Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/367

 ii s. vii. MAY io, Has.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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by an uncle "). Tartar meets the same fate. The two muscular clergymen and the nearly exhausted Drood overpower and secure the murderer.

Datchery was the clerical husband of the sister of the China Shepherdess. Casually mentioned early in the book, he is not brought into action till late in the tale, just as a rook in chess is stationary for a long time, but destined to be of value at the finish. A man of leisure, Datchery is also an old college chum and close per- sonal friend of the Dean, anxious to assist his sister-in-law (Mrs. Crisparkle) and the Dean in getting to the bottom of the trouble. Happening (with his wife) to be a Christmas guest in Minor Canon Corner, he was the " one exception " who did not " straggle " back with Jasper, Crisparkle, and Neville after the arrest of the last-named. He may have suddenly formed ideas of his own and gone direct alone to consult the Dean, or he may have returned walking to his brother-in-law's right (Neville being to Crisparkle's left) as an accepted custodian of the suspect, and not one of a " straggling " and gradually increasing throng of onlookers. He disguises himself just sufficiently to escape recognition by any chance London parishioner or other acquaintance in Clois- terham. Neville was another Datchery, but usually in London. Helena, too, may have appeared as Datchery in London, but never in Cloisterham. The idea of Helena being Datchery in Cloisterham is too absurd to be entertained for a moment. The Datcherys, fearing self-betrayal by their handwriting, communicate with each other in chalk on the cupboard door. The three of them play havoc with Jasper's nerves. He refuses to believe his own eye- sight at last, hence his distrust of the real Drood as a real person in the upper chamber.

It has been stated that a still living con- temporary of Dickens was told by the novelist that Drood was to be killed. Such evidence is entitled to respectful acceptance. We must then assume that Jasper threw Drood after Neville, and that Tartar married Rosa. It is known, however, that the final chapter of ' Great Expectations ' was mate- rially altered by Dickens at the last moment to please his readers. It is possible that Dickens might have similarly changed his mind as to the fate of Drood. When Rosa and Drood parted, it is clear that Dickens intended them to meet again. All readers of the story would like them to have married at the end. WILMOT CORFIELD.

"MEEND," "MYENDE," " ME AND."

THIS local term is frequent in the Forest of Dene, as Clearwell Meend, Allaston Meend, Lower Meend, &c. Dr. E. McClure (p. 158, ' British Place -Names,' note) connects it directly with the Cornish menedh, Welsh mynydd, i.e., the Long Minde (La Munede), co. Salop, signifying mountain, or ridge.

I venture to think that this view rests upon insufficient basis. First of all, such ridges as are in that region have always been called so, i.e. Serridge (thirteenth cent, "Seyrruge"); and when the thirteenth- century Forest scribe refers to an excep- tional hill, he frankly terms it Mons. Not a single instance of Mynydd has survived iix that peculiarly conservative region ; whereas there are over twenty Meends. Secondly, wherever this term occurs it carries the sense of open untilled, or common, land, throughout the various Bailiwicks ; in fact, it is identical with the mean lands of co. Kent : lands held in common, O.E. gemcene. That being so, it is of some interest to note that between the Church of St. Mary de Lode (i.e. ferry) and the Severn, at Gloucester, there is still a riverside hamm (homme) called Mean- ham(m). In Speed's map, 1610, it is duly marked Myen-ham. It was also known as the Mene-mede. I find that there was a Great, and a Little, Mene-mead, and they adjoined. Over them the Mayor and bur- gesses, as well as the Convent of St. Peter, possessed common-pasture rights.

It is, therefore, of still more interest to find that the name of the way which led to this mead directly from the above- mentioned church was known for centuries as the Myende Lane, Myinde Lone, the Miindelone, also (?pl.) Myinges Lane (cf. ' Cal. Corp. Records,' ed. W. H. Stevenson, 1893), " lying between the land of the Abbot of Gloucester on the east, and the land belonging to the service of St. Mary, in the Church of St. Mary, before the gate (ante Portam) of the Abbey, on the west," 1423-4, No. 1085.

The other mentions of the position and name of lane and meadow all agree. Thus in 1303 (No. 773) it is called the Miindelone. In 1284-7 it is Miendelone ; in 1275-6, Myende- Lone; c. 1260 it is Themiindelone ; while in the * Hist, et Cart. S. Petri ' (ii. 243) the name is spelt Mihindelone (A.D. 1263). We have a Gloucestershire parson, of Bagendon in 1330, called John of Mund-lone (Cal. Pat. R., m. 136 b). There can, then, be no question about the identity of the significance of myen, or myende, with regard to this lane