Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/427

 f _-_ ~ --W <i <l .e-s.v1. NOV-3.19001 NOTES AND QUERIES. 353 Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire; so Wyre=Rea. Sanskrit 'ri as in Rhine, Rhone; so Rye House, in Herts; Welsh Rhaiadr, dec. A. H. EARLY Iarsn IN ICELAND (9'~*P S. vi. 170, 232).-Renan had the best authority for his statement that the Irish were in Iceland before the Northmen. The long and in- teresting introduction by Mr. G. V. Dasent -to ‘The Story of Burnt Njal’ is con- clusive en the subject. Irish monks were in Iceland before 800. But they sought only its solitude for prayer and devotipn, leaving few 'traces of their settlement. A reading of other Sagas gives the idea that Ireland was best known of all the lands to the south. In the earlier chapters of ‘Grettir the Strong,’ for instance it is plainly stated that men left Ireland for Iceland, having heard that there was land there good for settlement. GEORGE Msasnau.. Sefton Park, Liverpool. | TEE SEVEN Suns (9°*‘ S. vi. 244).-Ancient astronomy was not more exact than that of to-day, and it is doubtful if the word Kimah is really Hebrew, for it has no recognized root therein. As a fact, it may -be compared with chyme in ph 'siology, Gk. X6 a, from Xéw ° so, if compared, further with the allied chg/fe, it might possibly represent the Milky Way. Amos is responsible for the mutilated word chion, where the 'i is transposed, and we should read iclum, Gk. eixibv, an image, which exactly fits the sense. It is notable that St. Stephen in Acts vii. 43 quotes from the Septuagint, substituting Remphan for Raiphan, a reminis- cence .of the giants called Rephaim in 2 Sam. v. 18 ; also Titans (see Genesis xiv. 5). ` A. HALL. TEE T/in-‘E FAMILY (9"= S. vi. 189, 2.58).-In thanking ME. EVEEARD HOME COLEMAN for his kind communication on this subject and for the trouble he has taken in the matter to help me, I beg to mention that I have a very nice copy indeed of John D’Alton’s “ Illustra- tions of Kin f James’s Irish Arm List, 1689-90, Second Edition, Enlarged, iondon, 1861,” purchased in my wanderings in Edin- bur h some years ago ; and, 1 may add mighty pleased was I when I saw it safe and sound in my home in London. N e’er to my shelves, where the very greatest rest, Since their formation came a nobler guest. HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W. _THE ELEANOE Csoss, IVALTHAM (9"‘ S. vi. 211, 296).fI think the point of the Licensed Vzctuallers’ Gazette article was that the ancient _ __ .. .-, . -_; .- ._» -._-_v -~-- .~ - finial cross was in the rdens of the “Four Swans ” Inn. This is, Iiaelieve, quite correct. (See Winter’s ‘ History of the Eleanor Cross,’ 1885, pp. 33, 34.) It was from this relic that the present finialcross was fashioned. '1‘he ancient cross was apparently lost for cen- turies, and had been used for many years as pavement at a farm in Cheshunt; It was much broken and defaced, and unsuitable for-the gréesent restored cross, the old shaft having .en more. plain and tapering than the present. _ W. B. GEILISH. Bishop’s Stortford. ' RUSKIN'S Roan (9"‘ S. vi. 231).-This is said of the undergraduatesf erformance in the National Review for October (p. 249) 1- _ “A benevolent farmer allowed them to mu.ke.a road on his farm at Hinksey on the understanding that a fund should be raised to pay for the damage done to his property .... ._A mile or so from Oxford, in a field on the slope of Cumnor Hill, a grass~grown embankment stands in solitary splendour; it is all that remains of Ruskin’s road. And the farmer chuckled as he Jocketed the guarantee fund.”- ‘ The Oxford Unclergraduatef _ - Sr. Swrrnm. In Prof. Max mile.-'S ‘Auld Lang syne; first series (Macmillan, 1898), may be found the statement that Ruskin’s Road, near Oxford, was “soon washed away.” H. R. N. A Norwich. “M.x”: SLANG FOEGIN (9**‘ S. vi. 161, 233). -~Fer “ mahogany,” a Cornish ,blend of two- thirds gin, one-third treacle (1 so named from its colourgi see, under date of Friday, 30 March, 1781, oswell’s ‘Life of Dr. Johnson’ -“ Sam Johnson ” (tout court), as th_e great lcxicegrapher is familiarly dubbed in recent book catalogues. A corresponding drink in the Highlands of Scotland was called “Athel porridge ” [or brose] (whisky and. hone '), as we learn from the same passage; but tliisis a digression. A ‘Dictionary of Drinks’ seems a desideratum. H, E_ My St. Petersburg. ’ In the second note on p. 161 the question is asked, “ Why does sprugs mean pounds?" ‘I presume that it is an allusion to the largest gold coin in Lilliput, described by Gulliver as "about the bigness of a spangle ” (‘A Voyage to Lilliput,’ chap. vi.). E. E. STREET: Chichester. ‘JOHN BuLL,’ A NEWSPAPER (9"‘ S. v. 495; vi. 116, 157. 255).--Was it not in this paper the .‘Humbugs of the Age’ a pearedl An early one was named ‘De &uincey,’ and was always attributed by him to _D|°. William Maginn (1794-1842), but Maginn