Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/425

 ii s. iv. NOV. is, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of date Dacre appears prior to any Thack- wray record, and through the first vowel in each being alike, a kinship superior even to that claimed for Dockwra is manifest. It may have been owing to the Saxon or English habit of using the sound th, where a Norman or Frenchman would use a pure dental, that an easier prelude to the guttural ac obtained in Thackeray. The Norman's r, also, well pronounced by him, would be certain to prompt his English hearers to make good their own shortcomings by a firmer vowel-termination.

J. N. DOWLING. 48, Gough "Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

In Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, too, the natives generally speak of thatch as thack. I recall an old couplet well known in the former county : Thack and dyke Northamptonshire like.

JOHN T. PAGE.

POPE'S DESCRIPTION or SWIFT (11 S. iv. 270, 314). I do not know whether the text of Malone's selections from Spence's MS. quoted by MR. WHEELER reads " look of darkness," but Singer's edition of the ' Anecdotes ' and Forster in his ' Life of Swift ' have " look of dulness."

EDWARD BENSLY.

HENRY FIELDING AND THE CIVIL POWER (11 S. iii. 486 ; iv. 58, 277, 336). I have no doubt that Henry Fielding was the "Worshipful Justice Fielding" of The London Morning Penny Post, but the point is not so certain as MR. ROBBINS thinks, because, as Miss Godden points out in her ' Henry Fielding,' 1910, p. 219, both John and Henry appear to have been known as " Justice Fielding " during the lifetime of the latter. Henry Fielding was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Westminster on 26 October, 1748, and on 13 January, 1749, as a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex. His work in this dual capacity was exceed- ingly heavy, and his half-brother John seems to have assisted him for some years before he left England for Lisbon. In September, 1751, cases were brought before John Fielding and others " at Henry Field- ing's house in Bow Street " ; and in October, to which month MR. ROBBINS' s extract belongs, John appears among the Justices of the Westminster Quarter Sessions (Middle- sex Records Sessions Books, October, 1751). In Mrs. Charles Calvert's ballad, "Field- ing's gang " refers to the Bow Street runners, who were a kind of police force under the

orders of the magistrate at Bow Street. Fielding would have been surprised to hear himself called " the celebrated Bow Street detective." The word " detective," for an investigator of crime, is quite a modern term. Sir James Murray's first date-quota tion for it is 1843. Unless we know the date of the ballad, it is impossible to say whether The Times or The Morning Post is right, as the reference may be to either of the brothers. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Confining my reply altogether to the query of ST. SWITHIN at the last reference, whether The Morning Post or The Times comment is the correct one, I favour that of The Morning Post. Both Henry Fielding and his half-brother Sir John Fielding were magistrates for Middlesex and Westminster. On all hands Henry is admitted to have been a most upright, diligent, and efficient magistrate. In 1751 he published his ' Inquiry into the Increase of Robbers/ in which he suggested remedies, which were subsequently adopted, his half-brother taking a leading part in the reforms. At the time of writing his ' Inquiry ' Henry was in exceedingly bad health, and unable to do much in carrying out his own sugges- tions. In 1754 he went to Lisbon in search of health, as a forlorn hope, and died there on 8 October of that year.

F. A. RUSSELL.

4, Nelgarde Road, Catford, S.E.

PIRATES ON STEALING (11 S. iv. 248). The quotation is from ' Tom Sawyer,' the concluding lines of the twelfth chapter. P.

WYMONDLEY TRADITION AND JULIUS (11 S. iv. 287). Of course any connexion of Julius Caesar with this tree is quite out of the question ; unless indeed, as MR. GERISH suggests, Caesar set up a mound on the spot, which, having remained for 1,200 years, was replaced by a tree. This seems to be almost equally impossible. Whatever age tradition may assign to it, the tree is probably not more than 500 years old. Chestnuts, I believe, were not known in this country earlier than that, and they cannot be compared with oaks, which have a much longer life ; and this tree has certainly not the appearance of age which some of the older oaks have. There is a local tradition that the tree was mentioned in Domesday Book. This is entirely mythical, as are the numerous similar traditions relating to trees (usually oaks) in several of the English counties.

J. FOSTER PALMER.