Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/65

 8*8. II. JULY 16, '

NOTES AND

should be added that of a Dorset " skimming- ton, or skimmity riding," which, to quote from a paper on local customs I contributed to the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, vol. xiv. p. 182 (1893), is

" a kind of matrimonial lynch law or pillory in- tended for those in a lower class of life who in certain glaring particulars may have transgressed their mari- tal duties, and have thus brought upon themselves this, the strongest expression of outraged public opinion that a country district is capable of con- veying."

There is an excellent and full description, both as to what a " skimmington riding is and of the causes for which it takes place, given in Roberts's ' History of Lyme Regis,' published in 1834. Mr. Roberts prints an interesting letter he had received from Sir Walter Scott on the subject, in which he says :

" We had, or perhaps I might say still have, a similar ritual of popular interference in Scotland, in case of gross scandal or nuptial transgressions and public quarrels in a household. It is called ' riding the stang,' the peccant party being seated across a l>ole (or stang) in no very comfortable position."

Sir Walter refers Mr. Roberts to the fact that Burns had composed some verses on the subject (not in nis collected works*), and to Prior's larger collection of poems (not the folio edition). See also a parallel amongst the Kaffirs in " Mumbo Jumbo " in Mungo Park's 'Travels in the Interior of Africa ' (1799).t

In the paper already alluded to I gave an account of a " skimmerton riding " that took place in 1884 in a West Dorset parish. Many of your readers will hardly need to be re- minded of the dramatic description of a " skimmington riding " given by Thomas Hardy in chap. xvi. of the second volume of his Dorset novel ' The Mayor of Casterbridge,' published in 1886, and of the tragic effect which that coarsely humorous spectacle had upon the unfortunate woman whose sup- posed laxity of conduct had afforded the excuse for the exhibition. J. S. UDAL.

Fiji.

A representation of " riding the stang " is on one of the brasses at King's Lynn. An engraving of it will be found in Waller's ' Monumental Brasses.' ANDREW OLIVER.

CURIOUS CHRISTIAN NAME (9 th S. i. 446). MR. PICKFORD is not familiar with Scandi- navian onomatology, or he would have seen nothing curious in Erica as the Christian

seen? t See'N. &Q.,'8 th S. ii. 95.
 * Can any one say where these verses are to be

name of a lady owning so Scandinavian a surname as Storr. The Christian name Eric has been borne by several Danish and Swedish kings, the last of the name who reigned in Sweden, Eric XIV., having been son of the great Gustavus Vasa. Some female names are identical with plant-names, e.g., Daisy, Lily, Rose, Violet ; but Erica has no connexion whatever with Latin erica, heath. It is merely the feminine form of the Swedish Eric, or rather Erik ; so Henrik makes Hen- rika, Fredrik Fredrika, Ulrik. Ulrika. The Danish form of Erika would be Erike.

F. ADAMS. 106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

Is this very pretty name not more likely to be the feminine form of Eric than to be derived from erica, a heath ? Miss Charlotte M. Yonge (the talented author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe'), in her 'History of Christian Names,' p. 400, says :

"One great name of this derivation is the Northern Eirik. The first syllable is that which we call aye to the present day, the word that lies at the root of the Latin n-rum, the German eiriy, and our own ever. Ei-rik is thus Ever King. An ancient Erik was said to have been admitted among the gods, and Earic was the second name of JEsc, the son of Henghist; but it was the Northern people who really used Eirik, which comes over ana over in the line of succession of all the Northern sovereignties, figures in their ballads, and, in the person of King Eirik Blodaxe, is connected with their finest poetry. In the present day it is scarcely less popular than in old times, and has the feminine Eirika."

Is this "feminine Eirika" not just the "Erica" of your correspondent? I think I have met with Erica as a girl's name in Scotland I fancy in the north, but 1 cannot give chapter and verse. J. B. FLEMING.

Kelvinside, Glasgow.

As I see mention of a curious Christian name in a recent issue of ' N. & Q.,' I write to say that while searching the Dublin marriage licences the other day my attention was arrested by a curious female Christian name, Atleanadiolagra. Has any one seen this name before, or ascertained what is its origin? FRANK S. MARSH.

Office of Arms, Dublin Castle.

GRUB STREET (8 th S. xii. 108, 212, 251, 373 ; 9 th S. i. 15, 312). There is a public-house at the corner of Sweden Passage, in Milton Street, Cripplegate, in the lease of which the street is called "Milton Street, alias Grub Street." In 1883 a friend of mine on whom I frequently called was in business in Chapel Street, a turning out of Milton Street. One day, in his absence, I got into conversa- tion with an old man, a porter in the ware-