Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

The aveyner shall ordeyn provande good won

For the lordys horsis everychon,

They schyn have two cast of hay,

A peck of provande on a day.

Elsewhere, too, the same writer says

A maystur of horsys a squyer ther is,

Aveyner and ferour under him i-wys.

Our 'Palfreymans' ('John le Palfreyman,' M.), though not always official, I do not doubt had duties also of a similar character in looking after the well-being of their mistress's palfrey, and attending the lady herself when she rode to the cover, or took an airing on the more open and breezy hillside.

The two great amusements of the period we are considering were the hunt and the tournament. Of the former we have many relics, nor is the latter barren or unfruitful of terms connected therewith that still linger on in the surnames of to-day. The ex-citing encounters which took place in these chivalric meetings or jousts had a charm alike for the Saxon and the Norman; alike, too, for spectator as well as for him who engaged in the fierce melée. Training for this was by no means left to the discretion of amateur intelligence. In three several records of the thirteenth century I find such names as 'Peter le Eskurmesur,' 'Henry le Eskyrmessur,' and 'Roger le Skirmisour.' The root of these terms is, of course, the old French verb ' eskirmir,' to fenee. It is thence we get our skirmish and scrimmage, the latter form,

of the said office, doe give their dayly attendance, as well as for the check roll, as all other concerning provisions to be made for the king's stable, according to the statutes made and ordeyned for the same.' (Extract from Ordinances of Henry VIII.at Eltham. )

SURNAMES OF OFFICE.

though looked upon now as of a somewhat slang character, being found in the best of society in our earlier writers. Originally it denoted a hand-to-hand encounter between two horsemen. We still imply by a skirmish a short and sharp conflict between the advanced posts of two contending armies. As a teacher of 'the noble art of self-defence,'1 we can easily understand how important was the skirmisher. The name has become much corrupted by lapse of time, scarcely recognisable, in fact, in such a garb as 'Scrimmenger,' ' Skrymsher,' 'Skrimshire,'and per-chance 'Scrimshaw,' forms which I find in our present London and provincial directories. Of those who were wont to engage we have already mentioned the majority. All the different grades of nobility were present, and with them were their esquires, with shield and buckler, ready to supply a fresh unsplintered lance, or a new shield, with its proudly emblazoned crest. I need scarce remind the reader of what consequence in such a day as this would be the costume of him who thus engaged in such deadly conflict. The invention of gunpowder has changed the early tactics of fight. Battles are lost and won now long ere the real mêlée has taken place. Then everything, whether in war or tournament, was settled face to face. To pierce his opponent where an inlet could admit his spear, or to unhorse him by the shock of meeting, was the knight's one aim. The bloodiness of such an affray can be better imagined than described. We still hear of distorted features in the after inspection of the scene

1 The Liber Albus, among other entries, has the following: 'Qe nul teigne Escole de Eskermerye, ne de Bokeler deins la citee.'