Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/45

 io s. x. JULY ii, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

33

The Gardens were, I think, finally closed some time in 1877, for on 6 February, 1878, the ground was purchased by Messrs. Sutton & Dudley for building purposes under the auspices of the Newington Vestry.

WlLLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK.

See The Mirror, vol. xviii. (origin of the Gardens) and vol. xix. p. 2 (i.e., 1831 and 1832). Mr. Wroth in his ' London Pleasure Gardens,' 1896, gives the dates of the Gardens' existence as being from 1831 to

18-56. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

" SABABITICKE " (10 S. ix. 488). May not this be the poet's orthography for Sybaritic ? A stomach conceived as a Sybaritic sea is, presumably, an uncommonly luxurious receptacle, or, as the delineator himself observes, " a grand confounder of demulcing meate." The self-indulgent owner of such an abyss is thus typically de- lineated in ' The Faerie Queene,' I. iv. 21 : His belly was upblowne with luxury, And eke with fatnesse swollen were his eyne ; And like a Crane his necke was long and fyne With which he swallowed up excessive feast, For want whereof poore people oft did pyne.

THOMAS BAYNE.

From the sense of the passage quoted by MB. BRADLEY, the inference seems plausible that " Sybariticke " may be intended.

W. B.

May not this be a misspelling or misprint for " Sybariticke "=Gr. 2v/2apiT/Kos ?

W. F. PBIDEAUX.

[Other correspondents suggest the same.]

WILKES'S ' ESSAY ON WOMAN* (10 S. ix. 442, 492). Those who care to pursue this subject will find a good deal of information concerning the author a much- debated point at 2 S. iv. 21 ; v. 72.

JOHN PICKFOBD, M.A.

PLAXTOL (10 S. ix. 430, 477). There is no doubt that " Plaxtol," the name of the Kentish village near Sevenoaks, is identical with the Kentish dialect word " playstool," which is very common throughout Kent for a public recreation ground, as may be seen in ' E.D.D.' (s.v. ' Play,' sb. 8). What is the common origin of these words " Plax- tol " and " playstool " ? In Selborne in Hampshire the village recreation ground was originally called " the Playstow," which form makes the etymology quite plain. An account of the word is given in Gilbert White's 'Antiquities of Selborne,' Letter X.

(ed. E. Blyth, p. 348), from which it appears that in the year 1271 Sir Adam Gurdon, in conjunction with his wife Constantia r granted to the prior and convent of Sel- borne all his right and claim to a certain place called " La Pleystow," in the village aforesaid, " in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam." White goes on to tell us that "this Pleystow (locus ludorum) is a level area, near the church of about 44 yards by 36, and is- known now by the name of ' the Plestor.' It con- tinues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports and amusements of its young people."

The Old English form of pleystow is plegstow T a word which occurs frequently in vocabu- laries in the sense of a place for play, and as a rendering for gymnasium, amphi- theatrum, palaestra. For the final I in the name " Plaxtol " compare " Bristol," the- representative of the ' Old English Chronicle' form Bricgstow. The x may be explained as due to assimilation, gs becoming ks r represented by x. The O.E. plegstow sur- vives in " Plaistow," a word which appears- in * The Clergy List ' as a place-name in Essex, Kent, and Sussex. The word is not- now known in Benenden, Kent, as was- stated at the last reference.

A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford.

HAIR BECOMING SUDDENLY WHITE

THBOUGH FEAB (10 S. ix. 445).

" When the Duke of Alva was in Brussels, about the beginning of the tumults in the Netherlands, he had sate down before Hulst in Flanders, and ther was a Provost Marshall in his Army, who was a favourit of his ; and this Provost had put som to- death by secret commission from the Duke : Ther was one Captain Bolea in the Army, who was an intimate frend of the Provosts, and one Evening: late, he went to the said Captains Tent, ana brought with him a Confessor, and an Executioner,, as it was his custom ; He told the Captain, that h& was come to execut his Excellencies Commission, and Martiall Law upon him ; the Captain started- up suddenly, his Hair standing at an end, and being struck with amazement, ask'd him wherin had he offended the Duke ; the Provost answer'd. Sir I com not to expostulat the busines with you r but to execut my Commission, therfore I pray pre- pare yourself, for ther's your Ghostly Father and Executioner ; so he tell on his knees before ther Priest, and having don, the Hangman going to put the Halter about his Neck, the Provost threw it away, and breaking into laughter, told him, ther was no such thing, and that he had don this to try his courage, how he could bear the terrour of death, the Captain look'd ghastly upon him, and said, then Sir get you out of my Tent, for you have don' me a very ill office; The next morning the said