Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/504

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. v. MAY 25, 1912.

(1751). It reappears in all the early editions of Thomson's works. The transpontine character of the unusual version in itself condemns it. W. B.

[W. B. S. also thanked for reply.]

SIBBEBING (11 S. v. 290). ' The Annual Monitor ' for 1853 (p. 183) gives a reference to the death of William Sibbering of Swansea, aged 51. The same work for 1872 (p. 182) gives the death of another William Sibbering, aged 25. And a third reference is found in 1872 (p. 182) to an Elizabeth Sibbering, aged 71. There is a letter of William Sibbering to one of the Crosfield family preserved at the Friends' Library, Devonshire House, E.C. All the above Sibberings are from Swansea.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

WHORLOW (11 S. v. 309). If this is the name of a place on or near a round hill it probably represents the Gaelic words cor, round hill, and lamh, hill. Some persons had called it by the first term, and others by the second, and then both had been com- bined. Cor, having been regarded as a qualifying word, had become ckor, which had lapsed into whor ; and lamh had become la (mh becoming silent), and subsequently low. A town in Lancashire is named Chorley.

I am preparing for publication a list of Gaelic names, and should be glad to be told privately if the meaning given is appropriate. JOHN MILNE, LL.D.

Aberdeen.

SIGNS OF OLD LONDON (11 S. i. 402 465 ii. 323 ; iii. 64, 426 ; iv. 226 ; v. 4, 77, 286). While on the subject of the tavern signs of Shakespeare may I note the one mentioned

m ' The Taming of the Shrew,' IV. v. 5 ?

Signer Baptista may remember me, Near twenty years ago, in Genoa, Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.

W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.

One paragraph in MR. McEiAVAisrE's com- munication is somewhat surprising. He seriously asks whether " The Bear " at Bridge Foot really existed. There is a long account of it in Wheatley, 'London Past and Present,' i. 135-6, where it is described as a 'celebrated tavern." It \vas appa- rently mentioned as early as 1312. A token was issued from it, by Cornelius Cook " at the Bridge Fot," with the design of a bear and chain. This Cook was a colonel m Cromwell's army, and a churchwarden

of St. Glare's. The house is also discussed in Boyne's ' Tradesmen's Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century/ 2nd ed.. ii. 1017-18. It stood in Southwark. at the end of London Bridge, and was pulled down in 1761, when the bridge was widened.

" The King's Head Tavern " in Old Fish Street (Upper Thames Street) issued a fine token bearing a bust of Henry VII., see- Boyne'as just mentioned, i. 690, and also Wheatley's ' London Past and Present,' ii. 344. " The Star," on "Breed Streete Hill,' r issued a token in 1649. bearing a star of eight points ; and there was a coffee-house in "Star-Covrt, Bread - Street," which also- issued one bearing a star of eight points- See Boyne, i. 345-6. A. RHODES.

AUTHORS OR EXPLANATIONS W ANTED- (US. v. 230, 336,371). 15. Quoted again by Carlyle in ' Sartor Resartus,' bk. ii. chap, ix- ad fin., in the form " Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action," from Goethe's ' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,' bk. v. chap, xvi., " dass jede Art von Zweifel nur durch Wirksamkeit gehoben werden kann," or in Carlyle 's own translation, " that doubt of any kind can be removed by nothing but activity."

16. The reference is to' Wilhelm Meisters Travels,' as translated by Carlyle, chap. xiv. :

" ' We look upon our scholars,' said the Over- seer, ' as so many swimmers, who, in the element which threatened to swallow them, feel with astonishment that they are lighter, that it bears and carries them forward : and so it is with every- thing that man undertakes.' "

The passage will be found in bk. ii. chap. viii. of the ' Wanderjahre,' in the final form of the work :

" ' Wir sehen unsere Schiiler,' sagte der Aufseher,. ' samtlich a Is Schwimmer an, welche mit Ver- wunderung im Element e, das sie zu verschlingett droht. sich leichter fiihlen, von ihm gehoben und: getragen sind : und so 1st es mit allem, dessert sich der Mensch unterfangt.' "

17. Cf. " dancing ruby," Milton, ' Samsoa Agonistes,' 543.

L. R. M. STRACHAN, Heidelberg.

I'ANSON (11 S. v. 330). This is aa Anglicized form of the Scandinavian lanserv or Jansen. On p. 1 73 of Barber's ' British Family Names' (1903) readers are referred to the name Johnson, and under this head we have Danish Johannsen, Johanson,. Johnssen, Johnson ; Swedish Jansen. Jplms- son. ; Dutch Jannissen. Jansen, Johannissen, Johanson.