THE HOLY GRAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 107, 7 May 1870, Page 2

THE HOLY GRAIL.

To the Editor or the Nelsok Evening Mail, Sir — In addition to the etymology of the word grail given by your correspondent " N.T." yesterday there is another which has, I think, at least equal authority in its favour. The following is from Wedgwood's Dictionary of Erglish Etymology (vol. 2, p. 171): — " Grail, great. The San-greal (saintgreal, the holy dish), was the dish out of which our Lord ate at the last supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea caught his blood at the crucifixion. Yet true it is that long before that day Hither came Joseph of Arimathey, Who brought with him the Holyigrayle, they say, And preached the truth. Faery Queene. Languedoc, grazal, grezal, a large earthen dish or bowl, bassin de terre de gres. Grais, grez, potters earth, freestone. Provencal, grasal, grazal, "un grasal ou jatte pleine de prunes "— ißaynouard. Grais, or gres seems the Latinized form of Breton Krag, hard stone; cur pod hag un pot de gres. So Norse gryta, a pot, from griot stone." The word grade, grayel, or grale is given in Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial UJ?iglish, as an AngloNorman word being " The name of the book which contained the responses sung by the choir." And in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law (2. 303), grail is given as from the Latiu gradale, and said to mean "that book which containeth all that was to ba sung by the quire at high mass ; the tracts, sequences, hallelujahs ; the creed, offertory, trisagium, as also the office for spriukling the holy water — Liudw. 251." But this I imagine is a distinct word though spelt in the same way. Tn Craig's Dictionary besides the latter seuse another is given to it, viz. : " small particles of any kind," and it is referred to the French grele, and this meaning is supported by a quotation from Spencer :— And lying down upon the sandy grail, Drank of the stream as clear as crystal glass. But if it mean small particles of stone, i.e. pebbles, gravel, it seems to connect itself with Mr. Wedgwood's grais or grez. I am, &c, Tio.

Sbvekal outrages are reported from Irefen&'.KA- Mfe,:( 'Tottenham, a lady of large property in Westmeath, has proved a match for her dastardly enemies. She rec&ntly received several threatening letters of a'mdst atrocious character. She at dtfce Ba\J ber laborers assembled, and dismissed every one of them, informiug them that she would not re-eraploy them or spend any money among the people of her estates until the names of the writers or their instigators were disclosed. At Pugwash, Canada, a short time a»o, the house of' a family named Cowley having taken fire, all the inmates except three small children had escaped ; but these were sleeping upstairs, and the five below made it impossible to reach them. Finally," the mother's screams from without awakened the eldest, a daughter not twelve years old, who came to the window, and was urged by her mother to throw herself out ; but she answered "No, my brother and sister must be saved." She then returned through the heat and smoke twice, and after throwing the two young children from the window, she let herself drop to the ground, a distance of 16 feet, and when she rose, said, "I'm dove, mother; but I have saved my brother and sister from being burned up." The little heroine, terribly burned, shocked with the fall, and chilled with the exposure, died early the next morning. SoMEi'HiifG New about Lord Bykon. — The Byron affair has produced some strange stories, but none so curious as that recently contributed to the Madras Mailby " CEdipiis," who, with regard to his "true story," states" that his "father had it from one of Lord' Byron's most intimate friends. From so many sources we have heard that on his wedding day Byron told his wife she had married " a devil." that the words are accepted as true. But " OEdipus" avers they were physically accurate. He writes : — " Lord Byroo was, in a sense, a devil. Incredible aB the thing may seem to the thoughtless, the handsomest man in England had a small tail, a pair of rudimentary horns, and short, squab feet divided forward from the instep into two" parts instead of being furnished with toes. Before he had been born his mother had been once greatly terrified by seeing, when in a very delicate state of health, the celebrated picture of "Satan Spurned" in the gallery at La Haye, and the result had been the fashioning of the child to some extent after the' monstrous form of which the sight had caused her alarm, and of which the continuous recollection could not be effaced by any means known to her physicians. At the time of her confinement it was at first suggested that the monstrosity should not be suffered to live, but the child's body, as a whole, was so perfectly shaped, and his face so wondrbiisij 1 beautiful, that the suggestion was forthwith put aside, and Eugland was not deprived of what was to become in due time one of its chiefest ornaments: Poor Lady Byron never recovered wholly from the shock caused by her discovery of what her husband really was, and partly though excess of imagination, partly in consequence of jbad advice from persons who shall be "nameless, she felt it to be her duty to insist upon ber husband subjecting himself to certain painful operations. But this Lord Byron obstinately refused to do. He urged, and with considerable force, that the way in which he wore his abundant 'curls effectually hid from view the rudimentary horns ; and that as he never appeared in public without his boots and trousers, none would ever suspect the existence of his other defects, with the exception of his valet, in whom he placed implicit confidence. Lord Byron was firm, and unhappily Lady Byron would not give way ; and so it canr.e to pass, after a year or more of tears, entreaties, and remonstrances, that the unfortunate woman made up' her mind to quit her home for ever. This, I am absolutely certain, is the true story of Lord Byron's separation from bis wife." What will this noisome controversy next produce ? The "true story" of "(Edipus" looks like the result, upon a coarse mind, of unlimited brandy-pawnee.