Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/144

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. in. FEB. is, 1911.

English and Scottish border, this dry valley would be a useful place for hiding stock, besides being perhaps the most distinctive feature of the ground.

The prefix also occurs in the district in such names as Dryloch, Dryhope, Dry- grange, Dryburgh, and Drycleuchlee ; but these names indicating a dry situation are few in number compared with the place- names in the South of Scotland indicative of mires and marshes, many of which have now disappeared by drainage operations.

T. H. S. Edinburgh.

The suggestion in the query that Dryden as a place-name was derived from the Drydanes who came across the border into Scotland is plausible, but not altogether con- vincing. As a family name, Dryden is by no means common in Scotland. As a place- name it is still more seldom to be met with. In 1868 there was a farm named Dryden in Roxburghshire, which has since been attached to Selkirkshire. Another farm of the same name was in Aberdeenshire. There was a Dryden House, unoccupied in 1868, and Dryden Mains, a farm at Roslin, evidently former possessions of the powerful family of Sinclair or St. Glair of Roslin. Drydenbank was nearer Edinburgh, and " Dryden' s groves of oak " are mentioned in Scott's ballad of ' Rosabelle.'

Is it in the least probable that places so far apart should have derived their name from a somewhat obscure family settled in Scot- land in the fifteenth century ? Surely it is much more likely that Dryden is a local designation, signifying, as certain philologists affirm, " the dry valley." W. SCOTT.

{MB. W. E. WILSOX also thanked for reply.]

"STENCIL": ITS DERIVATION" (11 S. ii. 302). This word is probably from the Provencal ustensilho, ustensiho, estansiho, gear, tools, tinware, the perforated metal strainer of a pump. The last form of the word, from which the e would drop on passing out of Southern France, was probably due to the influence of estam, tin. The dresser on which the tin cups and plates of a farmhouse were displayed was the estagnie. A stencil-plate, being usually cut from tin plate, would be an estansilho rather than ustensilho. I have no record of the word, but will search for it. To " stencil " is to print a design with such a utensil, instead of doing it by hand alone.

The term must have come direct from the South of France, as estensil or estencil, for

ustensil, soon lost its first s in French, Spanish, and Italian (though keeping it in Portuguese), passing to EnglLh without it. But, curiously enough, " utensil " has, in spoken English, acquired a substitute for the lost s. Just as the original Provenyal word was modified by the influence of estam, so in barrack-English (its Indian variety at least) " utensil " has, probably under the influence of " uniform," become " unitensil." Forty years ago in India I frequently heard this word in barracks. The quartermaster of my brigade always spoke of the cook-house " unitensils." ' EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Paris.

HIGH STEWARDS AT THE RESTORATION : ROGER GOLLOP, M.P. FOR SOUTHAMPTON (11 S. ii. 488 ; iii. 17). I have before me a copy of a list of the Parliaments from 1640 to 1661, published 1661 by Robert Pawley, and "to be sold at his shop at the Bible in Chancery Lane." He gives (p. 65) as M.P.s for Southampton (borough) in 1659 " Thomas Knollys, Esq., and Roger Gallop [sic], Esq." Browne Willis ('Notitia Parliamentarian vol. iii. p. 293) gives the same names.

ALFRED B. BEAVEN,

QUEEN'S REGIMENT, SHEFFIELD PLATE DISH (11 S. iii. 70). "In Deo spero " is the motto of the De Saumarez family, but their crest is not a griffin.

MATILDA POLLARD.

Belle Vue, Bengeo.

0n

The Bacchants of Euripides, and other Essays- By A. W. Verrall, Litt.D. (Cambridge Uni- versity Press. )

CLASSICAL scholars from the circumstances of their training ought to write better than the average man. This advantage in style is, however, not so common as might be expected, though one or two of our foremost scholars present their results with a charm and grace of language which should be obvious to readers. Dr. Verrall is one of this select body of specialists whom weiwould choose to read for mere pleasure. His work is always admirably lucid, irradiated with a fine sense of humour and character, and, in a word, eminently persuasive.

To the present writer his Euripidean studies are more than brilliant theory, but, even if they were not, they would be delightful. In the essay on ' The Bacchants ' he approaches that fine and curious play from the point of view of Prof. Norwood, who has published a book on ' The Kiddle of the Bacchse.' The summary of the religion Euripides described in the play and his purpose in so describing it, is an admirable and eloquent piece of writing. Incidentally, we-