Various

“ Is not Mr. Hickson aware that la noise is a French noun-singular signifying a contention or dispute? and that the same word exists in the Latin nisus, a struggle?
If mere plausibility be sufficient ground to justify a derivation, where is there a more plausible one than that "news," intelligence, ought to be derived from νους, understanding or common sense?
A.E.B.
Leeds, May 5th.
Further evidence (see Vol. i., p. 369.) of the existence and common use of the word "newes" in its present signification but ancient orthography anterior to the introduction of newspapers. ”

“ Then they were carefully to observe who should first enter that door on the following morning, exclusive of the members of the household, and the sex of the child would be that of the first comer. This rather vexed some of the servants, who wished for a boy, as two or three women came regularly each morning to the house, and a man was scarcely ever seen there; but to their delight the first comer on this occasion proved to be a man, and in a few weeks the old woman's reputation was established throughout the neighbourhood by the birth of a boy. ”

“ It is a great pity that we have no book of reference for English analogy of language.
C.B.
Why should Mr. Hickson (Vol. i., p. 428.) attempt to derive "news" indirectly from a German adjective, when it is so directly attributable to an English one; and that too without departing from a practice almost indigenous in the language?
Have we not in English many similar adjective substantives? Are we not continually slipping into our shorts, or sporting our tights, or parading our heavies, or counter-marching our lights, or commiserating blacks, or leaving whites to starve ”

“ I shall advocate nothing that I do not believe to be true, "whether it be old or new;" but I have found that our authorities are sometimes careless, sometimes unfaithful, and are so given to run in a groove, that when I am in quest of truth I generally discard them altogether, and explore, however laboriously, by myself. ”

“ Samuel Hickson.
St. John's Wood, May 27. 1850.
I do not know the reason for the rule your correspondent Mr. S. HICKSON lays down, that such a noun as "news" could not be formed according to English analogy. Why not as well as "goods, the shallows, blacks, for mourning, greens?" There is no singular to any of these as nouns.
Noise is a French word, upon which Menage has an article. There can be no doubt that he and others whom he quotes are right, that it is {24} derived from noxa or noxia in Latin, meaning "strife." They quote:—
"Sæpe in conjugiis fit noxia, cum nimia est dos." ”

“ Shipster (Vol. i., p. 339.) .—That "ster" is a feminine termination is the notion of Tyrwhitt in a note upon Hoppesteris in a passage of Chaucer (Knight's Tale, l. 2019.) ; but to ignorant persons it seems not very probable. "Maltster," surely, is not feminine, still less "whipster;" "dempster," Scotch, is a judge. Sempstress has another termination on purpose to make it feminine.
I wish we had a dictionary, like that of Hoogeven for Greek, arranging words according to their terminations. ”

“ I know not why that line of Pope is in your correspondent's list. It is not a proverb.
C.B.
Allusion in Friar Brackley's Sermon (Vol. i., p. 351.) —It seems vain to inquire who the persons were of whom stories were told in medieval books, as if they were really historical. See the Gesta Romanorum, for instance: or consider who the Greek king Aulix was, having dealings with the king of Syria, in the 7th Story of the Novelle Antiche. The passage in the sermon about a Greek king, seems plainly to be still part of the extract from the Liber Decalogorum, being in Latin. ”

“ The Temple, or A Temple.—I have had an opportunity of seeing the edition of Chaucer referred to by your correspondent P.H.F. (Vol. i., p. 420.) , and likewise several other black-letter editions (1523, 1561, 1587, 1598, 1602) , and find that they all agree in reading "the temple," which Caxton's edition also adopts. The general reading of "temple" in the modern editions, naturally induced me to suspect that Tyrwhitt had made the alteration on the authority of the manuscripts of the poem. Of these there are no less than ten in the British Museum, all of which have been kindly examined for me. ”

“ The first is from the Gothic, and is substantially a word implying "possessions," older than the oldest European living languages. "Riches" is most unquestionably in its original acceptation in our language a noun singular, being identically the French "richesse," in which manner it is spelt in our early writers. ”

