Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/185

 9"-s. VB Ana 25, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 11 April, 1772, finds no place in the 'D.N.B.' In the memoir of Mrs. Inchbald in that work we are told that her husband died suddenly under painful circumstances, 6 June, 1779 Where can further particulars about him be found ? JAMES HOOPER. Norwich. [Consult Tate Wilkinson, ' Wandering Patentee, ii. .Vi-,i!i. According to Wilkinson's gossip, Inchbalc died in his wife's embrace.] AUTHORS OF BOOKS WANTED.—Can any oi your readers inform me who were the writers of the following ?—• Voillrr a la Campagne; or, the Simnel. London, 1745, folio. The Old Coachman, a New Ballad, to which is added Labour in Vain. London, 1742, folio. The Patriots are Come ; or, a New Doctor for a Crazy Constitution. London, no date, folio. Sarah, the Quaker, to Lothario, lately deceased, on meeting him in the Shades. Second edition, London. 1/28, folio. The World Unmask'd. A Satire. London, 1738, folio.* RUPERT SIMMS. 27, Ironmarket, Newcastle-under-Lyme. MARGERY.—Can any reader tell me whether Margery was a distinct name or an equivalent of Mary or Margaret or both about the year 1685 in Berks? F. G. BROOKER. [It seems established from Bardsley, 'Our English Surnames,' as an early variant of Margaret.] ARGYLK AND MONTROSB.—I should be much obliged to any of your readers who could add to my list of historical novels in which these two great rivals figure. My list is: 'A Legend of Montrose,' by Scott, and the recent novels 'John Splendid' and 'The Angel of the Covenant.' JOHN WILLCOCK. Lerwick, N.B. CARDINAL NEWMAN.—Can any of your readers kindly inform me in which of his works or papers the following quotation can be found ?— " Who will not say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country ? " F. B. S. RICHARD SAVAGE : MRS. BRET. — Savage appears to have belonged to a Kentish family, but resident at Mayfiefd, just over the Sussex border. He was secretary to the Customs in 1705, and contributed to Boyer's first French dictionary, also to his 'Letters of Wit, &c.,' in 1701, translating from Italian and Spanish. Was he or his family known to his namesake [* See 2°« S. ii. 390,476; iii. 256,334; also Halkett and Laing under title. J Richard Smith, alia* Savage, the minor poet and homicide, who died in 17431 Will Mr. Moy Thomas oblige ? While on the subject I would ask, Who was Mrs. Bret, named as acting Isabella in ' Sir Thomas Overbury' in 1724? A. HALL. Stylus. MAY ROAD WELL, ACCRINGTON. (9th S. iv. 396, 464 ; v. 14.) As the " competent opinion " MR. BOYLE is in search of under this heading still remains a res desideranda, I have been at some pains, as much to oblige MR. BOYLE as to gratify my own interest in a town bound to me by many ties, to procure it for him. Accordingly, I recently opened up the question in the Accrington Observer, with the result that the following information was volunteered in two successive issues of that paper :— " Mary Hoyle Well, a famous Accrington spring.— A letter from the Rev. J. B. McGovorn appeared in last Saturday's Observer, making inquiries about a once-celebrated Accrington well, respecting the real name of which there is some doubt. On the old six-inch Ordnance map of Lancashire it is de- scribed as 'May Road Well.' It has also been called ' Mare Hole Well,' ' Mare Hole Well Fair,' 'Mary gyle's Well,' and 'Mary Hoyle Well.' The last is the most common name, but I am in- clined to think that the ' Hoyle' should be written ' hole itself was substituted for, or was a short way of saying, 'holy.' Mr. McGovern states that ie had heard from residents of the neighbourhood Well,'fromafamily named Hoyle who inherited those larts some time in the long ago, but that his own nil nil m inclines to the view that the well was one of the ' holy' wells of mediteval times, dedicated to .he Virgin, and originally called ' Mary's Holy Well.' 1 think in this Mr. McGovern is likely to >e right, though I have not been able to find any direct evidence that this well was one of those regarded in the past as holy. But there is plenty of what may possibly be indirect evidence. That the water was formerly supposed to possess virtues of some kind is very probable, for apparently it nust have been on that account that what have >een described as pilgrimages were made to it once - year—on the first Sunday in May. Later the pilgrims' seem to have evolved themselves into •evellers and holiday-makers; and obviously this ed to the annual gathering at the well being called , 'fair.' The month of May is dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church—that might xplain why the gatherings at the well were always •n the first Sunday in May. Mr. McGovern quotes , Mr. J. R. Boyle, of Hull, who suggests that the lesignation 'Mare Hole Well' is a corruption of St. Mary's Holy Well.' That the fame of the well, whatever it was, was at one time widespread is indoubted, it certainly having been spoken of as ar away as Ireland."
 * Hoil' the dialect way of saying ' hole,' and that
 * hat the well was locally known as ' Mary Hoyle's