Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/49

 io--8.iv.juLT8.i905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 37 " perambulation " commenced at the Edmon- ton side of the parish, and proceeded towards the west end thereof, reference being made tkerein to the old "Queen's Head." Green Lanes (recently rebuilt), Duckett's Farm, the New River, and the ditch (or rivulet Moselle). The ' Remarks' then proceed as follows :— " Go on to Parker's fence, leading towards Mu»- «xll Hill, then come over and keep along the fence to the end ; here is a mark on an oak, and as soon as you go in the field on the right hand is a stone marked for St. James', Clerkeuwell, keep down that side as far as the ditch, then cross, as the ditch does, np to the barn of Mr. Mitchel; keep on by the ditch doicn to Holleck Wood, cross the ditch ; here is a mark on an oak in the corner; keep up the ditch on the wood side two fields, then cross over and go on to Bound* Qreen Lane." It ia hardly necessary to add that the present Bounds Qreen Road (named after the before-mentioned lane) is in Wood Green, and consequently in the manor of Tottenham. A copy of the document, which contains a detailed account of the boundaries of the ancient manor from which the above extract is taken, will be found in Dr. Robinson's ' History and Antiquities of the Parish of Tottenham ' (1840), vol. i. pp. 157-60. J. BASIL BIRCH. 15, Brampton Road, South Tottenham. We note the doubt expressed at the last reference with regard to Lyspns's rendering of the surname Morton; but it appears pro- bable that he was correct, since we find it so in the 'Cal. Charter Rolls' (P.R.O. 1903). Another difficulty, however, arises, since this calendar gives William de Morton (not Walter). It may be observed that the manors possessed by James de Alditheley twenty-five years later included, besides Halewyke, co. Middlesex, both Morton and Horton, co. Stafford. COL. PRIDEAUX'S etymology for Hollick is doubtless correct; possibly he may suggest an equally satisfactory elucidation of the neighbouring Pinsenall (9th S. xi. 287). The only variation we have discovered is " Pens- nothyll " (Feet of Fines, Eliz. 4 and 5 Mich. D.C.). W. McB. AND F. MAECHAM. 69, Beechwood Road, Hornsey, N. THE EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY (10th S. iiL 163, 236, 297, 334, 411, 451).—Some con- fusion as to the exact date of Tom Thumb's advent has evidently arisen from the fact of there being two different show-bills of his exhibition. The first, quoted by COL. PRIDEACX (10th S.iii. 451),clearly substantiates the date I named, 1844 ; but there is another in my collection announcing the "Farewell Levees of General Tom Thumb previous to his final departure for America. Positively for a short time only." Here is the only indication of date: " He has not increased one inch in height nor an ounce in weight, since he was seven months old ! He is 14 years old, 25 inches high, and weighs 15 pounds!" This is issued from the Egyptian Hall, and suggests a return visit in 1846. I should like some confirmation of this. Barnum's statement to ME. R. MAESHAM-TOWNSHEND, although of great interest, can hardly be correct. When the General returned to London in 1857 and gave his entertainment at the Prince of Wales Bazaar, 209, Oxford Street, he is said to have hardly altered. I is impossible that he was only five years old when exhibiting in 1844. ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. As we seem now to be making a little divagation from the place to the subjects exhibited, allow me to say that I perfectly well remember, when a boy in July, 1844, seeing Tom Thumb, accompanied by his showman Barnum, being exhibited at the Adelaide Gallery. He posed as " Ajax defy- ing the lightning," and as "Napoleon I.," just as we can suppose him appearing through the wrong end of a telescope. Pamphlets were Coffered for sale at the galleiy, giving a fictitious memoir of him, on the cover of which were represented the Queen and Prince Albert admiring Tom Thumb. It was said on the cover that he gave a stamped receipt to ladies only. About 1854 P. T. Barnum published his own life, in a limp cover, having a portrait of himself on the outside, and giving a descrip- tion of the impositions he had practised on the public. Its sale must have been large, though now it has become a scarce book. It was copiously illustrated with rather common engravings. JOHN PICKFOBD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. " BOAST ": ITS ETYMOLOGY (10th S. iii. 485). —The article on this word by DE. SMYTHE PALMER is very acceptable, as the word is so difficult. I will only say now that it may prove impossible to connect the sb. boste, when it is a comparatively late and solely Northern variant of boiste, a flask, with the sb. boste and verb bosten, as occurring far earlier in the sense of "boast" and "to boast." It is to be feared that the author of the ' Catholicon' (1483) confused two words that were previously quite distinct. By a curious coincidence, I have myself lately imagined a possible source for this difficult word, which I will here merely indicate. I accept the conclusion in the 'New English Dictionary,' that the phonology