Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/212

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io*- s. n. AUG. 27, 190*.

The reverend gentleman's statement that it is not often one sees two fonts in a church- yard is true enough ; the fact is probably unique. CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

A note on a font which was found at Tickton, Yorkshire, was printed 9 th S. i. 383.

ST. SWITHIN.

The ancient font of the extremely inter- esting moorland church of Holne, in Devon- shire, appears to have suffered greater degra- dation than any mentioned by previous correspondents. Mr. Robert Burnard, in his ' Pictorial Dartmoor,' vol. iii. p. 26, says :

" In 1827 the Rural Dean reported * that a new font must be provided, unless the present one can be put into a proper decent condition, which I do not think possible.' Accordingly, the present font was placed in the church. One of the church- wardens removed the bowl of the ancient font to his farmhouse, where for more than sixty years it was used as a pigs' trough. It was rescued from this ignoble use in July of last year [1892], and was removed to Holne Park House. It is to be hoped that it will eventually be placed in the church for preservation."

Mr. Burnard's hope has been realized. The Hon. Richard Dawson, the owner of Holne Park, has had it mounted on a Dart- moor granite pedestal and refixed in the church. It is said that the Rev. Charles Kingsley was baptized in this font. It may be remembered that he was born at Holne, of which place his father was vicar, in 1819.

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

PEAK AND PIKE (10 th S. ii. 61, 109). May I add that children about Hale (Hants), on the northern border of the New Forest, sometimes talk of Salisbury spire as Salis- bury Pike 1 It looks, indeed, like a pike when the top is seen from the high ground in Hale, rising behind the hills south of Salisbury. I cannot, however, be quite sure if the Hale nickname for Salisbury spire is pike or spike.

" Cam's Pike " is usually known as Coaley Peak, from the small village of Coaley at its foot.

Can "pike" be merely a common noun, used as a "fine word," or, as the Germans call it, a " gelehrtes Wort," by the writers quoted, in order to describe a hill which looks like an extinct volcano, such as the Peak of Teneriffe?

Aubrey's use of the work " pikes " to describe, as I take it, the knolls rising from the line of the chalk downs behind Longleat House, the Marquis of Bath's Wiltshire seat, points, perhaps, in the same direction.

Seen from the Cotswolds behind Weston Birt, or from Wind Down in the Quantocks, for example, the hill south of Warminster looks like a large and very conspicuous peak,, with a hollow behind it, not very unlike a distant view from the northern Campagna of Monte Latino, near Albano. H. 2.

Pike Pool, mentioned by me at the last reference, is on the river Dove, which runs- between the counties of Derby and Stafford, and is in the latter county. In the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith, in Derbyshire, is a lofty hill called Eccles Pike, the name of which is- preserved in the rime :

Eccles Pike and Kinder Scout

Are the highest hills about.

A hamlet nestling underneath is called " Under Eccles." JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

" TALENTED" (10 th S. ii. 23, 93). As MR. RALPH THOMAS justly remarks, there is "a great deal of feeling about the use of par- ticular words," so much, indeed, that if every- body's taste were to be regarded, the resources of the English language would be greatly crippled. Which of us can tell what may be the verbal red rag of his reader or hearer ? I have pictured to myself Sir Herbert Maxwell's surprise when in the Spectator's notice of ' British Fresh - Water Fishes ' (28 May) he lighted on the following re- proof :

" We cannot help wishing that he would avoid

those very distasteful expressions ' to wit,' k albeit/ 4 whereof,' ' to boot,' and ' withal,' which are gene- rally characteristic of writers very inferior to Sir Herbert, and which appear with needless fre- quency."

ST. SWITHIN.

The following lines are an example of Shakspeare's frequent use of adjectives which are derived from substantives and have a participial termination : My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flewed, so sanded ; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls.

In * Othello ' is the line :

Wherein the toged consuls can propose. Toged is exactly the same as togatus. John- son, in his dictionary, does not allow sand or star to be a verb. But Goldsmith, in 'The Deserted Village,' mentions " the nicely sanded floor"; and Milton has "starred! Ethiop queen." Such adjectives are very common, though I think that they are not to be found in the Bible. A glaring instance of the use of them by Johnson himself is., given in Bos well's 'Life.' Johnson scolded