th is freely used in Cassell's German and English Dictionary,' printed in 1906, and edited by our Professor of German in Cambridge.

After all, what does the change mean? And how came th to be employed at all?

The G. th occurs in such words as Gothe, a Goth; Theater, a theatre, and other words of foreign origin. In such words the th represents the original th in the Late Lat. Gothus or in the Gk. Oéarpov, &c. There is no harm in this use of th, because it is easily

understood.

Thus in

But its use in native words such as Thau, dew, was originally meant to be phonetic. It indicated that the following vowel or diphthong was long. the word Thal, a valley, the a is long. So also in Athem, breath, the th following the a indicates that the preceding a is long. Germans do not need to be told this; but for English readers it is well to show, by the use of this device, that the u in thun, to do, is long. The alternative is to print it as WALTER W. SKEAT.

tün.

REV. ROWLAND HILL'S AUTOGRAPH LETTERS (11 S. ii. 327).-Particulars of the sale of these letters and MSS. will be found in the volume of 'Bye-Gones' (Oswestry) for 1895-6, p. 483. E. W.

ALLUSIONS IN AMERICAN AUTHORS (11 S.

which, although not Nubia proper, is perhaps
near enough for the purposes of romance.
His birthplace is uncertain, but it is supposed
to be either at Pelusium or Ptolemais in the
Thebaid. The Mare Tenebrarum would
probably be the Euxine or Black Sea.
ALFRED WREN.
Stamboul Villas, 70, Sydenham Road, Croydon.

ii. 327).-The words from Ruskin's 'Modern
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (11 S.
Painters,' Book V. Part IX. chap. iv., are the
first sentence of a short paragraph standing
within quotation marks. The paragraph
is as follows:-

"We had prayed with tears; we had loved with our hearts. There was no choice of way open to us. No guidance from God or man, other than this, and behold, it was a lie. 'When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth.' And He has guided us into no truth. There can be no such Spirit. There is no Advocate, no Com

forter. Has there been no Resurrection?"

The paragraph is Ruskin's own, spoken in
the character of a darker age than this.
W. S. S.

66

To hurry mortals home.

C. S. JERRAM.

BOOK-COVERS: "YELLOW-BACKS (11 S. ii. 189, 237, 274, 295). - I believe that 'yellow-backs were preceded by greenbacks or books. I seem to remember a series of novels, called "The Parlour Library,' which were in paper-boards of an eau-de-Nil kind of tint: Emilia Wyndham' was one of them, and Consuelo another. Crowe's 'Nightside of Nature was also included, and the issue certainly began in the early part of the fifties. Vulgar sensational pictures with backgrounds of yellow cover were later than that.

ii. 307). 1. The "Nubian geographer alluded to by Poe in A Descent into the [C. C. B. and MR. W. SURR also refer to Dr. Watts. Maelström,' was in all likelihood the Arabian author Edrisi, who wrote in 1153. A portion of his book was edited in 1592 under the title Geographia Nubiensis.' There have been several editions since, but all are said to be full of errors, the very title being a mistake. Owing to the misinterpretation of a certain passage, the translators were led to believe that Edrisi was a Nubian, instead of a native of North Africa, opposite Gibraltar, as he really was. Probably the best-known translation of the book is that issued in Latin at Paris in 1619. This may have been the edition with which Poe was acquainted. It is named 66 Geographia Nubiensis, id est totius orbis in vii. climata divisi descriptio, ex Arabico in Latin. versa a Gabr. Sionita et LOVELL FAMILY (11 S. ii. 329).—I am Joan. Hesronita." The Mare Tenebrarum unable to give MR. THOS. H. WRIGHT any is no doubt the Black Sea, perhaps so called information about the descent of the from the prevailing colour of the rock sur-members of Parliament for Midhurst in rounding it.

W. SCOTT.

I should suggest that the Nubian geographer mentioned by Poe would probably be Ptolemy, who was a native of Egypt,

ST. SWITHIN.

