Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/85

 9* s. iv. SEPT. 2, 181 NOTES AND QUERIES. LONDON, SATVRDAY, SEPTEMBER t. 1899. CONTENTS.-No. 88. NOTES:—The Dings in York, 181—St. Helen of England- Missing Gipsy "Prince," 182—Society of the Gregories— "Funny" vice "Dhoney" — John Bacon, R.A.—Leo of Modena's Sonnets, 183 —• H.E.D.'—Initial in Serious Verse — 'A Great Historic Peerage '— "Cum tails sis, utinam noster esses "—Poster Pedigree—Arabic Numerals, 184— " Kicks "=" Scolding Wife '-Portrait of Dean Vincent— Bellringer, 185 —Error in Reclus — Dreyfus — Curtaln= Omentum —Trade=Road—Perth in the Sixteenth Cen- tury, 18«. Napoleon : Marbeuf — Major Gordon — Inscription at Montreux — Robert Baker — Thomas Langworth — Boss Family, 188—Key to the ' Carthusian'—' Worms '—Lance- Corporal—Van Dyck—" A greased eel "—Marie de France, 189. REPLIES :—Cromwell and Music, 189—Poem attributed to Waller—Amen Court, 190—Towton and Marston Moor— • Historie of Balak,' 191—D. S. P. F. C.—Nathanael, Lord Crewe, 192—English Rimes—Motto Pottery—" Theophilus Insulanus," 193—"Fey" —"The Flying Dutchman"— Chute and Mildmay—A Relic of Napoleon, 194—Arrest for Debt in Ireland — Fortescue Family — " Annotto " — A Legend, 195—"Six-shilling beer"—Gate: Sign of Inn— Hannays of Kirkdale — Chimneys in Ancient Houses— •Padre Francisco'—Two Quartos of Ben Jonson, 196— Battle of Edge Hill—Peerless Pool, 197—The Magnetic Pole—Mummy Peas, 198. NOTES ON BOOKS •.—Sharpe's ' Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London'—Balfour's ' Natural History of the Musical Bow'—Dodge's 'Piers Gaveston ' — 'Otla Mer- seiana'—Axon's ' Ortensio Lando' — Weekley's ' Primer of Historical French Grammar'—" ChiswickShakespeare." goles. THE DINGS IN YORK. IN the account of the city of York in Domesday Book a word occurs which we find nowhere else in that record. This is the word dingis (ablative plural). Expositors and translators of Domesday have invariably, so far as I can ascertain, treated this word as equivalent to drengs, that is; military vassals. I venture to suggest that dings were not per- sons, but places. My reasons for offering this suggestion will appear presently. But first of all I will transcribe the passage in which the word occurs :— " Comes de Moritonio hal>et ibi xiiii mansiones et duos bancos in macello et seoclesiam Sanctse Crucis. Has recepit Osbernus filius Bosonis, et quicquid ad eas pertinet. Hte manaiones fuerunt horum Iiiiniin 11in: Sonulfi presbyter! una; Morulfi una; Sterri una; Esnarri una; Gamel una cuni qua- tuor dingis; Archil quinque; Levingi presbyteri duie; Turfin una; Ligulfi una." —'D. B.,' i. 298 a. 1. This passage Mr. Skaife translates as fol- lows :— "The Count of Morton has there [i.e., in York] fourteen mansions, and two stalls in the Shambles, and the church of St. Crux. Osbern, son of Boson, received these and whatever pertains to them. These mansions had belonged to these men :—Sonulf the priest, •••.:<•; Morulf, one; Sterr, one; Esnarr, one; Gamel, with four drenges, one; Archil, five ; Leuing the priest, two; Turfin, one; Ligulf, one." In thus translating " cum quatuor dingis " by the words " with four drenges " Mr. Skaife is supported by the authority of Bawdwin, Kelham, and Ellis. But notwithstanding this, I am unable to discover any reason why ding should be translated dreng beyond that afforded by the resemblance of the words. If any instance had been produced, either from Domesday Book or any other early record, in which the word ding was employed in the sense of dreng, this would have settled the question. But no such instance is forth- coming. On the other hand, the word dinqs, always in the plural, occurs very often in the town records of Beverley and Hull, from an early date, in the sense of " small shops." Is this the meaning of dingis in the Domesday account of York? I think it is. First, because the original text of Domesday sup- ports the rendering "One mansion with four dings was Gamel's," rather than "One mansion was Gamel's with four dings (or drenges)." Second, because we have docu- mentary evidence of the use of the word dings in the sense of " little shops," and none whatever of its use in the sense of " drenges." Two extracts — one from the Beverley records and one from the Hull records—will establish the truth of what I have advanced on the meaning of the word dinqs. In 1282 Archbishop Wickwaine executed a charter by which he granted " to the whole common- alty of Beverley a certain messuage in the market of Beverley, called Byscop dynges." Poulson, in a note on this passage, says, " Now [1829] corrupted to Butter-dings, from butter being sold in front of the houses on market days (' Beverlac,' p. 78). These dings are repeatedly mentioned in the extracts which Poulson prints from the Beverley Wardens' Kolls (see 'Beverlac,' pp. 115, 116, 120, 165, 167). The earliest reference to the Hull Dings in the records of that city occurs in an ordinance of 1365. It reads as follows :— " Lez Dynges. Fait a remembrer que le xvij iour de Feverer Ian de regne le Roi E. iij puis le Conquest xxxix acorde fuit et ordeyne par assent de tote la comunalte que dissormes que nulle shoppe de draperie serra tenuz en nulle place de la ville forspris tauntsoulement en les Dinges, et chescune C':ra per an al comunalte xiijs. iiijrf."—'Bench k IL,' f. 161. The Beverley Dings still exist, and are yet known by that name. The Hull Dings, which stood between the east end of Holy Trinity Church and the Market-place, were taken down in the last century, and the name is now forgotten.