Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ui s. vi. NOV. i. 1912.

here, and the tomb inscriptions show that many of them were of high rank.

William Tyndale Memorial. On Nibley Knoll, Gloucestershire, is an imposing column, lllft. high, erected in 1865 to Tyndale, under the supposition that he was a native of Nibley. Later investigation, however, showed that the William Tyndale who lived at Nibley was not the famous translator, and it is doubtful if he was in any way related to him. Thus this memo- rial was erected in error, yet is saved from futility by the fact that Tyndale the trans- lator resided for some years in Bristol and conducted a preaching mission through the western part of Gloucestershire.

Memorial to "The Welsh Heroine" at Fishguard. At Fishguard is the tomb of Jemina (sic) Nicholas, with the inscription :

rpu ll \i emoi 7 of Jernina Nicholas of this Town, Ine Welsh Heroine ' who boldly marched to meet the French Invaders."

Though nearly 50 years old at the time of the invasion, she boldly marched to meet the French, and her example had such a great influence on the troops and populace that no effort was spared till the last invader was driven off. Throughout the rest of her life she was honoured by the townsfolk, and when, thirty-five years after the descent, she passed away, both rich and poor united m paying tribute to her heroism. On the occasion of the centenary of her deed of bravery, a banquet was held in her honour and the memorial stone erected.

WILLIAM MACARTHUR. Dublin.

" TORPENHOW." The late Prof. Skeat's last book, ' The Science of Etymology,' is so valuable a work that one may, perhaps, be forgiven for drawing attention to a little lapse on p. 80. Referring to the Cumberland place-name Torpenhow, the Professor says :

" Tor, i.e., ' hill,' when obsolescent, was ex- plained by Pen, i.e., ' hill ' ; and when Torpen ceased to satisfy, it was explained by How, i.e., ' hill.' The words tor and pen are both Celtic ; how is Old Norse."

The etymology is very seductive, but so utterly improbable that one wonders how it came to pass the critical eye of the author. For there is hardly the shadow of a doubt that the whole name is Scandinavian, and that Torpen represents the O.N. personal name Thorfinn, found in the North of England as Torfin and Torphin, to which substitution of ph for / the form Torpin (variantly also Turpin) is ultimately due.

We see the intermediate form in the North Lancashire place-name Torphinsty (near the Westmorland border), formerly known as Thorfinstye and also Thorpenstye. There does not seem to be any real hill at Torpen- how, as it is in the flat portion of Cumber- land ; and the O.N. haug-r usually denotes a (burial-) mound or cairn.

HY. HARRISON.

" EXCORSE." This word, in the form " excourse," in the sense of barter, exchange, or " swop," is given on p. 386 of vol. iii. of the ' N.E.D.,' with two illustrations of its use, one of which is, however, described as " doubtful." The following example of the use of the word by the Deputy Recorder of Warwick in the twenty -ninth year of Elizabeth may, therefore, not be without interest. Part of the examination of a man charged with stealing a horse is thus recorded in ' The Book of John Fisher,' pp. 138-9 :

" And then unto a towne called Chesterfyeld wher was the fayre upon the Thursday being the xiiij th of September and there delued the sayde mare unto the sayde Hollins to sell in the same fayre, soe that the sayde Hollins dyd excorse the sayde mare for a dune grey nagge & hadd xiij" iiij 1 ' to boote."

A. C. C.

LONG " S," DATE OF DISAPPEARANCE. (See 1 S. xi. 49 ; 10 S. viii. 205, 258.) At the first of these references the earliest attempt to discard the long s in printing is dated about 1795, when Mr. J. Bell of the Strand courageously started the innovation. The other references show that in this matter, as in other changes of styles, it is not so simple to fix a time when the old custom was finally discontinued. An interesting illustration of the transition period may be seen in the third edition of Dr. John Watkins's ' Biographical, Historical, and Chronological Dictionary,' published in 1807. In this work the greater part (namely, as far as the article on Martin Madan) is printed with the short s ; the remainder, including three pages of the publisher's advertisements, has the long s. The printer evidently had exhausted his supply of the new type, and had to finish the work with his old type.

LEO C.

MlSS COGHLAN OF BATH PAINTED BY

GAINSBOROUGH. (See 10 S. ix. 9.) With regard to the query concerning the family of Miss Coghlan, to which I have seen no answer, it would appear from the mezzo- tint that Miss Coghlan was about 20 when the portraits were painted. If we assume she was