Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/97

 n s. i. JAN. 29, i9io.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Is it possible that this wooded harbour was known as " Cowse " by the early British inhabitants ? and has its name lingered on in spite of the very strong invasion of the Jutes, whose long occupation would seem to have swamped all or nearly all the trace of the earlier islanders ?

Probably there are few places in Englanc where the influence of but one race and on tongue is so strong, and where so very littl of the Celt, and so much of the Saxon, can be noted as having blended in the word and the ways of the people. But there ar at least two place-names suggestive of th earlier language, and it has seemed to mi possible that the wooded harbour where no Saxon or Jutish settlement was formed where, in fact, no village stood till the six teenth century may therefore have kep its ancient name.

I should be very grateful if any one conversant with the subject would consider the question, for it appears to me that the fact of the same name Cowes being appliec to the two towns on the banks of the rive favours the suggestion that if " Cowse ' means a wooded harbour, it would applj, equally to both shores, as laoth were thickly wooded.

In any case, it seems somewhat remarkable that a town which sprang into being under Henry VIII. should bear a name of which the origin and meaning are entirely unknown to local historians, whose guesses are more amusing than convincing. Y. T.

PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. According to Baedeker's ' Paris,'- this square first received its name in 1795, it having been known since 1792 as the Place de la Revolution. It can hardly be supposed that the former designa- tion was bestowed by its authors, whoever they were, out of regard for any principles of harmony or solidarity which actuated their minds at such a time. It was there that Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Danton, and most of the revolutionary victims suffered death. It was also the scene of the pitched battle between the heroic Swiss guards and the rabble of Paris, when the latter made themselves masters of the Tuileries. Is it known who gave the place its present name, and why ? I have a lurking suspicion that the appellation was chosen as being one of good omen for the ultimate success of the republic, subsequent to the aforesaid struggle, in memory of the engagement at Concord, Massachusetts not to be confounded with Concord, New

Hampshire in 1775, which was the first occasion on which the American colonists successfully opposed the British soldiery, whom they, by virtue of their superior skill as marksmen, drove back through Lexing- ton into Boston.

The title " Comite du Salut public >l is obviously imitated from the American Committees of Safety, formed in the Ame- rican colonies in 1774, the Boston Committee being particularly conspicuous at the era of the Stamp Act in opposing British rule and raising the first army equipped by the colonists. Hence it seems likely that the famous Parisian square owes its name, primarily or secondarily, to the occasion of the firing of " the shot heard round the world " at the Concord river. If so, it is a compliment to the American people that has hitherto escaped the notice of the historian. It is to be hoped that the matter can be satisfactorily cleared up. N. W. HILL.

New York.

[There is no ground for our American corre- spondent's suggestion. After the Terror, concord was the order of the day.]

MOHAMMED AND THE MOUNTAIN. What is the origin of the proverb about Mohammed and the mountain ? V. H. C.

" OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET." By whom was this saying originated ? The directors of the Bank of England were so called by William Cobbett, but I am told the saying has been also attributed to Sheridan. W. B. C.

[The earliest instance in Farmer and Henley's

Slang and its Analogues,' vol. v., is 1797, Gillray's

caricature 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

n Danger.' This use seems to imply that the term

was already familiar.]

LYON'S INN ADMISSION REGISTERS. 'ould any of your readers inform me whether, ind if so, where, the registers of admissions >f members of Lyon's Inn, the old Strand nn of Chancery pulled down in 1863, are >reserved ? As they are in neither the nner nor Middle Temple, I presume that hey are in private ownership. Is this so ? R. B. C. SHERIDAN. Russell House, West Kensington Gardens.

DR. THOMAS BRAY. Is it known where lie Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D. (founder of the ociety for the Propagation of the Gospel), is uried ? The date of his death is given s 15 Feb., 1729/30, but two or three bio- Taphies I have seen do not mention the lace of burial. GEORGE SMITH.

8, Streatham Common, S.W.