Part 4

Wyckliffe using the possessive "_their moke_," not the mere "a," as we would say, I would not give "a pin," "a button," &c., together with the evidence of the Irish _muc_, and the obsolete German _Mocke_, which has been defined "Sus foeminea, quæ ob foetus alitur," hardly leaves a doubt that he means that animal, which may be traced also in the words _muck_, _mucky_, &c. The reader may judge for himself by the following passage:--

"Crist gave his life for hise brether, and so rewled hise shepe; thei wolen not _gyue her moke_ to help _here_ nedy brethern, but leten _here shep_ perishen, and taken of hem."

In allusion to their not feeding their flock, but suffering their sheep to perish, he prefers to mention an eatable object.

N. L. BENMOHEL, A.M.

2. Trinity College, Dublin.

[MR. BENMOHEL is wrong in supposing the word _Beghard_ to signify _bekehrt_, conversus, and to be a name given to the Fratres Conversi of monasteries, who, by the way, were not "secular begging monks," nor necessarily monks at all. Any person, by a donation to a convent, could be enrolled amongst its _fratres_ or _sorores_, entitled to the prayers of the monks, and to a share of their superabundant merits; and, being clothed at his death in the habit of the order, was a _frater conversus_. Another class of _conversi_ were lay monks (not necessarily _begging_ monks), who attended on the other monks, and performed certain lay duties in monasteries. MR. BENMOHEL will see some account of them in Dr. Todd's _Introduction to the Book of Obits and Martyrol. of Christ's Church Cathedral, Dublin_, p. xxvii.

The _Beghards_, on the other hand, were not, properly speaking, monks at all, inasmuch as they were not under any monastic vow. They professed poverty, and lived on alms generally; but in other respects their mode of life was various, and their orthodoxy and morality very doubtful. They are generally denounced by the ecclesiastical authorities; and, except in some few places and under certain regulations, were never recognised by the Church. The best account of them will be found in Mosheim's posthumous and unfinished treatise, _De Beghardis et Beguinis_. The name is evidently, as Mosheim shows, a compound of _beg_ (from the old Saxon _beggen_, mendicare) and _hard_, or _hart_, a servant, famulus, servus: the same word which we still use in the composition of such words as shepherd, cow-herd, swine-herd. So that _Beghard_ is not otherwise different from our word _beggar_, than in so far as it was formerly applied to a religious sect.

MR. BENMOHEL'S explanation of _Rehetour_ is very ingenious, and may very possibly be true. His interpretation of _Muck_ is not so satisfactory.]

PLAGUE STONES.

(Vol. v., p. 226.)

At the bottom of a street leading from Bury St. Edmunds to the Newmarket road, stands an octagonal stone of Petworth marble with a hole in it, which is said to have been filled with water or vinegar in the time of the small-pox in 1677, for people to dip their money in on leaving the market. What truth may attach to the traditionary use of the stone I know not; but the stone is the base of a cross called St. Peter's Cross, and the hole is the socket for the shaft.

BURIENSIS.

Are the stones mentioned by your correspondent J. J. S. as plague stones anything more than the "holy stones" common at the meeting of old cross roads in Lancashire, and perhaps other counties? The square hole in them is surely nothing more than the socket in which the way-side cross was formerly placed. Perhaps, however, he is speaking of a different and less common kind of stone, in which case, if a list is made, it must be by some competent person, able to distinguish the one from the other.

P. P.

In compliance with the suggestion of J. J. S., I may note that what I suppose (since reading his communication in "N. & Q.") to be a "plague stone" is to be seen close to Gresford in Denbighshire. I met with it last summer, and could not then imagine what it could be. It is a large hexagonal (I think) stone, with a round cavity on the top, which certainly was full of water when I passed it. This cavity is pretty deep, and the stone must be nearly three feet high, by from two to three across. I regret I made no measurements of it. It is situated about a quarter of a mile from the town on the road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space where three roads meet. Should this be seen by any Gresfordite, perhaps he would send you a more accurate description of this stone, with any legend that may be attached to it.

G. J. R. G.

RHYMES ON PLACES.

(Vol. v., p. 293.)

