Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/157

 VL AUG. is, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 127 with the rules of Arabic word-formation, it occurs and is explained as meaning " a mar- . 1, . .,. 1. 1 ,., . t ~� 4- lift arl icas>fi *m t~f 1 I K.I Ti-*-»rQT- T«IQ rrn 4Ym t>4-" T« ...5 t !, " • _ L . i i« f i should not be the adjective to the proper name Lamu, an island off the East African coast, in a copal-producing country. Samagh /'in:; would then mean " gun) of Lamu." JAMES PLATT, Jun. WHITGIFT HOSPITAL, CKOYDON.—The Daily Telegraph of the 13th of August states that this institution, founded in the reign of Eliza- beth by Archbishop Whitgift, is threatened with demolition. It was established for the maintenance of a warden, schoolmaster, and twenty-eight men and women, or as many more under forty as the revenues would admit. The Daily Telegraph, in an interesting account of the quaint regulations by which it was originally governed, mentions :— " ' Iff anie glasse windowe be broken, or other decaye, by ayllfulness or necgligence, be made in private roonie of the hospital!, the same, upon wareninge given by the wardeine, shal be amendid within one monethe by him or her, and at his or her charges whome the rooine is, uppon payue to loose foure pence for every weeke after tellyt be mendid.' Among the interesting relics preserved, in addition to one or two Btained-glass medallions, are a black- letter folio Bible, dated 1599, the year in which the building was completed ; a portrait of a lady, dated 1616, supposed to be one of the archbishop's daughters ; two framed elegiac inscriptions in Latin and English, eulogizing the founder; ihe original letters patent, embellished with a portrait of Eliza- beth on vellum, and the deed of foundation. The late Duke of Saxe-Coburg was entertained at luncheon in the Great Hall after opening the new wing of the Croydon General Hospital in 1883." N. S. S. WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. riage-feast." Is not this a mistake of the glossarist? Mabsant means in Welsh "a patron saint," see Davies's 'Diet.,' 1632. On the other hand there was an old Cornish sant glomed "daps," see Williams's 'Dict7 A. L. MAYHEW. Oxbrd. "AMACHE AND A HORSESHOE ARE BOTH ALIKE:'—This proverb is found among the 'Scottsh Proverbs' in Ray's 'Collection' 1678, p361. In Kelly's 'Scottish Proverbs,' 1721, p 34, 1 find, "A Mare's Shoe and a Horse >hoe are both alike." What is the relationbetween these two proverbs / Which represets the earlier form ? A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford ' THE ["HREE KINGS OF COLCHESTER.'—Can any one«ll me where a copy may be seen or obtaine<of this old chap-book ? An abridged version given in J. O. Halliwell's 'Popular Rhymesand Nursery Tales,' under the title of 'Thefhree Heads of the Well.' Inquiry for the d chap-book at the British Museum Library ias been unsuccessful. There is reason 1 believe that it has a curiously interestig historical value. W. QURNEY BENHAM. Colchesr. GRETI GREEN MARRIAGE.— I am anxious to find marriage which took place at Gretna Green fcween 1777 and 1782. I shall be gratefubr any help from your readers as to the stepl ought to take. MRS. STEPHENSON. 43, Bryston Square, W. [Consu General Indexes to Fourth, Fifth, Seventhjd Eighth Series.] " GUTTER-SNIPE."—The earliest example I have been able to find of this word as the mme of a bird (the American snipe, Gallinago vilsoni) is dated 1874. For the application cf the name to the English snipe the only Mithority known to me is Heslop's 'Northum- berland Glossary,' 1893. Can any corre- ipondent furnish me with earlier instances 1 i should also be glad to have instances of the word in the sense " gatherer of refuse" or " street arab " earlier than 1869. HENRY BRADLEY. Clarendon Press, Oxford. " MABSANT."—In a list of ' Pembroke and Glamorgan Words," published in 1852 in 'N. <fe Q.,' 1" S. vi. 152, the word mabsant JEWIS CALENDAR. — Clinton, writing on the sub:t of the Crucifixion and its accom- panyinr'assover in his 'Fasti Romani,'says, respect? the Jewish calendar:— " We DW not what their method of calculation was, at 3 time of the Christian era. But we are not to ply to their time the modern Jewish calendar cycle of nineteen years ; nor are we to rely upithe accounts of Maimonides writing in the tw«h century, or of the rabbinical doctors, for theractice of the Jews in the time of Christ.b. I haalso met with the statement, which I cancnow trace, that on the reconstitution of thewish calendar in the fourth century those mcerned so constructed it that it shouloe valueless to Christians. Clinton appeato have had some such idea in his mindien he says the date of the Cruci- fixiomnot be established by means of any L __