Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. OCT. 23, 1009.

Hero's words seem to imply that it is the flowers of the woodbine that are called honey- suckles.

Writing of Titania's

So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, Gently entwist,

NEL MEZZO says that if the woodbine is the same plant as the honeysuckle, there is nothing for it to entwist. I fail to see why anything should be given for it to entwist ; is it not commonly understood that it lives by embracing ? Unlike the " female ivy " enringing " the barky fingers of the elm," it cannot climb unaided up a straight, plain wall. Titania is the honeysuckle, not Bottom. The fairies have gone, and their queen has " wound " the weaver in her arms. W. H. PINCHBECK.

Dickens was almost certainly following Shakespeare blindly. The only plants to which I have ever heard the name honey- suckle applied are the common woodbine, the white and the red clover, and the yellow rattle. None of these, except the first-named, is a climber.

As for Shakespeare, Canon Ellacombe suggests ('Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare' p. 126) that by woodbine he means the plant generally, and by honey- suckle the flower of the plant, and this is made plausible by two quotations in the 'N.E.D.' (s.v. Honeysuckle, 2, b, "The flower of the woodbine "). The first is dated 1573-80 : " Woodbin that beareth the Honiesuckle " ; the second 1640 : " A honey- suckle | The amorous woodbine's offspring." The ' N.E.D.' in its quotation from ' Mid- summer Night's Dream,' retains the commas which NEL MEZZO has been unable to find in any modern edition of the play.

The only English plant to which Lyte and Gerard appear to give the name " wood- binde " in the body of their works is the climbing honeysuckle (Lonicera Pericly- menum), but Gerard indexes the wild clematis or Virgin's bower under the same name. C. C. B.

In the Medway valley so I am told by my native gardener the only thing known as woodbine is the wild clematis (the "traveller's joy" of other parts of the kingdom), which is so called because it is used by the woodmen for whiffs (? withes) to bind their faggots. The great con- volvulus is bearbine ; the lesser convolvulus is gravelbine ; and the honeysuckle is always called by its proper name, never a " bine " at all. The name bindweed, which we

used in Yorkshire for the convolvulus, does not seem to be known at all in this Medway valley. H. SNOWDEN WARD. Hadlow, Kent.

When the " bindweed " is spoken of about here, the convolvulus is meant ; when " woodbine," the honeysuckle.

R. B R.

South Shields.

See also ' Our Mutual Friend,' Book I. chap. ii. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itehington, Warwickshire.

MILITARY CANAL AT SAND GATE : MAR- TELLO TOWERS (10 S. xii. 228). The Kentish Gazette of 8 Jan., 1805, contained the follow- ing :

" The Canal through Romney Marsh has been projected, and is executing with unexampled activity, at various places along the whole line ; and .great numbers of labourers, lately employed at the docks and public works of the metropolis, and at other places, are arrived to assist in effecting it. The expense of cutting (only) is estimated at 150,000. In addition to this line of defence, Martello towers are to be constructed on the edge of the sea."

On 15 February the Gazette had this paragraph :

"Mr. Rennie, the able engineer of the London Docks, is gone down to inspect the works of the canal now cutting at Shorncliffe, and in Romney Marsh, in consequence of an order from H.R.H. the Commander in Chief."

R. J. FYNMORE.

There is a brief account of the Shorncliffe and Rye Canal in Rees's ' Cyclopaedia,' s.v. ' Canal.' Among the following works might be found further information :

" Treatise on Rivers and Canals,' by L. F. V. Harcourt, 1882.

' Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain,' by Joseph Priestley, 1831.

'Public Works of Great Britain Canals,' &c.,

by F. W. Simms, 1838.

'Bradshaw's Canals and Navigable Rivers, by Hy. Rodolph de Salis.

'British Canals: is their Resuscitation Practic- able ?' by E. A.Pratt.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

GOMARA'S c CONQUEST OF THE WE AST INDIA' (10 S. xii. 270). The first edition, Medina, 1553, folio (see Dibdin, ' Lib. Comp.,' 1824, 457-8), was translated by T(homas) N(icholas), London, 1578, 4to (see Lowndes, pp. 1396-7, impression of 1868). Dibdin states that the edition of 1553 contains the author's exact wording, and that he got into trouble about it with