Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/161

 10 s. x. AUG. is,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

129

documents: Wudechirche (1202), Wode- kirk (1293), Wodkirk (1379), Wodkyrc (1379), Woodkirk (1490, &c.), Wodkyrke (1546), Woodkirke (1595), and Woodchurch (1623, 1642, 1716, 1756, 1765, &c.). The present pronunciation is Woodkirk or Woodchurch ; and Widkirk is quite unknown.

Can PROF. SKEAT supply any evidence in support of his assertion that Widkirk is the old name of Woodkirk ? The question is important, for the reason that, in default of such evidence, all the arguments used to prove that ' The Wakefield Mysteries ' were acted at Woodkirk fall to the ground, and this is the view held by Ten Brink, Symonds, Prof. A. W. Ward, J. P. Collier, Prof. Hohl- feld, Dr. Davidson, Mr. A. W. Pollard, and others. Douce was the first to imagine that 'The Wakefield Mysteries' did not belong to Wakefield, stating in 1814 that the manuscript was " supposed to have formerly belonged to the Abbey of Widkirk, near Wakefield." In 1822 he relinquished this view, and named *' the Abbey of Whalley in Lancashire " as the original home of the manuscript.

There never was any " Abbey of Widkirk " near Wakefield, but there was a Cell of Augustinian Canons at Woodkirk, and so the theory was started that Widkirk was the old name of Woodkirk, and that the plays were acted there. A mere guess on the part of Douce, which he himself aban- doned, has thus been sufficient to cause numerous critics and editors to ignore the plain references to Wakefield in the manu- script, and to adopt a theory which seems to me quite untenable, being opposed to documentary evidence, local circumstances, and the analogy supplied by the other great cycles of Mysteries belonging to York, Chester, and Coventry, which were certainly not acted in an obscure and inconvenient village four miles away from the city where there was every reason that they should be acted. MATTHEW H. PEACOCK.

Wakefield.

FRIDAY STREET. This is the name of several hamlets in Surrey. What is its origin ? HIPPO GLIDES.

ST. MARGARET'S HOSPITAL OR GREEN COAT SCHOOL, WESTMINSTER. I am fre- quently asked as to my knowledge of this old Westminster charity school, and more especially as to pictures of it. I have never seen an engraving of it, but that is, of course, not to say that there is none in existence. I shall be glad to know if any have been met with, and the names of books in which they

may occur, as well as any other particulars. This old school seems to have had but scanty notice at the hands of writers on Westminster matters, and the difficulty in the way of getting particulars is very great. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Bacon has a passage which begins :

"The idols of the market-place are the most troublesome of all those, namely, which have en- twined themselves round the understanding from the associations of words and names." Where in his works (say Stebbing's edition) can I find it ? T. X. S.

1. Yet who would stop, or fear to advance, Though home and shelter he had none, With such a sky to lead him on ?

2. Jowk, and let the jow gae by.

3. The French have taste in all they do,

Which we are quite without ; For Nature, which to them gave ga&t, To us gave only gout.

ALEX. RUSSELL. Stromness, Orkney.

SNo. 3 is by Thomas, Lord Erskine. Davenport ams in his 'English Epigrams' (Routledge) gives the following anonymous reply : Condemn not in such haste, To letters four appealing ; Their goiit is only taste, The English "gout" is feeling.]

' THE INTELLECT AND VALOUR OF GREAT BRITAIN.' I shall be glad if any of your readers will tell me if it is possible to obtain the key of the above print, published in the sixties. A written copy from the key would suffice. A. J. STURGES.

25, High Street, Guildford.

ST. KENELM'S AT WARE. I have two prints on the same sheet, each about 4 in. diameter : under the left is * Mr. Kensett's Glass house at Ware ' ; under the right, ' St. Kenelms-at-Ware.' I should be much obliged if some correspondent could inform me where this chapel was situated, and the name of the book place, date, and size in which the print appeared. The prints do not refer to Ware, Herts.

B. H. GOSSELIN-LEFEBVRE.

Bengeo Lodge, Hertford.

REYNOLDS ON AN EQUESTRIAN STATUE.- Sir Joshua Reynolds in his discourse to the students of the Royal Academy, 11 Dec., 1780, stated that " in this town may be seen an equestrian statue in a modern dress which may be sufficient to deter future artists from any such attempt." To what statue did he allude ? G. F. R. B.