tarchy is pretty well borne out, independently of the pedigree, by the name mentioned by Horsley as a Saxon compound,―burgh and ham,--designating the family, the parish, the castle, the manor, and the hall, and in addition having an echo of the much older Roman name of Brovocum.

Stukeley, in his Itinerary, 1725, says, "I saw many fragments of altars and inscriptions at the Hall near the bridge, all exposed in the courtyard to weather and injuries of every sort." Your veracious critics deny the existence of both Roman station and courtyard, particularly of the latter, as only being an erection of the present century. Mistakes such as these ought to have been avoided by writers who have used the lash with an unsparing hand, because they induce a very natural suspicion either of indifference as to statement or carelessness in research when facts are concerned; neither do I think that the periodical literature of the day is improved in tone or elevated in character by the pungent acrimony of criticism, or the carpings or sneers of anonymous correspondents. Yours, &c. GEO. SHAW.

THE CROSS-STAFF AND CROZIER.

MR. URBAN,

AS there seems to be in modern times some indistinctness of opinion, both in this country and the continent, as to the use of these insignia, a few remarks may not be inapplicable.

First, according to some, the crossstaff and the crozier are the same thing, under the idea that the word crozier is derived from crux, in Latin a cross; but the English word crozier is not derived from crux, but from the word "crosse" in French, which is the term in that language for crozier. This is distinct from croix, a cross; and, from its other significations, does not seem to be derived from crux; as une crosse is a bat for boys to play with, and la crosse d'un mousquet is the butt end of a musket. Therefore it may seem that the former understanding of the word crozier in the sense of a curved, crooked, or hooked staff is still to be kept up, and it is not to be regarded as the cross-staff. This explanation will at once remove a great source of error.

GENT. MAG. VOL. XXX.

In the class of insignia to which the present communication refers we have the following variations: 1. The curved staff or crozier, also called the pastoral staff. 2. The cross-staff, which is a cross similar to the Maltese cross, at the end of a staff. 3. The cross-staff with two bars, the cross patriarchal of heraldry. 4. The cross-staff with three bars, the cross triple of heraldry, used by the Pope. These various distinctions may be found specified in the Glossary of Architecture, 8vo. 1845, vol. i. pp. 121 and 274, and illustrated in plate 42. From the massy form in which croziers were made in the middle ages, which custom arose, it should seem, that they should be more conspicuous when carried in processions, and in consequence their clubbed and thick appearance, seems to have originated their French appellation crosse, whence our English word crozier is deduced.*

Secondly, as to the idea, now so frequently entertained, that the cross-staff is the emblem peculiar to the office of Archbishop, and that the crozier applies only to that of Bishop, there appears no foundation for such opinion; and it seems obviously contrary to the symbolical meaning of the emblem, for the archbishop as well as the bishop has a pastoral charge and care, that species of superintendence to which the emblem of the pastoral staff, according to the illustration of it in the monkish verse, would be equally applicable in one case as in the other. Curva trahit mites,

Pars pungit acuta rebelles. It therefore would be improbable to suppose that archbishops in the Middle Ages discontinued the use of the crozier or curved staff. On the contrary, they seem to have used it indifferently with the cross-staff, which now may be shewn by some instances.

Whoever will examine the monuments in Canterbury Cathedral will

We think it will be found that the word crozier originally meant the person employed to bear the cross or pastoral staff; and it was transferred from him to

the cross or staff itself. There was a similar ambiguity in other matters: thus a registrarius, or keeper of registers, was himself called the register. So also the drum, the trumpet, &c. applied to persons. -EDIT,

F

find several cases in point, where the effigies of archbishops on their monuments are represented, some with the crozier, some with the cross-staff. They may here follow chronologically; the dates given being those of the deaths of the prelates whose names they precede.

1348. Archbishop Stratford, crozier. 1366. Archbishop Islip, cross-staff. 1396. Archbishop Courtenay, crozier. 1443. Archbishop Chichele, cross-staff. 1500. Archbishop Morton, cross-staff. 1532. Archbishop Warham, crozier.

