The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-20 00:00:00

Names of English Rivers.

My friend Grimson divides the derivation of
names of rivers into seven classes. 1. Those which
describe the river simply and abstractedly as the
water. 2. Those which describe it as violent, gentle,
wide, or sluggish. 3. Those which describe a river
by its course, as winding, straight, or crooked. 4.
Those which refer to the quality of its waters, as
clear, bright, dark, or turbid. 5. Those which refer
to the sound made by its waters. 6. Those which
refer to its source or the manner of its formation.
7. Those which refer to it as a boundary or a pro-
tection. Of the first simple and more barbaric
class, which includes mere appellatives, are many
English rivers whose names end in " a" and " ew,"
as the Rothe and the Caldew. The Avon which
wanders by the church where Shakespeare lies
buried, owes its name to the old Celtic word avon
(water), the Gothic Ahva. The Devonshire Aune,
the Cumberland Eheu, and the Cornish Inney, owe
their origin to the same simple source ; while the
Scotch Bannock and Errick, like the Berkshire Ock
and the Devonshire Oke were christened from the
obsolete Gaelic word oicb, signifying also water.
From the Sanscrit amba (water) flows as it were the
Berkshire Emme, the Humber, the Mole, that mys-
terious stream in Surrey, and the Staffordshire
Hamps : all expressing what the Sanscrit root of
ambu does—movement, the most wonderful thing
about water being its involuntary movement and
inner life. It is to the Celts we are indebted for
that dangerous gift whisky ; to them too we owe
its name, which means water, from the Welsh wysg,
water. From this root come the names of many
rivers, as the Devonshire Axe, the Somersetshire
Axe, the Wiltshire Usk, the Scotch Esk,
Monmouthshire Usk, the Oxfordshire Isis. thet
Sanscrit word ud (collected waters) is -also a
netarTo
ing place for derivations, according to Grhin3e
slleorset-
it the river Otter owes its name and alsowt
ord which
shire Woder and the Sussex A. duwr
in %tab. the French
exactly corresponds in
Adour ; and now, though we Cumber-
ltitkrei
etich.e N,ortht n
Welshh a m -
not derive its came from Paradiae, c d
e
land people, we must remarkwe t.hat
httuutdir.rotidetnh doe:,
sliViierleshldvleerbeeedddtahi (toe
s fit
00: )E,
word dwfr (water) has stood godfather to many
rivers. It stood sponsor to the Yorkshire Dow and
the Staffordshire Dove, and through its stream it
gave a name to the town of Dover; signifying
simply to move. The root exists in the Basque
word ur (water), and the nungarien er (a brook).
or-
stin: Under ra
nt
dh i
voonrec
soto:r, Grs
tii
r iemAs or irioclusters
st e
ig Re aAdrnr
ow
and the Sussex Arun, the Yorkshire Ache and the
Lancashire Irk.. One would not have expected that
any English river would have a name derived from
the some source as that of the great German Rhine.
yet so it is. Tue Sanscrit ri (to flow) is found iu
the name of the Cierman stream, as well as of the
Wom:sterehire Rea, the Devouseite Wray, and
the Rye, the tributary of the Lltey,—Diekenss
" All the Year Round."

- X 11-
slew
O—F-Korr_
o,p -

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Nov. 19.

The Queen, accompanied by their Royal High-
nesses the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia
and Princess Charlotte, drove out this morning in a
carriage and four, attended by Colonel H. Pon-
sonby, Equerry in Waiting, on horseback.
Count and Countess Bernstorff and the Duke of
Newcastle arrived yesterday.
The Dike of Newcastle had an audience of the
Queen.
The dinner party consisted of their Royal High-
nesses the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia
rind Princess Helena, the Prussian Ambassador and
Countess Bernstorff, the Duke of Newcastle, the
lion. Lady Bidlulpb, and the Ladies and Gentle-
men in Waiting on the Queen and the Prince and
Princess of Prussia.

