Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/133

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S. I. FEB. 12, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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(laced across the road which runs by the high ridge >f hill, now called Reigate hill. He is also inclined >o think that the gate existed so early as the f orma- ion of the Saxon Stane-street, and there are many >ther places in the vicinity, the names of which germinate in a similar way, all seemingly derived
 * 'rom a like circumstance."

From the authorities I am able to question m the subject I should conclude that the name has come down from the period of the Danish invasion, as I find that ridge may be either from A.-S. hrycg or Dan. ryg, while gate may be either Dan. gade or Icel. gata. In support of this view, Lewis states that " the inhabitants are recorded to have routed the Danes, when they were ravaging the kingdom, on more than one occasion." Reigate must have been a place of some importance in the early centuries, since it sent two members to Parliament from the time of Edward I. until 1832, when it was deprived of one member by the Reform Act, being finally disfranchised for corruption in 1867. The manor is said to have belonged to Queen Edith in the time of the Confessor.

B. H. L.

DR. PETER TEMPLEMAN. The Rev. William Cole's manuscript collections for 'Athense Cantabrigienses,' bequeathed by him to the British Museum, because, in his opinion, their presentation to the library of his own college at Cambridge would have been equivalent to "throwing them into a horsepond," consist for the most part merely of references to printed books where notices of eminent Cam- bridge men are to be found. With regard, however, to those of his contemporaries with whom he was personally acquainted he often made original and not always very flattering remarks. Some of these entries have been printed by Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges in his Restituta,' but there are many others which have not yet seen the light. A few of them I have already communicated to ' N". & Q.,' and as Cole, like many other careless anti- quaries and collectors, used common ink which is growing paler every day, I now send for preservation in your pages the sub- joined notes concerning Peter Templeman, M.D., Keeper of the Reading-Room in the British Museum, and afterwards Secretary to the Society of Arts :

'"On Saturday last [Aug. 23, 1769] died after a long illness, Peter Templeman, M.D., Secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manu- factures, and Commerce. He was author of an Abridgement of the Memoirs of the French Aca- demy; a translation of Capt. Norden's Travels through Egypt; and several other ingenious per- formances, and was esteemed a man of great learning. Cambridge Chronicle, Saturday, 30 Aug.,

" I think he was of Trinity College ; I know his brother was, who had a wen on one side of his under jaw, and with whom I was acquainted, meeting him frequently at Dr. Conyers Middleton's, to whom he was related, as well as to his second wife, of the name of Place. He was of Dorset- shire, if not of Dorchester, and very nearly related to Mr. Joshua Channing, wholesale linen draper in Cheapside, of Dorchester also, who married my first cousin, Mrs. Mary Cock, daughter of Mr. Joseph Cock, merchant of Cambridge, and sister of Dr. Cock, rector of Horkesley and Debden, in Essex.

" ' The Doctor was the son of a gentleman of con- siderable fortune in Dorsetshire, and educated in the profession of Physic in the University of Cam- bridge. His friends procured him the office of Reading Librarian at the British Museum, which he enjoyed for some time, and on the resolution of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., to appoint a Secretary, who was a man of letters, he was chosen to that post in 1760, and continued in it to his death.' London Chronicle, 26 Sept., 1769." -MS. Addit. 5882, f. 105.

Templeman was educated at Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1731, but he obtained his degree of M.D. from the University of Leyden on 10 Sept., 1737 (' Album Studiosorum Acad. Lugd. Bat.,' 1875, p. 967).

The date of his death is usually given as 23 Sept., 1769. It is evident, however, from the extract from the Cambridge Chronicle cited above that he really died on 23 Aug. in that year. THOMPSON COOPER, F.S.A.

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AT WATERLOO. With reference to the exception taken by Viscount Wolseley to the dispositions of the great duke at the battle of Waterloo, perhaps the following opinion on the subject, from the Times of 29 Jan., may not be out of place in'N.&Q.':-

" It may be doubted whether the reputation of the Duke of Wellington has, in any real sense, 'been under partial eclipse' in recent years. His des- patches, with few exceptions, constitute a worthy and an enduring ' memorial ' of a great career. The Peninsular campaigns are unrivalled in the history of war. Later criticism has shown that the dispositions previous to the battle of Waterloo were open to question, and that the British com- mander was not only surprised by the rapid advance of Napoleon, but was not accurately informed of the position of his forces. In common with all mankind, Wellington had the defects of his qualities ; but he remains one of the few really great generals that Great Britain has produced."

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

Clapham, S.W.

CURIOSITIES OF CRITICISM. One of the etymologies of Adrien de Valois, illustrating several important principles of French deri- vation from Latin (see Brachet's 'Dictionnaire Etymologique,'art. 'Coucher'), has been firmly