Notes.

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TRAVEL
IN EUROPE.

"I must confess that jogging along in a Passage Boat or a Stage Coach with three or four friends is but an odd way of Travelling."-Prior's Dialogues of the Dead' (Charles V. and Clenard.)

with some of the difficulties which beset the traveller 250 years ago that the following rotes are concerned.

The Low Countries at this time were known to most people by sight or relation. Travellers were pleased with the excellence and frequency of the towns. According to Burton there were generally three towns at least to one of ours, and those far more populous and rich.a Howell could write in 1622 that there was no part of Europe so haunted with foreigners as the Netherlands, and that at exchange time one could hear as many as seven or eight sorts of tongues spoken upon the Bourses.

THE seventeenth century saw a considerable increase in travel on the continent of Europe. During the sixteenth century foreign travel had been largely confined to soldiers, students, and young gentlemen of birth who travelled for political reasons, or in order to fit them- It was easy to get there from England. selves for the public service. Few travelled The traveller could go from Yarmouth to for sightseeing or pleasure. The practice Rotterdam, or from Gravesend to Flushing of sending sons abroad as part of a general or Brill, and the rates were moderate. The scheme of education developed slowly, and fare from Gravesend to Flushing at a slightly in the early part of the seventeenth century earlier period than the present one was 68. 8d., and the tourist once landed in Holland, the it was still something of an experiment, though it was soon to become a system. facilities for travelling were excellent. Boats By the year 1642, when Howell published were sailed or towed by horses from place his 'Instructions for Forreine Travel,' to place along the canals or cuts, and in many the Grand Tour was a fully recognized in-places regular services were organized with stitution. This increased intercourse between fares fixed by the local authorities. The boats left at stated times, and a bell was England and the Continent produced a literature of its own. Road-books, itineraries, rung to announce their departure. As many maps, &c., were published telling the tra- as 30 and 40 passengers were carried, and the veller where to go and what to see abroad, average speed seems to have been three and each returning tourist added to the list. miles an hour. The boatmen were apt to The traveller, even now, went abroad for get drunk on occasions and to land their instruction rather than pleasure. Instruc- passengers in the water, and a starting horse tion, Matters of Traffique," and matters might endanger you to two deaths at once, of State were sufficient to justify a travelling breaking of your neck and drowning "s; habit, but to gad abroad for pleasure was a but for comfort, speed, and cheapness the sin against the traveller himself and against system was hard to beat. One horse could his country. He that travells only to draw in a boat a far greater load than in a please his fantasie," writes old Bishop cart, and the rates were correspondingly low. Hall,a is like some squire of dames that From Amsterdam to Haarlem along the doats upon every beauty and is every day nine miles of canal a covered barge plied love-sicke anew. These humours are fitter daily from five in the morning until six at

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for controlment than observation." The aim of the traveller should be to observe, to see men and sights, and to return and communicate his experiences to his stay-at-home countrymen.

As might be expected from this, the contemporary travel-books are full of information upon subjects which no student of the period can afford to neglect. Travel in seventeenth-century Europe was still a slow and solemn thing. Communication was difficult, not so much on account of obstacles encountered, as because conveniences were few. Questions of transport and accommodation had constantly to be solved, and it is

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a •

Cf. Fuller, Holy and Profane State' (1841), 180:
Anatomy of Melancholy' (ed. Shilleto), i. 98.
If thou will see much in little travel in the Low
Countries."

b Howell's 'Letters' (ed. Jacobs), 128.
• Ed. Browne's Travels' (1687), 91.

d'Cal. State Papers, Foreign, 1581-2,' 43. The fare from Dover to Calais in 1648-9 was 5s. Harleian MS. 943, fo. 1 (Rich. Symon's NoteBooks); Ed. Browne, Letter, Sir T. Browne's 'Works' (1835), i. 57.

Fynes Moryson, Itinerary' (Glasgow, 1908), i. 430; iii. 469; Reresby, Travels' (1904), 124; Ed. Browne's Travels (1687), 101.

f W. Montague, 'Delights of Holland,' 1696, 9.

