Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/456

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [w- s. v. MAY i-> im

seat of the Cheyneys was at the adjoining village of Chesham Bois, on the river Chess. Cheyne Walk was, however, certainly spoken of by old Chelsea folk as China Walk, from the idea that the name was commemorative of the Chelsea China Works, at the corner of Justice Walk.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

PROF. SKEAT'S suggested derivation of the name of Cheyne is of interest, but as a local place-name it was applied because the manor was in the possession of the Cheyne family. From 1657, on its purchase by Charles Cheyne, until 1712, when it was sold to Sir Hans Sloane, they owned this site, and towards the end of that period Cheyne Walk came into existence.

The substitution of China Walk may have some significance in connexion with the famous pottery, but I am rather sceptical. It was never a sufficiently important resort or a subject of local pride likely to have caused a change of place-names.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

39, Hillmarton Road, N.

" PIGHTLE " : " PIKLE " (10 th S. v. 26, 93, 134, 174, 317). In the Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol. ix. pp. 23, 119, an undated deed recording a gift of land in Warlingham by Odo de Dammartin to Tandridge Priory, Surrey, has : " Sine aliquo retinemento in croftes, in pictlakes, in bascis." The deed is there stated to be earlier than 1210; a witness is also said to have been alive in 1198. The benefactor Odo de Dammartin was alive in 1154, and is again mentioned as being alive in 1218. The deed is also printed in * Monasticon,' vi. 603.

F. GORDON PULFORD.

Warlingham, Surrey.

" Pightle " occurs twice on a map showing " The True Platt and Description of y e land belonging to y e Mannors of Pembrooke, Bruses, Dawbneyes & Mockings in the Parishes of Tottenham and Edmonton in the County of Midd. being parcell of y e Posses- sions of the right honorable .Richard Erie of Dorsett, 1619 (Tho. Clay Desc.)." In the grounds of the manor of Mockings are two adjacent fields called severally " The Nether Pightle" and ' Upper Pightle," and leased to one named J. Burrough. These fields lay along the north bank of the "Garbell Ditch," and seem to have been called Nether and Upper with regard to the flow of the water of the said ditch, which is now known as the river Moselle.

Other noteworthy field-names in this map are Tomacre, Long Dinge, The Great Dinge,

The Slype, Long Slype, The Great Holme, and The Little Holmes. The last two fields are depicted as islands in the marshes by the Lea. In this map the spelling " Tattenham" 1 of Queen Mary's time is displaced by the modern form with o. Hornsey, however, is spelt ** Harnsey " therein. A. ANSCOMBE, 4, Temple Rd., Hornsey, N.

BALL- GAMES PLAYED ON FESTIVALS (10 th S. iv. 347). On Mardi gras, says Louandre, writing of the twelfth to the sixteenth century in his * Histoire d'Abbeville ' (tome i. p. 269), " on jouait a la cholle dans le bois d'Abbeville"; and cholle is thus anno- tated :

"Ballon de cuir gros comme la tete, rempli de mousse ou de son, peint azur et seme des armoiries du roi, de Ponthieu, et de la ville. II etait presente au maire par le procureur de 1'echevinage. A la suite de ce jeu, qui durait vingt-quatre heures, il y avaib un banquet on Ton servait toujours de can- netiaux (jeunes canards) aux oaufs. En 1497, on en mangea trente-six douzaines. Lea officiers muuici- paux et les habitants de Montreuil se livraient au me"me jeu, le dimanche et le mardi gras, et le jour de Bouhourdis."

I am sorry I do not know when and with what intent this last-named festival was held.

As for the solar significance of ball-games, I am tempted to think that if the sun had been square and the earth had stood stock- still, active players would none the less have devised the various facile orbs which from marbles to footballs minister so largely to- the recreation of humanity.

ST. SWITHIN.

COLLOP MONDAY, &c. (10 th S. v. 247). As a small boy I was at a preparatory school at Luton, Beds, called Norton College. The last Sunday of the term was called Button Sunday and Cock-hat Sunday, the terms being used interchangeably. The boys wore mortar-boards on Sundays, and it was our custom to tilt them over our eyes on the last Sunday in the term when walking to morning service at the local church. We also used to- unbutton the two bottom buttons of our waistcoats, and to spit in the pew of the church where we sat before coming out. The instructions for Cock-hat Sunday (this term comes the more familiarly to me) were con- veyed in the rime :

Unbutton one,

Unbutton two,

Cock-hat Sunday,

Gob in the pew.

I cannot give any reason for the custom, but I can remember that other small boys of my acquaintance, who went to other school*