Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/315

 ii"' S. III. APRIL 22

NOTES AND QUERIES.

309

a 50, and under whose auspices are the new 1 istories being prepared ? J. B. R.

[ lessrs. A. Constable & Co. publish the new series ]

THE UBIQUITY OF IRISHMEN. The following a ppears in .vol. i. p. 251 of ' Recollections of i aris/ by Capt. Hon. D. Bingham (Chapman 4 Hall, 1896):

" There was some sharp fighting in the direction of Choisy le Roi, during which a good-looking young Irishman fell well to the front. He had thrown up his commission in Her Majesty's service tj cast in his lot with the francs -tireurs. His nationality was unmistakable, reminding me of the lines :

So frank and bold his bearing, boy, Should you meet him onward faring, boy, Through Chili's glow or Iceland's snow, You 'd say' What news from Erin, boy ?'" Will any reader of 'N. & Q.' kindly supply me with information respecting the author of the lines I have quoted from Capt. Bing- ham's interesting work ?

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB OF RICHARD II. Quoting from Dean Stanley's ' Westminster Abbey,' second edition, pp. 148-9, the author of 'England in the Age of Wycliffe ' states that "round the magnificent tomb which he himself [Richard II.] adorned in memory of his dead wife, and against the day of his own death, runs an in- scription, which the visitor to Westminster Abbey can still read. It contains the proud boast that he overthrew the heretics and laid their friends low." Surely there must be some mistake in this, and the inscription must be intended for some i one else, for both the motherandwifeof Richard i were kindly disposed towards Wycliffe and I his teaching, and Richard's early friends were j mostly Lollards. If the inscription is meant to apply to Richard, the high ecclesiastics of I the Church were very ungrateful to him, as both the archbishops and no fewer than I thirteen bishops out of twenty who formed the hierarchy of the Church in the year 1399 voted for his deposition. Moreover, if he overthrew the heretics, what need was there for the statute De Hseretico Comburendo, which was passed by his supplanter in the year 1401 ? I should be glad to know when and by whom this inscription was placed on Richard's tomb. R. C. BOSTOCK.

FRISBIE. I am asked by an American friend of mine of the name of Frisbie who lives in New England what is the origin of this name. He writes that he has been told in America that Frisbie was originally a Welsh name. Somebody, five hundred years ago or more, with a small band founded a small town or colony, and they called the place where they settled Frisbie or Frisby. With

regard to the derivation of the word my friend suggests that the first syllable means fresh, and the second, by, bie, or bee, earth or air, the two combined meaning fresh air. In looking over a list of towns I find Frisby, a town in Leicestershire, not far from Melton. Mowbray, which in old books used to be called Frisbie. Your paper has evidently spread abroad, as my friend has asked me to address on his behalf an inquiry to you.

W. A. GILLIGAN.

THE PLACE-NAME OXFORD.

(9 th S. iii. 44.)

To rob this University and city of its Ox seems at first sight an audacious proceed- ing. Surely by this time some one skilled in Saxon should have set at ease the minds of us weaklings, who can claim but little knowledge, but great interest in the question involved. Some years ago, with dictionary 'at elbow, I went carefully over this charter, because it seemed to contain the earliest version of the name Cherwell, and it always seemed strange that the Saxon well, imply- ing gushing out or welling out, could be transferred to streams rather sluggish in character, such as the Cherwell and Orwell. The first step in the inquiry upon this matter should be to study the accuracj^ of the tran- scription from the earlier charter. Will some scholar inform us whether there are sufficient variations in it from the established Saxon of later days to make one believe that the tran- scriber quoted fairly 1 It is well to remember that the later charter, Eadred's, is more than forty years after a trustworthy mention of Oxnaforda. Next, not knowing the writer of the article, one would naturally attempt to form, so far as possible, from his communica- tion, a judgment whether or not he is capable of handling the subject satisfactorily. It is but fair to acknowledge that there are points which somewhat tell against his skill as an antiquary. Such are the following. The Alfred coins are stated by him to supply us with the earliest version of the name Oxford, viz., Oxnaforda or Oksnaforda. Mr. James Parker, a competent judge of such matters, is compelled, as any one would be on the evi- dence adduced, to regard the coins as being stamped Orsnaforda, which is certainly not Oxford (vide his ' Early Oxford,' p. 366). The first occurrence of the name is in 912 (or 910), in the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,' as Oxna- forda. The writer takes quite seriously a common myth about buildings being shifted