Notwithstanding his name, which appears to indicate northern origin, your correspondent W. FRASER may possibly be unacquainted with Robert Chambers's amusing work, entitled _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, which contains numerous verses on both places and families, besides other curious matter.

E. N.

The following doggrel I have heard in Surrey:

"Sutton for good mutton, Cheam for juicy beef, Croydon for a pretty girl, And Mitcham for a thief"

A. A. D.

I beg to contribute the inclosed, which I have heard from a former incumbent of the parish of Sutton Long in Somersetshire.

"Sutton Long, Sutton Long, at every door a tump of dung. Some two; some three; it's the dirtiest place that ever you see."

It was an ancient saying in the parish, and I believe the word _tump_ is Somersetshire for heap.

A village in Essex, called Ugley, possesses the unfortunate saying:

"Ugly church, ugly steeple; Ugly parson, ugly people."

The first line is literally true; to give an opinion on the second would descend too much into personalities.

METAQUO.

A particularly appropriate rhyme is that of

"Stow on the Wold (Would?) Where the wind blows cold."

S. L. P.

Oxford and Cambridge Club.

ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS.

(Vol. v., pp. 173. 196. 250.)

_Provincial Words._--Though the Rev. Wm. Barnes has almost perfectionated the catalogue of Dorset provincialisms in the Glossary to his beautiful poems in the Dorset dialect, I still sometimes meet with a stray omission, viz.:

_Blasty._ To feed a fire with the dust of furze, &c.

_Clean-sheaf._ Altogether, _e.g._ "I've clean-sheaf vargot."

_Crudelee._ To crow, as a baby does.

_Eickered._ Blotchy.

_Giblets._ The smaller pieces of a shirt.

_Scousse._ To barter.

_Snyche._ Eager; ready to snap at.

_Squeapity._ To squeak, as an ungreased wheel.

_Stump._ Disturbance.

_Treaden._ The sole of the foot.

C. W. B.

In addition to the names already given, the following occur to my mind:--

Spelling. Pronunciation.

Alwalton, Hunts Allerton Caldicott, Hunts Cawcott Overton, Hunts Orton Brewood, Staffordshire Brood Chaddesley, Worcestershire Chaggeley.

In connexion with this inquiry, would it not be interesting to make out a list of proper names of individuals, the pronunciation of which is different from the spelling; and, if possible, to trace (for example) how Trevelyan and St. John became _Trevethlan_ and _Sinjin_, and the high-sounding Cholmondeley sank, in the bathos of pronunciation, to plain Chumley?

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

_The Word "Pick."_--Presuming that the proposal at Vol. v., p. 173., involves the discussion and illustration of the words inserted, allow me, as a Lancashire man, to express my belief that the word _pick_ has invariably the sense of "to throw," and not "to push." It is in fact another form of the verb "to pitch;" the two terminations being almost convertible, especially in words formed from the Saxon, as "fetch" from "feccean," "stitch" from "stician," "thatch" from "theccan," the earlier form of the latter word being retained in the well-known lines of "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray." _Pick_, in the sense of "throw," will be found in Shakspeare's _Henry VIII._, Act V. Sc. 3.:

"I'll _pick_ you o'er the pales."

And in _Coriolanus_, Act I. Sc. 1.:

"As high as I could _pick_ my lance."

And see the notes of the various commentators on these passages. If the subject be worth further illustration, I may mention that in the district of the cotton manufacture, the instrument by which the shuttle is _thrown_ across the loom is called a _picker_; and each thread of the woven fabric, being the result of one throw of the shuttle, is, by using the word in a secondary sense, called a _pick_. I have heard a story of a worthy patron of the Arts, more noted for his wealth than his taste, who, attributing certain freedom of touch in a picture, for which he had given a commission, to a want of due pains in elaboration, expressed his dissatisfaction by saying, "there were not the right number of _picks_ to the inch;" the threads of calico, when received from the weaver, being usually counted under the microscope as a test of the goodness of the work.

J. F. M.

_North Lincolnshire Provincialisms_ (Vol. v., pp. 173. 250.).--I have noted the following North Lincolnshire provincialisms since the appearance of MR. RAWLINSON'S suggestion:--

_Beat._ A bundle of flax.

_Blower._ A winnowing machine.

_Bumble._ A rush used to make the seats of chairs.

_Bun._ The stalk of hemp.

