Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/332

 326

NOTES AND QUERIES. 12 s. v. DEC., 1919.

a variant of Noak, a contraction of atten oak (at the oak).

Eykyn, the Scotch Aikin, is A.-S. acen, oaken.

Amphlett has, I think, the double diminu- tive -lett, as in Hewlett (Hew, or Hugh-el-lot) ; and may be a Welsh contracted form of Humphry, viz., Humphlett, with loss of the aspirate. N. W. HILL.

35 Woburn Place. W.C.I.

Prof. Ernest Weekley, in * The Romance of Names,' at p. 161, derives Crowther from the archaic crowd or crowth, a fiddle, and points out that " the fiddler in ' Hudibras ' is called Crowdero."

At. p. 212 he says : " Devey and Dombey seem to be the diminutive forms of deaf and dumb, which are still used in dialect in reference to persons thus afflicted."

JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

If your correspondent has not already done so, he might refer with advantage to that informative and reliable repertory, Canon Bardsley's ' Dictionary of Surnames,' issued by the Oxford Press.

W. JAGGARD, Capt.

Repatriation Records Registry, Winchester.

[A. M. also thanked for 'reply]

ANTHONY TODD, SECRETARY OF THE G.P.O. (12 S. iv. 11, 114; v. 104, 164). The following occurs in a London newspaper (name at present unknown) :

" On Wednesday January 9th, 1782, as Anthony Todd, Esq., Secretary to the Post Office, was going home in his carriage to his house at Walthamstow, Essex, and another gentleman with him, he was stopped by two highwaymen, one of whom pre- sented a pistol to the Coachman's breast, whilst the other with a handkerchief over his face, robbed Mr Todd, and the other gentleman of their gold watches."

J. W. FAWCETT.

CHARLES I. : HIS JOURNEY FROM OXFORD TO SOUTHWELL (12 S. v. 182). An account of the route taken is given in * East Anglia and the Great Civil War,' by A. Kingston, pp. 224-32. Charles left Oxford at three o'clock in the morning, April 27, 1646, and travelled towards London. He then turned to Harrow-on-the-Hill and Barnet. Passing through St. Albans he lodged the night at Wheathampstead, probably at Lamer Park, the seat of Sir John Garrard. From thence he went through Stevenage, Graveley, Baldock, Royston to Newmarket and stayed at an inn probably at Bottisham. The next stage of the journey was by way of Brandon to Downham in Norfolk, where he lodged

at The Swan. On May 2 the King went t( Jrimplesham, a mile away, and disguisec limself as a clergyman, and Dr. Hudsoi who had been to Southwell) rejoined him The party then resumed their journey t< Southrie, Ely, Erith, Stukely (Hunts) t< the village of Coppingford near Stilton where they spent Saturday night and par of Sunday, May 3. The next place Charle stayed at, Sunday night, was Stamford either at the house of Mr. Cave or Mi Wolph. On Monday by travelling all da; until eleven o'clock at night they reache< Southwell and came to the Scots arnr before Newark on Tuesday morning, May 5 after a strange pilgrimage of nine aays eve at the risk of being discovered.

G. H. W.

"RAIN CATS AND DOGS " (12 S. iv. 328 v. 108, 166). The following extract fron The Daily Express may prove interesting t some readers of ' N. & Q.' :

RAINING CATARACTS. To the Editor of The Daily Express.

Sir, The phrase "raining cats and dogs" is corruption of the word "catadupe," meaning catanict.

The Greek Katadoupoi the cataracts of tli Nile, from Katadoupeo to fall with a heav sound.

It is raining cats and dogs it is raining cataract

Cannock. BERTRAM COOPER.

I have not seen the explanation before, an it is new to me.

CHRISTIAN E. P. GROTH, M.A.(Camb).

DAVID, " EPISCOPUS RECREENSIS " (12 ! v. 238). This prelate is mentioned in Bishc Stubbs' ' Registrum Sacrum Anglicanuir (2nd edn., Oxford, 1897, p. 195) as " suffragan of York," and as pontificatir as such in 1316 and 1317. But the name < his see is not explained. He does not see: to be mentioned by either Gams or Eubel. None of the Irish bishops, employed i " suffragans " in England, bears a nan anything like " Recreensis " (Stubt I pp. 204-9). W. A. B. C.

" ARGYLES " OR GRAVY-POTS (12 S. v. 15 219, 248). We have had a plated " Argyle in our family for a great number of years, was in use constantly during my gran father's lifetime, and was believed to ha 1 been inherited by him from his father, have not papers at hand to show the dates our grandfather's birth and death, but 1 i was not very young when married in 179 ' so that the " Argyle " my brother (Re S. C. Sharland, Sedbergh) now possesses