Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/278

 226

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. SEPT. 19, im

us a verb. This will be found in the account of Capt. Bartholomew Roberts, as given in Johnson's ' Lives of the Pirates,' vol. i. p. 211 (London, T. Woodward, 1726) :

" They sailed accordingly, and in 28 days arrived at Ferdinando, an uninhabited Island, on that <3oast [Brazil] : Here they water'd, boot-topped their ship, and made ready for the designed cruise."

T. F. D.

DUNBAB AND HENBYSON. The Dun-

fermline Journal recently contained the following :

" David Laing, in his life of Robert Henryson, the 'gude schulemaister ' of Dunfermline in the lifteenth century, quotes the following reference from Dunbar's * Lament for the Death of the Makaris,' printed by Chepman & Myllar in 1508 : In Dunfermline he has done round Gud Maister Robert Henrysoun. The same reading is followed in the account of Henryson in the ' Dunfermline Men of Mark Series,' published at the Journal Office. The lately compiled ' Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250 to 1900,' prepared by A. T. Q. C., gives a different version, viz. :

In Dunfermline he has tane Broun With Maister Robert Henrysoun. Sir James Ross embrassit has he Timor mortis conturbat me.

The compiler says : * Care has been taken with the texts. But I have sometimes thought it consistent with the aim of the book to prefer the more beautiful to the better attested reading.' In this case, however, his preference seems to credit the Auld Grey Toon with an old poet of whom there seems to be no local record."

D. A. H.

CANNON ON BRIDGE GREEN. Archceologia, vol. x., provides a plate engraved by Basire of this old cannon, and at p. 472 the following note :

" It lias always been understood that the mortar engraved pi. xxxvii. was the first that was made in England, and that the first guns were made at Buxted furnace, about ten miles from Lewes. This mortar lies now at Bridge Green, and has served for many years for the amusement of the people on a holiday or fair day, when they collect money to buy gunpowder to throw the shell to a hill about a mile distant. The weight of the shell costs no little pains to dig it out after each discharge, which is repeated as long as the money lasts. The chamber of the gun is cast iron ; the other part, as is evi- dent, wrought."

The original drawing made by Jas. Lambert, jun., is before me. It is accom- panied by a descriptive note which varies considerably from the foregoing :

"A sketch of a cannon on Bridge Green, near Tunbridge Wells, 25 Augst., 1768. J. Lambert, jun. The lower part or chamber for the powder was [sic] cast iron ; the other, barrs of iron hoop'd together, as in the drawing. The ball is 13 inches diameter. An old man who kept the turnpike gate near to

where the gun lay informed me that it was a custom to make a kind of fair once a year on the Green, and the firing the cannon was one of the principal diversions. He said about 3 or 4 Ib. of powder would throw the ball into some fields which he pointed out, near as I can recollect about half or three quarters of a mile distant, and that the ball was to be seen all the way."

I have not so far found any other state- ment respecting this gun, and its ultimate destiny is also unknown to me. I do not expect to obtain confirmation of the last statement made by Lambert.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

SPELLING REFORM IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (See also 10 S. vi. 266 ; viii. 47.) Here is another spelling-reformer, who worked on a method, and on a considerable scale. His book is ' A Rational Catechism,' issued anonymously in 1687. It is on natural theology, and was written by William Popple, the nephew of Andrew Marvell, and the friend of John Locke.

e, especially final e, omitted : abov, believs, conceiv, conserv, deservs, giv, involv, leav, liv, lov, observ, perceiv, preservs, resolv, selvs, serv, solv, ar, argu, accru, acknowledg, badg, becaus, becom, caus, com, continu, determin, doctrin, don, docil, dos (does), du, ey, eas, issu, judg, ow, pursu, rais, som, tru, vertu, valu, therby, therm, therfore, therupon, wherfore, wherin.

e, final added : behinde, finde, humane (human), mankinde, milde, minde, remindes.

Final of double consonants omitted : ad, al, bal, er, fal, fil, ful, il, shal, smal, tel, wil. Also, milions, begining.

u omitted : favor, honor, indeavor, labored, neighbor, savior, succor, vapor.

in joy men t, in tire.
 * for e : inabling, indeavor, ingage, injoined,

ys for ies : bodys, dutys, imply s, tys.

Also, establisht, discust ; distributer ; inconsistent, subsistance; thou wilst (wilt) ; fantom.

W. C. B.

" HWINCA." Some English palaeographers believe that the confusion found in early MSS between the minuscule letters n and c is due to phonetic or philological causes rather than palseographical ones ; e.g., uiconia (with n::u) for Uinouia ; mamucio (with am::anc) for Mancunio (rectius Mamcunio). These instances occur in two Paris MSS. of ' Itine- rarium Antonini Augusti,' belonging to the twelfth and ninth centuries respectively ; edd. Par they and Pinder, 1848. Cair britoc for Cair Brithon, i.e., Dumbarton, occurs in a Vatican MS. of the eleventh century, ' Nomina Ciuitatum apud " Historia Brit- tonum," ' ed. Mommsen, ' Chronica Minora,' iii. 211. Bernicensi (with ni::ici) stands for Bericinensi (Bede, ' H.E.,' IV. vii. p. 219), in the Namur MS. of the eighth century.

The fact that n and c collide, or displace