_Casson._ Cow dung.

_Charking._ The wall lining a well.

_Choo._}

_Huigh._} Words used in driving pigs.

_Connifolde._ To cheat; to deceive.

_Coul Rake._ An instrument used to scrape mud from roads.

_Dozel._ A toppen; a ball placed on the highest point of a corn-rick.

_Feat._ Clever.

_Fingers-and-toes._ Turnips are said to go to fingers and toes when instead of forming bulbs they branch off into small knotty substances.

_Gizen._ To stare vacantly.

_Grave._ To dig turf.

_Gyme._ A breach in a bank.

_Hales._ The handles of a plough.

_Hethud._ A viper.

_Kedge._ Trash; rubbish.

_Kelp._ The handles of a pail.

_Ketlack._ Wild mustard.

_Kittlin._ A kitten.

_Lew._ A word used in driving geese.

_Livery._ Sad; heavy; said of freshly-ploughed soil.

_Mazzen._ To stupify; to make dizzy.

_Meant._ Meaning of.

_Nobut._ Only.

_Nout._ Nothing.

_Nozzel._ The spout of a pump.

_Rate._ To revile.

_Snail-shelley._ Cankered; said of wood.

_Tod._ Dung.

K. P. D. E.

LONDON STREET CHARACTERS.

(Vol. v., p. 270.)

I believe more than one of the courts to be haunted by persons who may have suggested Mr. Dickens's "Little Old Lady." More than twenty years ago a female of about fifty was a constant attendant on the Court of Queen's Bench in Banco: I never saw her at a Nisi Prius sitting. She was meanly but tidily dressed, quiet and unobtrusive in manners, but much gratified by notice from any barrister. It was said she had been ruined by a suit, but I could not learn anything authentic about her; though I several times spoke and listened to her, partly from curiosity and partly from the pleasure which she showed at being spoken to. Her thoughts seemed fixed upon the business of the day, and I never extracted more than, "Will they take motions?--Will _it_ come on next?--I hope he will bring it on to-day!" but who was "he," or what was "it," I could not learn; and when I asked, she would pause as if to think, and pointing to the bench, say, "That's Lord Tenterden." I have seen her rise, as about to address the court, when the judges were going out, and look mortified as if she felt neglected. I cannot say when she disappeared, but I do not remember having seen her for the last eight years.

I have heard that an old woman frequented Doctors' Commons about seven years ago. She appeared to listen to the arguments, but was reserved and mopish, if spoken to. She often threw herself in the way of one of the leading advocates, and always addressed him in the same words: "Dr. ----, I am _virgo intacta_."

The sailor-looking man described by Charles Lamb lasted a long time. I remember him in Fleet Street and the Strand when I was boy, and also an account which appeared in the newspapers of his vigorous resistance when apprehended as a vagrant; but I cannot fix the dates. I think, however, it was about 1822. His portrait is in Kirby's _Wonderful and Eccentric Museum_, vol. i. p. 331. Below it is, "Samuel Horsey, aged fifty-five, a singular beggar in the streets of London." The date of the engraving is August 30, 1803. As the accompanying letter-press is not long, I copy it:

"This person, who has so long past, that is to say, during nineteen years, attracted the notice of the public, by the severity of his misfortunes, in the loss of both his legs, and the singular means by which he removes himself from place to place, by the help of a wooden seat constructed in the manner of a rocking-horse, and assisted by a pair of crutches, first met with his calamity by the falling of a piece of timber from a house at the lower end of Bow Lane, Cheapside. He is now fifty-five years of age, and commonly called the King of the Beggars: and as he is very corpulent, the facility he moves with is very singular. From his general appearance and complexion, he seems to enjoy a state of health remarkably good. The frequent obtrusion of a man naturally stout and well made, but now so miserably mutilated as he is, having excited the curiosity of great numbers of people daily passing through the most crowded thoroughfares of the metropolis, has been the leading motive of this account, and the striking representation of his person here given."

