Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/250

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. SEPT. u, 907.

Mortimer's Cross, where the great battle was fought in the Wars of the Roses on 2, Feb., 1460-61, is some two miles from Wigmore Castle in another direction. Th< Lancastrians were completely defeated On the morning of the battle three suns uniting in the sky appeared, and to this phenomenon Shakspere alludes in ' K Henry VI.,' Part III. Act II. sc. i. The cognizance of the sun in his splendour was ever afterwards used by Edward IV. There might perhaps have been in former years A stone cross at this place ; but if so, it has long since perished. A little inn, past which the Lugg flows, is now called " Mor- timer's Cross." An inscription on a pedestal not far distant mentions that the result oi this battle fixed Edward on the throne of England. This is scarcely correct, as the battle of Towton on Palm Sunday in 1461 did it far more effectually.

JOHN PICKFOBD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

[Hearne was right in referring to Edward Harley, ''son of auditor Harley," as "esq." in 1738. " Auditor Harley" was not the first Earl of Oxford, but his brother. Consequently Hearne's Edward Harley was the cousin of Edward Harley who became second Earl of Oxford on the death of his father in 1724. The second Earl died in 1741, and was succeeded by his cousin Edward as third Earl. The 'D.N.B.' gives the date of birth of the second Earl as 2 June, 1689, not, as stated by Vertue, 1688.]

" FIT," PRETERITE AND PARTICIPLE. It is hardly fair of the ' N.E.D.' to ignore the following passage in Congreve's ' Way of the World,' inasmuch as the word fit, as used by Mincing, Millamant's maid, is no ordinary " vulgar " form of speech, and Congreve may justly be considered a true classic of his day :

Millamant. Nay, he has done nothing; he has only talked nay, he has said nothing neither ; but he has contradicted everything that has been said. For my part, I thought Witwoud and he would have quarrelled.

Mincing. I vow, mem, I thought once they would have fit.

Millamant. Well, 'tis a lamentable thing, I swear, Ihat one has not the liberty of choosing one's acquaintances as one does one's clothes. Act III. sc. x.

The ' N.E.D.' merely gives fet and fit as preterite forms, and fit and fitten as participial iforms, among several others of the verb " to fight," and classes them as " dialectal or vulgar." The ' E.D.D.,' however, has collected much information regarding this verb, and from it we learn that fet and jet'n are S. Ches. forms, fit and fitten North-

umbrian, Leicester, N. Yorks, and Rox- burgh, for the past tense and past participle respectively. It quotes from Anderson's ' Ballads,'

The Thursby lads they fit the best, and from Oliver's ' Rambles,' 1835,

When we had f airly fitten oursels clear o' them. Jamieson and the ' E.D.D.' note fit, Roxb., to foot or kick as applied to horses, and the former remarks that the English verb to foot is used in precisely the same sense. I cannot help thinking that the forms fit and fitten belonged originally to the Scotch verb fit, to kick ; and that these being current, as would appear, in the counties included in the ancient province of Strath- clyde see map on p. 26 of J. R. Green's ' Making of England ' got intermixed with the other numerous past forms of to fight, e.g., the preterites faft, faiicht, vout, and the p. participles fauchten, fechen, foffen, fuffen, and voit, thus escaping notice hitherto, though differing materially, if not radically, from them. . N. W. HILL.

21, East 21st Street, New York.

'CARTULARIUM SAXONICTTM.' (See 10 S. vii. 185, 287, 466.) I beg leave to suggest some further emendations.

Charter 224. Lim is more probably Lym- ington (Hants). The extensive saltpans were in use until very recent years.

565. Bestlesforda would seem to be situated at or near Basildon. It is not certain that the same word in charters 74, 100, 101, stands for Besselsleigh.

588. Fovant is in Wiltshire.

601. Hordwell is certainly not Hordle [Hants). The occurrence of Icknield Way among the boundaries seems decisive. It is more likely to be Hardwell, in Woolstone 'Berks), where a farmhouse and an ancient
 * amp bear record to some old settlement.

607. Flyford, on the Piddle, in Worcester- shire, is the place meant by Fleferth.

681. Sanford= ? Sandford, in Abingdon.

725. This Nywantune is Newton St. Petrock, Devon.

749. Batecumbe is surely Batcombe, north of Bruton. The name of the brook Alum is perpetuated in Alham Farm, &c. Among the boundaries mentioned is Com- bisberghewei. The great road from Com- gresbury (to this day called Combsbury)
 * oward Sarum passed near Batcombe.

554, 555 (pp. 182, 187). Kyntune is doubtless a mistake of the transcriber. t should be Kywtune.

EDWARD SMITH.