Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/464

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. III. OCT., 1917.

-col. 2, 1. 13, after " Tea Pots " insert and larger things. L. 18, read the Liquid and so is the -. . L. 39, read pushed when against the stream. L. 8 from foot, omit the first " after." L. 5 from foot, other possibilities of reading the proper name are Carveston, Cawston, Caverton, all of which seem nearer it than " Cavendish," my first suggestion. But as regards the other three, was there such a surname or title ? An eighteenth- century Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage might solve the riddle.

So much for the text. I add a few notes on places mentioned in it, with some queries " arising therefrom."

Monday 14th (p. 22, col. 1). Mere is a village in Cheshire, 1% miles N.E. of North- wich, and through it, on his way to the latter place, the diarist would have passed. But he has written " Mairn," or, as I now take it to be, " Maire," perhaps a phonetic spelling of the name. The " large, neat brick House belonging to Squire Brookes " was doubtless Mere Hall, an Elizabethan mansion. Who is the owner now ?

Thursday 17th (p. 63, col. 2). "The small village of Merford " is on the road from Chester to Wrexham, and 4f miles N.E. by N. of the latter place. It is in the parish of Gresford.

Sunday the 20th (p. 65, col. 1). The diarist thought at first of going on to Kidder- minster by " the Road thro' Enfield." By this name he means Enville, a Staffordshire village, which by the map seems to be about 8 miles S.E. of Bridgnorth, and nearly as many from Stourbridge, on the road to which it lies. Thence he would have had to travel back S.W. to Kidderminster, appa- rently another 10 miles. But the road he decided to take was much more direct, running almost due south, through Erdington, Highley, and Arley, to Kidderminster, a distance, as he says, of 14 miles. The other road, it seems to me from a study of the map, was at least 10 miles, and not " 4 Miles farther,", as he says it was the two sides of a triangle against one.

The same day, he goes on to record, " 4 Miles from Bridgnorth passed thro' the pretty green of Hartlebury, and at 9 went thro' a neat village called Armsberley." Here " Bridgnorth " is a lapsus calami of his for Kidderminster, for he had already left Kidderminster behind, and Hartlebury is 4 or 5 miles south of it, and 18 or 19 south of Bridgnorth. By " Armsberley " he means Ombersley another attempt at phonetic spelling. It is a village on the Severn, S. of .Hartlebury, and 6 miles N. of Worcester.

What is the name of the " Wood " at Worcester containing " the high tree under wh .... the Devil and Oliver Cromwell had their Conference," and of the " Hill from whence there is a fine View of the City " (p. 106, col. 2) ? PENRY LEWIS.

"UNBERUFEN" (12 S. iii. 417). COL. WELBY may like to know that the valuable abstract of the ' N.E.D.' known as ' The Concise Oxford Dictionary ' includes un- berufen, and gives the definition " Un- summoned (in E. use as deprecating Nemesis after boastful remark, &c.)." The feeling that the Almighty punishes self-satisfaction is very deeply rooted. I think the sequence of Nebuchadnezzar's boast must have strengthened it. ST. S WITHIN.

Why not the good old English " Heaven forfend ! " H. D. ELLIS.

" Absit omen " seems to be now the usual substitute. If any other is desired, I would suggest the well-known corresponding Greek idiom, Mi) yei/oiro. It is surely not more difficult to pronounce than the barbarous German equivalent.

J. FOSTEB PALMER. 8 Royal Avenue, S.W.3.

TITLE OF PLAY WANTED (12 S. iii. 386). The play is ' The Forest of Bondy ; or, The Dog of Montargis,' which was per- formed for the first time at Covent Garden, Sept. 30, 1814, when Lieut. Macaire was played by Farley, Col. Gontran by Barry- more, and the' Seneschal of Bondy by Egerton. Genest in his ' Account of the English Stage ' says that the melodrama was attributed to Henry Harris, and that the whole plot, of which he gives a sketch in vol. ix., turns on the sagacity of a dog ; " quadruped performers are a disgrace to the stage, but the dog of this piece must be exempted from the general censure."

EDWARD BENSLY.

The print referred to illustrates a scene in ' The Dog of Montargis ; or, The Forest of Bondy ' (the second title is sometimes placed first).

The drama was adapted from the French by W. Barrymore. It is not included in French's list, but is No. 163 in " Dicks's Standard Plays." ' The Forest of Bondy ' was a favourite piece on the toy stage, and was adapted for Green's, Skelt's and Webb's scenes and characters. Skelt published a sheet showing T. P. Cooke as Capt. Aubri, and Mr. Wood as Lieut. Landry ; and Webb