There is an expression in French which is identical in spelling with this word, namely, "molasse" (softish—so to speak); and which describes the liquidity of molasses, as distinguished from the granulous substance of which they are the residue. As our first sugar establishment was formed in 1643, in an island (St. Christopher) one half of which was then occupied by the French, it is possible that we may have adopted the word from them; and this conjecture is supported by the following passage in Père Labat (vol. iii. p. 93.), where he uses the word "molasse" in the sense of soft, to describe a species of sugar that had not received, or had lost, the proper degree of consistency.
"Je vis leur sucre qui me parut très beau et bien gréné, surtout lorsqu'il est nouvellement fait; mais on m'assura qu'il devenait cendreux ou molasse, et qu'il se décuisait quand il était gardé quelques jours."
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
A Sounding Name.—At the church of Elmley Castle, Worcestershire, is a record of one John Chapman, whose name, it is alleged, "sounds in (or throughout) the world," but for my own part I have never been privileged to hear either the original blast or the echo. Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." can inform me who and what was the owner of this high-sounding name. Was he related to Geo. Chapman, the translator of Homer? The inscription is as follows:
"Memoriæ defunctorum Sacrum
και τυφωνια
Siste gradum, Viator, ac leges. In spe beatæ Resurrectionis hic requiescunt exuviæ Johannis Chapmanni et Isabellæ uxoris, filiæ Gulielmi Allen de Wightford, in Comitat. War. ab antiquo Proavorum stemmate deduxerunt genus. Variis miseriarum agitati procellis ab strenue succumbentis in arrescenti juventutis æstate, piè ac peccatorum pœnitentia expirabant animas.
Maij 10 Die Anno Domini 1677.
Sistite Pierides Chapmannum plangere, cujus
Spiritus in cœlis, nomen in orbe sonat."
J. Noake.
Worcester.