 20. p. 321.).—The history of this word appears to be involved in uncertainty. Some French authorities derive it from "rocaille," rock-work, pebbles for a grotto, &c.; others from "Rocco," an architect (whose existence, however, I cannot trace), the author, it is to be supposed, of the antiquated, unfashionable, and false style which the word "Rococo" is employed to designate. The use of the word is said to have first arisen in France towards the end of the reign of Louis XV. or the beginning of that of Louis XVI., and it is now employed in the above senses, not only in architecture, but in literature, fashion, and the arts generally.

J.M.

Oxford, March 18.

Rococo.—This is one of those cant words, of no very definite, and of merely conventional, meaning, for any thing said or done in ignorance of the true propriety of the matter in question. "C'est du rococo," it is mere stuff, or nonsense, or rather twaddle. It was born on the stage, about ten years ago, at one of the minor theatres at Paris, though probably borrowed from a wine-shop, and most likely will have as brief an existence as our own late "flare-up," and such ephemeral colloquialisms, or rather vulgarisms, that tickle the public fancy for a day, till pushed from their stool by another.

March 18. 1850.

God tempers the Wind, &c.—The French proverb, "A brebis tondue Dieu mesure le vent" (God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb), will be found in Quitard's Dictionnaire étymologique, historique et anecdotique, des Proverbes, et des Locutions proverbiales de la Langue française, 8vo. Paris, 1842. Mons. Quitard adds the following explanation of the proverb:—"Dieu proportionne à nos forces les afflictions qu'il nous envoie." I have also found this proverb in Furetière's Dictionnaire universal de tous les Mots français, &c. 4 vols. folio, La Haye, 1727.

J.M.

Oxford. March 18.

The proverb, "A brebis pres tondue, Dieu luy mesure le vent," is to be found in Jan. Gruter. Florileg. Ethico-polit. part. alt. proverb. gallic., p. 353. 8vo. Francof. 1611.

Oxford.

Guildhalls (No. 20. p. 320)—These were anciently the halls, or places of meeting, of Guilds, or communities formed for secular or religious purposes, none of which could be legally set up without the King's licence. Trade companies were founded, and still exist, in various parts of the kingdom, as "Gilda Mercatorum;" and there is little doubt that this was the origin of the municipal or governing corporate bodies in cities and towns whose "Guildhalls" still remain—"gildated" and "incorporated" were synonymous terms.

In many places, at one time of considerable importance, where Guilds were established, though the latter have vanished, the name of their Halls has survived.

Your correspondent "A SUBSCRIBER AB INITIO" is referred to Madox, Firma Burgi, which will afford him much information on the subject.

T.E.D.

Exeter.

Treatise of Equivocation.—In reply to the inquiry of your correspondent "J.M." (No. 17. p. 263.), I beg to state that, as my name was mentioned in connection with the Query, I wrote to the Rev. James Raine, the librarian of the Durham Cathedral Library, inquiring whether The Treatise of Equivocation existed in the Chapter Library. From that gentleman I have received this morning the following reply:—"I cannot find, in this library, the book referred to in the 'NOTES AND QUERIES,' neither can I discover it in that of Bishop Cosin. The Catalogue of the latter is, however, very defective. The said publication ('NOTES AND QUERIES') promises to be very useful." Although this information is of a purely negative character, yet I thought it right to endeavour to satisfy your correspondent's curiosity.

BERIAH BOTFIELD.

Nortan Hall.

Judas Bell (No. 13. p. 195.; No. 15. p. 235.).—The lines here quoted by "C.W.G.," from "a singular Scotch poem," evidently mean to express or examplify discord; and the words "to jingle Judas bells," refer to "bells jangled, out of tune, and harsh."

The Maltese at Valletta, a people singularly, and, as we should say, morbidly, addicted to the seeming enjoyment of the most horrid discords, on Good Friday Eve, have the custom of jangling the church bells with the utmost violence, in execration of the memory of Judas; and I have seen there a large wooden machine (of which they have many in use), constructed on a principle similar to that of an old-fashioned watchman's rattle, but of far greater power in creating an uproar, intended to be symbolical of the rattling of Judas's bones, that will not rest in his grave. The Maltese, as is well known, are a very superstitious people. The employment of Judas candles would, no doubt, if properly explained, turn out to mean to imply execration against the memory of Judas, wherever they may be used. But in the expression Judas bell, the greatest conceivable amount of discord is that which is intended to be expressed.

ROBERT SNOW.

6. Chesterfield street, Mayfair, March 23. 1850.

[To this we may add, that the question at present pending between this country and Greece, so far as regards the claim of M. Pacifico, appears, from the papers laid before Parliament, to have had its origin in what Sir Edward Lyon states "to have been the custom in Athens for some years, to burn an effigy of Judas on Easter day." And from the account of the origin of the riots by the Council of the Criminal Court of Athens, we learn, that "it is proved by the investigation, that on March 23, 1847, Easter Day, a report was spread in the parish of the Church des incorporels, that the Jew, D. Pacifico, by paying the churchwarden of the church, succeeded in preventing the effigy of Judas from being burnt, which by annual custom was made and burnt in that parish on Easter Day." From another document in the same collection it seems, that the Greek Government, out of respect to M. Charles de Rothschild, who was at Athens in April, 1847, forbid in all the Greek churches of the capital the burning of Judas.]

Grummett (No. 20. p. 319.).—The following use of the word whose definition is sought by "Σ" occurs in a description of the members or adjuncts of the Cinque Port of Hastings in 1229:—

"Servicia inde debita domino regi xxi. naves, et in qualibet nave xxi. homines, cum uno garcione qui dicitur gromet."

In quoting this passage in a paper "On the Seals of the Cinque Ports," in the Sussex Archæological Collections (Vol. i. p. 16.), I applied the following illustration:—

"Gromet seems to be a diminutive of 'grome', a serving-man, whence the modern groom. The provincialism grummet, much used in Sussex to designate a clumsy, awkward youth, has doubtless some relation to this cabin-boy of the Ports' navy."

I ought to add, that the passage above given is to be found in Jeake's Charters of the Cinque Ports.

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes, March 18. 1850.

Grummett.—Bailey explains, "Gromets or Gromwells, the most servile persons on ship-board," probably, metaphorically, from "Gromet or Grummet," "small rings," adds Bailey, "fastened with staples on the upper side of the yard." The latter term is still in use; the metaphorical one is, I believe, quite obsolete.

Meaning of "Grummett," &c.—The word is derived from the Low Latin "gromettus", the original of our "groom" (see Ducange's, Gromes and Gromus), and answers to the old French gourmète, i.e. garçon. In old books he is sometimes called a "novice" or "page," and may be compared with the "apprentice" of our marine. He was employed in waiting on the sailors, cooking their victuals, working the pumps, scouring the decks, and, in short, was expected to lend a hand wherever he was wanted, except taking the helm (Clairac, Commentaire du premier Article des Rooles d'Oléron); and, consequently, is always distinguished from, and rated below, the mariner or able-bodied seaman.

The information here given is taken from Jal, Archéologie navale, vol. ii. p. 238.

A. RICH, Jun.