Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/95

 ^S. IV. Sept. 2/99.] 191 NOTES AND QUERIES. remaining parts of the booka written and illuminated ? I have been accustomed to read that Pater- noster Row acquired its name from the pater- noster or rosary makers and sellers who formerly resided therein. This seems to be the orthodox explanation of the name. It is the one adopted by Mr. H. T. Riley ('Memo- rials of London,' xx, 20, 30), Sir W. Besant ('London,' 145), the Rev. C. W. Bardsley ('English Surnames,' 341), Mr. S. O. Addy (' Evolution of the English House,' 100), and, I have no doubt, many other writers. That in the Middle Ages there were persons who were paternostrers by profession is certain : Robert Ornel, paternostrer; Roger de Bury, paternostrer; Richard le Bryd, paternostrer; and John Gretheued, paternostrer, as well as William le Paternostrer, occur in Riley's 'Memorials.' But I have seen no evidence that the paternostrers gave name to Pater- noster Row ; and if we had such evidence we should still be curious to learn what occupations gave name to Ave Maria Lane, Creed Lane, and Amen Corner. That all the four names are of kindred origin surely no one can question. I may remark in passing that although rosaries were called paternosters (see Du Cange, s.w.), yet it is certain that the surname Paternoster origin- ated, in some cases at least, not in the business of making or selling rosaries, but in that of saying Pater Nosters (see Hazlitt's ' Tenures of Land,' 111, 249, 250; Lower's ' Patronymica Britannica,' 258; Lower's ' Essay on English Surnames,' ii. 15). Amongst the authorities for what I have called the orthodox explanation of the name of Paternoster Row I have not included Dr. Brewer, for the reason that, in his 'Diction- ary of Phrase and Fable,' he gives two con- flictingandincompatibleexplanations. Under ' Paternoster Row ' he states that the street " was so named from the rosary or paternoster makers " ; but under ' Amen Corner' he tells us that this was the place " where the monks finished their Pater Noster, on Corpus Christi Day, as they went in procession to St. Paul's Cathedral." In further explanation he adds that " they began in Paternoster Row with the Lord's Prayer in Latin, which was con- tinued to the end of the street; then said Amen, at the corner or bottom of the Row ; then turning down Ave Maria Lane, com- menced chanting the ' Hail, Mary !' then crossing Ludgate, they chanted the Credo." This last explanation is suspiciously complete. But who were the monks who went in pro- cession to St. Paul's on Corpus Christi Day ? Where had they come from, and where were they really going when they crossed Ludgate Hill and went down Creed Lane? And who- ever they were, they must have come much oftener than once a year for their chanting to give names to the streets through which they passed. A processional theory for the origin of these interesting street names seems not improbable, but, in that case, we must sub- stitute the Cathedral clergy for Brewer's monks, and for Corpus Christi Day we must read "every day in the year." Anyhow, I should like to see the subject threshed out. J. R. Boyle. Town Hall, Hull. . Towton and Marston MooR(9'h S. iv. 127). —"Towton Battle Field " (so described on the Ordnance map) is about midway between Towton and Saxton, and some four miles due south of Tadcaster. Cf. Grafton's ' Chronicle,' i. 676 (ed. 1809); Camden's 'Britannia'; Drake's 'Eboracum,' 1736. p. 110 ; Leadman's ' Battles fought in Yorkshire,' 1891, &c. The village of Marston, on the other hand, is about seven miles to the westward of York ; the Royalist army had their right wing towards Tock with, and their left near Marston village, Wilstrop Wood—which still exists as a well-known covert in the Bramham Moor country — being behind them. The rebel line was drawn up facing the Royalists, their left at Tockwith, and rignt towards Marston. " Marston Moor," says a newspaper of the time, " is a few miles from Bramham Moor " (quoted by Capt. Lawley). Now Bramham and Towton are both in the Tadcaster neigh- bourhood. May not this have been the origin of the incorrect deduction quoted by your correspondent? F. L. Mawdesley. Delwood Croft, York. Towton is three miles south, and Marston Moor five miles north-north-east, of Tadcaster, in Yorkshire. After the battle of Towton the Lancastrians fled north towards Tad- caster, so it is within the region of possibility that they eventually travelled over the ground on which nearly two centuries later the battle of Marston Moor was fought. The two battles were certainly not fought on the same ground. John T. Page. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. ' The Histokie of Balak ' (9th S. iv. 103).— Is not the illustration in the fourth quotation on p. 104 obviously drawn from the old game of shove-halfpenny," still, under the name of "push-penny," to be found played in rural tap-rooms? At the date this allusion was written the game was even popular with the upper classes of the community. Shake- speare's " shovel board " is, or was, to be seen