Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/263

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9 * s. in. APRIL i, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.


257


i hree men, as it does still in some states of the American Union and in the U.S. distric c Durts. Sir William Blackstone says :

" As many as appear upon this panel are sworn i pon the grand jury, to the amount of twelve at th 1 ast, and not more than twenty-three ; that twelv may be a majority." 'Commentaries,' iv. 302.

] ut it seems that the grand juries at Oxforc i.i March, 1703/4, and at Guildford in July 1704, consisted of twenty-five men. I gather my information from the lists of grand jurors prefixed to the assize sermons of Sacheverel and of Duke, delivered at those dates. Car any explanation be offered? The genera' question is slightly touched on in the Fifth Series. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

"GALINGALL" (9 th S. iii. 187). As this word occurs in Chaucer's ' Prologue ' and in Tennyson's 'Lotos-Eaters,' and is explainec in Johnson's 'Dictionary' (not to mention the 'H.E.D.'), it is hardly a novelty. The etymology is difficult, but is given in the supplement to my ' Concise Dictionary,' in which it is traced back to Arabic and Persian The ' H.E.D.' traces it back still further, viz., to Chinese. WALTER W. SKEAT.

MUSTARD MOTTO (9 th S. iii. 88)." Moutarde de Dijon " was famous before Philip of Bur- gundy stirred the world, and the right faith oncerning mustard, for the present, is that ho name arose from the fact that it was ustomary to prepare the condiment for table >y mixing it with must or vinegar. See je Roux de Lincy's ' Le Livre des Proverbes ^rangais,' vol. i. pp. 225-6, and Skeat's Etymological Dictionary.'

In modern French " I long to " is rendered I me tarde de, and Moult me tnrde may lave meant "I ardently desire," though in

note to Le ,Roux de Lincy from Fleury de Bellingen's * Etymologic des Proverbes Fran- ais ' one reads :

" Un homme qui s'amupe mal a propos h quelque dose et qui retarde ce qu'il devroit faire, il s'amuse

la moutarde ; car on disoit en vieux francois, uoult tarde pour dire tarde beaucoup."

What Dr. Brewer meant by saying that ^oult-tarde signified " to burn much " I cannot hink ; moult-arde might suggest such a con- true, and be punned into moutarde and

mustard." ST. SWITHIN.

HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS EDITORS (8 th S. i. 346, 492; xii. 104, 290, 414, 493; 9 th S. i. 91 ; i 75, 332, 531; iii. 54, 131). In Lady Theresa twin's edition of the 'Journals and Corre- bondence of Miss Berry' (1865) appears a pference which seems to have puzzled not ply Lady Theresa Lewis, but also the editor


of the revised issue of 1866. Horace Walpole, iri a letter to Miss Berry of August, 1795 (vol. i. p. 473), alludes to Miss Berry's visit to Gloucester, and recommends her to persuade Mr. Lysons to " carry " her

"to the Bishop's Palace, and to George Selwyn's late house at Matson, a beautiful situation, and to Prinhnage, on the hill to which, in a cottage, I purchased for five shillings a most venerable and ancient cradle of wood, exactly like one in the Gentleman's Magazine that saved Edward II. , and then I was ashamed to bring it away, as having no babe to put into it," &c.

The explanation of the mysterious "Prinh- nage," which in the reissue is queried, is to be found in a letter of Horace Walpole to Cole, written more than twenty years before (15 Aug., 1774, Cunningham's edition, vol. vi.

p. 105), in which he describes a "jaunt to

Prinknash, the individual villa of the abbots of Gloucester." A full description of the house and chapel follows, together with an account of the purchase of the cradle referred to above :

"As I descended the hill, I found in a wretched cottage a child in an ancient oaken cradle, exactly in the form of that lately published from the cradle of Edward II. I purchased it for five shillings, but don't know whether I shall have fortitude enough to transport it to Strawberry Hill. People would conclude me in my second childhood."

Prinknash Park is four miles from Matson and three and a quarter from Painshill. It would be interesting to know whether Prinknage is really an alternative form of the name or merely a misreading of Walpole's land writing.

According to Lady Theresa Lewis, Walpole speaks of this cradle as having "saved" Edward II. Unless this is an allusion to some tradition which is unknown to me, )erhaps the right reading is "served," the two words being easily confounded in MS.

In a letter to Miss Berry ('Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry,' vol. ii. p. 11), iated 26 July, 1796, Walpole (according to the editors of Miss Berry's papers) writes :

" I received your letter from Bognor this morning, ind am mighty glad your rocks are not of a temper o receive vessels with open arms. It would not be leasant to have one's betrothed turned into the fiancee du Roi du Gallia."

?he first part of this passage refers to Horace Walpole's apprehensions on Miss Berry's Behalf from French privateers, then hovering n the Channel. The " Roi" in question here s obviously not the " Roi du Gallia," but the Roi de Garbe." 'La Fiancee du Roi de Garbe' is the title of one of La Fontaine's Contes.' Reference to La Fiancee du Roi le Garbe the heroine of this 'Conte' is everal times made by Horace Walpole In