Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/285

 10 s. XL MAR. 20, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

233

Halliwell (' Diet, of Archaic and Pro- vincial Words,' s.v.) says this phrase is believed to have originated " from a very volatile gentleman of that appellation, who would call on his neighbours and be gone before his name could be announced." Dr. Brewer repeats this, with Grose for his authority. Halliwell adds, however, that " elsewhere " the following lines from an unnamed old play are given as the original phrase :

A warke it ys as easie to be doone,

As tvs to saye, Jacke ! robyson.

C. C. B.

The connexion suggested with one John Robinson (1727-1802) of Appleby, who rose from obscurity to wealth and power in a surprisingly short time, is, Wheeler says in his ' Diet, of Noted Names of Fiction ' (1866), erroneous. R. S. B.

[MB. A. R. BAYLKY and MR. J. HOLDEN MAC- MICHAEL also thanked for replies.]

" BBOKENSELDE " (10 S. xi. 10, 58, 110, 172). It is possible that light may be thrown on the puzzling first half of this word by the subjoined vagary of the translator (c. 1450) of ' The Register of Godstow Nun- nery ' (E.E.T.S., p. 554) :

" And ij rodes (rods) betwene wewes (? wowes, walls) that strecchen into broken, of the which one rode lieth," &c.

The editor's note is " Read ' into the brook.' " The form recalls (rightly or wrongly) the Icel. suffixed def. article -inn.

These charters mention selde dozens of times, and (p. 508) " one selde, with a solar ouer the same selde I-bilde and [over] a selde of the prioresse of ." H. P. L.

ST. ANTHONY OF VIENNE (10 S. xi. 47, 96, 152). I am sorry to find that I have given the printer's imp more than his due. I did think that he had almost excelled himself in St. Anthony of Vienne. Is it too much to hope that MB. W. C. BOLLAND will give us some information concerning the Military Order known by this name, from that not very accessible work Helyot's ' Histoire des Ordres Monastiques ' to which he refers ?

I wonder whence Mr. Robert Davies drew his information as to the particular aspect of St. Antony the Great which was commemorated in the dedication of the hospital at York. Leland merely writes of " The Hospital of St. Antony founded about a 100 Yeres syns by a Knight of Yorkshir called John Langtoun. Sum say that he was Mair of York " (Hearne's edition

of ' The Itinerary,' 1770, vol. i. p. 57). Dugdale remarks (' Monas. Ang.,' vol. vi. p. 672) that Drake says the establishment was in Gilly-gate ; wherein Drake must be accounted wrong.

It is interesting to know, and may not be without significance, that the cathedral of Vienne is under the invocation of the military martyr St. Maurice, and that not far from St. Anthony's Hospital at York there was an old church likewise dedi- cated to St. Maurice. Miss Arnold-Forster (' Studies in Church Dedications,' vol. iii. p. 320) attributes two churches of that name to York, one in Bedern, and one surnamed " in-the-Suburbs." I know that a modern edition of some St. Maurice stands just out- side Monk Bar.

According to Gent (' The Antient and Modern History of the Famous City of York,' p. 190), the chapel belonging to the Vicars Choral in Bedern, the sole religious edifice now there, was named in honour of St. William. ST. SWTTHIN.

LICENCES TO TRAVEL: PASSPOBTS (10 S. xi. 149). An Act of King William III. in behalf of a Polish ship, dated Gerpines, the 17 /27th day of July, 1691, has already " pass(e)port " : " desiring Our Passeport for the said ship to pass from Limerick. . . . to France " ; and " Provided still that this Our Passport shall remain in force during one voyage, and no longer " (University Library, Amsterdam, Diederichs Papers, No. 125 S.).

A. M. C.

Amsterdam.

"SHIBBOLETH" (10 S. x. 408 ; xi. 36). An amusing story said to be true, and therefore " historical " is told of the use of a similar test.

In 1854, when the present State of Kansas was organized into a territory, the point as to whether it should be made a free or a slave State was left to be settled by local option. The question agitated the whole country, and both " Free State " and " Pro- slavery " settlers hastened to make entry there, while every means, lawful and un- lawful, was used to get the upper hand in the controversy. The neighbouring Mis- sourians were rabid pro-slavery men, and the immigrants from New England were just as ardent Free State advocates.

It is said that at one stage of the struggle the Missourians tied a cow at each of the chief crossings of the Missouri River, knowing that any immigrant intending to make the passage into Kansas would comment upon the animal. If he said " cow," no objection