Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/303

 9 th S. II. OCT. 8, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

295

entertained by the most competent Shrop .shire antiquaries. The question has been thoroughly discussed by Mr. Duignan in the papers to which I have just now drawn attention. Stated in a summary way, the following is the prevailing opinion :

1. Shropshire was formerly called Scrobbes byrig-scire, and, like many other English counties, derived its name from its chiei town, Scrobbesbyrig, now Shrewsbury.

2. Scrob was a well-known A.-S. persona name, and the first constituent of Scrobbes- bt/riff being in the genitive case, it is allow- able to infer that the name means the fort of Scrob, rather than the fort of a shrub. The name is, in fact, analogous to Malmes- bury, Tewkesbury, and many other English towns.

It may be added that Madeley, Iron Bridge, and the district in which the iron- works are situated, are at some distance from Shrewsbury, and that the woodland which may have formerly covered them could have haa no part in giving a name to that town. Shrewsbury with its immediate neighbour- hood is not, nor do I think it ever was, a thickly wooded district. I have of ten remarked the stunted appearance of the oaks which line the hedges in no great quantities. The fine limes which are so great an ornament to the Quarry were planted within comparatively recent times. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

45, Pall Mall, S.W.

EGBERT BURTON'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH ENGLISH WRITERS (9 th S. ii. 1, 131). I have examined the MS. catalogue in the Bodleian Library (Seld. Arch. B. supra 80 MS.) of the books which .Robert Burton left to it. It is, as Mr. Parker of the Bodleian informs me, throughout in the handwriting of John Rouse (Librarian 1620-52), and in it, on the twenty-ninth leaf, are the entries :

" His Work I Venus and Adonis by Wm. Shake- spear, Lond. 1602

" The rape of Lucreoe by Wm. Shakespear. Impft."

The words "His Work" in the margin against the entry of ' Venus and Adonis ' are in the same handwriting, and are the only note of the kind I could trace.

Mr. Parker has kindly given me the follow- ing note, with permission to publish it in the columns of ' N. & Q.' :

" A List of the Books bequeathed by R. B. to the Bodleian Library, and compiled by John Rouse. 1639-40, is in Dr. Aldis Wright's possession ; and G. Parker (Bodleian Library) has a list of 487 other books bequeathed by R. B. to Ch. Ch., containing autograph or MS. notes of the author."

A few years ago G. E, Parker, B.A., com-

piled an index of words, passages, and quo- tations in the first two eaitions of the 'Ana- tomy of Melancholy,' which was intended for publication ; it is now on loan at Dr. Murray's Scriptorium, Oxford.

C. S. HARRIS.

"AND NOW, O FATHER" (9 th S. ii. 187, 258). May I be allowed to say that I entirely agree with MR. WILSON ? The line

do Thine utmost for their souls' true weal always jars on me. Man may do his miser- able utmost and fall short of success, but God's doings are all-sufficient and are infinite. An irresponsible potentate does not do his best to pardon an offender he pardons. It is one of his subjects who " does his utmost " to obtain the favour. Also, souls have no weal that is not " true " or real ; if they be in a state of welfare there can be no doubt respecting the genuineness of their well- being. ST. SWITHIN.

"WHO SUPS WITH THE DEVIL," &C. (9 th S.

ii. 124, 178). Since I wrote at the latter refer- ence I have discovered this proverb in Hazlitt's collection, at p. 185 of his second edition. It is not indexed under the word "spoon," as it ought to have been. Mr. Hazlitt gives several references, but none either to Heywood or to Camden which is strange, seeing that both names appear in the list of collections used for his own com- pilation. F. ADAMS.

RIVERS' BANKS (9 th S. ii. 205, 251). Why does J. S. M. T. attribute the accepted defini- tion of a river's right and left banks to recent journalism ? It is to be presumed that before writing on the subject he, at all events, took the trouble to look into a dictionary, and he must have found Ogilvie, Webster, Worcester, and all who mention the matter dead against him. Yet he writes of his view as unquestion- able. The mistake is due to the prevalent want of altruism. One may run up the Nile, as we did in our advance, or down the Nile, as the French seem to be doing in theirs ; but the Nile, like the Tombigsby and other rivers of Massachusetts, runs down. Even rivers, as J. S. M. T. might say, have their rights, J. S. M. T. may come and go, but the Nile goes on forever; and for ever, till it meets lave no difficulty in determining its constant 'ight hand.
 * he sea towards which it journeys, it will

I hope (if I may be allowed to refer to a dndred matter) that when J. S. M. T. meets me in the street he does not expect that my ight hand shall become my left hand, or that he right wing of my house sha|l become thes