Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/162

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NOTES AND QUERIES, rio s. xn. AUG. 14, 1900.

reader give me this information, and also names and particulars of any of his de- scendants ? G. SLADE. Walcot, Alexandra Park, Harrogate.

SPAKE FAMILY. I desire to learn some- thing about the parentage of Samuel Spare, who was born about 1674, and went to America. In 1670 there was a John Spare living in the parish of St. Giles-in-the- Fields. We presume he was the father of Samuel. John Spare had two actions in the Court of Chancery about that date. What is known about tlie Spare family at that time ? AMERICAN.

" SKYLE." What is the meaning of this word from ' Dives et Pauper ' ?

Pauper. Every Mass saying is a mind making of Christ's passion.

Dives. The Skyle is good, say forth.

O. S. T.

" MOON-DOG," WEATHER SIGN. What is a moon-dog ? Mr. T., a retired fisherman and sailor, is weather-wise. His wife said . to me :

"When Mr. B. asked him about it, he told him not to touch his hay till this week. < The moon will be filling then, and we shall have fine weather.' He says, you know, that there are sun-dogs and moon- dogs. When the moon-dog is on one side of the moon, the weather will be fine ; when it is on the other, it will be rainy. When the dog is lying down, it will rain. When it is standing up and bristling, it will be fine."

NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.

MACAULAY ON LITERATURE. Kindly tell me where in Macaulay's work the following majestic eulogium of literature appears : In the dark hour of shame I deigned to stand

Before the frowning peers at Bacon's side. On a far shore I soothed with tender hand

Through months of pain the sleepless bed of

Hyde. I brought the wise and brave of ancient days

To cheer the cell where Raleigh pined alone I lighted Milton's darkness with the blaze

Of the bright ranks that guard th' Eternal Throne.

I. X. B.

' THE YAHOO ' : ' THE NAKED GOSPEL.'

I should be pleased if one of your readers would tell me the author of a small book I have, called ' The Yahoo : a Satirica Rhapsody,' New York, H. Simpson, 1830 How was the book received when published '

I also have '-The Naked Gospel,' by i True Son of the Church of England, 1690

T. H. L.

[' The Naked Gospel ' is by Arthur Bury, who is included in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.'J

D.D.

" No FLOWERS." This addendum to announcements of deaths has become very common in recent years. Can any -one say at what date it was first used ? Is the objection to flowers at funerals based on a religious or similar reason ? or is it merely personal ? F. W. READ.

" BOURNE " IN PLACE-NAMES. (10 S. xi. 361, 449.)

THE subject of COL. PRIDEAUX'S contro- versy with PROF. SKEAT seems too large to be dealt with in snippets. COL. PRIDEAUX in his reply is able to choose a number of names to fit his argument ; but he leaves out those which prove that towns were often named from rivers. He remarks that " we have no town called Severn or Medway, or Clyde or Tay." True about Severn ; but as to Medway, the name Maidstone was, I believe, Medwsegestun in Anglo-Saxon = Medway's town. When the Cymri fixed their capital on the Clyde, they called it Alcluith = the cliff on the Clyde ; but the name which it retains is that by which it was known to the Goidhelic enemies of the Cymri, Dunbarton=cfom Bretan, the fortress of the Britons.

COL. PRIDEAUX writes about the contrast in method between " our simple ancestors," who were content to ignore the proper name of a stream, and " our more enlightened selves," who must have a specific name for every rivulet. I am able to quote a con- verse instance, where the ancient name of a stream has fallen out of local use. Curiously enough, it is one of the Hertfordshire streams mentioned in COL. PRIDEAUX'S second extract from Leland's 'Itinerary.'

Fishing some years ago in the stream that flows through Cassiobury Park, I asked the gamekeeper what was its name. " Well, sir," he replied, "it have a name, sure enough, but dang me if I can remember un. We just calls it the river." ^Presently one whom I took to be a bailiff came along, to whom the keeper referred my question, extracting a similar answer. Later in the day the bailiff returned that way, and accosted me with "I've found out that name, sir : the river used to be called the Gade, but they just call it the river now." This is the stream which gives a name to Gaddesden.

I do not think it is safe to lay down even a general rule in this matter. It seems to