Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/25

 9 th S. X. JULY 5 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

17

historical evidence to show that it is Cornish. Or to take an example from the work from which I have just quoted. In Staffordshire there are three places called " Brocton," each of which is situated on a small stream. The name of these places is evidently derived from the A.-S. broc, a brook. There is also a place called "Broughton," which in many cases is a dialectal form of Brocton. But the Staffordshire Broughton is the Domesday Hereborgestone, and clearly means Hereburh's town, Hereburh being a feminine proper name in Anglo-Saxon. But no one would guess this from any evidence afforded by the modern name.

Names ending in bourne must be especially treated with caution, for v m many cases there is no evidence whatever that they were the names of streams. For a final instance I will not even go so far as Kent. If MR. RUTTON, who lives in Paddingtpn, will merely cross the Edgware Road he will find himself in the borough of Marylebone. What is the meaning of the final syllable? More than four hundred years ago the manor was called "Mariborne," and there is no doubt in my mind that when the church of St. Mary was erected the village of which it formed the nucleus was called Mary -at -the -Bourne, a lengthy designation which soon became con- tracted into "Mariborne" and "Maribone." But a very accurate and well-informed corre- spondent tells me that a local newspaper, the Marylebone Mercury, has lately invented the name of the " Mary Bourne " for the stream, now a sewer, which is commonly known as the Tyburn, and that this name also appears in Mr. Arnold Forster's little school-reader ' Our Great City.' It is needless to say that not a scrap of historical evidence exists for this name. For many years past I have endea- voured to investigate the history of my native parish, and have never met the " Mary Bourne" mentioned in any authentic docu- ment. But, occurring as it does in an ac- cepted text-book, I feel no doubt that fifty years hence the name will be championed with as much warmth and ability as that of the "West Bourne" is at the present time. To the future Peter Cunningham the " Mary Bourne " will be an obvious reality, and another topographical myth will have ma- tured into general acceptance. Probably a romantic story will be woven round it into the bargain, for such a name as "Mary Bourne " possesses great potentialities.

Many small streams were in ancient days only known as the Burne. An instance will be found on p. 23 of Mr. Duignan's book, and I am violating no canon of probability in

suggesting that this may have been the case with the "West Bourne." And now, with MR. RUTTON, I think that dubious brook may be allowed to sleep in the subterranean re- cesses to which it has retired. I will only remark in conclusion that I can see no grounds for thinking that Bosworth, in his explanation of " bourne," meant more than he actually said. A word can be made to mean anything if to a lexicographer's definition every reader is permitted to append his own glosses.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

BOON FOR BOOKWORMS (9 th S. ix. 406, 453). In my library, is a nicely bound copy of Hazlitt's ' Spirit of the Age,' in two volumes, to each of which is attached a ribbon marker. It was published at Paris in 1825.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

I have ' Le Rime del Petrarca ' (Parigi, 1768) and a ' Roman Missal ' (London, 1815), both of which are furnis'hed with ribbon markers.

B. D. MOSELEY.

HERRICK'S ' HESPERIDES ' : " LUTES OP AMBER" (9 th S. ix. 408, 471). I have always presumed that " lutes of amber," chairs, and mirrors of the same, mentioned by MR. J. DORMER, refer to the frequent use of amber as an inlay or decoration of the wood of which musical instruments, furniture, mirrors, and the like were constructed. I have a small mirror (probably Florentine, of the six- teenth or seventeenth century), the frame of which is entirely incrusted with plates of geometrical shapes of amber, through the transparent substance of which drawings of foliage may be seen. I am not quite sure that the above is what MR. DORMER means. A chair, lute, or mirror of amber is, of course, quite out of the question; not so furniture or musical instruments inlaid with that material. F. G. STEPHENS.

" BUFF WEEK " (9 th S. ix. 329, 353, 372, 473). See further under baf, bauch,in 'E.D.D.,' and under bauch in ' H.E.D.' and Jaraieson. The derivation is from Icel. bdgr, uneasy, allied to bdgr, strife. The Icel. bag-, in com- position, signifies ill, bad, perverse, difficult, and the like. Cf. Norw. baag, obstructive, inconvenient, difficult, bad ; and O.Irish bag, strife. The baff week is the unprofitable one.

CELER.

MALLET USED BY CHRISTOPHER WREN (9 th S. ix. 346, 493). The mallet used at the laying of the foundation stone of St. Paul's is no doubt of historic interest, but where is the documentary evidence that Wren was a Free- mason or Master of a St. Paul's Lodge ? True,