Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/320

 314

NOTES AND QUEEIES. [ii s. iv. OCT. u, mi.

Unfortunately, I do notj^possess the letter-

Eress which accompanied this engraving, n the same journal of 5 September, 1874, appeared a long article on Leicester Square, but " the gilt metal statue of George I. on horseback " was dismissed in a couple of lines. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

POPE'S DESCRIPTION or SWIFT (11 S. iv. 270). Thackeray doubtless got this from ' Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men,' by the Rev. Joseph Spence. Pope is there quoted as saying in 1735 :

''That picture of Dr. Swift is very like him: though his face has a look of darkness in it, he has very particular eyes : they are quite azure as the heavens, and there is a very uncommon archness in them."

Edmund Malone's note says the picture was probably a portrait of Swift by Jervas. The above extract is from Murray's edition of Spence, 1820, p. 135.

STEPHEN WHEELER. Oriental Club, Hanover Square.

See Joseph Spence's ' Anecdotes,' edited by S. W. Singer, 1820 ; Underbill's selection from the ' Anecdotes,' p. 87 ; and Forster's
 * Life of Swift,' p. 227.

EDWARD BENSLY.

[MR. T. BAYNE and MR. W. E. BROWNING also thanked for replies.]

" BEAT AS BATTY " : " BUSY AS BATTY " <11 S. iv. 250). I remember well the phrase " busy as Batty " in Eastern Corn- wall forty years ago ; but I always took it to have a satirical suggestion, it being- applied to those who made a parade of their -energy who, in fact, were bustling rather than truly busy. DUNHEVED.

TATTERSHALL: ELSHAM: CRANTHAM (US. iv. 269). There is no difficulty as to the original pronunciation, whatever it may be now. There is no such suffix as -shall, or -sham, or -tham, or -pham, though all these are now fairly common. For example, there are Elt-ham and Mep-ham in Kent, which those who go by the spelling pro- nounce as El-tham and Me-pham or Me-fam. The countryman often preserves the old sound, because he goes by what he has heard rather than by what he reads. A good example is Acle in Norfolk, which old people used to pronounce as Ac-lea (i.e., Oak-lea) ; but the learned reader pronounces it as Aikel, which is nonsense. In the case of Tattershall, I believe the r to be modern; for it is spelt Tatteshalle in the

' Inquisitiones post Mortem,' i. 286, temp. Edw. II. The apparent sense is " Tatt's hall" or "Tat's hall"; compare Tatsfield in Surrey. The way to verify this is for some one with leisure to find out the oldest known spellings.

So, also, for the certain solution of Elsham and Grantham, we require very early spel- lings. Failing these, I should guess Elsham to mean " JElli's home," with the same prefix as Els-worth in Cambs.

And I should guess Grantham (spelt as now in the time of Edward I.) to mean " home [or else " ham," i.e., enclosure] beside the Grant," notwithstanding the fact that it is now called the Witham. Grant is well known to be a Celtic river-name, occur- ring in Grantabridge, the old name of Cam- bridge, and in Grantachester, the still older name of Cambridge referred to by Beda ; also in the old Grant-sete, afterwards altered to Granceter, and respelt Grantchester, later than 1700, by confusion with Beda's name for Cambridge ; for the antiquaries of the eighteenth century delighted in making " learned " mistakes.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

In my copy of ' Topographical Account of Tattershall,' printed at Horncastle in 1813, the alternate name given is Tateshall, and the arms of Tateshall are mentioned as appearing on the chimney pieces.

J. JACOBS.

149, Edgware Road, W.

The " educated superior " is a creature of modern growth. The late Canon Worsley, Rector of Little Ponton, and his family, always called their neighbouring town Grant-' am ; and some 60 years ago a farmer at- Saltfleetby was always called Mr. Grant-' am, by the educated and un- educated alike. J. T. F. Winter ton, Doncaster.

Grantham is my native town, and I have always understood that it was Grant-ham. ' The Century Cyclopaedia of Names ' has " grant-am," and Blackie's ' Comprehensive Dictionary ' gives the same pronunciation, with the addition of the aspirate in the latter syllable. Grantham people generally say Grant-um. A few years ago I saw on a gingerbread stall at a Lancashire fair the painted legend " Grantum Gingerbread." W. H. PINCHBECK.

Words with such terminations are snares for compositors. See, e.g., ' D.N.B.,' xxxvi. 29 9a, " Hot-ham." The pronunciation is Hiith-am. W. C. B.