Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/458

 376 NOTES AND QUERIES. [.2S.viii.siAY7,mi. SMALLEST PIG OF A LITTKR (12 S. viii. 331). Cheshire : " Hit," " ritling," or " ruckling " given in the Cheshire word-books. I think " ritling " is the commonest form. Halliwell says " ritling " is in use in various districts. Shropshire : " Ratling," " reckling," "rickling." "William aumust al'ays buys the ratlin', 'cause his wife is sich a good 'and at tiddin 'em on 'er never fails to make a good bacon on 'em." See Jackson's ' Shrop- shire Word -Book.' Kent : " Tantony pig " Tantony being a corruption of St. Anthony. See Grose. " To follow like a Tantony pig " is "to follow close on one's heels." See Hone's ' Everyday Book,' vol. i. p. 60. JOSEPH C. BRIDGE. Christ Church Vicarage, Chester. In Somerset this pig is called " nestle- tripe " (the first " t " is not sounded) : " an undersized, weakly, sucking-pig." Jennings adds : The weakest and poorest bird in the nest, applied, also, to the last born, and, usually, the weakest child of a family ; any young, weak or puny child or bird. In Devonshire the word is often written " nuzzletripe," but the ordinary pronun- ciation of the first syllable is the same as " nest," which is oftener sounded " nas " than " nus " or " nuz," W. G. WILLIS -WATSON. Single's Lodge, Pinhoe. The name invariably used in Bucking- hamshire is " dilling " ; it is sometimes applied to other diminutive objects, animate or inanimate, but the primary application is to the least of the litter of pigs. VALE OF AYLESBURY. Dr. Brewer's ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ' supplies " piggy-wiggy " or " piggy- whidden," with which is associated the name of a dwarf in Drayton's ' Nymphidia.' According to the compiler the diminutive pig was " wiggy " also because of its paleness, " whiddy "- meaning white. ST. S WITHIN. Co. Cork: " Bonneen " or " bonnine." Montgomeryshire : Ratlin. C. B. E. " SOME " (12 S. viii. 307). The same use of this word occurs in Shakespeare. " That were some spite," says Mercutio in ' Romeo and Juliet,' II. i. 28. I do not find this noted in the ' N.E.D.' C. C. B. The use of this word to give emphasis, as in modern slang, will be found in J. Russell Lowell's poem, 'The Courtin',' " Thet night, I tell ye, she looked some "- the word being italicized in the original. Again, in chap. i. of ' Tom Sawyer ' there is an exchange of compliments between Tom and another boy, in which the former uses the expression, " Smarty ! You think you're some now, don't you ? " Here again the word is printed in italics. " I don't think ! " is used by Sam Weller, and will also be found in Kingsley's ' Ravens- hoe.' F. .W. THOMAS. THE THAMES RUNNING DRY (12 S. viii. 332). Strype, in his edition of Stow's ' Survey of London ' (i. 58), mentions an instance, of which he was an eye-witness, in September, 1716, when the water of the Thames was so reduced by long drought and from the effects of a W.S.W. gale that people crossed the channel on foot both above and below the bridge and passed through most of the arches. A further instance is given by Stow in his ' Annals ' and is quoted by Richard Thomson in his ' Chronicles of London Bridge,' p. 359: Wednesday, the sixth of September [1591], the wind West-and-by-South, as it had beene for the space of two .days before, very boysterous, the riuer of Thamis was so void of water, by forcing out the fresh and keeping backe the sault, that men in diuers places might goe 200 paces over, and then fling a stone to the land. A Collier, on a mare, rode from the North side to the South, and backe againe, on either side of London Bridge, but not without danger of drowning both wayes. T. B. Redman, in a paper read before the Institute of Civil Engineers (Proceedings, vol. xlix., Session 1876-7, Part iii. ), mentions further instances of pedestrians crossing the river-bed near London Bridge, in the years 1114 and 1158, and again on Dec. 13, 1717, but gives no authorities. R. L. C. Does this help your correspondent ? I remember a particularly dry summer in the early 'eighties when I was in the habit of bathing every morning from a boat off Hammersmith. One morning the river looked so low that I determined to see if I could walk across. I started from the steps of Chiswick Ferry, walked to the end of the causeway, and just managed to cross on my toes to the other side. As I am 5ft. 6|in. in height this means that the river was not more than 5ft. at its deepest at that spot. I hear it was very shallow at Isleworth that year. WILLIAM BULL. Carlton Club.