Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/104

 98

NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.v. APRIL, 1919.

Probably the word here fittingly describes the tract of country in which the accident happened, but I believe that in each of the cases I have cittfd above the word forms part of the address of a house. It would seem, therefore, as if the two houses owe their names to the character of the surround- ing country. J. R. H.

WILLIAM NICHOLSON OF DUBLIN. Wm. Nicholson, gentleman (wife's name Mary Anne - ), resided on Pembroke Quay, Dublin, in 1861. His will was dated March 26, 1861. Particulars'^ his parent- age, with date and place of "his birth and marriage, desired. E/C. FINLAY.

PROCTOR FAMILY or DUBLIN. Nathaniel Proctor of Dublin married Anne Jane Paine in 1821, and had issue Anne Jane and Richard Nathaniel ; the latter married Dorothy Lamb. I shall be grateful for further particulars. E. C. FINLAY.

1634 Hyde Street, San Francisco, California.

FAMILY OF BROWN'S BAY. I should be grateful to any correspondent who could kindly give me information con- cerning the family of Brown of Brown's Bay, Island Magee, near Larne. Some monu- ments with their arms yet exist there. In 1690 the daughters of that house were famous for beauty, and in earlier times one of them was a witch known and dreaded as Fairy Brown. Y. T.

ALABACTJLTA, NAME OF A RACEHORSE.- In 1776 a filly of Lord Rockingham's, sub- sequently named Alabaculia, won the race which two years later was called the Don- caster St. Leger. Can any one explain the origin of this name, or afford any informa- tion ? I believe that G. A. Sala once investigated it, but do not know with what result. C. M. PRIOR.

Adstock Manor, Winslow, Bucks.

" WILDERING " : " WILDING." Keble, in his * Christian Year,' uses thce former of these words thus ( ' Fifth Sunday in Lent ' ) : ! Ye, too, who tend Christ's wildering flock, in the sense of " scattered." For this he was taken to task by a Church dignitary, but defended it by a reference to Ezekiel xxxiv. 12 and a passage from the Ordination Service. But later he capitulated :

^ With respect to the word, I find that according to^Johnson there is or was such a word as me, it is a verb active the same as to ' bewilder.' So it must be considered an error, and ' wandering '
 * wildering ' or ' to wilder ' only, unluckily for

or some such word must be substituted for it. I find it, unluckily, in the Oxford ' Psalter' also."

On this his biographer observes :

" In spite of this concluding sentence it will be found, I believe, that the word. ' wildering ' remained in all the editions published in his life- time, and the line remains unaltered still " (1868).

Has it been altered in any subsequent editions ?

The second word occurs in Crockett's ' Bog-Myrtle and Peat ' (p. 381) in a poem heading his story * The Biography of an " Inefficient " ' :

In the well-known precincts, lo the wilding treasure.

Have the two words any kinship in mean- ing ? Is the second a variant of the first ? J. B. McGovERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

CLIFTON FAMILY OF CLIFTON, NOTTS. Can any one inform me of the names, and dates of birth and death, of t.he two daughters and oo-heiresses of George Clifton, who was the fifth son of Sir Gervase Clifton, of Clifton, co. Notts, Baronet, who married Anne, only daughter and heiress to Robert Sacheverell of Barton ? Whom did the daughters marry ?

REGI SEMPER FIDELIS.

MISSEL THRUSH AND MISTLETOE SEEDS. I once saw a Latin verse quotation in which it was stated that the missel thrush, by sowing mistletoe seeds, sowed the means of its own death, i.e., by birdlime. I shall be grateful to any one who will send me this quotation. GEORGE SAMPSON.

BIRD -SCARING SONGS. Can any reader send me words or tunes of songs sung in old days by the children engaged "in bird- scaring ? GEORGE SAMPSON. Ramsdell Vicarage, Basingstoke.

" DRINK BY WORD OF MOUTH." This was a saying well known in Essex fifty years ago. Is there any classical or other autho- rity for its use ? Is it known elsewhere ?

J. J.

ODESSA IN ROMAN TIMES. Is it possible to say whether the site of Odessa was inside or outside the boundary of the Roman Empire ? It seems clear that it was very near to the boundary, one side or the other.

LAMPSO.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED : If of dull wits this stripling you suspect, Make him a Herald or an architect.

XYLOGRAPHER.