Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/93

 11 S. X. Auo 1, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

87

FALSTAFF'S NOSE, ' HEX. V.,' II. iii. 16. The " babbling of green fields," however Captivating, must not stand. There are three or four dramatic cries of repentance only (see Falstaff's promise in ' M.W.W.,' IV. v.) ; the rest is silence.

Read " his nose was 'as sharp as a Penon, on a Table of green fields " : the knightly nose was like the knightly pennon, as seen so often against its natural background at tourney or pageant (" penon, a lytell banner in a felde," MS. Harl. 838 ; and see below, III. iv. 49). The white peaked nose against the green pallor of the face is, in fact, "' Death's pale flag advanced there " (' R.
 * and J.,' V. iii.). The Hostess's ideas are

mixed ; but could she have chosen a more appropriate simile ? E. ILIFF ROBSON.

" THE CHRISTENING OF THE APPLES."

This was a common expression for St. Swithun's Day in the neighbourhood of Banbury in the middle of the last century. On that day the apples were supposed to begin to get big and to mature quickly.

I have not seen this expression noted in any South Midland glossary. It does not appear in ' E.D.D.' A. L. M.

Oxford.

DWIGHT, ANCIENTLY DYOTT. In the mat- ter of a possible derivation no English sur- name has been so baffling as that of Dwight, Avhich surname (more American nowadays than English) historically owes much to Mr. C. J. Feret, whose active antiquarian spirit has lifted it out of a partial oblivion at least in Britain through the pages of his ' History of Fulham ' (scholarly, lengthy, handsomely illustrated, sectional) article probing into the mysterious career of Dwight the Fulham potter, born 1640, died 1703. There one notes a leaning toward a Dutch Dwight origin. Purely imaginary this half- belief, resting perhaps upon an 1862 Art Journal conjectural suggestion, and repeated by Miss Meteyard in the Wedgwood bio- graphy. Rather must I lean in the direc- tion of the late C. W. Bardsley of surname- delving estimation. To him Dwight con- strues itself into a later form of Dyott. This declaration seems supported by the fact of my forbears, viz., the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Massachusetts Dwights, having borne as their family arms, and no other, the armorial ensigns granted to the Stafford Dyotts of long continuance, still flourishing in that shire. Then, again, I venture to offer by way of another support- ing bit of evidence a letter of anno 1668

never before printed, I think from the potter himself, written four or five years ere he had assumed the pottery role : Reuerend S r

The desir'd blacke booke is at length fall'n into niy hands, & it is so great a treasure that I dare not part with it, without your particular direction about its Conveyance. And although an opportunity of sending it may perhaps be more obvious to me y" your selfe, I shall not venture to choose one, untill you please to signify unto me at Wigan in y c County of Lancaster, that you confide enough in y e Care of Mr. Deane. Y r most obedient humble servant

Jo: DWIGHT. Feb. 13, 1668,

Chester.

This to ihe Reuerend Dr. Sancroft, Deane of St. Pauls, London Present.

Here we will note with some emphasis that the above epistle is actually dated from Chester. Of John Dwight's parentage nothing has come down save that his mother was a Joane Dwight. No notice of him names his birthplace. In 1661 he was appointed Registrar and Scribe of the Dio- cese of Chester. Glancing at the ' Dyott Diary,' 2 vols., London, 1907, one finds em- balmed within its introductory matter these lines :

" The [Dyott] manor of Freeford, near Lich- field, Staffordshire, is of very considerable antiquity, being recorded in Domesday^ Book among the lands of the Bishop of Chester."

To me this points strongly to the proba- bility of the potter having been a cadet of the house of Dyott, and well-to-do, and, as is known, university - trained, and conse- quently able to have secured the nomination to the above dignity of registrarship. May not the right to nominate have been held by the above-named manor of Freeford ? Furthermore, being, as we may perhaps insist, a native of Staffordshire, was he not naturally inspired with a love for the delights of the ceramic arts. Surely it was directly from that storied county, ever the great field of the toiling, inven- tive English worker in pottery a clay- ground running back to a dim past that the love in the heart of the richly talented John Dwight arose ? Surely not from a distant, alien Holland. It is asserted, though some authorities differ, that Dr. Plott (1640-96) of Oxfordshire, author of 'The Natural History of Staffordshire,' printed anno 1679, wherein appears the first initial reference to the pottery fame of Dwight, was a native of Lichfield, and so intimately connected with the Dyott race. RICHARD HENRY WINSLOW DWIGHT. 67, Franklin Street, Boston, Mass.