1553, but I should like to know his authority for stating that William Lovell, Esq., was one of them. According to the Blue-books printed by order of the House of Commons in 1878, the members elected for Midhurst

in the autumn of 1553 were Thomas Lovell, LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM'S FIRST

Kt., and "William.... esquyer." As a WIFE (11 S. ii. 310).-J. E. T. says that
Willielmus Denton represented the borough
in the previous Parliament and in several
which followed, I am inclined to think that
"Denton is the name missing from the
record for 1553 if there is no positive evi-ing at Cokayne's' Complete Peerage,' vol. iii.
dence to the contrary.
J. COLES.
Midhurst.

"the first wife of the first Lord Howard of
Effingham was Anne, sister and co-heir of
John de Broughton, or Boughton."
This statement is not correct.

On look

p. 235, I find that the first Lord Howard of
Effingham married Katharine, sister and
co-heir of John Broughton, daughter of
John Broughton of Tuddington, Beds, by
Agnes, daughter and heir of Sir John
Sapcote. She died s.p.m. 23 April, 1535, and
was buried at Lambeth, Surrey.
ALFRED SYDNEY LEWIS.

Library, Constitutional Club, W.C.

CANONS, MIDDLESEX (11 S. ii. 328).Although I cannot give the exact date when the eighteenth-century house was started, it seems worth while recording that the site was occupied by earlier houses also known as Cannons or Channons." Richard Sheppard of Wembley, Harrow, in his will, 1578, mentions John ffranklin of SLAVERY IN SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHCanons. John Baseley of Willesden in his TEENTH CENTURY (11 S. ii. 230).-A brass will, 1586, mentions that John ffranklin of collar, with inscription similar to that Canons is to receive 207. Agnes ffranklin recorded in the query, is preserved among of Hendon, widow of John ffranklin, late the relics in the Antiquarian Museum at of Canons, made her will in 1602; and in the Edinburgh. The inscription states that it Herald's Visitation of London, 1633, John was dredged out of the river Forth. It Franklin of Canons is given as the father of would seem that there are two collars in Richard Franklyn of Willesden. John existence, lettered in almost identical terms. Franklin of Cannons was overseer to the I had never before heard of the one found will of George Litton of Edgeware and neigh-in the grave at Alva, and am somewhat bouring parishes in 1584. inclined to doubt the accuracy of the statement made in The St. James's Chronicle of 1788. W. SCOTT.

I have numerous notes from original documents concerning this place, but as they are not indexed I am unable to say from what date the name occurs.

John Frankland of Stanmore the Less was the testator of a will in 1585, and evidently was identical with John Franklin of Canons. He mentions his wife Agnes, and gives much detail of properties and kindred; he left considerable sums for charities and public purposes, and desired to be buried in the parish church of Stanmore. In 1563 John Franklin the elder of Great Stanmore was rated at 81., and paid 13s. 4d. subsidy.

Forest Hill, S.E.

FRED. HITCHIN-KEMP.

The heading of the query should have been Penal Servitude, instead of Slavery,' ," since it relates to a convict in whose case the legal punishment of death had been commuted to penal servitude for life. There being at that time no penal settlements maintained by the Government, such convicts were placed in the custody of an individual master who could keep them in work.. silver mines on his estate which he was working, and had no doubt applied for a grant of convict labour. The brass collar worn by this particular convict, bearing an inscription setting forth his name, his crime, the date of his conviction, and his assignment as a perpetual servant to Sir John Erskine, was found in the river Forth some time previous to 12 June, 1784, when it was given to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and it is now in the National Museum of Antiquities at Edinburgh.

Sir John Erskine of Alva had

Fabrications of this collar-not facsimiles, or even close imitations-appear to find a ready market in England. I have seen three offered for sale within the last two years or thereby. The curious thing about them is that they all differ from each other (and

66

In Cape Colonial English or South African slang the word smous has been lengthened into smouser," with the meaning of a man who peddles goods, often, but not necessarily, a Jewish peddler. N. W. HILL. New York.

