Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/117

 9»s.vi.Atro.4,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. monasteries it was granted to the Fletcher of Moresby. There was doubtless a bridge here aero: the Derwent in Roman times connecting th camps of Moresby and Papcastle, hence th name Brigham. I have never met with any of the name o Brigham in Cumberland. ALFRED F. CURWEN. HUISH (9th S. v. 475).—In the county o Somerset are several places besides the im portant parish of Huish Episcopi bearini the name Huish, e.g.. Huish Champflower, a well-known parish bounded by the Tone river ; Begarn Huish, a hamlet in the parisl of Old Cleeve : Huish, near Burnham, citec (temp. Edward III.) as " Hiwische juxta altum pontem," now better known as High bridge ; Huish Barton, a farm near Williton and probably others. The obvious is often misleading, especially in matters relating to words. Thus, hmne is kuis in Dutch and so only needs the addition of h to make the very word required ; but spelling leads to many pitfalls. The Bishop's Huish referred to above is by no means the "Bishop's House"; it was spelt Hywis four times in a document of Bishop Robert of Bath (1159) ; in one of Bishop Drokensford (1309) it is Hywish. The place had been part of the bishop's manor of Banwell, and in 1159 it was made into the prebend of Huish in the then diocese of Bath, and was after- wards united to that of Brent, both in the archdeaconry of Wells. (See Proceedings Somerset ' Archaeological and Nat. Hist. Society, vols. viii. ii. 125 and xxiii. ii. 58 el seq.) The late Mr. Hugo suggested that the name Huish implied that the estate con- tained but one hide ; this was, however, but the guess of an accomplished antiquary, for in fact the manor plainly consisted of five hides. All the places named Huish are situated close to rivers, and are, moreover, either near the Bristol Channel, or—like Huish Episcopi, on the river Parrot, and Highbridge, on the Brue (altum pontem, as above)—easily acces- sible from the coast. Topography, then, is much more likely to interpret the name than mere spelling or sound. I venture to suggest that here in Somerset, especially in the part where Irish immigration is proved by saints' names like St. Decuman or St. Columba (Culbone), we have in Huish a survival from the same original as the modern Irish ui»ge= water, whence whisky; and that the same original Celtic word, whatever it may have been in prehistoric times, has developed elsewhere into Axe, Exe, Usk, Esk, Isis, and ^-bridge. In support of this explanation I would point to the conservatism of idea, proved by the fact that water, the modern equivalent of Huish, is in this same district still used for river or stream. On the same brook as Begarn Huish is another hamlet called Roadwater. Cloutsham Water, Oare Water, Badgworthy Water, Ouarm Water, are streams well known to Devon and Somerset stag-hunters. We have also Watermouth and Waterpark, but Bridgwater is a well- exposed snare to etymologists of the obvious sourid-and-spelling school. F. T. ELWORTHY. "PINEAPPLE" (9th S. iv. 419 ; v. 402).—Are not the frequent mediaeval allusions to the "pyne-appel" or fir-cone, as distinct from the ananas, traceable to its being sacred to Bacchus, who with his followers carried the thyrsus ornamented at the head with a fir- cone in the celebrations of the Bacchanalian rites, and in allusion to the turpentine obtained from it for making wine ? Dr. Schliemann,when excavating at Tiryns, found resined wine" a customary item in the native menu. He says (p. 5) that though not mentioned by any ancient Greek author sxcept Dioscorides, it may be assumed, with high probability, to have oeen in use in the ancient Greek world. See Pliny,' Hist. Nat.,' xiv. 19, 3-4. Whether there is any evidence of resined wine being used in the Middle Ages and later, one is unqualified to say, but t is noteworthy that the "Pine-cone, as a The Widow' (III. iii.) :— "If I go to the Palace of Justice all these clerks are constantly after me ; one takes me to the Three fishes, the other to the Pine-cone." And a sign of the pine-cone, about twenty 'ears ago, distinguished a house at the corner >f Brook Street, Kennington ; but in what rade connexion it was so displayed I have seen unable to ascertain. The pineapple of he confectioner is well known, but can any orrespondont inform me in what way the ine-cone as a street sign was associated with rade? J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. PEDIMENT (9th S. vi. 7).—MR. C. B. MOUNT, eeraingly on the authority of Prof. Skeat, ays, " No Latin word pedimentum exists"; ut both Pliny and Columella have peda- nentum in sense of vine-prop. The 'Standard dictionary' gives pedamentum as the original f pediment; but it does not indicate any Iliance in sense as well as in sound. This night be difficult to find, I am almost
 * avern sign, is mentioned in the comedy of