The likeness is very good. Among the stories told of him, one was that his ample earnings enabled him to keep two wives, and, what is more, to keep them from quarrelling. He presided in the evenings at a "cadgers' club," planted at the head of the table, with a wife on each side. Not having been present at these meetings I do not ask anybody to believe this report.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

I believe Mr. Dickens's sketch, in the _Bleak House_, of the woman who haunts the various Inns of Court, to be a clever combination of different real characters. It is principally taken from a stout painted old woman, long since dead, and who I believe was really ruined by some suit in Chancery, and went mad in consequence, and used to linger about the Courts, expecting some judgment to be given in her favour. Mr. Dickens seems to have combined this woman's painful history with the person and appearance of the diminutive creature mentioned by MR. ALFRED GATTY. This latter personage is the daughter of a man for many years bedmaker in one of the Inns of Court (I think Gray's Inn), and much of her eccentricity is assumed, as, when begging from the few lawyers who are old enough to remember her father as their bedmaker, no one is more rational and collected. Though this little woman is well known from her singular appearance and demeanour, there is no romance about her history, and her craziness (if it really exists) is not to be attributed to the Court of Chancery,--at which, as it is in the position of the dying lion in the fable, every donkey (I mean no disrespect to Mr. Dickens) must have its fling.

If any correspondent really feels an interest in this little creature's history, I can undertake, with very little trouble, to supply the fullest particulars.

B. N. C.

Oxford.

Although I have for many years ceased to be an inhabitant of the metropolis, I am much gratified at the suggested record of these worthies, and think it would be a most interesting book, were truthful particulars got together concerning them, with good portraits--I mean striking likenesses--of these beings, who, as ALFRED GATTY observes, "come like shadows, so depart." I will inform him something about the "half-giant," of whom Charles Lamb says, that he "was brought low during the riots of London." I almost doubt this, for just about then he lived in the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand; indeed, before then, my grandfather was there overseer, or otherwise a parochial authority, and he had him apprehended and imprisoned as a rogue and a vagabond. I have often heard my father talk about him; indeed, he knew this man well, and I regret that I have forgotten his name. He always spoke of him as having been _a sailor_, and that he had his legs carried away by a cannon-ball. This burly beggar had two daughters, to each of whom he is said to have given 500_l._ on her wedding; and it was also said he left a handsome sum of money at his death. But, doubtless, some curious correspondent will be able to forward the desideratum with farther information. I only tell the little I know.

The old porter, John, at the King's printing-office, whom I remember as quite a character, "N. & Q." have peculiar facilities to immortalise. We sexagenarians all remember the blackee at the crossing by Waithman's in Bridge Street. He was said to have died very rich, and reported to have sold his "walk," when he retired from business, for 1000_l._

But other "characters" might amusingly be introduced, such as those two or three last roses in summer who continue to wear pig-tails or pantaloons. I would even not omit Baron Maseres, and such peculiarities--the German with his Bible and beard, without a hat--_et hoc genus omne_. There is a large work of the kind, exhibiting portraits and biographies of these illustrious personages in Edinburgh; it is now scarce and valuable. I remember spending a most interesting evening over it with a Scotchman, who knew and described many of the characters developed.

B. B.

Pembroke.

STONE PILLAR WORSHIP.

(Vol. v., p. 121.)

SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT has accumulated many interesting particulars, but by no means exhausted the subject. O'Brien, in his _Essay on the Round Towers_, advocates the opinion of their being idolatrous objects--remnants of Buddhism. The _Lia fail_ is celebrated in Irish history. The episcopal city of Elphin has its name from a celebrated pillar stone, which remained erect until Charles II.'s time, when it fell in accordance with an ancient prophecy. This is attested by the cotemporary evidence of O'Flaherty. Clogher has its name from another celebrated stone, designated "The Golden Stone," which I believe was oracular. There was in the city of Dublin, until recently, a curious remnant of this veneration for stones, and in which we could probably trace the transition from the Pagan to the Christian usage. At the base of the tower of St. Audoen's Church was a rude-looking stone, something like a spud-post, let into the wall, but so as to abut upon the street. On the upper part of this stone was carved a cross in very low relief. The stone was designated "The Lucky Stone," and the lower classes of the people, especially hawkers and itinerant vendors of small wares, believed that their success in business depended on their making a daily visit to this stone, which they kissed; and thus a portion of the stone became perfectly smooth and polished. There was a tradition, too, that whenever the stone was removed, it was miraculously conveyed back to its place. Thus it was said to have been stolen away to Galway, but to have been restored to its original site on the following day. However this may be, it remained attached to the church tower until about the year 1828, when some alterations being made in the church, it disappeared from its place. The belief was, that one of the churchwardens, a man in trade, had removed the stone into his own place of business, with a view of engrossing all the luck to himself. Whether he succeeded or not, I do not know; but after an interval of twenty years the identical stone reappeared in front of a large Roman Catholic chapel lately erected near St. Audoen's Church. It remained there, a conspicuous and well-remembered object, near the donation-box, which it perhaps assisted; but about six months ago it again disappeared, having been removed, I know not where.

