Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/261

 iv. SEPT. 9,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 215 nicies relating to St. Thomas give the prefix They describe his father as " Gillebertus cog nomento Beket," but sometimes spell tli name "Beketh" or "Becchet." "Ate" or "atte" was used so indiscriminately in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a prefix to surnames, that it is very possible that it gradually crept into use before Becket and became contracted to "a." But it is a mistake, I think, to say that " a Beckett" ii in use by any modern family. The well known family connected with Punch, have always spelt the name " a' Beckett," so far as I know, though they have suffered from the printers of their own works such ill-usage as "a [sic] Beckett" (see the cover of the ' Comic History of England '). Thomas Becket is the form employed by modern writers about the archbishop, a notable exception being the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' which describes him as " Thomas, known as Thomas a Becket." No authority or explanation is offered. Probably there is none. W. G. B. In 'A List of some Eminent Members of the Mercers' Company of London' (1872) the first name is that of Gilbert A'Beckett, Portreeve of London, father of St. Thomas A'Beckett. This would, I presume, indicate that the « was in vogue in the twelfth cen- tury. The archbishop was born in a house which stood on ground now covered by the Mercers' Chapel. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. CRICKET : EARLIEST MENTION (10th S. iv. 9, 95).—There is an interesting reference to cricket in 'The Diary of Henry Teonge, Chaplain on board his Majesty's ship Assist- ance.' On 6 May, 1676, he was staying at Aleppo, and records as follows :— " This morning early (as it is the custom all summer longe) at the least 40 of the English, with his worship the Consull, rod out of the cytty about 4 miles to the Greene Platt, a fine vally by a river syde, to recreate them selves. Where a princely t«nt wag pitched: and wee had severall l-astimes and sports, as duck-hunting, fishing, shoot- ing, handball, fcrickett, scrofilo; and then a noble dinner brought thither, with great* plenty of all sorts of wines, punch, and lemonads; and at 6 wee returne all home in good order, but soundly tyred aud weary." What was icrojilo, mentioned above ? WILLIAM H. CCMMINGS. HOOPER = LONG (10th S. iv. 127).—Roger Hooper was married to Mary Longe at St. Laurence Church, near Ramsgato, Kent, on 25 November, 1639, and not at Salisbury as suggested. The said Roger was the son of another Roger by Elizabeth (nte Baylie) his wife, and was born in St. Laurence parish in 1614. The family were certainly seated at St. Laurence in 1607. The registers of the church commence in 1560, but the name does not occur until 1607, so that they in all probability took up their abode in the parish at the latter end of the sixteenth century or early part of the seventeenth. I am distantly connected with the family, and have compiled a fairly complete pedigree from the first recorded Roger Hooper to date, from family Bible entries and papers, church registers, monumental inscriptions, wills, marriage certificates, <fec. I have also many photographs of Hooper oil paintings and miniatures. If your correspondent would care to write to me direct, I shall be very pleased to give any additional information in my power. According to an old book-plate of a member of the Hooper family of St. Laurence, the arms are as follows : Or, on a fesse between three boars passant az. as many annulets of the first. The crest is the same as given by your correspondent. I have other Hooper book-plates. CHAS. HALL CROUCH. 5, Grove Villas, Wanstead. I have copied all the registers in Salisbury relating to the Hooper family, and have not met with the name of Roger. There was a Hooper, with numerous descendants, in Kent at about the date given. I am nearly certain that his name was Roger. Whence he came 1 do not know. His family uses the arms of the Salisbury Hoopers. I am away from all notes and books of reference. About the end of October I might be able to refer to them, if W. H. will give me his name and address. R. P. H. [S. H. also thanked for reply.] LAMB'S PANOPTICON (10th S. iv. 127).— Edward Marmaduke Clarke was the original orojector and promoter of the Panopticon in Leicester Square, and on 21 February, 1850, the late Queen Victoria granted certain srivileges under royal charter, which secured 'or it a status similar to that which was possessed later by the Polytechnic in its ifforts to diffuse scientific knowledge. The juilding in Lejcester Square in which the collection of scientific apparatus was housed was built for the purpose by Mr. T. Hayter l*wis, in the Saracenic style of architecture, and opened 16 March, 1854. It failed as a scientific institution, and was converted into i circus for equestrian performances. At the same time its name was changed to the Alhambra Palace. Lamb probably alludes to the Mechanics' institution in Dublin, in the formation of