Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/426

 352 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9th a VL NOV. s, 1900. "The New Fire Office." It had nothing to do -with the previous Phoenix. Readers of known as the Rolls Chapel should procure Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte's Report, published by Eyre & Spottiswoode. ft contains an account of the chapel, and a description of the monuments. These were carefully protected during its demolition, and included that of Dr. Yong, which had long been its chief orna- ment, being "one of the finest examples in England of the monumental art of the Italian Renaissance." Almost opposite to the tomb of Dr. Yong stood the Alington monument, "a fine example of the Elizabethan period." The register of burials and marriages is also given. The entries are but few. The report contains many illustrations. The London County Council is establishing at its central offices a museum of antiquarian relics. The golden sign of the " Half Moon," from the doorway of one of the gabled houses in Holy well Street, has been placed there. An old friend of 'N. & Q.,' Mr. G. L. Gorame, has the matter in hand, so there is a certainty of its being well done. Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, the home of Charles Dickens for nine years, was last week added to the record of vanish- ing London. JOHN C. FRANCIS. FREDERICK GILBERT, ARTIST (9th S. vi. 49), is a brother of Sir John, in whose house at Blackheath he lives. Though a skilful draughtsman, he left off practising his profes- sion many years ago, I believe. It was some- times difficult to distinguish his work from that of Sir John. RALPH THOMAS. MARGERY (9th S. vi. 151, 352).—Roger Reede, of Horton, co. Staffs, in his will, dated 13 Oct., 1558, mentions "ray sixe children Willm Thomas Richardo Agnes Margerye & Margarett." This shows plainly that Mar- gery and Margaret were sometimes used as distinct names. ALEYN LYELL READE. MELLARD FAMILY (9th S. vi. 210).—Has MR READE any reason to suppose that Mellart and Millard are not the same name ? Similar variations of vowels are not at all uncommon in names, owing to a general absence o: finality in spelling them before the eigh- teenth and nineteenth centuries. Millard is not an extremely rare name, and it is genuine Saxon. Compare, in the West Country, Penne, Peny, Penney, Pen, &c., with Pinne, Piny, Pinney, Pin ; and in Scotland the equivalent name Benny with Binny, &c. FRANK PENNY, Senior Chaplain. Fort St. George. RELIGION : A DEFINITION (9th S. vi. 308).— The definition of religion quoted from the Church Times does not seem particularly lappy. Cicero says, "Qui omnia qu» ad cultuin deorum pertinerent, diligenter re- tractarent et tanquam relegerent, religiosi dicti sunt ex relegeudo" (' Nat. Deor.,' ii. 28); Lactantius, " Vinculo pietatis obstricti, Deo •eligati sumus, unde ipsa religio nomen cepit." Canon Liddon, in referring to the passages quoted, says:— " The ancients were fond of discussing the deri- vation of the word religion, and Cicero refers it to that anxious habit of mind which cons over and over again all that bears on the service of heaven. Liaotantius may be wrong in his etymology, but he lias certainly seized the broad popular sense of the word when he connects it with the idea of an obliga- tion by which man is bound to an invisible Lord." —' Some Elements of Religion,' Lect. i. 19. J. A. J. HOUSDEN. Canonbury. WALTON (9th S. vi. 230, 313).—I have been struck by the quotation from Martindale given by your correspondent MR. HERBERT CLAYTON, from which it appears that four brothers, Quakers, emigrated to America in 1G75, two bearing the names Daniel and Nathaniel respectively ; for I was educated, sixty years ago, by a clergyman in this neigh- bourhood whose surname was Walton and whose Christian names were Daniel Nathaniel. Your correspondent B. B. will find a copy of Besse's work in the current catalogue ot E- Menken, Bury Street, Bloomsbury. C. T. SAUNDERS. 37, Temple Row, Birmingham. WIRE POND (9th S. vi. 246, 298). —In a Buckinghamshire village familiar to me in childhood were two ponds which bore the name of Wire. The largest of them extended from the churchyard wall to the village green — a capital place for " sliding" in winter—and was called the Church Wire. The other, half a mile up the village, near the Baptist Chapel, was known as the Wire Pond. Connected with the Church Wire was neither inlet nor outlet, but the Wire Pond was a sort of expansion of a small streamlet that entered the pond at the north end and left it at the south end on its way to join the River Thame. Both ponds were in existence and bearing the same respective names three years ago. RICHARD WELFORD. Wire maybe converted into Wray, a water- name. Thus Wiran-mouth is Wearinouth; Wraysbury on Thames, Wrayton on the Lune. Rea is common, so Ray Mills, Ray River, Add the Wyer River at Fleetwood;
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