Pemb. Coll. Oxon., Sept. 20. 1851.
This seems to be an invocation to the personification of Light, Lucifer,
or [Greek: phôsphoros], the "son of the morning," by which intellectual
light is indicated, through whose assistance we are enabled to discover
the true faith.
The poet enters a caveat that the latter do not act the part of an
Iconoclast, as has too often been her wont. At least this appears to me
to be the interpretation.
E. I. U. S. Club.
_Grimsdyke or Grimesditch_ (Vol. iv., p. 192.).--Your Querist NAUTICUS
describes the vallum or ditch called "Grimsdyke, or Grimesditch, or the
Devil's Ditch," running from Great Berkhampstead, Hants, to Bradenham,
Bucks, and then puts two Queries.
NAUTICUS assumes that this ditch had, at some distant day, been an
artificial earthwork; but at the same time he points out that, "from its
total want of flank defence, it could hardly hold an enemy in check for
long; and that it does not seem to have been a military way." He asks,
"Are there other earthworks of the same name (Grimsdyke) in England?" I
find no trace of any other _earthworks_ of that name in England; and it
may be very questionable whether this ditch be of ancient earthwork, or
of its original natural formation.
But there is, in _Cheshire_, a brook or rivulet in its pristine state,
called _Grimsditch_. This brook or rivulet is one of the contributory
streams of Cheshire to the great rivers, the Mersey and the Weaver; and
is described by the author of _King's Vale Royal of England, or the
County Palatine of Chester illustrated_, published in 1656, as follows:
"The Grimsditch cometh from the Hall of Grimsditch, by Preston,
Daresbury, Keckwith, and so falleth into the Marsey."
Here then we have the name of a place which gives the name of
_Grimsditch_ to the brook or rivulet; and it is, moreover, shown by the
County History that the place (the hamlet or lands of Grimsditch) has
been in the possession of a family of the name of Grimsditch from the
time of Henry III.
From the words of the original grant this hamlet, by which Thomas
Tuschet, in 10 Hen. III. 1226, grants to Hugo de Grimsditch "totam
terram de Grimsdich pertinentem ad villam de Witeleigh" (Ormerod's
_Chesh._ i. 488.), it may be inferred that the place went by the name of
Grimsditch prior to the Norman Conquest. There can therefore be but
little doubt that the name is of Anglo-Saxon origin.
The present possessor of the property is Thomas Grimsditch, Esq., late
M.P. for the borough of Macclesfield.
The second Query of NAUTICUS applies to the _etymology_ of the word
Grimsditch.
This is a very difficult question to solve. Take the first syllable:
_Grim_, _grime_, dirt, sullying blackness.
"She sweats; a man may go over shoes in the _grime_ of
it."--Shakspeare.
Then the word _ditch_: this is derived from dic (Saxon), dük (Erse); but
whatever may be the true etymology of the word, it can scarcely be
doubted that it is of Anglo-Saxon origin.
I may however add that there is a tradition in the Grimsditch family of
Cheshire, said to have been handed down for many ages, as to the origin
of the name, to the following effect:
That in remote ages their first parents were warriors; that one of these
warriors was attacked by a griffin; that a fierce contest ensued; and
that the man was the conqueror of that fabulous bird or beast, the
battle-ground being a _dyke_ or _ditch_.
Hence, says the tradition, emanated the family coat of arms, which are
certainly very singular, viz. Azure, a griffin or, about to tear, and
ramping upon, a warrior, completely armed in plate armour, in bend
dexter, across the lower part of the shield. Crest, a _Talbot_.