Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/397

 n s. i. MAY I*, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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granted by his mother. Sir Anthony statec that he had saved her life when Rizzio wa murdered.

One Anthony Standen of Walton-on Thames was summoned before the Privy Council 13 Sept., 1586 ; but this must hav been a different person from either. Was it a third brother with the same name ?

Who were the parents of the two Anthony Standens who are the subjects of this query Is anything further known of them, or o: the third Anthony above mentioned, or of Edmund ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

TOUCHING FOB THE KING'S EVIL "TOUCHING PIECE." I should be glad to know :

1. Whether there is any English painting or engraving of the ceremony of ' ' touching " for the king's evil. (I am aware of the plate in Laurentius's volume on, the subject in France.)

2. Whether any specimens of the " touch- ing piece n exist, and, if so, where they may be seen. P. D. M.

GEORGE KNAPP, M.P. I should be obliged for particulars of George Knapp, M.P. for Abingdon 1807-9. W. R. W.

BASBOW LANE. A narrow street, having a steep gradient, leading from Windhill to the Hadham road in this town, is designated Basbow Lane. Can any one suggest the meaning of Basbow ? It has been suggested that the street once possessed an unfavour- able reputation akin to that of the Love Lanes found in most towns and that "Basbow" is a corrupted form of "base- born " ; but this seems doubtful.

W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

" E " MUTE IN ENGLISH. When I was a boy at school fifty years ago, I was taught that the final e possessed a clearly defined function, namely, to modify the sound of the preceding vowel, e.g., "hat,'* "hate." Nowadays, however, it seems to be the fashion to employ it indiscriminately, because it looks pretty. It seems to me a pity that the already sufficiently lax and irregular rules of English spelling should be further complicated by this illogical custom of tacking-on a letter to words that do not require it.

I live in a house christened by some pre- decessor " Baythorpe. ?i Maintaining that the proper spelling of the second syllable " thorp " (A.-S. dorp, a village ; see ' N.E.D. 1 ), I omit the offending e, but few

of my correspondents can be induced to do the like. The name of the road is Liver- mead ; one person persistently renders it " Livermeade." I formerly lived in a ho use called Whitethorn, from the hedge of may that partially surrounded it. Most of the tradesmen wrote that well-known word " Whitethorne. 11

This fashion of adding a superfluous e seems still more offensive when it comes to rendering the beautiful name Maud with a final e. Some people do the like with Claud. Why is it ? F. G. DELANO.

Torquay.

"WORTH" IN PLACE -NAMES. What is the exact meaning of the word " worth ll as a termination of a place-name ?

S. SLADEN. 63, Ridgmount Gardens. W.C.

" GALLEY " IN PLACE-NAMES. Scattered all over the country are Galley Halls, Woods, Lanes, &c. Can any one tell me the meaning of " galley " in this connexion? Etymological dictionaries throw very little light on this use of the word.

E. H. A. S.

FLAX BOURTON. Can any one give infor- mation as to the origin of the Somerset name Flax Bourton ? D. R.

" BROCHE." Under the feudal law of personal service to the sovereign, the tenant of a knight's fee was bound to attend his ord to the wars for so many days in the fear, if called upon. A certain Robert de BCougham rendered such service in respect of his manor of Wavering in Kent, viz.,

'whenever the King [Edward I.] should march with his army towards Wales, he should send a lorse of the price of five shillings, with a wallet nd a broche, tor forty days, at the King's cost."

I shall be glad if any reader of * N. & Q.* an tell me where I can find a description and, if possible, a representation) of a roche. It is probably a Norman word, ut it does not appear in dictionaries of hat language which have been consulted y the writer.

ALFRED STANLEY FOORD. Barnes.

' CRAMOND BRIG.' Who wrote ' Cramond Brig, 1 a play occasionally acted in Edin- burgh ? Scott in his ' Journal * speaks of as having been ascribed to Lockhart, who, .owever, glosses the statement with the ords, "I never saw it not mine."

W. B.