Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/412

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. in. APRIL 29, 1005.

number of ,place-names are founded on personal names, and preserve the memory of some Anglo- Saxon proprietor. Thus the Cotswolds were, once on a time, the wolds belonging to one Code or Godd ; Tewkesbury was originally the bury or borough of one Teodec, the same, probably, whose ley or pasture is still called Teddesley. Similarly Alston was once ^Elfsiges-tun, and Alton was Alvin's- or ^Elfwine's-tun. On the other hand, many of the names of places here given have become famous from being adopted as personal names or surnames. Such are Bentley, Moseley, Prescott, Throckmorton, Walcot, and others. With refer- ence to Fiddle, the name of a stream, which Mr. Duignan equates, no doubt rightly, with the Dorset word puddle, a stream, a little pudd, we may re- mind him that a small river which formerly flowed through the slums of Dublin, but is now, like the London Fleet, covered over, used to be called the Peddle. We trust he will feel encouraged by the success of this and his previous effort to deal with the nomenclature of the neighbouring counties.

A.n Account of the Charities and Charitable Bene- factions of Braintree. By Herbert John Cun- nington. (Stock.)

MR. CUNNINGTON has become one of the benefactors of the town of Braintree by compiling a book which -ought to be of interest to all the inhabitants. Braintree had many small charities, and there, as elsewhere, some have lapsed through the careless- ness of those who were their official guardians. Some of these belong exclusively to the Established Church, and remain, as heretofore, under the .guardianship of the ecclesiastical authorities; the others have been, for the most part, amalgamated by direction of the Charity Commission, and by the Local Government Act of 1894 the Charity Com- mission was empowered to vest them in eleven trustees. Mr. Cunnington has given accounts not only of the origin of the existing charities, but also of such ancient charities as he can find traces of which have been expended or lost. For example, there were in 1571 three cottages called Alms Houses adjoining Hygnes Croft, alias Gallow Croft, of which there is now no trace. The place where hangings had aforetime taken place had probably become, in the estimation of the towns- men, an evil place, a no man's land or devil's acre, which it would have been unlucky to devote to secular purposes, therefore it was given in charity to the poor. In 1613 Thomas Bredge gave to the poor 51. towards a stock to provide them with wood. Mr. Cunnington thinks this person was the father of John Bredge, who left England in 1631, and became a prominent person in the history of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and of whom there is a statue at Harvard. The author not only gives details of the charities now in existence, but, when evidence was forthcoming, a sketch of the lives of their founders. This is a direct gain, as it will preserve knowledge that might otherwise perish, and furnish a starting-point for further investigation.

In 1665-6 Braintree suffered terribly from the plague. We have no means of making even a irough estimate of what was the number of the population at that date, but there were probably few places in England where the death-rate can have been higher. There is preserved a list of deaths and recoveries from this pestilence, which, though not strictly relating to the subject in hand,

Mr. Cunnington has wisely given. There were 665 deaths, and but 22 recoveries. Their richer neigh- bours were not unmindful of the duty of rendering help to the suffering community. The Earl of Warwick gave two bullocks every week during the time of the sickness, and the doctor and apothecary 121. for their services. His servants also contri- buted 201. We think servant must be understood here in the older as well as the more modern sense. Lord Maynard contributed thirty sheep and 1W., and the inhabitants of Coxell '331.

On the Study of Words. English Past and Present. By R. C. Trench, D.D. Edited, with Emenda- tions, by A. Smythe Palmer, D.D. (Routledge & Sons.)

THESE works of Abp. Trench, which constituted our own introduction into the pleasant land of philology, have gone out of copyright and to some extent out of date. With a view to their reappearance in a more useful and authoritative shape, they have been placed in the hands of Dr. Smythe Palmer, one of the most erudite and trustworthy of modern autho- rities, who, while treating them with due reverence, has brought them up to date. The perusal of these works in their new form will be a matter of edifica- tion as well as of delight. They are now, moreover, issued in so cheap a form that the man who can afford to buy any books at all may hope to possess them.

Utoikea to Cm*#j<w&jw:ts.

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H. B. CLAYTON (" Shakespeare's Brother"). The fact that Shakespeare's younger brother Edmond is buried in St. Saviour's, Southwark, is men- tioned in Hare's ' Walks in London,' i. 336, wherein the following extract from the register appears: " Edmond Shakspear, player, buried in ye church, with a forenoone knell of the great bell, 20s."

MEDICCLUS (" Rubbing with hand of a corpse" Discussed fully at 9* S. iii. 68, 172, 294 ; viii. 483 ix. 34.

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