A Late Voyage to Holland,' 1691 (Harleian Miscellany,' ii. 595). Much of this treatise is "lifted" word for word from Owen Feltham's Brief Character of the Low Countries.'

The rates clean. If you died in a Dutch bed, it was
said, this comfort you would leave for your
friends, that at least you died in clean
linen.a
MALCOLM LETTS.

Haarlem he paid 8 stivers.a
depended, of course, on the number of
passengers carried, and if a party was not
ready, the traveller had to wait until one was
made up.

There was not much to relieve the monotony of land travelling in the Low Countries. Sir Wm. Brereton once met a couple of dromedaries on the road, which frightened the horses and seem to have created something of a diversion. Sir William, with commendable prudence, left the driver to look after the horses and leapt out of the wagon. Such adventures, however, were the exception rather than the rule, and what with the noise and discomfort and the jolting, which often produced seasickness, the travellers cannot have had a very pleasant time of it.

b

The inns in the Low Countries were on the whole frequent and clean, though the cooking was indifferent. Indeed, one traveller goes so far as to say that God sent his meat, but the Devil sent the dresser.d Charges were high on account of the heavy imposts levied on all kinds of commodities. According to Reresby you could not eat under a crown ordinary, but as against this Sir Wm. Brereton dined at "The Blue Anchor" at

room.

the Hague for 26 stivers and was satisfied. The charge for beds as apart from refreshment seems to have been reasonable. Brereton paid 17 stivers a night at Rotterdam in 1634, but complains of a charge of 1 guilder 4 stivers for a quart of burnt claret. The travellers slept generally two or more in a At the Hague Pepys lay with his friend the Judge Advocate in a room with two other beds in it, but all very neat and handsome, and his boy slept by them on a bench. The beds were large, and so lofty that you needed a kind of ladder to climb into them; and it was well to make your will before going to bed, for if you fell out you were in danger of breaking your neck. From all accounts the beds were scrupulously

b

'Itinerary' (1908), iii. 469. Travels,' 35.

c W. Montague, 'Delights of Holland' (1696), 5.

(To be continued.)

BETTS.

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MANY suggestions have been made with
regard to the origin of the family name Betts,
blessed), a name.
Bailey's Dict.' gives Bets (from beatus.
Skinner has "Bets, for-
merly a first name, now a surname";' and
6
Camden's Remains' under 'Surnames
states: "By contracting or rather corrupting
of Christian names, we have Bets from
Beatus."

In Monumenta Germaniæ Historica' and in Pertz there are numerous references to bishops, abbots, monks, and priests named Betto during the eighth and ninth centuries. Their names may have been derived from beatus, yet in Libri Confraternitatum Sancti Galli Augiensis Fabariensis' there is mentio. in the ninth century, not only of sixteen monks named Betto, Bettho, or Betta, but also of eleven named "Beatus."

In 1310 Andreas Betti, a notary of Puppio, was appointed procurator for Pope Clement in a certain matter; and Nich. Bettus was amongst the Knights of Pisa present at the making of the act of banishment of Robert, King of Sicily, in 1313.

Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses' mentions one Franciscus Bettus, a Roman living in Basle between 1574 and 1585. Poets and painters "Betti" flourished in Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

Gobelinus, a Canon of St. Gudule, Brussels, writing in 1646, was of opinion that “la maison de Bette est sortie de celle de 'Bestia' à Rome." The two Bestia, probably grandfather and grandson, lived between B.C. 121 and B.C. 43. Gobelinus avers that Athalbert was son of Berengair Bestia, a Roman gentleman descended from Calfurnes Bestia, well known in Roman history. Athalbert was elected Bishop of Teroüanne (Flanders) in 885, according to the Chronicle of Teroüanne anne et Archidiacre de Flandres, who states that Athalbert brought his two brothers from Italy: Jean, who was Prévost de Tronchines les Gand, and Aloise Bestia, who married Hafaca, daughter of Hellyn, Count of Montreuil. Athalbert died in 919. Monu

W. Montague, Delights of Holland' (1696), written by Pierre d'Ouy, Chanoine de Teroi

17.

