Cranmer's quarterings are, 1 and 4, Cranmer; 2, six lions r.; 3, fusils of Aslacton. In the Gent. Mag., vol. lxii. pp. 976. 991., is an engraving of a stone of Cranmer's father, with the fusils on his right, and Cranmer on his left. The note at p. 991. calls the birds cranes, but states that Glover's Yorkshire and other pedigrees have pelicans; and Southey (Book of the Church, ii. p. 97.) states that Henry VIII. altered the cranes to pelicans, telling him that he, like them, should be ready to shed his blood. The engraving, however, clearly represents drops of blood falling, and those in the Bible appear to be pelicans also.
This Bible has the days of the month in MS. against the proper psalms, and where a leaf has been repaired, "A.D. 1608, per me Davidem Winsdon curate."
A. C.
[GRINDLE.]
(Vol. vii., pp. 107. 307.)
I think I can supply I. E. with another example of the application of this name to a place. A few miles east or south-east of Exeter, on the borders of a waste tract of down extending from Woodbury towards the sea, there is a village which is spelt on the ordnance map, and is commonly called, Greendale. In strictness there are, I believe, two Greendales, an upper and a lower Greendale. A small stream, tributary to the Clyst river, flows past them.
Now this place formerly belonged to the family of Aumerle, or Alba Marla, as part of the manor of Woodbury. From that family it passed to William Briwere, the founder of Tor Abbey, and was by him made part of the endowment of that monastery in the reign of Richard I. In the two cartularies of that house, of which abstracts will be found in Oliver's Monasticon, there are many instruments relating to this place, which is there called Grendel, Grindel, and Gryndell. In none of them does the name of Greendale occur, which appears to be a very recent form. Even Lysons, in his Devonshire, does not seem to be aware of this mode of spelling it, but always adopts one of the old ways of writing the word.
I have not seen the spot very lately, but, according to the best of my recollection, it has not now any feature in keeping with the mythological character of the fiend of the moor and fen. The neighbouring district of down and common land would not be an inappropriate habitat for such a personage. It has few trees of any pretension to age, and is still covered in great part with a dark and scanty vegetation, which is sufficiently dreary except at those seasons when the brilliant colours of the blooming heath and dwarf furze give it an aspect of remarkable beauty.
Whether the present name of Greendale be a mere corruption of the earliest name, or be not, in fact, a restoration of it to its original meaning, is a matter which I am not prepared to discuss. As a general rule, a sound etymologist will not hastily desert an obvious and trite explanation to go in search of a more recondite import. He will not have recourse to the devil for the solution of a nodus, till he has exhausted more legitimate sources of assistance.