R. T.

ON A PASSAGE IN HAMLET, ACT I. SC. 4.

(Vol. v., p. 169.)

Theobald long since observed--

"I do not remember a passage throughout our poet's works more intricate and depraved in the text, of less meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempt of criticism in its aid."

He then proposes his reading:

"The dram of _base_ Doth all the noble substance of _worth out_ To his own scandal;"

observing that "the dram of base" means the _alloy_ of baseness or vice, and that it is frequent with our poet to use the _adjective of quality_ instead of the substantive signifying the thing.

It would be tedious to enumerate all the hapless attempts at emendation which have been subsequently made, but I must be allowed to refer to that adopted by MR. SINGER as long since as the year 1826, when he vindicated the original reading, _doubt_, from the unnecessary meddling of Steevens and Malone. MR. SINGER thus printed the passage:

"The dram of _bale_ Doth all the noble substance _often_ doubt, To his own scandal."

_Bale_ was most probably preferred to _base_ as more euphonous, and nearer to the word _eale_ in the _first_ quarto; but MR. S. would now perhaps adopt _base_, as suggested by the word _ease_, in the _second_ quarto, for the reasons given by Theobald and your correspondent A. E. B.

It is evident that _dout_ cannot have been the poet's word, for, as your correspondent remarks, the meaning is obviously, that "the dram of base" renders all the noble substance doubtful or suspicious, not that it extinguishes it altogether. This will appear from what precedes:

"Or by some habit that too much _o'erleavens_ The form of plausive manners," &c.

Under present impressions, therefore, I should prefer, as the least deviation from the old copies, to read:

"The dram of _base_ Doth, all the noble substance _o'er_, a doubt, To his own scandal:"

i.e. _doth cast a doubt over_ all the noble substance, _bring into suspect_ all the noble qualities by the leaven of one dram of baseness. This, according to your correspondent's own showing, is the very sense required by the context, "the base _doth_ doubt to the noble, i.e. _imparts_ doubt to it, or renders it doubtful." And when we recollect the frequent use of the elision _o'er_ for _over_ by the poet, and the ease with which _of_ might be substituted for it by the compositor, I cannot but think it conclusive. To me the proposed reading, "_offer_ doubt," does not convey a meaning quite so clear and unequivocal.

Conjectural emendation of the text of our great poet is always to be made with extreme caution, and that reading which will afford a clear sense, with the slightest deviation from the first editions, is always to be preferred. The errors are chiefly typographical, and often clearly perceptible, but but they are also not unfrequently perplexing.

That MR. COLLIER and MR. KNIGHT, who do not often sin in this way, should on the present occasion have countenanced such a wide departure from the old copies as to read _ill_ and _doubt_, may well have surprised A. E. B., as it certainly did

PERIERGUS BIBLIOPHILUS.

"THE MAN IN THE ALMANACK."

(Vol. v., p. 320.)

Nat Lee's _Man i' th' Almanack stuck with Pins_ has no reference to "pricking for fortunes;" but to the figure of a man surrounded by the signs of the zodiac found in old almanacks, and intended to indicate the favourable, adverse, or indifferent periods for bloodletting. From the various signs are _lines_ drawn to various parts of the naked figure; and these lines give it very much the appearance of being _stuck with pins_.

I have not ready access to any old English almanacks; but a German one of the early part of the sixteenth century contained the figure as above described, with this inscription:

"In dieser Figur sihet man in welchem Zeichen güt, mittel, oder böss lassen sey."

Surrounding the frame, the words "güt," "mittel," or "böss" are placed against each sign of the zodiac from which the lines are drawn; and underneath the figure are the following verses: