Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/169

 s. iii. FEB. is, IMS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

137

Kail way, which ran .from Portland Road Station to Piccadilly Circus for the con- venience of railway passengers. The con- ductor collected the railway tickets in the omnibuses, and passengers who had not come by train were given tickets in exchange for their fares.

The "minibus" mentioned by MR. BARCLAY- ALLARDICE was undoubtedly a cab. It was one of the names by which Boulnois's cab was known in London in 1832. Another name was " the omnibus slice," bestowed upon it because of its resemblance to the front part of an omnibus.

HENRY CHARLES MOORE.

66, Morshead Mansions, W.

A minibus was a closed vehicle in vogue in Scotland fifty or sixty years ago, with the door behind, and a seat for two passengers on either side. If my memory serves me aright, it ran on four wheels, and differed in construction from any kind of carriage now in use, in that the driver's seat was placed very high sometimes, I think, _ on the front of the roof, as in the original omnibus. R. E. B.

I should like to say that the tunic and helmet of the police were adopted about 1863 or 1864, but I believe the "white ducks" were abolished many years before that date.

I can distinctly remember as far back as 1838, and at that date, and for many years after, I recall omnibuses with doors : they ran from Mile End Gate to Paddington, I think. The conductor stood on what was termed a "monkey-board," and held on by a leather strap. R. MURRAY.

180, Ennersdale Road, Lewisham, S.E.

DANISH SURNAMES (10 th S. iii. 49). Surnames do not seem to have been known until a period some centuries after the Viking age. Some nicknames may have survived the person thus designated ; but most of the names adopted, when surnames appear in the twelfth century, were taken from the various parts of the Danish realm, from the town, village, farm, &c., nearest at hand Many quaint names have survived in Norway owing to any place in the locality of the family being chosen. The nobility chose names of animals for preference, viz., Buk (Buch), Brus, Hjort, Ged, Hog, Krage, Kalv other surnames were taken from weapons and utensils in general use, viz., Hammer Brand(t). About 1500 the King of Denmark tried to make the noble families each have their own special surname, under which the branches of the same family could be known.

Vames like Gyldenstjerne, Rosenkrans, and Ivitfeld thus arose. After the Reforma- ,ion the students followed suit, latinizing heir birthplace, viz., Pontoppidan. The townspeople when the custom became general hose as a rule their surname from the various professions. W. R. P.

WILLIAM III.'s CHARGERS AT THE BATTLE OF THE BoYNE (10 th S. ii. 321, 370, 415, 453). In support of MR. PICKFORD'S supposition that William crossed the Boyne at very shallow water, I may direct attention to the 'ollowing lines from ' The Fops at the Boyne' n Thornbury's ' Songs of the Cavaliers and Roundheads' (Hurst & Blackett, 1857) : "Fire-drakes, ford the Irish river,"

Panting cried Mackay ; Then the splashing and the gurgle

As the waters fly : Some were wading to the ankle, Some to full mid-thiyh.

The italics are mine.

The skull of the Duke of Schomberg in St. Patrick's Cathedral was turned up in the course of some repairs in 1902, but was buried in its former resting-place.

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

' THE NORTHAMPTON MERCURY ' (10 th S. iii. 5, 94). Mea culpa ! I inadvertently sent off the paragraph from the Dail;/ Mail without annotation, and, but for MR. R. L. MORETON'S reminder, the error concerning Robert Raikes would have been allowed to stand. My apologies are due to both Editor and readers. It was Robert Raikes, father of the philanthropist, who, with Mr. W. Dicey, founded The Northampton Mercury in 1720, as set forth in my previous note at 8 th S. vi. 25. The two men also founded The Gloucester Journal in 1722 ; but ultimately the partner- ship was dissolved, and Dicey retained sole possession of the business at Northampton, while that at Gloucester fell to the share of Raikes. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

"SNOWTE": WEIR AND FISHERY (10 th S. iii. 88). As a projecting point of land is called a ness or a naze, both apparently con- nected with nose, there seems to be no reason why it may not also be called a snout. See prov. E. snout in the ' Eng. Dialect Dic- tionary.' WALTER W. SKEAT.

Probably Snowte is but another spelling of snout, and would, therefore, be equivalent with nose, which is not an uncommon name for a small headland ; e.g., at Torquay there is Hope's Nose. W. C. B.