Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/350

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. OCT. 10, igus.

the news ; indeed, the people never attempt to con- ceal the fact. Once upon a time a trading stranger oame and sojourned in the locality for a year, and during this time he attentively recorded the days when bees swarmed, altogether numbering one hundred and odd. On his return home, he ex- amined the calendar, and was astonished on finding those days without exception marked dies cdbi ; whereas all other days on which the bees did not swarm were either unlucky or void of import. So wonderful is the mystic instinct of these animals, ^which enables them to communicate freely with the Creator."

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

THORNHILL BRIDGE. The many minor changes that the electrification of the North London tramways are effecting need not all be recorded, but this, one of the many 'Canal bridges to be rebuilt, is of some small interest. When the London Canal was planned and its route surveyed during 1805-9, the grass lands of George Thornhill were in- variably scheduled. The Act 52 Geo. III., -which authorized the undertaking as the Regent's Canal, has a clause (civ.) in which the proprietors agree to construct and main- tain a bridge here for the free use of that landowner and his servants. Presumably it was of little use, except as a means of communication between the fields that were divided by the canal, and it did not become part of a public thoroughfare until the Act (5 Geo. IV. cap. clvi., passed 10 June, 1825, authorized the Battle Bridge and Holloway Road Company to construct that important artery of traffic that was later known as the Chalk Road, and finally as the Caledonian Road.

The direction of the road in connexion with this bridge is peculiar. Instead of following an almost straight line, w^hich would have kept it parallel with Maiden Lane (York Road), it comes at an oblique angle from King's Cross to the bridge, and passes from it to Copenhagen Street, before it takes a more or less direct route to its destination. The fact that such local land- owners as George Thornhill the younger, J. T. and S. Pocock, and the brothers Cubitt were original proprietors would probably explain this remarkable diversion from a direct route.

The late Mr. Percy Shadbolt kindly gave me much useful information on the early years of the bridge. The canal bank on either side was planted with willows, of course pollarded ; and Sunday-morning fish- ing from the bank or the bridge was quite a local institution. The Thornhill Tunnel, by which the canal passes under the higher ground of Pentonville, begins a few

yards to the east, and it was long considered a remarkable piece of engineering, which crowds flocked to see.

The most important later change in the bridge was the advent of the tramways under the Act of 40 & 41 Viet., ch. ccxix. and now it is finally being reconstructed and widened. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

" HANSED "= ADMITTED TO A HANS. The above word is sufficiently rare to warrant a notice. It occurs three times on p. xv. of E.E.T.S. vol. ci., being extracts from the Commonplace Book of Richard Hill, assistant to a London haberdasher, 150836 :

" The day of my hanseyng at Barow."

" Memorandum that I was hansed at Barqw the XX th day of May a 1508 and ]>er was paid for my hance Us. Vllld. ff."

" Memorandum that I was hannsid at Brigius [Bruges] at synsyn [? last] marte in a 1511 at the goldyn starre, & I paid for my hannce & my dyner Us. Hid. ff."

In the same year he was " hansid at And- warpe." It is presumed that foreign money, or florins, is meant by the letters ff.

In this connexion one may refer to the great gild of the Hanshouse at Beverley (temp. Henry I.) in Toulmin Smith's ' English Gilds,' p. 151. H. P. L.

" EVERY MICKLE MAKES A MUCKLE." The Times of 17 July contained the following :

" The crowd of Germans return home each

with his little item of information. That item may be a ' mickle,' but ' every mickle makes a muckle.' '

The writer evidently supposes that " mickle " is synonymous with " little." But " mickle " and " muckle " really mean the same thing, being dialect forms, equiva- lent to the standard English " much." The original form of the adage has " little " instead of " mickle." In Cumberland they say " Many a little maks a mickle." See 'E.D.D.' (s.v. 'Mickle') for the forms of the adage in Lakeland, Lancashire, North- ampton, and Berks. A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford.

[See also 8 S. iii. 348 ; iv. 19, 158.]

SHAKESPEARIAN MEMORANDA. If the fol- lowing facts are not known, they may interest some of your readers. Clement Swallowe sues John Shakespeare of " Stret- ford upon Aven," co. Warwick, yeoman, of a plea that he render unto him 66s. 8d. which he unjustly " deteyns " (Common Pleas, Hil. 1 Elizabeth, Roll 1177, m. 211).

An Edward Shakespere is one of the jury of the Court Baron of Sistam, co. Oxford, in the eighth year of James I. See an un- calendared Star Chamber suit, Thomas