ST. SWITHIN at the latter reference has unconsciously resolved for me a query going back to the days of my boyhood. Hard by where we resided at that time lived a man (a dealer in cast-off regimentals and sundry oddments in wearing apparel) who was known as Mouchy B-; but whose real name was Isaac B-. I take it the former was a nickname conferred on him by Christian acquaintances in the same way as another was known as Old Horse"=Althaus, and another as Ikey Flatiron." M. L. R. BRESLAR.

66

of fog; to disperse. In the county of Norfolk, England, a 'lum' was the handle of an oar. Lum also meant to rain heavily. In Scotland, Ireland, and the northern English counties of Durham and Yorkshire a ‘lum' meant a chimney, the vent by which the smoke issued, as in Grant's 'Chronicles of Keckleton'

She heard a voice cryin' doon her ain lum. Hence, very commonly used in those regions of Britain. From this came the term "lumhat,' a chimney pot hat. Further south and west, in Yorkshire and in Derbyshire and in the West Hundred in Lancaster County, lum' meant (1) a Riding of Yorkshire, close to the border of Salford small wood or grove, (2) a wood bottom growing shrubs and trees, not fit for mowing. In Lancashire, also in counties Derby and Oxford, 'lum' meant a deep pool in the bed of a river. Halliwell sums the word up as 'a woody valley, a deep pit.' Thus these latter ancient usages were descriptive of locality, 'territorial,' and, be now remembered, had direct reference to a certain definite place, or places, in the natural topography of Lancashire and adjoining parts."

Washington, D.C.

JOHN T. LOOMIS.

The name Lumb or Lum is derived from Danish or Norse words meaning a ravine or deep wooded valley, as stated by the late CANON J. C. ATKINSON at 4 S. viii. 384. at There is a good example of a “lumb Drighlington, near Leeds; and there are others in the Halifax district, where there are numerous families of the name. The name occurs chiefly in the hills of the Yorkshire clothing district, and the printed registers of Halifax, Elland, and Barwick-in-Elmet have the most numerous entries. The

ancestors of the Irish baronet Sir Francis Lum, I have reason to think, resided near Halifax. The name has been written

variously Lom(b), Lum(b), Lome, Lumm, Davy &c.

LUM: ORIGIN OF THE SURNAME (11 S. ii. 227). In the last (1909) edition of the Loomis genealogy ("Descendants of Joseph Loomis in America, and his Antecedents in the Old World, by Elias Loomis, revised by Elisha S. Loomis ") there is a chapter on the origin of the surname and ancestry of the family in England, by Charles A. Hoppin, jun., who, after exhaustive research, has concluded that the former is derived from the Saxon words lum and halgh." In explaining the etymology he says (p. 61): "The word 'lum' anciently had various meanings in different parts; but the word 'halgh' had only one general signification, however spelt; hoth are Saxon words mainly. Lumma,' in Swedish, meant to resound. 'Lum" in the Shetland Islands meant a rift, an opening in the sky; of the sky; to clear

There have been Lombes in Norfolk since an early date, the principal family being represented by the Lombes of Bylaugh.

G. D. LUMB.

Lumb is a place-name in East Lancashire, near Rochdale, and it seems that we need not go to Scotland for the origin, since in the North Country, Lakeland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Oxfordshire, a "lum' (without the b) is a deep pool in the bed of a river. Scottish fiction has made us familiar with a "lum" in the sense of a chimney, but it can hardly be surmised that the surname is traceable to this. A "lum" in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and the North Country generally is also a small wood or grove-in West Yorkshire a wood bottom,' growing shrubs and trees, and not fit for mowing. 'E.D.D.,' s.v. Lum' or See further the J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. Lumb.'

66

cr

WILLIAM MCMURRAY.

