Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/119

 9»s.VLAuG.4,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 97 the following poem. F. Cunningham, in th current edition of Gilford's ' Jonson' (vol. iii 1892, p. 284), calls attention to Bell's "strang muddle." It is therefore a fact that Giffon supposed the poem " Oh do not wanton wit] those eyes," including the trashy verse whicl I have quoted, to outshine the lyrics o Shakespeare, and the verdict is typical o Gifford s attitude to poetry. He could appre ciate a satire, but not a lyric. I am no aware that I made the inconsequent assertion that my quotation from Mr. Fleay settles the authorship of the epitaph. I was disposing of my own objection about the silence of th first folio. PERCY SIMPSON. THE 'SPECTATOR'(9th S. vi. 29).—In my copy of the 'Spectator' No. 250 is marker " T. B. (6)," and the letter (b) refers to notes at the end of the volume, in which it is statec that " this letter is said to have been written by a Mr. Golding." No. 262 is headed, " By Addison," and is marked "C." No. 622 is described as by an unknown author. The title-page is as follows :— "Spectator; In Eight Volumes. With Lives o the Authors, and Introductory Titles to Each Paper. Critically compared with Addison's own Edition in which the Errors of Modern Copies are expunged. Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed anc Publisned by J. Mitchell: and sold in London by Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ; T. Tegg j and R. Scholey"(n.rf.). RICHARD WELFORD. " LAZY LAURENCE"(9th S. v. 394,503).—Lazy Laurence presides not only over the indolent of Scotland and Suffolk, but of Somersetshire also. In the ' Graphic and Historical Illus- trator.' edited by Ed. W. Brayley, F.S.A., published in 1834, there is an article by James Jennings, in the Somersetshire dialect, called 'Soliloquy of Ben Bond, the Idleton,' giving an account of a conversation which a lazy country lad had with this imaginary being. It is very amusing. Ben, employed by a farmer to look after a large flock of sheep, just reclines in a lovely spot and lets the sheep go their own way. Seeing the sheep get into trouble, he says, "Larence ! why doos'n let I up? Got let I up?" " Naw, I be a sleapid, I can't let thee up eet." The sheep stray further away and get into more trouble. Ben expostulates, telling Laurence how he shall get thrashed "athin a ninch o' me life"; and again he tells Laurence that the farmer through whose hedge the sheep have broken will go to law with his master "an I sholl be a kill'd." Still Laurence, to his request to be allowed to get up, only says," Naw, I wunt; I tell ee I wunt; and zaw 'tis niver-tha-near to keep on," Then he offers " a ha peny." Later on he says," I '11 gee thee a penny nif pot let me up." By-and-by he increases the bribe to " tuther peny," saying, " An that'sivry vard'n I a got." To this Laurence answers, " Naw, I mis ha a penny moor." So the dialogue goes on till 11is master comes along and overhears. The writer of the article asserts that he knew the farmer, Ben's master, personally and had the story from his wife. As a personification of laziness the story would be nard to beat. E. A. C. Much has already appeared in 'N. & Q.,' 6th S. v. 266, 474 ; vi. 78, 177 ; 7th S. i. 269; xi. 4, 115, 212, 415 ; 8th S. xi. 189, 235. W. C. B. "PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING ARE NO MORE" (9th S. vi. 40).—These words are from the sonnet " written in London, September, 1802," one of the ' Sonnets dedi- cated to Liberty.' Y. Y. O friend, I know not which way I must look. This is No. XIII. of the ' Sonnets dedi- cated to Liberty,' and was written in London in September, 1802. It is scarcely in the first rank of Wordsworth's sonnets, but it contains some of his noblest lines. C. C. B. TOWN GATES OUTSIDE LONDON (9th S. v. 228, 362).—It is depressing to me to find that a blunder which I exposed so long ago as 1887 is still flourishing and fertile. I refer to the stupid confusion of gate=& doorway with r/ait=a. street or road. MR. T. P. ARMSTRONG, 'or instance, writes thus :— "Dundee has the Cowgate Port still standing, tfethergate, Seagate. Overgate, and Murraygate are among the names of its streets. Glasgow had no walls, the outermost row of houses serving as a brtifieation; but it had several gates or ports. Barnes survive in the Gallowgate and theTrongate, where the place of weighing was." Now, as an historian both of Glasgow and of Dundee, I must protest against these foolish statements. In my 'Quaint Bits of Glasgow,' published in 1887, I snowed clearly that the polling of such words as Trongate and Gal- owgate was a modern corruption not older han 1770, and that the original spelling was ?rongait and Gallowgait. The terminal gait learly is the form of the Scandinavian and )utcn (jack, signifying a road. Thus the Yon-gait was the road to the tron, or public weighing-place, and the Gallow-gait was the oau leading to the gallows at the place of jublic execution. As a matter of fact, there ever was a gate at the Trongait, though here was a " Gallow-gait Port." Of course,
 * gait or gate meant a doorway, to add the