Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/513

 9“'S. VI. nm. 1, 1900.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 425 does not appear in a later engraving of 1834. The clock is now inside the quadrangle, let into the wall above the front entrance porch. In the engraving last amed there is shown the old “Crown " Ho£l, which occupied at one period the site of the more palatial “Crown” of to-day. At the south-west corner of the hospital, in the picture we are speaking of, there is seen a pump, and near it is a plost sup- porting a bar, the other end of whic rests in the hostelr opposite. The bar supports on its centre the sign of the “ Crown.” A good purpose will be served if this note with respect to the Hospital of the Holy Trinity, Cro don, erected by Archbishop Whitgift, is the means, directly or indirectly, of enlisting the sympathy and su port of one individual for this most charitablle, but sadly misdirected bequest, the income of which in 1898 was 16,500l., and of this rincely sum only 1,50OZ. was, I understand? devoted to the archbishop’s primary object, the poor “bretheren and sisteres.” How it comes that the Charit ' Commissioners can override an Act of Parliament is a matter that requires the attention of the public at large, and those responsible for the just administration of the law in particular. It is in all humble- ness hoped that this notice of Whit ift Hospital may add to the strength og a strenuous opplosition to any further mis- direction of t e founder’s intentions, and to the demolition of what ought to be a vener- ated spot to which Croydon, at least, should be proud to point. I this hospital for the poor, upon which Whitgift bestowed with a lavish hand money, time, and consideration must give place for the advancement of the more well-to-do, then let it not be laid to the charge of this so-called enlightened generation that it allowed the oor to be robbed of their inheritance. Eet it be a condition that the hospital be re-erected elsewhere in Croydon, the new building to retain all its features, details, and characteristics, as ordained by the man who built and so handsomely endowed it, with the addition only of ordinary sanitary arrangements which were unknown to the archbishop’s time, but are necessary in our day. It may not be out of place here shortly to refer to the etymological origin of the word Croydon. There have been man supposi- tions as to the foundation for this place-name. Ducarel saw in the stratum of chalk which underlies part of Croydon its name origin. Another writer saw in the valley in which the village rested, together with sheep, the derivation of the word. Recently it was assumed that “Croydon ” comes from the four crosses which existed here, within which radius was a “place of refuge ” for offenders ; but these crosses also circumscribed the area within which copyhold property was exempt from payment of heriot. It will be questioned if this latter assumption is favoured by the Saxon Croqdanw. I am disposed to suggest that this place- name has its parent, so far as the initial syllable oes, in the same as Croyland, “a raw, muddy land.” Mud may as well be composed of wet, soft chalk as anything else, and to-day the muddy condition of Croydon streets under favourable circum- stances gives point to and emphasizes this fact. I here take the 0 portunity of thanking Alfred Jones, Es ., Vlyarden, for the courteous manner in which he laced before me all information desired. Wihatever impierfections these notes contain are not tracea le to that gentleman. ALFRED Cnas. Jonas. Thornton Heath, Surrey. “As'r1zE ”=HEARTH.-DP. Murray’s earliest example in the vernacular is dated conjec- turall about 1500, but there is an earlier in the ‘lliber Festialis,’ written by John Mirk. Prior of Lilleshall, Shropshire, in the time of Henry VI. Before quoting t-he passage in which it occurs I would remark that in another book, ‘Instructions for Parish Priests,’ ublished by the Early English Text Society, lilirk twice mentions “ Aster " for Easter (ll. 143, 241). My reason for doing so is that not onl is Aster=Easter noted by Halliwell, citing Hartshorne, as current in Shropshire, but of astre=hearth he tells us that Lam- barde in 1596 declared this word, nearly ob- solete in Kent, to be retained in Shropshire and other parts. To Mirk the two words were etymologically related to each other ; and he propounds his belief that Asturday means the day of the astur 8-i.e., hearth) in the fol- lowing exordium of iis sermon on Easter Sunday in the ‘ Liber Festialis’ (MS. Cotton. Claud. A. ii. fol. 58), which I copy from Brand’s ‘Popular Antiquities,’ 1849 ed., i. 161 n. :- - “ Gode men and wommen, os 38 knowe alle Welle, this day is called in some place Astur Day, and in some place Pasch Day, and in some place Goddus Sounda . Hit is callde Asturday as andulmasse Day of Eandullcs, and Palme Sounnday of Palmas, ffor wolnoz in uehe place hit is the maner this day for to done fyre oute of the houce at the Astur that hath bene all the wyntnr brcnte wyt fuyre and blakud with smoke, hit schal this day bene arayed with grene rusches and swete lloures strowcle alle