Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/545

 io- s. i. JUNE 4, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

449

GAYUS DYXON, OF TONBRIDGE, KENT, GENTLEMAN, 1565. William Hervy, Claren- ceux, granted a confirmation of arms and also granted a crest to the above in the year named. Is anything known of Gayus Dyxon, his ancestors and his descendants? Is this the first recorded use of the name of Dyxon or Dixon 1 Can any one give me the address of the Rev. William M. Oliver, M.A., in whose possession is the original of this confirmation of arms, according to the late Dr. Howard, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary ?

RONALD DIXON.

46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

WAS EDMUND KEAN A JEW? The notice of Kean in the ' Encyc. Brit.' states that his " reputed father " was one Aaron Kean, whose brother's name was Moses Kean ; that he possessed brilliant talents and an interesting countenance ; and that he made his debut at Drury Lane in Shylock, which "roused the audience to almost uncontrollable enthu- siasm." Jews have always shown a generic attachment to the stage. Josephus tells us of the friendship he formed with Alityrus, a famous Roman mime ; and Moses Kean (the uncle of Edmund), who was himself a mimic and ventriloquist and entertainer, possibly for professional reasons in those less tolerant times, softened his name Cohen to Kean, and so partly disguised the true springs of his birth. In that case Herbert Spencer's doc- trine of "unconscious cerebration" was largely effective in Kean's role of Shylock.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

[There seems little doubt that Kean had a Jewish strain.]

" TYMBERS OF ERMINE." In the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, p. 257, there is an entry that a certain citizen sold to King Edward III. "ten tymbers of Ermine" for forty marks. Can any one give me an expla- nation of that term 1 AYEAHR.

TITULADOES. In the census for Ireland of 1659 the names of the more distinguished occupants of townlands and streets are entered under the above designation, which is, I believe, of Saxon origin. I should be glad to know its exact meaning and deriva- tion. CHARLES S. KING, Bt.

St. Leonards-on-Sea.

MAY MONUMENT. Can any one tell me what has become of Dame Mary May's monument, which used to be inside the north wall of Midlavant Church, about three miles from Chichester ] She was the widow of Sir John May, Knt., of Rawmere, and died in 1681. Horsfield, in his 'History of Sussex,'

describes the monument, and there is a sketch of it in Add. MS. No. 5675 in the British Museum, drawn by S. H. Grirnm in or about 1783. I have met with people by whom it has been seen ; but in 1873 it was gone, and there is no trace of it. It was a reclining figure on the usual substructure, life size, and, judging by S. H. Grimm's sketch, rather gracefully designed.

" HEN-HUSSEY " : "WHIP-STITCH": "Wooo- TOTER." When I was a boy, somewhat more than half a century ago, at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, we had a family servant (American born) whose vernacular " smacked of the soil." One or two of her objurgatory phrases still linger in my memory. She would at times, in a very forcible manner, denounce me as a " hen-hussey " or a " whip- stitch." I should like to know if these words are in use in England to-day.

During the war for the Union I was for a while in the sounds of North Carolina. Being ashore at Plymouth one day, I observed a darkie coming down the street with a bundle of wood on his head. Another darkie, wish- ing to speak with him, had called out to him, and, not being heard, the latter raised his voice and exclaimed : " Look a hear, you dar you wood-toter dar ! " The word " tote," meaning " carry," was so common at the South that it is said that a boy learning to add would phrase it thus : " Put down 7 and tote 4." FRANK WARREN HACKETT.

1418 M Street, Washington, D.C.

ANACHARSIS. A letter addressed to Lady Charlotte Campbell, circa 1815, signed Ana- charsis, has been endorsed in a later hand "Duke of Argyle." Is this identification correct ? One passage may assist, if it is not already known :

" The cursed thing is the money always, or I would make an hospital at Rome for decayed purses and discontented and disappointed agreeable people. I intend to struggle hard with the world till forty, and then to succumb with good grace and float down the stream of time like a dead cat in the Thames."

ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N.

TYNTE BOOK-PLATE. I have a book-plate of "James Tynte, Esq r, 1704," in which the quarterings on the shield seem wrongly arranged ; for 1 and 4 are Worth, Argent, a cross raguly sable ; and 2 and 3 are Tynte, Gules, a lion couchant argent between _ six cross-crosslets of the second. Over all is a shield of pretence bearing, Sable, three bulls' heads coupe. The crest is an arm in armour embowed, holding in the hand a fragment of