Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/33

 10 s. VIL JAIST. 12, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

21

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1906.

CONTENTS. No. 159. NOTES : Orwell Town and Haven, 21 "Shall Trelawny Die?" 23 King's 'Classical and Foreign Quotations,' 24 -"Buskin" Pennell's 'Life of Leland ' Washington Pedigree, 25 Cambridge Booksellers and Printers The Scots Greys and Grey Horses Holed-Stone Folk-lore : " Night - hags " Parish Registers: Curious Entries, 26

Major Hamill of Capri Edward IV. 's Wooing at Graf ton, 27.

QUERIES : John Newbery's Grave Palimpsest Brass Inscriptions, 27 Goulton Brass Wordsworth's Primrose Mrs. Moore's ' Modern Pilgrim's Progress ' Godfery Vining Family, 28 "Posui Deum adjutorem meum" Be wickiana Towns unlucky for Kings "King Copin" : "St. Cpppin" Kennedy Family and Maryland "Bone Deus" in Epitaphs" Eslyngton" : Islington Jerusalem Court, Fleet Street Reynolds's Portraits of Miss Gre- ville, 29 Boundaries and Humorous Incidents Coslett 'Army List,' 1642 Cambridge University Chancellor, 1842

Queen Victoria of Spain : Name - Day Barbadoes : Barbydoys, 30.

HEPLIES : 'The Christmas Boys,' 30 Bidding Prayer, 32 Split Infinitive in Milton' The Canadian Girl 'Victor Hugo's Property in England The Admirable Crichton "Over fork: fork over" "Omne bonum Dei donum" Bell-Horses, 33 Localities Wanted Byron's ' Don Juan ' Musical Composers as Pianists ' Death and the Sinner,' 34 Authors of Quotations Wanted St. Edith Roose- velt: its Pronunciation, 35 The Ainsty of York Cali- f ornian English : American Coin-Names, 36 Clippingdale

T. Chippendale, Upholsterer, 37 "Searchers" Admiral Christ Epitaph Lady Arbella Johnson, 38.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Lang's 'Homer and his Age' 'Popular Ballads of the Olden Time ' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

ORWELL TOWN AND HAVEN.

" ORE WELL " is mentioned by Chaucer in the Prologue to his ' Canterbury Tales,' where the merchant expresses a wish that

the see were kepte for any thinge Bytwyxe Myddelboroughe and Orewell.

Prof. Skeat in his notes (v. 30) identifies Orewell with the river of that name, and adds that the spot was formerly known as the port of Orwell ; and he comes to the conclusion that the mention of Middelburg in Holland tends to prove that the Prologue was written not earlier than 1384 (? 1382) nor later than 1388, that is, at a time when the wool staple was temporarily located at that Dutch town, and not at Calais. Chaucer of course meant the haven, and not the river, and it has been a moot point among historians whether a town of Orwell has ever existed or not. Two contributions have appeared recently in The English Historical Review on this very much debated question.

The first contributor, Mr. R. G. Marsden, in the 1906 January number of the Review, boldly J heads his article ' The Mythical 'Town of Orwell,' and winds up with the following verdict :

"The result of the evidence seems to be that, notwithstanding the occasional mention of a ' Villa de Orwell ' [in documents between 1229 and 1466], there never was a town of that name, but that Harwich town and harbour and Orwell haven, including its shores and the river up to Ipswich, were sometimes [sic] called Orwell."

Mr. Marsden admits, however, that if no town of Orwell ever existed, the documents mentioning a " villa de Orwell " require explanation, which he furnishes forthwith. According to him, " there seems to have been a tendency amongst the scribes who drew up writs. . . .to invent a town where only a river or harbour existed." (It is very difficult to imagine how a harbour can exist without a town.) The "mayor of the town of Orwell," he thinks, is probably a mistake of the same kind. The similarity of old forms of the names of Harwich and Orwell may have also given rise to confusion. Consequently it is not surprising that Orwell, or one of its variants, should have been used for Harwich, and vice versa. Yet we are told that in four documents Orwell appears to be distinguished from Harwich or Ipswich, for those towns are mentioned as well as Orwell.

The four documents in question were duly dealt with in the October number of the Review by Mr. J. H. Wylie, who joins issue with Mr. Marsden, and maintains that Orwell cannot properly be called a mythical town. Two of the deeds mention Ipswich and Orwell, but not Harwich, and conse- quently do not help to any definite solution. The third, however, is an order to the bailiffs of certain towns to cause all owners and masters of ships to come to Erewell, in Suffolk (1326) ; upon the same occasion separate writs were issued to Harwich and Orwell. The fourth document (44 Edward III., 1370) refers to payments to some messengers for going to the mayor and bailiffs of Harwich, and to others for going on similar errands to Ipswich and Orwell. Besides these proofs, Mr. Wylie quotes from Rymer's ' Feeder a ' a proclamation addressed in 1387 to the bailiffs of the town of Orwell, and another on the same page to the bailiffs of Harwich.

Proofs like the foregoing can be multiplied. Thus the ' Calendar of Patent Rolls of Edward II.' contains the following entries :

1326, 16 Aug. Parliamentary writs ap- pointing four men in the ports and towns of Herewiz and elsewhere in the county of Essex, and three other men in Ipswich, Erewell, and Goseford, the last named being another " unknown " (i.e. mythical) town, according to Mr. Marsden.