P. S.--I find I have used a word above, of which every one knows the
_signification_, "helter-skelter;" but I, for one, confess myself ignorant
of its _derivation_. And I shall be glad to be informed on the subject.
[As to the etymology of _helter-skelter_, Sir John Stoddart remarks,
"The real origin of the word is obscure. If we suppose the principal
meaning to be in the first part, it may probably come from the Islandic
_hilldr_ pugna; if in the latter part, it may be from the German
_schalten_, to thrust forward, which in the dialect of the north of
England means 'to scatter and throw abroad as molehills are when
levelled;' or from _skeyl_, which in the same dialect is 'to push on
one side, to overturn.'"]
_Father Traves._--Can any of your Lancashire readers refer me to a source
whence I might obtain information on matters pertaining to the life of one
Father Travers [Traves], the friend and correspondent of the celebrated
martyr John Bradford?
As yet I have but met with the incidental mention of his name in the pages
of Fox, and in Hollingworth's _Mancuensis_, pp. 75, 76.