Several of the ladies and gent:emen of the house-
hold, as well as several of the Cabinet Ministers,
have occasionally of late had the honour of dining
with her Majesty and some members of the royal
family in her Majesty's private apartments.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Den-
mark visited her Majesty to-day.

The Prince and Princess of Wales.

SANDRINGHAM, Nov. 19.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with
Major Teesdale, Lord Alfred Hervey, Mr. L. W.
Jarvie, and other gentlemen, were out shooting in
the Wolferton wood yesterday.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, at-
tended by the Countess of Morton, drove.oat yester-
day afternoon.

The Duke of Devonshire has left Devonshire
House, Piccadilly, for Chatsworth, Devonshire.
The Duke of Newcastle returned to London yes-
terday morning from Windsor Castle.
The Duke and Duchess -of Sutherland are among
the English nobility who have been honoured by an invi-
tation to join the party about to assemble on a visit to their
Imperial Majesties the Emperor and Empress of the French
at Compiegne.
His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman arrives this
day in London from Broadstairs, where his health, we are
glad to announce, has much improved.
The Marquis of Bristol is entertaining a family
party at Icksworth Park, near Bury St. Edmunds.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Normanby and
family have leit town for Mulgrave Castle, Whitby.
The Earl and Countess Fitz william and Ladies
Wentworth Fizzwilliam arrived last week at Wentworth
House, Yorkshire, from visiting the family estates in Ire-
land.

The Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Caroline Neeld
have left town for St. Giles's, Dorset. The Countess and
Lady Victoria Ashley have gone to join the circle visiting
Lord and Lady Egerton of Tatton, at Tatton Park, Che-
shire.

Mr. Chichester Fortescue, M.P., and Frances
Countess Waldegrave arrived on Tuesday on a visit to their
Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess d'Aumale, at
their seat in Worcestershire. The hon. gentleman and the
countess leave to-morrow for Budbrooke, the countess's
seatin Essex.

Lord and Lady Blantyre and the Hon. Misses
Stuart have arrived at Erskine House, N. 8., to pass the
winter.

. The Countess and Madlle; Stankeiller have re-
turned to the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, from the
Isle of Wight.
Le Baron Kahn and M. d'Arnheim have left the
Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, for Paris.
Sir J. Brooke, K.C.8,, the Rajah of Sarawak,
has arrived at Brown's Hotel, Dover-etreet.

THE ALEXANDRA CASE.—The London corre•
apondent of the Manchester Guardian says :—" I
have been sounding my legal acquaintances about the argu-
ment in the Alexandra case. I find a very strong feeling
among them that the ruling of the Chief Baron will be sup-
ported by the Court. If so, I should think it extremely
unlikely that the matter will be carried further, after such.
discussion as it will have received. The general impres-
sion among lawyers seeme to be that the object aimed at by
the statute was the prohibition of armed ships sailing under
letters of marque of the South American Republics, and
actually equipped and owned by English owners, and that
it was never meant to include such transactions as Messrs.
Laird have engaged in. The language of the act favours
this interpretation, as do the contemporary discussions and
history."
THE SUPPOSED CONFEDERATE STEAMER PAM-
PERO.—It is currently rumoured in town that Cap-
tain Farquhar of her Majesty's ship Hogue, has received a
communication from tke Admiralty to detain the screw
steamer Pampero, launched by Messrs J. and G. Thomson,
of Glasgow, at the end of last month, if any attempt is
made to take her out of the Clyde. The interference of the
Government, it is believed, is principally with a view of
ascertaining the truth of the allegations made regarding this
vessel by the Glasgow Emancipation Society, that the ves-
sel was believed by them to have been constructed for the
Confederate Government, and that, like the Alabama, she
she was intended to prey upon the merchant shipping of
Northern States ; that she is fitted with disguised portholes,.
and other requisites for a war ship; and craving the Go•
veroment to make an investigation into the character,
ownership, and destination of the ship. The Pampero is a
screw steamer of 1,000 tons, and was said, when launched,
to be for London owners.—Scotsman. -
- _ _

Yv
THE GARDEN ORACLE FOR 1864.—Mr. Shirley
Hibberd, in the preparation of this work, ingeniously shows
by the growth of plants and the development of flowers the
progress of the seasons instead of by saints' days and anni-
versaries. It is in fact an arrangement of flowers for every
day throughout the year, mingled with some curious reve-
lations as to their history, and secrets as to their successful
cultivation.

