Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/166

 134

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn FKB. 10, 1907.

the land of government (i.e., furnishing troops and paying taxes, when compelled), and Bled el-siba, the land of anarchy (i.e., refus- ing taxes) ; and the limit between these lands is very shifting.

EDWARD NICHOLSON.

MEAUX ABBEY (10 S. vi. 248, 290, 354, 397). There is a good antiquarian account of Meaux Abbey in ' Sutton-in-Holderness, the Manor, the Berewic, and the Village Community,' by the late Thomas Blashill, F.R.I.B.A., founded on a paper read before the British Archaeological Association on Sutton-in-Holderness and the monks of Meaux.

With regard to the pronunciation of Meaux, the author, who was a native of Sutton and may be allowed to judge, in a note on p. i of the preface, states that the place-name is pronounced Mewse. JOHN HEBB.

CON- CONTRACTION (10 S. ii. 427 ; iii. Ill, 152, 250, 335). Controversial aposiopesis is most aptly illustrated by HASTA VIBRANS at the last reference. I happened to look up the first edition (1626) of Bacon's ' Sylva,' and copy the whole of the paragraph in question :

" It would be tried, how, and with what propor- tion of disaduantage, the Voice will be carried in an Jforne, which is a line Arched ; or in a Trumpet, which is a line Retorted ; or in some Pipe that were sinuous."

Your correspondent closed his quotation with the word " Arched." Any one who has seen the contraction for con- knows that it closely resembles the Arabic figure 9, and that " a line Retorted " is a phrase that expresses its shape with considerable accuracy. If it ever took the form of "an arched line," I shall be very grateful for a reference to the date and whereabouts of the document in which it occurs. Other students who have to struggle with MS. originals will doubtless be glad to know of a collection of facsimiles in which they may investigate this hitherto unheard-of phenomenon. Q. V.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF SUSSEX (10 S. vi. 449). The Knights of St. John had hospitals at Poling and at Winchelsea. The Austin Friars were to be found at Rye ; the White Friars at Rye and at Sele (near Shoreham) ; the Black Friars at Arundel, Chichester and Winchelsea; and the Grey Friars at Chichester, Lewes, and Winchelsea. Box- grove Priory and Battle Abbey belonged to Benedictine monks, and the priories of Easebpurne and Rusper to Benedictine nuns The Cistercians were represented by Roberts -

bridge Abbey, while the great Priory of St Pancras at Lewes was the first Cluniac house in England. The Premonstratensians (now represented by Storrington Priory) held the abbeys of Bayham and Dureford. Lastly, the Austin Canons had the priories of Hardham, Hastings, Michelham, Shul- brede, Tortington, and Warbleton.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

ORWELL TOWN AND HAVEN (10 S. vii. 21, 61). I think L. L. K. will be interested in the three references to Orwell Haven that he will find in part i. of the Ninth Report of the Historical MSS. Commission. Q. V.

HEALING SPRINGS FLOWING TOWARDS THE SOUTH (10 S. vii. 90). In the prose Edda it is said that

"on the southern edge of heaven is situated the most beautiful homestead in the celestial regions, brighter than the sun itself. It is called Gimli, and shall stand when both heaven and earth have passed away; and good and righteous men shall dwell therein for everlasting ages." It is thus spoken of in the ' Voluspa ' :

A hall sees she standing Than the sun fairer, With its glittering gold roof Aloft in Cimli.

All men of worth shall there abide, And bliss enjoy Through countless ages. And again :

"Towards the south there is another heaven above this, called Aiidlang, and above this a third heaven, called Vidblain."

This allocation, in the Northern mythology, of the highest heaven to the south, while one of the stems or roots in the Yggdrasil myth springs in the warm south over the Urdur-fountain, whose holy water is used to sprinkle Yggdrasil's ash, would seem to account in some degree for the direction of the course of springs southwards. This condition was necessary for the course of healing springs not only in Wales, however. North of the Tweed healing virtues were attributed to the water of a south-running stream. The patient had to go to the spot and drink the water and wash himself in it. Sometimes his shirt was taken by another, and, after being dipped in the south-running stream, was brought back and put wet upon him. Mr. Henderson in his ' Folk- lore of the Northern Counties ' mentions a Border amulet, known as the Black Penny, for long the property of a family at Hume- byers. It was larger than an ordinary penny, and was believed to be a Roman coin or medal. When brought into use it should have been dipped in a well, the water