Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/219

. i. MAR. 12,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

211

DRESSED UP TO THE NINES (8 th S. xii. 469; J th S. i. 57). Of. "Tire a quatre epingles," a ] >wer square number being used in the French ] mguage. KILLIGEEW.

PROF. SKEAT will find that I have already anticipated him in my ' Folk -Etymology ' (p. 257, 1883) in conjecturing that nines in t.his phrase stands tor nine, nyen, orneyen, the oyes, in older English. Charles Reade has i;he expression "polished to the nine" ('Never Too Late to Mend,' chap. Ixv.), which comes nearer to its proposed original.

A. SMYTHE PALMER.

South Woodford.

BALBRENNIE (9 th S. i. 48). I do not think I am rash in hazarding the conjecture that Balbrennie = Baile Breathneach (Gaelic), meaning " Welsh-town," or " Briton's Town.' In Irish this would be pronounced Bally- brannagh. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

DR. WHALLEY (9 th S. i. 67). The Rev. Dr. Thomas Sedgwick Whalley was a most inti- mate correspondent of Mrs. Piozzi's if the same Dr. Whalley inquired for. He had several addresses Koyal Crescent, Bath ; Longford Lodge, Bristol ; Mendip. In 1814- 1816 he was on the Continent, at Nevers, Lou vain e, Brussels. Up to 1810 Mrs. Piozzi addresses him as the "Revd." only ; from that date she changes to the Eev. Dr. Whalley. When he was setting off on his continental tour Mrs. Piozzi wrote (November, 1814): ' Thousands of Prayers and Wishes for your safe return are sent up daily to the Throne of Grace, and none more warm and true than those of Dear Dr. Whalley's Forty years attached and ever obliged ser* H. L. P."

Having the privilege allowed me of copying a series of Mrs. Piozzi's lengthy letters to her old friend Dr. Whalley, I have worked them into a very interesting article. They range from 5 January, 1789, to 1816. Her clever pen flows on in the liveliest style, detailing all the incidents of her gay and busy life the purchase of her Welsh residence Brynbella ; her intimacy with Miss Seward, Miss Hannah More, Mrs. Siddons, &c. ; the progress of the Napoleonic disturbances and her comments thereon ; the natural way in which she writes to Dr. Whalley of the personal rudeness she experienced from her daughters when, by his advice, she offered them Streatham Park, its furniture and pictures. Her limited means on their refusal forced their sale. One. item in her account of the picture sale is of interest. Dr. Johnson's portrait sold for 378Z., Garrick's for 175^., Edmund Burke for

., but " I kept dear Murphy for myself. He was the Playfellow of my first Husband, and the True and Partial Friend of my second, he loved my Mother and poor as I am Murphy remains with me." The auction of Charles Surface's family pictures repeats itself in Mrs. Piozzi's retaining Murphy's portrait from grateful feeling.

HILDA GAMLIN. Camden Lawn, Birkenhead.

Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, D.D., of Mendip Lodge, co. Somerset, was born in 1746. He was the second son of Dr. John Whalley, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Eegius Professor of Divinity. For more than fifty years Dr. T. S. Whalley was rector of Hag- worthingham, and was the friend of Mrs. Siddons and Hannah More. He was author of several poems and tales, and died abroad in 1833. His journals were published in 1863. PELOPS.

Bedford.

OLD ENGLISH LETTERS (9 th S. i. 169). The Anglo-Saxon name for the letter th was "thorn," as we know, among other things, from an early poem in which each letter of the alphabet is mentioned by turn. Even nowadays the term can scarcely be considered obsolete, as it is largely used by philologists. The Icelanders also call the letter "thorn," which name occurs in a grammatical treatise of the twelfth century, and has continued in use to the present day. The other letter (having the power of gh or y) has no name that I know of myself, but perhaps some other reader can supply it. There is one thing about it, however, which B. may not be aware of, and that is the curious and interesting way in which, in later times, it has been confused with z in printing. There are many Scottish place and personal names which are pronounced in some peculiar way that can only be explained by a knowledge of this fact. Take, for instance, the combina- tion dz in the surname MacFadzen, pro- nounced and sometimes written MacFacfyeii or MacFadden ; and MacGudzeon, pronounced and sometimes written MacGudgeon ; or in the place-name Cadzow Castle or Cadyow Castle, immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in one of his poems. Another combination in which z has taken the place of the ancient character for y is /z, as in the familiar sur- name Dalziel, which, as every one knows, is pronounced something like the English sur- name Dale ; Drumelzier Castle is pronounced Drumellyer, as may be seen by the way it rhymes in Scottish poems. In Cornwall and the west of England there are numerous