Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/239

 128. V. SEPT, 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

233

, however, a man of exemplary worth, fit to ave adorned a higher station. His father, who was major in King William's army, had been born Dublin Castle during his father's lieutenancy t may be remarked that the family of the ord Protector Oliver Cromwell was one of good ccount, his uncle and godfather, Sir Oliver Crom rell, possessing estates in Huntingdonshire alone rhich were afterwards worth 30,000 a year. The rotector's mother, by an odd chance, was namec tewart; but it is altogether imaginary that she ore any traceable relationship to the royal family he race was originally Welsh, and bore the name >f Williams ; but the great-grandfather of the Pro- tector changed it to Cromwell, in compliance with i wish of Henry VIII., taking that particular name n honour of his relation, Thomas Cromwell, Earl )f Essex."

FRED. L. TAVARE. .22 Trentham Street, Pendleton, Manchester.

MBS. GKTJNDY. Within the last few weeks i Doctor of Divinity of some eminence eferred to this lady two or three times in a sermon preached in a cathedral church. She is as yet only about 120 years old, and t is perhaps too soon to affirm her im- nortality, but it strikes me that as a mere lame, in an almost forgotten play not one >f its personages her vitality is abnormal. Vhen Thomas Morton wrote ' Speed the 5 lough ' he could have had little idea how he fame of Mrs. Grundy, whom he never >rings upon the stage, would outlive that of very other character in his play.

ST. SWITHIN.

ROGER DE GLOUCESTER IN ' DOMESDAY.' In 1102 Roger de Gloucester made an xchange of lands with Serlo, Abbot of St. J eter's, Gloucester :

" Anno Domini millesimo centesimo secundo, erlo abbas fecit escambium cum Rogero de Houcestria, scilicet quod abbas habuit in West- ury habeat Bogerus in feodo absque decima quae et silvae, et abbas praedictus habeat in lemoeinam Sandhurst, et Erelyam, et terrain Ilsthetel, cum omnibus quae prsedictae terrae ertinent apud Hamme, et decimam suam "

Hist, et Cart. S. Petri de Gloucestria,' i. 112). Erelyam" should rather be " Atteleyam" s on p. 352.

Of the above lands given by Roger, Sand- lurst and Hatherley were in the king's ands in 1086 (Taylor, ' Analysis of the )omesday Survey of Gloucestershire,' p. 288-9). Hamme was already held by t. Peter's of Gloucester at that date (ibid., p. 320-1). Its identity is not certain Ibid., p. 205), but it was apparently close D Lassington (ibid., pp. 320-1), and of lassington we read in ' Domesday ':

" Ulchetel tenuit Lessedune. . . .Modo ten' tog' de Thoma Arch " (i. 1646.).

I suggest that it is at least highly probable that the " terra Ulsthetel " of 1102 was part of the estate held by Ulfketyl in 1066, and had retained the name of Ulfketyl' s land in spite of the change of ownership. If this were the case, the Roger who held of the Archbishop in 1086 would presumably be Roger de Gloucester, who has not previously been traced in ' Domesday ' so far as I know.

G. H. WHITE. 23 Weighton Eoad, Anerley.

" TOPPING " : " TOP-HOLE." In modern slang " topping " and " top-hole " have quite displaced " ripping." I venture to throw out the suggestion that " top-hole " may be merely a light-hearted variant of " topping " invented by, or conceived by. some horsey youth who had in mind the buckling of a horse's girth or belly-band to its top-hole.

But " topping " appears to have a respectable ancestry. The dictionaries give it as a synonym for " surpassing," " pre- eminent," " fine," " noble," " gallant," &c., and I have just come across it in Mr. Hardy's ' Far from the Madding Crowd, 1 chap, xxxviii. Gabriel Oak says to Boldwood, " You look strangely altered, Sir," and in reply to Boldwood' s disclaimer, remarks, " I thought you didn't look quite so topping as you u&ed to, that was all." J. R. H.

SUNDIAL MOTTO IN SAVOY. The follow- ing appeared in a Lausanne newspaper in, I think, 1913 :

' Tu ne sais 1'heure. On vient de restaurer a Thones, ures Annecy (Savoie), un vieux cadran solaire de 1690 qui se trouve en face de Peglise. L'aricienne devise ressort tres lisible maintenant : Tu vois 1'heure Tu ne scais 1'heure."

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

FRANCIS PLACE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST, 1771-1854. Neither the 'D.N.B.' norBates's Maclise Portrait Gallery ' in notices of the above mentions that he was foreman of the coroner's jury which in 1810 sat to inquire nto the death of Sellis, who was found to lave committed felo de se after having attempted to murder his master, Ernest, 3uke of Cumberland. In a later con- roversy, arising in 1832 on a prosecution or libel upon the Duke in connexion with he Sellis affair, Place, described as "of Charing Cross, man's mercer," figured in affidavits that were made and filed, and ppears to have himself published " a letter to the Public " under date of April 19, 1832.

W. B. H.