Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/493

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9 th S. I. JUNE 18, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

issed, especially by me, not only as a whisk player, but for his company at ye Pump."

W. P. COUETNEY. Reform Club.

NEWINGTON BUTTS. Newington forms a part of the Parliamentary borough of Lam- beth. It was anciently called Neweton, or New Town, to distinguish it from Walworth, the latter place being of older date. A portion of the main road is called Newington Butts, which, writes Northouck, is thought to have been so designated "from the exercise of shooting at the butts, which was practised there, as in other parts of the kingdom, to train the young men in archery." There is, however, no evidence that I am aware of to show that butts were erected in this part of the road more than, as Northouck expresses it, " in other parts of the kingdom." According to Wheatley ('London Past and Present') the addition of butts occurs first in 1558, by which time the practice of archery must have fallen into disuse. Other writers are of opinion that the name is derived from the family of Butts or Buts, who owned an estate there ; but of this statement there is no confirmation. Sir William Butt, physician to Henry VIII., mentioned by Shakespeare ('Henry VIII.,' V. ii.), received several manors from the king in reward for his services, in addition to his salary of 100/., which are set out in his will and the inquisitiones post mortem^ but no pro- perty at Newington is included in those recitals.

The roadway on the east side of the block of buildings of which the "Elephant and Castle" public-house forms a part is called in old maps headway, the roadway on the north side of the block being called Newing- ton Butts.

In Seebohm's ' Village ' (p. 5), describing the methods of tillage in the Middle Ages, the author says :

"It will be seen on the map that mostly a common field- way gives access to the strips. But this is not always the case ; and when it is not, then there is a strip running along the length of the furrow inside its boundaries and across the end oi

the strips composing it. This is the headland

The Latin term for the headland is forera, the Welsh pen tir, the Scotch head-riff) and the German (from the turning of the plough upon it) anwende."

There is a plan of a portion of a tillage showing the selions, grass banks, and head land, in Blashill's ' Sutton-in-Holdernesse, p. 16.

" Where the strips abruptly meet others, or abut upon a boundary at right angles, they are sometimes called butts " (Seebohm, p. 6).

At Newington we find the two terms head way or headland and ImtU close together anc

n their proper relative positions, i. e., at right angles to each other. I suggest that }he etymology of Newington Butts is to be ookecl for in the terms applied to divisions of land when it was cultivated by the com- munity. JOHN HEBB. 2, Canonbury Mansions, N.

OLD ENGLISH CUSTOM IN AUSTRALIA. ' Please to remember the grotto," St. Valen- tine's Day, and Guy Fawkes Day have almost ceased to exist in Australia, although twenty years ago they were very extensively cele- 3rated. Then the arrival of St. Valentine's Day was quite dreaded by the post-office authorities, but now the 14th of February passes like any other day in the month. April Fools' Day is another old custom that LS fast dying out, but New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Christmas Day are celebrated with unabated interest.

BOOBOOROWIE.

Parkside, South Australia.

"HARROW." If evidence were required which it certainly is not of the great value of the ' H. E. D.' for historical as well as for linguistic purposes, it is furnished by the illustrative quotations given under the word Harrow.' The late Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers has thrown doubt upon the early existence of the harrow in this country as an agricultural implement. In the first volume of his 'History of Agriculture and Prices in England ' he says :

"We cannot conceive that an article like a

harrow could have escaped entry in the accounts,

had it been in use, especially as it would have been, from the high price of iron, costly. The ordinary means by which our forefathers covered their seed was by bush-harrowing ; and nothing is more com- mon in the accounts which have come under my notice than the purchase of thorns, black and white, for the express purpose of harrowing newly sown tilth." Vol. i. p. 540.

This statement was, not unnaturally, ob- jected to by certain students of the history of agriculture. To these the professor replied :

"Some of my foreign critics, especially Nasse, have objected to this negative statement of mine. But as I said before, the fact that harrows are not included in the very numerous catalogues of dead stock which are given at, or, indeed, after the beginning of the fifteenth century till such times as such inventories do not appear, seems to me con- clusive." Vol. iv. p. 45.

He then refers to Fitzherbert's 'Book of Husbandry,' in a passage I need not quote. Master Fitzherbert's descriptions of the ox- harrow and the horse-harrow are both excel- lent. With regard to the latter there is a striking passage, which shows that the teeth