AUSTRALIA, emphatically the land of the future,
has a fauna that may be summed up in the briefest
of catalogues. The kangaroo, the wild dog, the opossum,
and an animal something between a rat and a rabbit, make
up pretty nearly the total of her quadrupeds, and of these
none, with the exception perhaps of the kangaroo, can fairly
be placed on the game list. Of birds, it is true, there is a
somewhat greater variety, but, though headed by the emeu,
the array is but paltry compared with the brilliant muster-
roll of a single square mile of Brazilian forest or Indian
jungle. All this, while it detracts much frcm the interest
of the explorer's journal, proves a formidable a ddition to the
perils of his route. No food is procurable savo that which
he takes with him, and provisions form a very serious item
in the "impedimenta" of an expedition of fronr 2,000 to
3,000 miles, In Africa, a single pound of powder ropresents
a fortnight's subsistence. Iu Australia, powder is as in-
convertible into game as greenbacks into dollars. 11'.e pos-
sibility of starvation, and the certainty of scurvy from lack
of fresh provisions, added to a not unfrequent scarcity of
water, even harder to bear than that of food, make up th'e
hardships of a campaign more dangerous, if less fertile in
incident, than that of the African bunter.---z'aturclay
Review.
ARRIVAL OF INDIAN SCULPTURE AT WINDSOR
number a
CASTLE.—Within the last few days a
large wooden cases, containing a quantity of Indianha sculp-
ture, apparently presented to her Majesty, e arrived at
Windsor Castle. The cases have been deposited in the
Castle storeyard, where their contents are being unpacked
and cleaned. The sculptures and carvings, which are of"
slightly tinted here and there with.
brownish veins, comprise a small temple of the most beau-
tifulwhite statuary marble,
oriental construction, with delicately perforated panels,
p'lagers, arid cornices, ornamented with letaves and cupola
dome, all finely chiselled by eastern artists ; and two beau-
tifully executed elephants, furnished with hc. wings, bells
round their necks and tassels depending from, their ears
mounted on low flat pedestals, carved in the same material
as the temple. The elephants, which • are manigficent
pieces of carving, are each about four '
feet high anti four
feet in length.

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT.—A fatal accident took
place on Tuesday evening, about 5 p.m. The scene
of the catastrophe was about a mile from Crewe Station on
the London anti North-Western Railway. It appears that
a large body of labouring men employed in the erection °l'
largo steel works near Crewe had just loft work and we're
proceeding home down the Chester line of rails, when a
goods train passing at the time caused them all to get on t°
the up line, and unfortunately at the same moment L'ia
Chester train, due at Crewe at 5 10, dashed up, and befo! a
two of the men had time to escape dashed them on the rails,-
killing them en the spot, The engine pulled up at the
station, when on the buffer plank was found the hat of one
of the poor men, and on the buffer some hair and blood.
ELECTING THE JUDGES.—The New York papers
have lately been putting forth advertisements Of
rival candidates for the election of judges of the Superior
Court. At an electioneering meeting Brady, one of t 13,13
foremoet members of the bar, stated that if certain
nseuvres should succeed " there will be two persons it!
New York, each of whom will own a judge, body and
soul." 11e stated that in many cases he now has to andllo
back papers brought to him, and say, " I can be of
service in this case, for it is to be heard by So-and-so;
you
must employ such a man, between whom and the judne. ota
rs
the judge's partner, friend, agent, or huckster, there cxis
a great affection. Employ him, and you will have some
chance to maintain your rights in a court of justice:'