“ Fenkle Street.—A street so called in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, lying in a part of the town formerly much occupied by garden ground, and in the immediate vicinity of the house of the Dominican Friars there. Also, a way or passage inside the town wall, and leading between that fortification and the house of the Carmelites or White Friars, was anciently called by the same name. The name of Fenkle or Finkle Street occurs in several old towns in the North, as Alnwick, Richmond, York, Kendal, &c. Fenol and finugl, as also finul, are Saxon words for fennel ”

“ Charm for Warts.—Count most carefully the number of warts; take a corresponding number of nodules or knots from the stalks of any of the cerealia (wheat, oats, barley) ; wrap these in a cloth, and deposit the packet in the earth; all the steps of the operation being done secretly. As the nodules decay the warts will disappear. Some artists think it necessary that each wart should be touched by a separate nodule.
This practice was very rife in the north of Scotland some fifty years since, and no doubt is so still. ”

“ Pugh says,—"When it rained, a small parapluie defended his face and wig; thus he was always prepared to enter into any company without impropriety, or the appearance of neglect. And he (Hanway) was the first man who ventured to walk the streets of London with an umbrella over his head: after carrying one near thirty years, he saw them come into general use." Hanway died 1786.
J.F.
As far as I remember, there is a portrait of Hanway with an umbrella as a frontispiece to the book of Travels published by him about 1753, in four vols. 4to. ”

“ And for that upon conventing of some of them before the Bishops and Ordinaries, it is found that the ground of their sect, is maintained by certain lewd, heretical, and seditious books first made in the Dutch tongue, and lately translated into English, and printed beyond the seas, and secretly brought over into the Realm, the author whereof they name H.N., without yielding to him, upon their examination, any other name, in whose name they have certain books set forth, called Evangelium Regni, or, A Joyful Message of the Kingdom ”

“ The story may or may not be true; this authority for it is not first-rate. The Quarterly reviewer, in transcribing from Mr. Cunningham's book the passage in Morrice's Life of Lord Orrery, introduces it by saying,—"Cromwell, in a letter to Lord Broghill, narrates circumstantially how he and Ireton intercept, &c." This is a mistake; there is no letter from Cromwell to Lord Broghill on the subject. (Lord Broghill was Earl of Orrery after the Restoration.) ”

“ Parallel Passages.—A correspondent in Vol. i., p. 330, quoted some parallels to a passage in Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar. Will you allow me to add another, I think even more striking than those he cited. The full passage in Shakspeare is,
"There is a tide in the affairs of man,
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. ”

“ And that whoever in this Realm shall either print, or bring, or cause to be brought into this Realm, any of the said Books, the same persons to be attached and committed to prison, and to receive such bodily punishment and other mulct as fautors of damnable heresies. ”

“ From a scarce collection of pamphlets concerning the naturalisation of the Jews in England, {26} published in 1753, by Dean Tucker and others, I beg to send the following extracts, which may be of some use in replying to the inquiry (Vol. i., p. 401.) respecting the Jews during the Commonwealth.
Dean Tucker, in his Second Letter to a Friend concerning Naturalisation, says (p. 29.) :—
"The Jews having departed out of the realm in the year 1290, or being expelled by the authority of parliament (it matters not which) , made no efforts to return till the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell ”

“ Cunningham's, is of some importance.
C.H.
Lady Morgan and Curry.—An anecdote in the last number of the Quarterly Review, p. 477., "this is the first set down you have given me to-day," reminds me of an incident in Dublin society some quarter of a century ago or more. The good-humoured and accomplished—Curry (shame to me to have forgotten his christened name for the moment!) had been engaged in a contest of wit with Lady Morgan and another female célébrité, in which Curry had rather the worst of it. It was the fashion then for ladies to wear very short sleeves ”

“ Vols. I. and II. 8vo. 32s.
VII.
JOHN COAD'S MEMORANDUM of the SUFFERINGS of the REBELS sentenced to Transportation by Judge Jeffreys. Square fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
VIII.
AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH ANTIQUITIES. Intended as a Companion to the History of England. BY JAMES ECCLESTON. With many Wood Engravings. 8vo. 12s.
IX.
Mr. A. RICH'S ILLUSTRATED COMPANION to the LATIN DICTIONARY and GREEK LEXICON. With about 2,000 Woodcuts, from the Antique. Post 8vo. 21s.
X.
MAUNDER'S TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE and LIBRARY of REFERENCE: a Compendium of Universal Knowledge. New Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 10s.; bound 12s. ”