Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/429

 10'- 8. Y. MAY 5, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

353

and may mean either " bairn, child," or may refer to a "barn." Barnes is "the son of Barne," or may refer to a barn or barns.

But Berner or Bernar is a well-known old word for a man who provided bran or refuse for dogs, as was explained by me in 3 rd S. xi. 191 in 1867 (thirty-nine years ago) ; and the same explanation may be found in the ' New English Dictionary.' So also Bardsley has 11 Richard le Berner " from the Placita de Quo Warranto.

But Berners appears originally as " de Berners" (see Bardsley), as if Berners was a place-name. If this Berners is the same place as Bernieres, it will, I suppose, be found that Bernieres is a modernized and inferior spelling. In any case, let us keep Barnes, Berner, and Berners entirely apart, as they were at first. WALTER W. SKEAT.

"THE COAL HOLE" (10 th S. v. 306). During the constructioa of Terry's Theatre, in 1887, the "Occidental" Tavern in Savoy Buildings suddenly collapsed. Under the name of "The Coal Hole" a name con- ferred upon it by a club, not of coal-heavers, but of coal merchants, who frequented the house at the beginning of the nineteenth century it then had a separate existence, but was once part of the old "Fountain" tavern ('Epicure's Almanack,' 1815). "The Coal Hole" was one of Edmund Kean's haunts, probably while he was living in Cecil Street, close by ; and it was here that the Wolves' Club, of which Kean was the leader or patron, held their meetings, which, how- ever, became so disorderly and uproarious that the club became a nuisance even to a Coal Hole, and it was consequently broken up ('Tavern Anecdotes,' 1825). It was also the scene of Nicholson's judge -and - jury trials ('A Night at Baron Nicholson's,' Sporting Life, 7 Oct., 1848). The author of 'Tavern Anecdotes', Christopher Brown, ascribes a different origin to "The Coal- Hole" when he asserts that it was so called because it was erected on a spot which was formerly a coal- wharf and storehouse.

Before the transportation of coal overland by steam power, sea-borne coal or "sea- coal" wharves were numerous, not only along this part of the Strand, but also from Essex Stairs to Shad well (B. Lambert's 'Hist, and Survey of London,' 1806, vol. ii. p. 216). The following advertisement relates to a Strand coal-wharf of the middle of the eighteenth century:

"To be dispos'd of, the Carriage of a good- accustom'd Coal- Wharf and Dock in the Strand, together with fourteen Horses, and five Carts, with

ihe Harness, and convenient Stable-Room and) Standing for the Carts ; also a House to live in upon the spot. Any Person that is inclin'd to treat for the same is desir'd to leave a Letter directed to A. B. at St. Martin's le Grand Coffee-House, near Newgate-Street, where they may be spoke with.

" Note, None but Principals will be treated with. Daily Advertiser, 28 April, 1742.

Probably another relic of the sea-coal traffic was the sign of "The Ship and Shovel," which formerly distinguished a tavern now called "The Craven Arms,"' No. 3, Craven Court, Craven Street, Strand. The coal and corn barges formerly moored at the bottom of the street, and the many lawyers' quarters at the top, drew from James Smith, one of the authors of the 'Rejected Addresses,' who lived in Craven Street, the following humorous reflection :

At the top of my street the attorneys abound, While down at the bottom the barges are found. Fly ! Honesty, fly ! to some safer retreat, For there's craft in the river and craft in the street, J, HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

IRISH BOG BUTTER (10 th S. v. 308). The hypothesis that this substance was butter buried some centuries ago may infuse it with a tinge of romance ; but one would like a little evidence anent the habit attributed to the Irish of burying their butter in bogs after recording the shape of the lumps, so that future peat-diggers may decide whether any deformation results. Apart from the casual loss of some pats on the way to market, which is likely in swampy districts, it seems preferable either to continue to- class bog-butter with the various other mineral "resins" of vegetable origin, or to regard it as related to the adipocere into which flesh is readily converted when buried in peat-moss. J- DORMER.

"PLACE" (10 th S. v. 267/316, 333). In case DR. MURRAY'S attention has not been drawn to the considerable number of borrowings of English words in Welsh from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, it may perhaps be interesting to instance the Welsh use of place in the special senses under discussion. Before dealing with that word, however, I would instance coppish=cod piece, tapku taplash, Carmarthenshire sheiv=s\\ow, else- where s&ow=show (in both cases the ew and oio are proper diphthongs, not as in^the incomplete English series appearing in Eng- lish cow, but not in Eng. low and few).

In Hcarne's edition (1744) of Leland's 'Itinerary' (vol. viii.) there occurs :

" The Castle of Lie Careig hathe been so famous standing upon a hy Rok stepid on every syde, from- whens the great rise [Rice or Rhys] of Wales-