Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/102

 NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. i. JAN. 29, mo.

Mr. Suffling is mistaken in thinking the Scottish version of 1689 of the lines to be the original. The first two lines of the epitaph, which appears to be a composite one are slightly varied from the last two lines of the first act of ' The Two Noble Kinsmen. 1 This play was first printed in 1634, and, according to the title-page, was by " Mr. John Fletcher and Mr. William Shakspeare." Authorities differ as to how much, or what parts, of the play may be attributed to Shakespeare.

G. L. APPEBSON. [C. C. B. also thanked for reply.]

DUN Y (10 S. xii. 510). There is a place of this name, a hill, 327 feet high, in the island of lona, about half a mile distant from the abbey. It is spelt Dun I in ' The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.' In olden times the name lona appears spelt in various forms, being sometimes Hii, li, or Hi. In Gaelic Y, I, or li means " the island," and hence Dun Y will signify " the hill of the island." For derivation and meaning of lona see Johnston's ' Place-Names of Scot- land,' Edinburgh, 1892, p. 140. Nature having denied me the privilege of being born a Highlander, I am incompetent to enter into the question of Gaelic pronunciation.

W. SCOTT.

Stirling.

" WHEN OUR LOUD SHALL LIE IN OUR LADY'S LAP" (11 S. i. 49). " Prophecies " such as these are much to be regretted. They grieve the judicious and scare the ignorant.

Since the change of stvle, and up to 1999, the years required are 1785, 1796, 1842, 1853, 1864, 1910, 1921, and 1932.

If the " prophet " lived before the change of style in 1752, which could neither have been foreseen nor allowed for, his or her prediction has now been falsified.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

Is not W. F. mistaken in supposing that this saying refers to the coincidence of Good Friday and 25 March ? It has usually been held to apply to the coincidence of that date and Easter Day, which last occurred in 1894.

For several variants of the saying, from Fuller, Aubrey, and elsewhere, and for a long series of dates when Easter Day fell on 25 March, see 6 S. vii. 200, 206, 209, 252, 273, 314. G. L. APPERSON.

The concurrence of the observance of the Crucifixion with that of the Conception, viz., on 25 March, is less rare than the word-

I ing of the old saw quoted might lead one to suppose. It will recur in 1921 and 1932. It has happened about thirty-five times since the accession of King Alfred the Great. In the fifteenth century it occurred in 1407, 1418, 1429, and 1440. There was then a long interval, and it did not happen again till 1 502. That is the year to which the " prophecy " is to be assigned, because Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, died on 2 April, the eighth day after the combined observance. ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

[MR. W. H. JEWITT, L. L. K., and MR. YV. SCOTT also thanked for replies.]

Diss (10 S. xii. 170). The hundred of Diss is separated from the county of Suffolk, to the south, by the river Waveney ; and is bounded on the east by the half hundred of Earsham, which abuts upon Suffolk, but is not within the boundaries of that county. Earsham hundred with that of Diss is said to be considered in some records as con- stituting one whole hundred. But by another division they are reckoned two distinct hundreds, comprising the Deanery of Redenhall in the Archdeanery of Norfolk. In the hundred of Diss are the parishes of Brossingham, Barston, Dickleburgh, Diss, Fersfield, Gissing, Roydon, Scole, Shelfanger, Shimpling, Thelverton, Tivetshall St. Mary, and Winfarthing, a small village four miles north from Diss, which anciently gave its name to the hundred, and still continues to enjoy peculiar privileges. From these data it would appear that Diss can hardly at any time have been included in the hundred of Hartismere, which is wholly a Suffolk divi- sion. Vide ' The New British Traveller,' by James Dugdale, F.S.A., 1819, iii. 603-4, and iv. 292-3. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

SIR ROBEBT GEFFEBY (11 S. i. 50). The Rev. Septimus Buss, who is Chaplain to the Ironmongers' Company as well as Rector of SS. Anne and Agnes, informs me that the Company have in their banqueting hall a

Sortrait of Geffery (who was Master of the ompany in 1667 and 1685), painted by Richard Phillips. In the Court Room is also, Mr. Buss says, a statuette ; while there is at the almshouses in the Kingsland Road (Geffery's foundation) a statue of painted wood, with a sword, in front of the chapel. WILLIAM MCMUBBAY.

A portrait of this civic worthy hangs in the Court Room at Ironmongers' Hall in Fen- church Street ; and a statue of him may also still be seen in the central portion of the same Company's almshouses in Kingsland