AS A VERB (11 S. ii. 327).Blanket is used as a transitive verb in the sense of " concealing or covering as with a blanket once in King Lear,' II. iii. 10: My face I'll grime with filth,

But for the difficulty of proving a negative, family held property in Aldersgate (not, one might be tempted to say that Lum I have reason to believe, Aldersgate Street) is not a Scottish family name at all. There at the period he refers to. is, of course, the Scottish word lum,' meaning a chimney. But the family name Lumm is said to signify "BLANKET a clump of trees." At all events, the surname Lum is extremely rare in Scotland. I have met with only one instance of its occurrence. According to the Edinburgh Marriage Registers,' under date 5 July, 1677, Samuel Lum, writingmaster, was married to Margaret Smyth by Mr. James Lundie. Compound words like Lumsden are frequent in Scotland, but Lum as a family name, so far as I am aware, is almost entirely unknown. SCOTUS. [J. A. G. and St. SWITHIN also thanked for replies.]

ON

Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots.
H. KREBS.

The verb "to blanket," in the sense of

to cover as with a blanket," is no doubt

the correct meaning to be put upon the words
quoted from the Solicitor-General's speech
at Walthamstow. To blanket an opinion
will signify to cover the opinion as with
a blanket for purposes of disguise or con-
cealment.'
W. SCOTT.

66

MATTHEW ARNOLD NINETEENTHCENTURY ELOQUENCE (11 S. ii. 229, 318).There seems no necessary reason to suppose that Arnold referred to one recently deceased Though the context is somewhat ambiguwhen he paid his tribute to the most ous, I feel sure MR. MAYHEW is correct. As eloquent voice of our century." Presumably a freeholder of Walthamstow, I think that he had in his mind one whose spoken word any man placed in a similar position to that was uncommonly impressive, such, for ex- of the Solicitor-General might properly say, ample, as the philosopher who once sat on "Gentlemen, I hold very specific views on Highgate hill and held his audience spell- this question, but until my colleagues have bound by his charming monologues. Cole- formulated their views I decline to blanket ridge may have been the old man eloquent cards." M. L. R. BRESLAR. who deprecated my the Anglo-Saxon contagion." A casual reference to his Table is the first given for the verb in the 'N.E.D.,' and [The sense "to cover with or as with a blanket" Talk' reveals this under date 19 August, the quotation from 'King Lear' is the earliest supplied.]

"It may be doubted whether a composite language like the English is not a happier instrument of expression than a homogeneous one like the German. We possess a wonderful richness and variety of modified meanings in our Saxon and Latin quasi-synonyms, which the Germans have not. For the pomp and prodigality of Heaven,' the Germans must have said the spendthriftness.' Shakespeare is particularly happy in his use of the Latin synonyms, and in distinguishing between them and the Saxon."

Coleridge died on 25 July, 1834, and thus it might be said that he discoursed in this way on English and German not long before his death. Still later, however, there may have been something more formal and more elaborate, which at the moment does not recur to the memory. THOMAS BAYNE.

GREY FAMILY (117S. i. 469; ii. 14).— Reverting to the subject of my query and MR. E. A. FRY's reply thereto, it would appear to be the Greys of Werke in which my interest-which is of a topographical character-would seem to lie. Perhaps MR. FRY will kindly inform me as to his authority for stating that this branch of the

"CHEMINEAU (11 S. ii. 126).-On 12 October was performed at Covent Garden, for the first time in England, an opera entitled 'Le Chemineau,' by Xavier Leroux. According to The Standard of 13 October, it was produced at the Opéra Comique, Paris, in 1907. The critic says:

"The libretto is based on a story by Jean Richepin, that was dramatised under the name of Ragged Robin,' and performed a few years ago at from a tramp who, like Gringoire in the Ballad His Majesty's Theatre. The drama takes its name Monger,' is half vagabond, half poet, who hears the call of the road so strongly that it compels him to forsake love and comfort for a wandering life."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.