As to the indents of the brass which was formerly on the slab which covered Courtenay's monument in the Collegiate Church of Maidstone, they shew that he was there represented with the cross-staff: while the archbishop in

the mural painting over Wootton's tomb in the same church, by many supposed to be archbishop Courtenay, bears the crozier in his left hand. Part of the curve of the crozier in the painting is obliterated, but a portion of the end of it remains, as exhibited by the accompanying delineation, reduced from a tracing, which shews it beyond doubt. That according to popular ideas in the Middle Ages, the crozier formed part of the insignia of an archbishop, Caxton's Aurea Legenda shews, where, in page 1, an archbishop is represented in his due habiliments, and with his mitre and pall, together with which he holds his crozier in his right hand.

The foregoing remarks are intended to shew the correct appellations of the two ecclesiastical insignia, the crossstaff and crozier; also to shew that the crozier was borne indifferently by bishops and archbishops, as they both had pastoral charges; but that archbishops only assumed the cross-staff. It now merely remains to add a surmise that the cross-staff may have been

used in synods and councils at which none of a lower degree than bishops assembled, as a mark of rank. Thus considered, it may be regarded not as referring to their dioceses but as a mark of distinction among the prelates themselves, a badge to distinguish the primas patrum, the prelate of preeminence, from the simple suffragan. Hence possibly the double bars of the patriarchal cross, and the triple bars of the papal one. Unless by some such explanation as this, it is not easy to reconcile the contradictions which present themselves on the subject. Yours, &c. Bydews Place, near Maidstone, May 15.

MR. URBAN,

B. P.

Now

IN the review of Mr. Gifford's Shirley in your last number (p. 575), it was observed by the writer that, in his opinion, Mr. Gifford was wrong, when he considered the word woodbine as used in Shakspere to mean the convolvolus, and not the honeysuckle; and he suggested that the woodbine might, in the passage which gave rise to the doubt and to the new interpretation, mean the plant, and the honeysuckle the flower; and when the Poet says that the woodbine enfolds the sweet honeysuckle, he means that the tendrils or shoots of the plant enclose the flower and twine round it. in a modern book of travels much read and esteemed, by an author in high repute, I mean Mr. Warbur ton's "Crescent and Cross" (vol. ii. p. 36), he uses these two words in two distinct meanings, apparently agreeing with those which I have just advocated. Speaking of Lady Hester Stanhope's deserted garden at Djouni, he says "Choice flowers once bloomed here, and fountains played in marble basins: but now was presented a scene of the most melancholy desolation; as the watch-fire blazed up, its gleam fell on masses of honeysuckle and woodbine, on white mouldering walls beneath, and dark waving trees above, &c." This author does not write at random, nor use words incorrectly, and therefore his authority may be brought forward to support the old and common acceptation of the word, against the

modern refinement and innovation of the late critic. Yours, &c. J. M.

MR. URBAN, May 6. TRUTH is mighty, and will prevail-as Hannibal is made to say of ancient Rome :

Merses profundo, pulcrior evenit;
Luctere, magnâ proruit integrum
Cum laude victorem.

Not only so, but Truth is rich, and

will reward.

Led by my Saxon studies to the rescue of a noble song, I brought my

little store of Teutonic as well as classic lore to bear upon the subject. I return to my Saxon studies with the gain of a new verb to my vocabulary, and two new illustrations to my poetical extracts. The participle "gelacad," with or without the present conditional "gelácige," proves the existence of a weak verb "lácian, lácigean," munerare, muneri dare, to give as a present,-not found in the dictionaries.

Lye-Manning and Bosworth give lácan, offerre, sacrificare, and as authority quote Cadmon's paraphrase of Daniel-the fiery furnace, "lacende lig," which Thorpe translates "the fatal flame,"-Bosworth "the sacrificing or fatal flame." But it was kindled as a penal, not a sacrificing flame; and to the young Hebrew martyrs it did not prove fatal. Though "lácian" should be supposed to admit a secondary sense-to offer or sacrifice, still its active participle would not be lácende, but láciende or lácigende.

"Lácende" belongs to "lácan," ludere, and means neither more nor less than the playing, or dancing, that is, quivering, reverberating, flame. An

English bard of the thirteenth century would have made it "laikand low." The last word is still used in Scotland.

