Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/41

 12 S. I. JAN. 8, 1916.1

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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original memorial rings, and have made copies to replace lost ones. There exists a bill of " John Salter to Lady Hamilton, from Jan., 1800, to 1803," and among the " items " are many presents ; so that if she gave n-emorial rings after 1306 she probably em- ployed his firm to make them. After her death in 1813 " the effects of Lady Hamilton, deceased," were advertised to be sold by auction by Messrs. Abbott at the instigation of a Mr. McGorman and other creditors, and Salter was instructed to safeguard " Miss Nelson's " interests by inspecting the cata- logue before the sale to ascertain if any of the articles belonged to her. His bill " for examining the inventory, and for making three fair copies thereof, and for giving notice to Abbott," &c., amounted to 31. 5s. Wd. In vol. vii. p. 389 of Sir Harris Nicolas' s ' Nelson's Dispatches ' is the account of Lord Nelson's visit to the shop of John Salter very early in the morning af Aug. 30, 1805, together with a copy of a paper " in the possession of Mrs. Salter " relating to the purchases he then made.

If any reader can give a detailed description of the diamond memorial ring, with Nelson's hair and inscription at the back, lent by Messrs. Lambert & Co. to the Chelsea Exhibition, it would be a valuable addition to the lore already collected by

rings. THOMAS FOLEY.
 * N. & Q.' on the subject of Nelson memorial

THE MEANING OF "TRENT" (11 S. xii. 502). The two lines of verse quoted by MR. DODGSON seem to be altered from Drayton, ' Polyolbion,' song 12, 11. 548-53, and song 26, 11. 187-92. Here are the lines from song 12 :

A more than usual power did in that name consist, Which thirty doth import ; by which she thus

divin'd,

There should be found in her ; of fishes thirty kind ; And thirty abbeys great, in places fat and rank, Should in succeeding time be builded on her bank ; And thirty several streams from many a sundry

way, Unto her greatness should their wat'ry tribute pay.

The note to " Trent " by the Rev. R. Hooper in his edition of 1876 is to the effect that the word means " thirty." S. L. PETTY.

It is the merit of Dr. Henry Bradley to have first discovered the ancient name of the River Trent, " Trisantona," by his ingenious emendation of Tacitus's * Annal.,' xii. 31, and, simultaneously, to have identi- fied with it the River Transhannonus, Trahannonus, or Trannonus of Nennius's


 * Historia [Britonum ' (cf . his two letters to

The Academy, vol. xxiii., of April 28 and May 19, 1883).

As to the original sense of this river-name, a foot-note may deserve to be quoted which occurs in Jos. Stevenson's edition of ' Nennii Historia Britonum ' (Lond., 1838), on p. 56, viz., that its (Cymric or Ancient Welsh) equivalent appears to have been the " Traeth Annwn," i.e., the Tract or Shore of the deep (sea) or region of the British Neptune.

Nennius describes the estuary of the Trent among the topographical wonders of Britain : " Ostium Trans Hannoni fluminis, quia in una unda instar montis ad sissam tegit littora, et recedit, ut cetera maiia " (Z.c.), thus alluding to the famous " Eagre, or tide-waves of its mouth, reaching as far back as Gainsborough " on its shore.

H. KREBS.

The lines quoted form the concluding couplet of stanza xxxv. of Canto XI. in the Fourth Book of Spenser's ' The Faerie Queene.' If the English river is derived from the French trente, surely it must be unique among river-names ; for such, as a rule, seem to be connected with the earliest settlers in a country in ours being derived from Keltic, Cymric, or Gaelic roots.

Can it be related to the verb " trend," in the sense of bending in some direction ?

A. R. BAYLEY.

Viator asked this question in the second chapter of the second part of ' The Compleat Angler,' but Piscator was unable to answer it ; and Mr. Johnstone in his recently pub- lished book on ' The Place-Names of England and Wales ' confesses that the origin of the name " seems unknow r n." G. F. R. B.

NATHANIEL LEE, THE DRAMATIST (11 S. xii. 502). It is hardly correct to say that Lee, " according to Lord Rochester, was 'well lasht' by the headmaster Busby." The lines to which reference is made, and which occur in Rochester's ' Horace's Tenth Satire of the First Book Imitated,' bear, as will be seen, a rather different signification. I quote from the Rochester of 1739' The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscomon, and Dorset. . . .,' 2 vols. : When Lee makes temperate Scipio fret and rave, And Hannibal a whining am'rous Slave, I laugh, and wish the hot-brain'd Fustian Fool In Busby's Hands, to be well lash'd at School. Scipio and Hannibal are important char- acters in Lee's ' Sophonisba ; or, Hannibal's Overthrow ' (4to, 1676), a vehement riming tragedy produced with great success by the King's Company. This passionate drama