Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/189

 12 s. ix. AVO. 20, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 METCALFE. Philip and Thomas Metcalfe were admitted to Westminster School in June, 1785. I should be glad to obtain any information about their parentage and their respective careers. C4. F. R. B. MORELL. John Morell was admitted to Westminster School in April, 1740, aged 8, and William Morell in April, 1770. Any information about these two Morells is desired. G. F. R. B. THOMAS MAILIE was admitted to West- minster School April 29, 1771. Any in- formation about his parentage and career is desired. G. F. R. B. DICKSON FAMILY. I seek genealogical details of the ancestry and descendants of the following : 1. Mr. Dickson, Curator of the Historical Department, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. 2. Professor James Drckson of Edinburgh, born between 1820 and 1840. 3. James Dickson, a Writer of Dumfries in 1745. 4. James Dickson, Sheriff-Clerk at Dum- fries in 1750. 5. James Dickson, who married Margaret Lennox. She died in 1792. 6. Robert Dicksoun of Buchtrig (parish of Hownam, Roxburghshire), who married Agnes Edmonstoun, about 1610 to 1620. JAMES SETON- ANDERSON. 39, Carlisle Road, Hove, Sussex. STOCKER. In 1492 a William Stocker was Mayor of Winchester, and the same year his son William, aged 11 years, is mentioned as a scholar of Winchester College. In 1513, and 1518 again, a John Stocker was Mayor of Poole in Dorsetshire. Was there any rela- tionship between these Mayors of Winchester and Poole ? Any references to either of them prior to 1492 are much desired, or suggestions as to where information could be obtained. C. J. S. STOCKER. TOMOHRIT (TOMERIT) : AVATAR. What is the correct pronunciation, local of the first, scholarly of the second, word ? 1. Tennyson, " To E.L. on his travels in Greece," has : " Tomohrit, Athos, all things fair ..." (probably Tomohrit, as there is no other instance in the poem of trochee first foot). Byron, ' Childe Harold,' 2, 55 : " The sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit." The derivation (Tmaros, Tomarus) is no certain guide. 2. Campbell, 'Pleasures of Hope,' i. 599 (near end), has : " The tenth Avatar comes : at Heav'n's command " ; but Browning, ' Waring,' 11. 108, 262 (last) : " In Vishnu-land what Avatar ? " H. K. St. J. S. " TOFF." Can any reader tell me the origin of the word " toff " as describing a dandy or swell ? Is it purely slang ? RAVEN. 'CUCKOO PEN" AND "CUCKOO POUND." (12 S. ix. 91.) . THIS name is given on an Ordnance Map, I think the 6in. map, to a circular bank of earth about 100 yards in diameter in the wood near Bagshot Park. The locality is in Berkshire and is about a mile and three- quarters to the south of Swinley Rails, where the deer for the Royal Hunt were formerly kept. It may consequently have been a pen for deer. I have noticed three similar circular banks near what was formerly the Bigshot Rails, now Ravenswood, also in old Windsor Forest, and in Berkshire. I am not clear as to the distinction between the Rails and the Parks in the Forest, but believe the Rails were more directly in the hands of the Crown than the Parks. HORACE W. MONCKTON. A copse in a field just outside our Park bears the name of " Cuckoo Pen " and has done so beyond the memory of any living man. I have never heard any reason given for the name and the copse has no pecu- liarities. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield Park, near Reading. The story that villagers, in order to keep summer with them, endeavoured to pen in the cuckoo is found in very many parts of the country. It is told of the men of Gotham in Nottinghamshire, of the " carles of Austwick M in the West Riding of York- shire, of the people of Beaulieu in Hamp- shire, and of many "other localities ; and in
 * many places " cuckoo" pens " are pointed