Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/378

 312 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. VL OCT. 20, uoo. open-field system, I notice that a " shot" is the early name for a group of acre or half- acre strips of land (which, naving a furlong for their length, gave a furlong for the width of the "shot"); also, that among payments exacted from the villeins was included "church-shot,"an ecclesiastical due. I should like to know what was the relation between these terms. A Devonshire farmer tells me that the expression " to pay one's shot" is still used among countrymen, signi- fying a money contribution for any object, as for drinks or a "pool." ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES. Among the objects of the sodalities or clubs of the Anglo-Saxons was one to pro- vide "soul-shot" on the death of every member, so that his disembodied spirit might enjoy the full benefit of such services as were proffered by the Church. And again, every dwelling among the Anglo-Saxons was valued at Christmas, and the rate so im- posed was called " church-shot," payable the following Martinmas. Church-shot was con- sidered analogous to the Levitical first fruits. (See Hy. Soames, 'The Anglo-Saxon Church,' 1856, p. 86.) J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL. THE PLACE-NAME OXFORD (9th S. iii. 44, 309, 389 ; iv. 70. 130, 382, 479; v. 69, 249, 517 ; vi. 108, 193).—From a dogmatic statement that the '" ford " in this case " is not a pas- sage over a river," ME. ADDY descends, with fatal precipitancy, to a speculative theory that it is possible that this *' ford " came in the end to designate the pastures themselves, so that the meaning would be something like "frith "or "firth." It needs no recourse to the imagination to conceive an old town near the castle, because the Osney records prove the nucleus of Oxford to have been the far more ancient monastery of St. Frideswide; and as to such names as Swinford, <fec., we have in this very locality a Swinford Bridge, constructed in the last century over an unmistakably ancient ford-way of that name. I do not interfere in the discussion further than to express my humble opinion that ME. STEVENSON has maintained the old and well- established origin of Oxford's place-name. JOHN GILBEBT. Oxford. [This discussion must now close.] WOOEE, IN SALOP (9th S. v. 128, 236; vi. 33 157, 218).—I see no difficulty at all ; ol course, it is unrelated to Waur, precisely as boor is unrelated to boar. Just as moor represents A.-S. mor, so woor represents A.-S. ear, which seems to have meant "a pool." [t occurs in the compound wor-hana, Phasi- anus. Uf. worin Stratmann, and O.H.G. wuor 'n Schade. WALTER W. SKKAT. CROSS NEAE WYCOLLER HALL (9th S. v. 248). —This place-name should be Wycollar. Mr. James Carr makes no mention in his 'Annals of Colne' of the cross referred to, but speaks )f an old stone at Grindlestonehurst, between Waterside and Wycollar, bearing a carved Greek cross (p. 195):— " It has been suggested that this cross is but a record of the piety of our ancestors, or of some pious pilgrim, marking the spot where a prayer or Ave Maria* might be repeated, and that Tailor's Cross is but a corruption of Templar's Cross." Tailor's Cross is thus explained :— " Another tradition says that Cromwell's army, being in the neighbourhood, and extremely short of clothiers, made a raid upon, and captured, all the tailors they could find. Amongst the captured was a Royalist, who vowed he would never soil his hands by making clothes for rebels ; so the rough soldiers, without more ado, shot the obstinate and loyal-hearted tailor, at a spot about two hundred yards from Kirk Bridge, and placed over his remains a rude stone, with scissors carved upon it, as a warning to his brother ' snips.' The stone remains to this day." This may or may not be the cross MR. TAYLOR is in search of, but perhaps Harland and Wilkinson's ' Traditions of Lancashire' or Whitaker's 'Whalley' would supply information. J. B. McGoVERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. FEROCIOUS DOOLYS (9th S. vi. 230).—See Calcutta Review, December, 1846, p. 286, foot- note, where Herbert Edwardes, writing on the first Sikh war, says :— "It is not long since a member of the British Legislature, recounting the incidents of one of our Indian tights, informed his countrymen that ' the ferocious Diili' rushed from the hills and carried off the wounded soldier ! " STEPHEN WHEELER, VERBS FORMED OUT OF PROPER NAMES (901 S. vi. 248).—MR. THORNTON has omitted some obvious instances, such as "to mes- merize," " to galvanize," " to guillotine," " to macadamize," "to jerrymander," "to mer- cerize," a verb of recent invention. If the heroes of the Homeric epos were real persons, we may add " to hector" and " to pander." Pamphylla, a Greek lady who compiled a history of the world in thirty-five little books, has given her name to " pamphlet" and " to pamphleteer." "To pasquinade" is due to Paschiuo, a cobbler at Rome, in whose ugly face the Romans detected a resemblance to