ALBERT WAY.

Wonham, Reigate, August 3.

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Replies to Minor Queries.

Solingen (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—­Will you allow me to state, for the information of T.S.  LAWRENCE, who inquires who S_a_lingen, the sword cutler, was,—­that S_o_lingen is the name of a small town near Elberfeld, in Westphalia; a sort of Sheffield for the whole of that part of Germany.  Immense quantities of cutlery of all sorts are made there, and many knives are, I was told, made there, stamped with English names, and imported into England as true British ware,—­being equally good with ours, and, of course, cheaper.  Solingen is still, and has been for centuries, renowned for its sword blades.  You cannot ride through the town without meeting a troop or two of girls with a load of sword blades on their heads.

May I suggest to your inquirer JARLTZBERG that the derivation of blackguard is as likely to be blagarode, the Russian for nobleman, as many words are to be descended from their reputed parents.

C.B.M.

P.C.S.S. believes that a little research would have enabled MR. LAWRENCE (Vol. ii., p. 135.) to ascertain that Solingen (not S_a_lingen) was not the name of a sword cutler, but of a place in Prussian Westphalia, long celebrated for the fabrication of that weapon, as well as of fencing-foils.  Of the latter instrument P.C.S.S. has several pairs in his possession, all marked with the inscription “In Solingen.”  That the Solingen manufactory still flourishes there, is stated in Murray’s Handbook for Northern Germany, p. 373.

P.C.S.S.

Blackguard (Vol. ii., p. 134.).—­In the second vol. of B. Jonson’s works by Gifford, page 169., there is the following note on this word:—­

“In all great houses, but particularly in the royal residences, there were a number of mean, dirty dependants, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, &c.; of these the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c.  To this smutty regiment, who attended the {171} progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, the people in derision gave the name of black-guards”

I find also the following in Butlerts Hudibras, part 3.:—­

  “Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,
  Condemn’d to drudgery in the night;
  Thou hast no work to do in the house,
  Nor halfpenny to drop in shoes.”

AREDJID KOOEZ.

The Three Dukes (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—­Perhaps a note which I have just stumbled upon, in a MS. account of the Griffin family, may furnish some clue as to “the Dukes who killed the Beadell.”

“Edward Griffin was probably the same person, to whom a pardon was granted, April 11. 1671, for the death of Peter Werriel; in the like manner as was granted to the Duke of Albemarle and the Duke of Monmouth.”

At all events, both casualties occurred in the same spring, and a reference to the gazettes of the day would perhaps set the question at rest.