Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/258

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. IL SEPT. 24,.

Gurmund, King of the Africans ( !), who had come over from Ireland in the sixth century. One quotation may suffice. Leland in his ' Col- lectanea' (vol. ii. p. 511) gives the following extract from the 'Scala Chronica' of Sir Thomas Gray (a chronicle printed by the Maitland Club in 1836) :

" King Gurmund, seing that he could not wynne the cite of Cirecestre, toke sparqwes, and, taying tier under their winges, let them in to the cite, and so brennid it."

Similar stories are told, I believe, with regard to other places. W. D. MACRAY.

SIR ASHTON LEVER'S " HOLOPHUSIKON " (9 th S. ii. 148). For some particulars of this museum and a comprehensive account of its migrations, see Austin Dobson's ' Eighteenth Century Vignettes,' First Series, pp. 273-4. There is another reference in the Third Series, p. 184, n. ARTHUR MAYALL.

For various particulars relating to this museum, including a facsimile of an advertise- ment of the exhibition in 1790, see 'Old and New London,' iii. 165 and vi. 382. See also Timbs's ' Romance of London,' p. 338.

H. ANDREWS.

A good account of the above is to be found in Hone's 'Every-day Book,' pp. 493-7. A marked sale-catalogue of the museum is in the Guildhall Library. W. B. GERISH.

MR. APPERSON will find an account of the above in Baines's 'History of Lancashire' (Croston's edition), 1889, vol. ii. p. 351; ' Palatine Note-Book,' vol. ii. p. 55.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

THE SURNAME DRINKWATER (9 th S. ii. 166). I agree with MR. ADAMS that the above is not a corruption of Derwentwater, but that it has come down to us in its unadulterated form from the time when such sobriquets were in common use. I think he is wrong, however, in trying to trace Bevan to the same source. This I have always understood to be a corruption of the Welsh Ap Evan, as Pugh from Ap Hugh, Price from Ap Rice, and many others. RITA Fox

64, Watling Street, E.G.

MR. ADAMS suggests that a Norman form of Boivin may have been the original of our Bevan. But is not Bevan the Welsh Ap Evan ? I thought this was well established.

C. C. B.

"SOLAMEN MISERIS SOCIOS HABUISSE DO-

LORIS" (9 th S. ii. 66). Since my query as above I have met with an interesting notice of this proverb, as made use of by Thomas a

Kempis, in Aloysius Novarinus, ' Adagia SS. Patrum,' Lugd., 1637, p. 213 : _ *

" IdTscil. proverbium] scite ad Christum ipsum por- rigit Thomas k Kempis, qui servorum suorum conies in eorum tribulationibus est ; sic ille scribit, tract, de 'Valle Liliorum,' cap. xvi. 'Dicitur in prover- biis a multis, Solatium est miseris socios habuisse in pcenis ; quis est ille socius tam bonus et pius, quis scit compati miseris et infirmis ? iste est Domi- nus noster lesus Christus, pro nobis passus et crucifixus, qui in Evangelic dicit se medicum et pas- torem esse animarum, et consolatorem tribulatorum, pauperum et infirmorum.' "

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

WADA (9 th S. i. 468 ; ii. 97). Wade is said to have lived within four miles of Whitby, and your correspondent would find matter- to interest him in Dr. Young's ' History of Whitby' (1817). Prof. Skeat has an admirable note, sub " Wade's boot," i.e., boat (mentioned in the 'Marchantes Tale,' 1. 1425) r in vol. v. p. 356 of ' The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'; it should not be overlooked.

ST. SWITHIN.

ANGEL ON HORSEBACK (9 th S. ii. 145). My tutor, Mr. F. C. Blackstone, used this phrase in my hearing more than sixty years ago. He was a Winchester man, and told me it was a Winchester phrase denoting excellence.

ALDENHAM.

Aldenham House.

"DANNIKINS" (9 th S. i. 287, 490). Since writing MR. S. O. ADDY the letter he so kindly refers to at the last reference, I have been making as full inquiry as possible under the circumstances, as it is fifty or sixty years since the word was in use in Bolsterstone and: the Ewden Valley, and there are very few persons now living who can impart any reli- able information concerning its real meaning. It is quite correct what MR. ADDY says about "Bolsterstone Custard Feast," and the eating of such custard pies under a syca- more tree probably points to tree worship, which is of very high, antiquity, for not only do we find it in the religion of ancient Scan- dinavia, but there are distinct traces of it in the religion of ancient Egypt. Dr. Petrie, in his book entitled 'Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt,' p. 33, says :

" Offerings were made to trees, evidently to pro- pitiate the spirit which dwelt in them ; the peasant s figured bowing to the sycamore in his field, and surrounding it with jars 01 drink offerings."

In addition to the evidence previously adduced about the word "dannikin" or "dan- nikins " being understood to mean a merry- making, another friend, a most intelligent old lady, informs me that when she was a very little girl she visited, with her mother,