Travels,' 127.

f

Travels,' 37. Swift notices an unpleasant trait: "Like a Dutch reckoning, where, if you dispute the unreasonableness and exorbitance of the bill, the Landlord shall bring it up every time new additions."-Works' (ed. Temple Scott), vi. 118.

with

Travels,' 18.
Diary,' 1660, 14 May.

menta Germaniæ Historica' records that

Harl. Misc.,' ii. 596.

Bestiano, Bishop of Sovana, was present at the Council of Rome in 826.

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1560 to 1807 there are only six mentions of Betts or Bet, while Bettesons are numerous. It is possible, therefore, that in this county (although it adjoins Norfolk, where it remains Betts) the name may have become Betteson.

It is spelt in many ways: Bet, Bete, Bets, Betes, Bettes, and even Beats, Beatts, Beattis, Bettice, Betice, Betty, Bettys, Betys, Bettis, and Betts; but in olden times it was not unusual for names to be spelt in different ways even in the same document, and no importance need be attached to such variations. Beats and Beattis possibly give some countenance to the derivation mentioned by Bailey and others.

6 The

The Venerable Bede mentions a priest named Bete (in the Latin version, Betti) in 653. The Saxon Bete was possibly derived from betan, to make better, to improve, of which bette is the past tense. Bosworth gives bette as "corrected." Searle's Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum' states that "an attempt was made by the Anglo-Saxons to compensate in some small way for the lack of surnames by giving children names in which the themes of the fathers' names were found." Amongst these themes he instances "bet." Amongst the monothematic names with the final consonant doubled, he mentions Bettes. Searle goes on to state that a very great number of these may be deduced from the place-names in the boundaries of estates with which the Land Charters are concerned." I have not found any in connexion with the name Betts. Betsham, near Gravesend, and Betteshanger, near Deal (ham being home, and hanger, a wood on the side of a hill), evidently are called after persons, and not the persons from the places. Betteshanger is mentioned in an Inquisition 10 Ed. III. as a fee held by Alice Tancrey, where it is called "Betlesangre by Sandewyc," and it may be that the derivation is from another source." tippling, sipping, boozing, quaffing, and hence There is also a Betsworth in Surrey. The Entrer en bettes, to grow merry or mellow in Welsh "Bettws" has nothing to do with drinking, or to fall a chattering, as gossips do Betts. "Bettws" in Cymric means "land when they have drunk hard together." between a river and a hill." John Filius Beti and Robert Betus, mentioned in the Hundred Rolls under Cambridge, are, of course, merely Latinized forms of the name in England.

Oxford English Dictionary' gives "bette as the obsolete past tense and participle of beat," under which word bette" is stated to be a form in use from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. I find that the name usually was spelt without the s until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the s became general. The second e seems to have dropped out of Bettes during that century, and is found rarely after 1600. Amongst the definitions of "bettes "" stated by Cotgrave are those of

I mention without comment the suggestions that Anketyn de Betevile (Grafton has Hawkin Betuell) and William Betayne or Betoyne, Sheriffs of London in 1283 and 1298 respectively, and the towns of Bethune and Betz in Northern France, may have derived their name from Bette."

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Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch " has "bett, bette....Mid-High German 'bette' ...Eng. 'bed.' Müller's 'Mittelhochdeutsches Warterbuch gives many instances of compound words formed from the Gothic root 'badi," a bed, through the Old High German "betti"; and Förstemann's Altdeutsches Nämenbuch' under "bessa has "betlind, betlindis, betselin, bett-s (badu).” Lexer's 'Mittelhochdeutsches Handvörterbuch' under "betz" refers to pacem," under which it gives pâce," " paece, der Friedenskuss, bei der Messe (the Kiss of Peace at Mass), and cites amongst other authorities Schmeller's Bayerisches Wörterbuch,' "bäts," and 'Berthold von Regensburg,' von F. Pfeiffer (502, 21), “betz." ARTHUR BETTS.

A suggestion has been made that the name arose from one who was Elizabeth's, Betty's, or Bet's man; but I think this unlikely, as the name is almost always written without "man." There is, how- 66 ever, among the Stonor letters (1477-87) one which refers to a matter between "Sir William Stonor and his first wife, Elizabeth, and his stepson, Thomas Bettson of Calais.' Thomas may have been called Bettson from being son of Elizabeth. In the Marriage Registers of Lincolnshire from

66

6

99 66

50, Bedford Row, W.C.

