Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/300

 246 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9» s. vi. SEPT. 29, iwo. L. Toulmin Smith and P. Meyer, p. 107. We there read that a man is advised to put some rue and other things into wine and drink it: " Prenge ruwe, qe sig^iifie contricion," let him take rue, which signifies contrition. WALTER W. SKEAT. WIRE POND.—The "Wire Pond " at Winter- ton, mentioned under ' Moated Mounds," ante, p. 171, has long been filled up. It cer- tainly was not " the remains of a moat," but a pond fed by springs that could be seen issuing from fissures in the rock at the foot of the gentle declivity still called " Wire Hill." There is, or was, a pond at Scunthorpe, also called the " Wire Pond "—not the remains of a moat, but just a village horse- pond fed by a small running stream. I should be glad to know anything about "wire" meaning "spring," or, indeed, anything to explain the term on an historical basis. J. T. F. Winterton, Doneaster. HIOHGATE ARCHWAY.—In the late forties, on Saturdays, when we Islington boys had a whole holiday, one of our great delights was to run along the top of the parapets of the Highgate Archway that has now become a thing of the past. The Islington Gazette for 30 July gives capital illustrations of the old and now archway, and records many pleasing memories of the immediate locality. In the beginning of the nineteenth century a body corporated by the name of the " Highgate Archway Company " tunnelled the hill, but on the morning of 13 April, 1812, before day- break, 130 yards of it fell in with a tremen- dous crash. After this, when it was uncertain in the public mind what future steps the company in question intended to pursue, some local wags issued the following satirical prospectus :— "The Highgate Archway having fallen in, it is intended to remove the whole of the hill entire, with the houses, gardens, fields, roads, and foot- paths, by a mechanical slide, constructed so as to remove the whole, including a chapel and burial- ground. It is intended to remove the hill into the vale behind Caen Wood, where the seven ponds now are, thereby forming a junction with Hamp- stead, and inviting the approach of the two hamlets in a more social manner. On the spot where High- gate now stands it is intended to form a large lake of salt water of two miles over, or thereabouts, beginning at the north end of Kentish Town, ana reaching to the spot where the ' White Lion' at Finehley now stands. It is intended to supply the said lake with sea water from the Essex coast by means of earthenware pipes, iron pipes being in- jurious to sprats. It is in tended to stock the saidlake with all kinds of sea-fish (except sharks, there being plenty of land sharks to be had in the neighbour- hood), to supply the metropolis with live sea-water fish at reduced prices. It is intended to have 100 bathing machines, to accommodate the metropolis with sea bathing. It is intended to erect a large building in the centre of the wood called Coal Fell- wood, on the north side of the intended lake, which building is intended for insane surveyors and attorneys, who have lately infested the neighbour- hood of Highgate to the annoyance of the ordinary inhabitants. An estimate having been made by a successful mechanic of the cost of the mechanical slide, and of the expense of forming the lake and stocking it with herrings, mackerel, sprats, &c., and of the cost of erecting the madhouse, and of providing the bathing machines and conveying sea water, the sum will amount to 50,0<XK., which sum it is intended to be raised by subscription shares of 5W. each. On a moderate calculation, the profits arising from the sale of fish and the use of bathing machines annually, clear of all deductions what- ever, will amount to 5,OOW." It will be seen by the above that the wood is referred to as Caen Wood, the name I always knew the miniature forest by when a youngster. Some few years ago in these columns the wood in question was referred to as Ken Wood, a name I was certainly never familiar with. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. " SUB ": " SUBSIST MONEY."—' A Glossary of Rochdale-with-RossendaleWordsand Phrases' gives, "Suit, v. To pay a portion of wages before all are due ; to subsidize." The expression is in common use among different classes of workers ; but the synonym given goes to show that the word " sub " does not conform to its cognates. One may hear such a phrase as " I want to sub," but not " I want to be subbed," which should be the form if the analogy lie through the word "subsidize." There is also a non-dialect term which is, or was, used by contractors in their agreements. From a contract dated 1835 this phrase is taken, "agree to pay — — Subsist Money each and every fortnight in such sums as may be agreeable to the Parties." " Subsist" in this case appears to be a contraction of sub- sistence, and nas a meaning quite independent of the dialect word. The employee when say- ing "I want to sub five shillings" does not mean "I want to subsist five shillings," because subsistere does not mean "to stand under," but " to remain." The derivation is from a figurative meaning of xubsidere which equals " to decrease, to abate." ARTHUR MAYALL. CORPSE ON SHIPBOARD.—About 1827-9 my father, then a young surgeon, made two voyages in a whaling ship from Hull to Greenland. The medical faculty of the Uni- versity of Glasgow (of which he was a gradu- ate) asked him to bring back such specimens of natural history as he could secure. On