Gelácian, with its gelácad, reminds me of another weak verb, árian, to honour, with its participle ge-arod or arod-left unattempted by Mr. Thorpe (see Analecta - Judith - Glossary), and unsuccessfully attempted by Prof. Leo (Altniederdeutsche Sprachproben), who supposes it to be a compound of ar and eod, ivit.

When the Hebrews at the instigation of Judith are marching to attack the Assyrian camp, none of the officers dares enters the tent of Holofernes to give the alarm-" then," the poet proceeds:

þa wearð síð and late sum to bam árod bâra beadorinca, þæt he in þæt burgesteald

Niðheard nedde, swa hine nyd fordrâf.

"Then was at last one of the warriors honoured (constituted or appointed) to that service (or office), that he should boldly venture into the pavilion, as necessity compelled him." Such is nearly the sense; and we learn from the Apocrypha that the person who entered and found his master assassinated was Bagoas the eunuch, who had introduced the Jewish heroine to the Captain of the hostile army on the previous evening.

Though proposed with more diffidence than the other, this will, perhaps, be found pretty near the true explanation.

When I had written this it occurred to me that though "lácian" did not appear in the dictionaries, "gelácad" might be found, and so it may. "Gelácod beon, numerari; Te Deum,"Lye. A striking example of the pro

gress of error: the uncial munerari must be changed to numerari, that it may correspond with the English version! Bosworth has faithfully re

corded the participle in his Appendix, but MS. Arund. 60 would have suggested a better meaning than numbered. Yours, &c. E. THOMSON.

THE ancient town of Thetford, once of superior importance to many of its younger sisters which have long since outstripped it in population and prosperity, stands on two navigable rivers, the Ouse and the Thet. It is generally supposed to have arisen from the ruins of the Roman Sitomagus, and it is on all hands agreed to have been once the seat of the East Anglian kings.

The immense artificial hill forming the centre of the Castle is scarcely surpassed in magnitude by any other work of the kind to be found elsewhere. It is minutely described in Martin's History of the town, published in 1779, and we are not aware that any subsequent author has done more than copy or abridge it. We therefore think it best to extract Martin's account entire :

"On the east side of the present town stands a famous hill, called the Castle Hill. Camden confessed himself unable to resolve whether it was a work of the Romans or Saxons. It is generally agreed at present that such kinds of fortifications as are accompanied by a keep are of a later work. This may, however, with great probability be ascribed to the Saxons, as well as that ancient boundary of this kingdom of the East Angles upon Newmarket Heath, known by the name of the Devil's Ditch; and it may be thought probable that it was the work of some of the first Saxon kings to secure their capital, in case of any sudden irruption or invasion.

"The exterior figure of this work seems to have been a right-angled parallelogram with the angles rounded off, its greatest length lying from east to west. It consisted of two ramparts, each defended by a ditch. Within these, near and parallel to their west

sides, is a high and steep mount or keep, entirely encompassed by a ditch. East of this is a large area or place of arms 300 feet square, evidently intended for parading the troops employed in its defence. This mount is about 100 feet in height, and the circumference at the base 984; its diameter measures 338 feet at its base, and 81 on its summit, which is dishing or concave upwards of 12 feet below its outer surface, owing probably to its having been once surrounded by a parapet, the top whereof may have been gradually melted away by the injuries of time and weather. The slope or ramp of this mount is extremely steep, forming an angle with the plane of the horizon of more than 40 degrees, and yet no traces remain of any path or steps for the purpose of carrying up machines or any weighty ammunition. The chief entrance seems to have been on the north side, where, in the second or inner rampart, a passage is so formed that troops attempting to enter must have presented their flanks to a double line of the garrison looking down upon them. Such was, it is presumed, its form when entire. At present the whole of the south side is covered with buildings, and towards the east it has been nearly levelled, and is cut through by the road, only part of its east side near the northeastern angle remaining. The inclosing ramparts are still near 20 feet high, and their ditches at bottom from 60 to 70 feet wide, which, considering the double slope of 45 degrees, gives a considerable width at the crest of the ramparts. The ditch round the mount measures 42 feet wide at bottom."

A plan and section of the earthworks accompany this description in Mr. Martin's book.