"In the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about:--the depth closed me round about:--the earth with her bars was about me."
The sea, then, might not be misappropriately termed by a rude mariner, Jonah's locker; that is, the place where Jonah was kept or confined. Jonah's locker, in time, might be readily corrupted to Jones's locker; and Davy, as a very common Welsh accompaniment of the equally Welsh name, Jones, added; the true derivation of the phrase having been forgotten.
_Umbrella_ (Vol. iii., p. 482.).--The use of this word may be traced to an earlier period than has yet been shown by any of your correspondents?
In Florio's _Worlde of Wordes_, 1598, we have it thus:--
"_Ombrella_, a fan, a canopie, also a testern or cloth of state for a prince, also a kind of round fan or shadowing that they use to ride with in summer in Italy, a little shade."
_Nao, a Ship_ (Vol. iii., p. 477.).--A. N. is informed that _naw_ is a Celtic name for a ship (the _w_ is sometimes sounded like _oo_); though the word is obsolete, authority for its application may be found in Davies' _Mythology, &c. of the Druids_. In the appendix to this work there is a poem (No. 6.) by Taliesin, containing the following example:--
The Britons consequently had a name for a ship, independent of Roman influence. Can A. N. produce any evidence that the Britons in pre-Roman times did not possess any vessels superior to the _cwrygl_? Is it probable that the warlike aid which the Britons constantly rendered the Gauls, was conveyed across the channel in mere "osier baskets?" Had the "water-dwellers" (Dwr-trig-wys) of Dorsetshire (Durotriges) attained no higher grade in navigation than that simple mode of water conveyance?
I am almost inclined to exclaim, "Mi dynaf y torch a thi" ("I will pull the torque with thee") in respect to the position claimed for the Latin _longa_; but passing this, I will advance the opinion that the Celtic _naw_ is the root of the Latin _navis_.
_Birth of Spenser_ (Vol. i., pp. 489. 482.).--Is not 1510 a mistake for 1550? The figures 1 and 5 are often confounded in manuscripts of Spenser's age. The mistake was probably that of the sculptor.
_Petworth Registers_ (Vol. iii., pp. 449. 485.).--The period over which these Registers extend is thus shown in the Accounts and Papers printed by order of Parliament in the year 1833, vol. xxxviii. p. 335:--