Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/308

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. SEPT. 26, im

Bale simply meant " blaze," and a bale- fire was a blazing fire " that burnt bravely. The ' N.E.D.' well quotes Scott's ' Lay of the Last Minstrel,' iv. 1 :

The glaring bale-fires blaze no more.

We should always be on our guard against the antiquaries of the eighteenth century. They were most unscrupulous in manufac- turing evidence in favour of their extraordi- nary theories. Perhaps the most comic was their supposition that Tothill (i.e. toot-hill, or lookout-hill) proved the existence in Eng- land of the worship of the Egyptian Thoth. WALTER W. SKEAT.

Information respecting these fires will be found under the words " Beltane " and " Bonfire " in the ' N.E.D.' A note to the former dismisses their suggested connexion with a worship of Baal.

Great fires were lighted on Old May Day (Beltane), apparently to announce the be- ginning of summer, and again on Old Mid- summer Day, when the sun had reached the highest altitude of the year. The observance of the custom is thus referred to in the Ordinary of the Incorporated Company of Cooks of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, dated 1575 :

"The said fellowship of cookes shall yearely of theire owne cost and charge mainteigne and keep the bonefires according to the auncient custome of the said towne one the Sand-hill there that is to say one bonefire on the even of the feast of the Nativitie of St. John Baptist commonly called Midsomer even and the other on the even of the feast of St. Peter the Apostle." Brand, 'Hist, of Newcastle,' ii. 722.

The Midsummer bonefire has long since ceased to be lighted in Newcastle ; but in the village of Whalton, situated within thirteen miles of Newcastle, the custom is still maintained with annual regularity. It is no longer a fire of bones, but a pile of faggots, and the wood used is carted only to the township boundary. Thence it is drawn by hand to the centre of the village, where it is carefully built up and lighted. After dancing round the blazing pile, young couples leap through the smouldering embers for luck. The Rev. Canon Walker, Rector of Whalton, has for many years been in attendance at the Midsummer fire. What other instances of the custom remain with an unbroken record of observance ?

R. OLIVER HESI.OP. Ne wcastle-upon - Ty n e.

The spelling " Baal- fire " is to be depre- cated, " bale-fire " having nothing to do with Baal or " bale " (evil). The first word is from the O.E. b&l, flame, fira hence a

funeral pyre ; cf. O.N. bcela, to burn. The meaning is clearly seen in ' Wars of Alexan- der ' (Skeat), 1. 2231, where the city being " on a bale kyndild " is rendered in another MS. "on a blasse [blaze] kyndlett." The author of ' The Cheuelere Assigne ' (Knight of the Swan) appears to have connected the word with O.E. bealu (bale), as he twice uses the expression " balowe fyre."

H. P. L.

DON SALTERO'S TAVERN, CHELSEA (10 S. x. 67, 110). With reference to the site of Don Saltero's Coffee-House, I should like to say that the old rate-books, read in con- junction with various conveyances entered at the Middlesex Land Registry (to the study of which I have devoted an immense amount of time), clearly establish the following facts.

1. James Salter was living in that part of Cheyne Walk west of the church in 1685 long before Sir Hans Sloane bought the Manor of Chelsea.

2. In 1695 he and one Edward Hatfield occupied the house at the south-west corner of Lawrence Street, the site of which is now occupied by the Cheyne Hospital for Children.

3. In 1709 (possibly earlier) he had the house at the south-east corner of Danvers Street, now occupied by a baker.

4. In 1 7 1 8 he moved to a newly built house, which is still standing (No. 18. Cheyne Walk), where his family carried on the business till quite late in the eighteenth century.

In the earlier rate-lists there are no divi- sions of streets ; the names run on con- tinuously, and Faulkner seems to have been misled by this. The row of five houses between the church and Lawrence Street follows on next after Church Lane, and that, I suppose, is why Faulkner said that Atter- bury lived in Church Lane, whereas he really lived in the house next to the church, on Cheyne Walk. Afterwards he moved into Danvers Street, on the east side ; and Swift lodged " over against " his house, in Danvers Street.

As I was responsible for planning the episode in the Chelsea Pageant as happening in 1714, I hope you will publish this justifica- tion of our so-called " Paareant history."

R. D.

CARNMARTH : LANNARTH (10 S. ix. 309). I do not think that there is necessarily any connexion between the meanings of these names. " Lannarth," except in formal docu- ments and in "Lannarth House," is obso- lescent. " Lanner " is a common Cornish place-name. There are two places thus