MORE EVIDENCE FROM WILLOBY'S AVISA.' However, inasmuch as such a green bay tree -Despite the fact that the poem Willobie has been made to flourish over Shakehis Avisa,' published 3 Sept., 1594,* has been speare's grave by the presence in the 'Avisa ransacked by scholars for evidence on the of " W. S.," described as an "old player" life and love affairs of "W. S." (presumably in the game of love,* it is only reasonable to Shakespeare ?), no one seems to have noted believe that with similar cultivation the two other references to contemporary drama- two grains of wheat suggested herein may tists. Canto III., stanza 7, runs :be made to bear equal fruit. One might also point out that the owners of the other initials—“N. O. B.,” “D. B.,” and “ D. H.” -who figure considerably more in the poem than does poor " W. S.," have been shamefully neglected. C. L. POWELL.

Shores wife, a Princes secret frend,
Faire Rosomond, a Kings delight:
Yet both haue found a gastly end,

And fortunes friends, felt fortunes spight:
What greater ioyes, could fancie frame,
Yet now we see, their lasting shame.
The reference in the first line seems to be
to one of the following plays: (1) the
second part of Heywood's Edward IV.';
(2) The Life and Death of Master Shore
and Jane Shore his Wife'; (3) the play by
Chettle and Day (non-extant), "wherein
Shore's wiffe is written." It is improbable
that the reference is to the last of these, as
this play seems to have been only in pre-
paration by 9 May, 1603.† The second play
was entered anonymously in the Stationers'
Register on 28 Aug., 1599, as follows:-

"Entred for their copyes vnder the handes of the Wardens: Twoo playes beinge the first and Second parte of EDWARD the IIIth and the Tanner of Tamworth With the history of the life and deathe of master SHORE and JANE SHORE his Wyfe as yt was lately acted by the Right honorable the Earle of Derbye his servants......xivd."

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Halliwell says this play may be the second part of Heywood's Edward IV.'"+ There seems to be no room for doubt that such is the case, and that, therefore, the first two plays mentioned by me above are identical.

Willoby's mention of Shore's wife, then, gives us to know that the second part of Edward IV.' was written and played as early as 1594, five years before our present date for it. Moreover, the first part of the play must antedate this.

Look

As for the Rosomond reference, the only character I think of who might fill the bill is the Rosamund whose death plays quite a noticeable part in the anonymous about You,' which is now dated 1600. Of course, both references may be to the legends and ballads in which the characters figured and not to the plays mentioned.

*This is the date accepted by all who mention the book, and is the one which occurs in the Stationers Register. The preface of the book is, however, dated Oct. 1. This would seem to show that the actual publication did not take place until a month after the poem itself was registered. + Fleay, 'Biog. Chron. of Eng. Drama,' i. 288. Halliwell, 'Dict. of Old Eng. Plays,' p. 226.

KING WILLIAM STREET, E.C.-The rebuilding of this well-known thoroughfare is worth recording. Although no buildings of special interest have been destroyed, and no landmarks are endangered, it is a change in familiar London, an alteration that some may regret.

In 1833 it was proposed to form a new street to London Bridge. It had been part of a design of Sir Robert Smirke for the improvement of this part of the City, and although it involved the destruction of bank premises in the narrow western entrance of Lombard Street, it was supported by the bankers, who petitioned that additional ground should be taken to give a wide opening to the street and improve the view of St. Mary Woolnoth (vide The History of a Banking House,' by H. T. Easton, 1903).

This entailed the removal of Nos. 1 to 10, Lombard Street, the whole of Dove Court, and Little Lombard Street; but the advantages were obvious, and ultimately Messrs. Smith, Payne & Smith were left in possession of a site (No. 1, Lombard Street) unexcelled for importance.

In appearance the street did not lack dignity. The style of restrained pseudo-classicism was suitable for such a thoroughfare,

Vide Fleay, Life of Shake., p. 24, and 'Biog. Chron.,' ii. 221; also Grosart, Introd. to his reprint of Avisa.'