Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/184

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. HI. MAR. 4, 1911.

VOLE'S 'LES ABBIVANTS ' (11 S.,iii. ). Probably chemin de table ouvrage should be rendered " embroidered table- centre." One meaning of chemin is a long and narrow carpet laid on the parquet of a room, or vestibule, from one door to another. See ' Dictionnaire de la Langue Franaise abrege du Dictionnaice de E. Littre, 1886.' The narrow ornamental cloth laid along the middle of a dinner table is not unlikely to bear the same name. M. P.

Sm ROBERT PEEL AND HIS SPEECHES (11 S. iii. 107). So far as our knowledge of the public and private life of Sir Robert Peel goes, there is nothing, in the practice attri- buted to him, in any way inconsistent with his known character as a Christian gentleman. At the same time the story can hardly be received with entire confidence, inasmuch as it is claimed on behalf of others. Many years ago it was my lot on one occasion to be pre- sent at a small private gathering of Liberals, when the self-same story with certain modi- fications was told as characteristic of Lord Beaconsfield. The relation, it is true, was not received with unquestioning faith, but at the same time it seemed to awaken in those who heard it every symptom of lively satisfaction. May I be pardoned for saying that such stories are perhaps not altogether in good taste as they savour too much of unwarrantable intrusion into the sacred relations subsisting between a man and his 'Maker ? Moreover, they are, I fear, in many instances pure fabrications, told for a certain purpose, or at best with but a slender basis of fact to rest upon. The pride shown by one political party over the eminent religious character of its. leader is apt to stimulate in the opposite side a spirit of emulation, and a keen desire to prove (in popular phraseology) " our man as good as theirs." It all looks a little childish, and reminds one of the two little boys in Barrie's ' Sentimental Tommy' contending for the relative superiority of London and Thrums. " There ain't no queens in Thrums, anyhow " an indis- putable fact, but met with the triumphant retort " There's the auld licht minister."

TOE REA.

DBYDEN AS A PLACE-NAME (11 S. iii. 68, 137). At the time of writing I have not access to my original query on the above subject. I intended, however, to suggest not that the place-name Dryden was derived from a family of that name which had come from England, but thatjfcthe ancestors of

John Dryden, the poet, who were settled in Cumberland, were of Scottish origin and derived their surname from a Scottisli place- name. I know of no early instances of the- family name of Dryden, nor of any instances of the place-name Dryden, in England. John Dryden (great-grandfather of the poet) who appeared in Northamptonshire in the first half of the sixteenth century, is stated to have been a son of Daniel (or David) Dryden, of Staffe Hill, co. Cumberland, and grandson of William Dryden of Walton, in the same county. This John Dryden was a man of substance, and in his will he directs that his arms and those of his wife,. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Cope, should be engraved on the brass to his memory. I can offer no suggestion as to the reason of John Dry den's removal into Northampton- shire. He seems to have possessed property there, part of which is described as " parcel of his inheritance." I am much obliged to F. H. S. and MB. W. SCOTT for their infor- mation. P. D. M.

DOM FBANCISCO MANUEL DE MELLO (11 S. iii. 107). Sir William Temple had conversed with him, though the date of their meeting is not given.

" I rememb~er Don Francisco de Melo, a Portugal Ambassador in England, told me, it was frequent in> his Country for Men spent with Age or other Decays, so as they could not hope for above a Year or two of Life, to ship themselves away in a Brazil Fleet, and after their Arrival there to go on a great Length, sometime of twenty or thirty Years, or more, by the Force of that Vigour they recovered with that Remove."' Of Health and Long Lite/ in ' Miscellanea,' part iii. vol. i. p. 273 in 1750 edition- of Temple's Works.

Lamb used this passage in his essay on c The Genteel Style in Writing.'

EDWABD BENSLY.

"-DE-" : " -TY- "(US. iii. 108). I cannot answer this query, but I am much interested in it as it refers to a name which has puzzled me for some time. There is a pit or pond on the west side of the Isle of Waliiey,. Lancashire, which is called the Lamitysike Pit, and the adjoining fields are known as Lamity Closes. In the deeds relating to these the name is variously spelt Lamity, Lamentea, Lamenty, Lamentia, and Lam- berty. What is the meaning of this name ? A sike is a marshy stream, but further I cannot get.

At the same place (and in others in the north of England) is a field called Toad Pot, sometimes written Yoad Pot or T'yoad Pot. What does that mean ?