Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/229

. NO ii. f MAR. is. '56.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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2. "Alfred's Appeal; containing his Address to the Court of King's Bench on the subject of the Marriage of Mary Anne Fitzherbert, and her Intrigue with Count Bellois. London, 1789." No publisher's name.

The name of the writer, " Philip Withers," on the last page, viz. p. 88.

3. "Alfred's Apology. Second Part. Containing a Letter to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; with a Summary of the Trial of the Editor of the Nemesis, on the Prosecution of Mrs. Fitzherbert for a Libel ; with Remarks by Alfred. ' Deum appello et proroco ad Popu- lum,' Livy, viii. 33. London : Entered at Stationers' Hall, and sold at No. 9. Queen Street, near Grosvenor Square. 1789."

M. N. S.

The Cobbe of Lyme (2 nd S. i. 153.) Campbell in his Political Survey of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 351., says :

" Lyme harbour is such an one as is not to be found in this, or perhaps any other kingdom, and seems to have been of the inhabitants' own. contrivance. It was origin- ally constructed, though at what time we know not, by weighing up vast rocks out of the sea with empty casks, which being placed in regular order to a considerable breadth, and carried out a great way, some say more than three hundred yards, the interstices being filled up with earth, the heaviest carriages safely pass, and large build- ings, amongst others a handsome custom-house upon pillars, with a corn-market under it, and warehouses have been erected thereon. This singular work, which answers the intention of a pier, is called the Cobbe, and for the keeping it in constant repair, which is done at the ex pence of the town, and proves sometimes very chargeable, there are annually chosen two cobbe-war- dens."

References : Leland's Itinerary, vol. iii. p. 43. ; Andrew Borde's Perigrinations in the Catalogue of Havens ; Harrison's Description of Britain, c. XTI. p. 58.; Stukeley's Itinerarium Curiosum, p. 152.; Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 11.; Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. ri. p. 429. ; Keble's Statutes, p. 913. ; Brome's Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales, p. 259. ; Cutler's Coasting Pilot, p. 12. R. W. HACKWOOD.

The cobbe of Lyme was from the first called likewise the conners. There was a cobbe at Swan- age, in Dorsetshire, and nowhere else. The deri- vation of these words is not quite satisfactorily explained. When built in Edward I.'s reign there was much Cornish or Celtic in the west. See Roberts's Hixtory of Lyme Regis, Dorset. In the Tower Records this marine work is styled " Lc Pier Key," or " Le Cobb." G. R. L.

Stotharrr.v Mother (2 nd S. i. 133.) In " N. & Q." of Feb. 16., I find you ask a question respecting my father's family, signed PRIOH ROBERT.

Thomas Stothard, R.A., was the son of Mary, the daughter of Elizabeth Reynolds, a niece of D'Anvers Ilodires, of Broadwell, Gloucestershire, and of the Middle Temple, to whose descendant.*, male and female, D'Anvers Hodges, by his will

dated 1720 or 1721, left his large estates, in de- mise of which without issue also, to Henry Doughty, his cousin ; who, marrying one of Mr. Hodges's nieces, subsequently had issue, who enjoyed the estate. The Misses Doughty of Doughty-Street, the grand-daughters of this Henry Doughty, were Stothard's third cousins. Stothard's uncle Reynolds would, had he lived, have enjoyed the estates, but, dying before he was of age, Thomas Doughty succeeded him, and took the name of Hodges. John Reynolds, having married the niece of D'Anvers Hodges, became his executor. ROBERT T. STOTHAHD.

Shakspeare : " When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" (2 nd S. i. 151.) MR. C. M. INGLEBY speaks of Sir D. Brewster's use of " mortal coil " for the body of a creature, as the " common interpretation " of this phrase. I be- lieve, on the contrary, that Sir D. B. was the first person who so understood the phrase, and he ought to be the last. The word " coil " occurs at least nine times in Shnkspeare, and in every case it manifestly means turmoil, tumult. The same is the case with all other writers of English. We have indeed another word, the " coil " of- a rope ; but this also does not mean " covering," which seems to be the sense intended by Sir D. B. And if coil had meant covering, would it have been proper to speak of the " mortal coil " of other creatures than man ? Certainly though animals are mortal, " mortal life," " mortal state," and the like, mean the life, the state, &c. of man only, and not of any other creature. X.

Passages in Gower (2 nd S. i. 174.) The pas- sage in Gower

" She leveth nought all that she hereth, And thus full ot't herself she skiereth, And is all ware of ' had I wist,' "

it seems to me, may be explained thus :

" She is on her guard against being deceived, so that she may have no occasion to say when it is too late, ' Had 1 wist,' had I but known it.' "

That this expression, " had I wist," was proverbial at the time, is evident from its occurring again in a similar way in the fourth book of the Confessio A mantis :

" For many a vice, as saith the clerke, There hongen upon slouthes lappe, Of such as make a man mishappe, To pleigne and tell of ' had I wist,' "

where the meaning clearly is, that the evils at- tending on sloth are of such a kind as to occasion men mishap, and then they complain and say, " Had I but known it."

Canele is from the French canelle, cinnamon.

Mone. Is this word possibly connected with monyal, which in Piers Plouhman means " a nun," and with the French moinef Is there