Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 39,
July 27, 1850

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July 27,
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Title: Notes & Queries, No. 39. Saturday, July 27, 1850 A Medium Of
Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries,
Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: October 13, 2004 [EBook #13736]
Language: English
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN,
ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 39.] SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped
Edition 4d.
* * * * * {129}
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Etymology of "Whitsuntide" and "Mass." 129 Folk
Lore:--Sympathetic Cures--Cure for Ague--Eating Snakes a Charm for
growing young. 130 Long Meg of Westminster, by E.F. Rimbault. 131
A Note on Spelling,--"Sanatory," "Connection." 131 Minor
Notes:--Pasquinade on Leo XII.--Shakspeare a
Brass-rubber--California--Mayor of Misrule and Masters of the
Pastimes--Roland and Oliver. 131
QUERIES:-- The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money. 132
The Geometrical Foot, by A. De Morgan. 133 Minor Queries:--Plurima
Gemma--Emmote de Hastings--Boozy Grass--Gradely--Hats worn by
Females--Queries respecting Feltham's Works--Eikon
Basilice--"Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest"--Carpets and
Room-paper--Cotton of Finchley--Wood Carving in Snow
Hill--Walrond Family--Translations--Bonny Dundee--Graham of
Claverhouse--Franz von Sickingen--Blackguard--Meaning of
"Pension"--Stars and Stripes of the American Arms--Passages from
Shakspeare--Nursery Rhyme--"George" worn by Charles I.--Family of
Manning of Norfolk--Salingen a Sword Cutler--Billingsgate--"Speak
the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke"--Genealogical Queries--Parson, the
Staffordshire Giant--Unicorn in the Royal Arms--The Frog and the
Crow of Ennow--"She ne'er with treacherous Kiss," &c. 133
REPLIES:-- A treatise on Equivocation. 136 Further Notes on the
Derivation of the Word "News." 137 "News," "Noise," and
"Parliament." 138 Shakpeare's Use of the Word "Delighted" by Rev. Dr.
Kennedy and J.O. Halliwell. 139 Replies to Minor Queries:--Execution
of Charles I.--Sir T. Herbert's Memoir of Charles I.--Simon of
Ghent--Chevalier de Cailly--Collar of Esses--Hell paved with good
Intentions--The Plant "Hæmony"--Practice of Scalping among the
Scythians--Scandinavian Mythology--Cromwell's
Estates--Magor--"Incidis in Scyllam"--Dies Iræ--Fabulous Account of
the Lion--Caxton's Printing-Office. 140

MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, Sales, &c.
142 Books and Odd Volumes Wanted. 143 Answers to Correspondents.
143
* * * * *
NOTES.
ETYMOLOGY OF "WHITSUNTIDE" AND "MASS".
Perhaps the following Note and Query on the much-disputed origin of
the word _Whitsunday_, as used in our Liturgy, may find a place in
your Journal. None of the etymologies of this word at present in vogue
is at all satisfactory. They are--
I. _White Sunday_: and this, either--
1. From the garments of _white linen_, in which those who were at that
season admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of
the spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,--
2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of
Lights on the day of Pentecost: and "those vast diffusions of light and
knowledge, which were then shed upon the Apostles, in order to the
enlightening of the world." (Wheatley.) Or,--
3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on this day all the milk of
their kine, then called _white meat_, on the poor. (Wheatley, from
Gerard Langbain.)
II. _Huict Sunday_: from the French, _huit_, eight; i.e. the eighth
Sunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, _Alliance Div. Off._)
III. There are others who see that neither of these explanations can
stand; because the ancient mode of spelling the word was not
_Whit_-sunday, but _Wit_-sonday (as in Wickliff), or _Wite_-sonday
(which is as old as _Robert of Gloucester_, c. A.D. 1270). Hence,--
1. Versteran's explanation:--That it is Wied Sunday, _i.e. Sacred_
Sunday (from Saxon, _wied_, or _wihed_, a word I do not find in
Bosworth's _A.-S. Dict._; but so written in Brady's _Clovis
Calendaria_, as below). But why should this day be distinguished as
sacred beyond all other Sundays in the year?
2. In _Clavis Calendaria_, by John Brady (2 vols. 8vo. 1815), I find,
vol. i. p. 378., "Other authorities contend," he does not say who those
authorities are, "that the original name of this season of the year was
_Wittentide_; or the time of choosing the _wits_, or wise men, to the
Wittenagemote."

Now this last, though evidently an etymology inadequate to the
importance of the festival, appears to me to furnish the right clue. The
day of Pentecost was the day of the outpouring of the Divine Wisdom
and Knowledge on the