Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/618

 514 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. VL DM. anna cences of Henry Angela,' 1830, ii. 362 et seq., where the fencing-master and note-taker describes with blood-curdling details what ho says he saw "in the Place Dauphin, close to the Pont Neuf, at Paris in the month of September, 1775," at about nine o clock m the evening, when two men were broken upon the wheel by torchlight; the tore wheel of a coach was used in respect to one of these victims, a parricide, and "a tall, handsome young man, about five-and-twenty, [who] was considered the first roughrider in rans. This is the most circumstantial account of the matter which is known to me ; but there is no doubt that the punish- ment itself continued to be inflicted until a considerably later date than September, 1775. O. TUNSTALL FAMILY (9th S. vi. 448).-Amongst the wills proved at Richmond, Yorkshire, between 1585 and 1671, there are thirteen under the name of Tunstall. All the testators lived in or near Tunstal. There are wills of two Brian Tunstalls of Tunstall—one proved in 1609 and the other in 1654. Thurland Castle (not Thurlow Castle, as in MRS. JlEHRENa's query) was founded in the time of Henry IV. by Sir Thomas Tunstall. An interesting account of its siege in 1643 is given m vol. Ixii. of the Chatham Society's publications. In 1607 Thomas Tunstall was married at Croston parish church to Alice £uni£g: r HENRY FISHWICK. The Heights, Rochdale. Mr. Roper, F.S.A., in a local guide-book, gives the following particulars respecting Ihurland Castle (not Thurlow, as erroneously stated in the query) :— "The castle dates from the time of Henry IV. fcir Ihomas Tunstall, who fought at Agincourt, obtained early in the fifteenth century licence to embattle his house at Thurland. His grandson, Sir Richard Tunstall, held the castle of Harlech for Henry VI., the last fortress that held out for that unfortunate monarch. The name of the owner of Ihurland comes again to the front in the reign of Henry VIII., when Sir Brian Tunstall, the btainless Knight of Flodden, was one of the few Englishmen of note who fell on that fatal field. Sir Marmaduke Tunatall, the elder son of 'Tunstall the Undented, took a leading part in the suppres- sion of the monasteries." The castle subsequently passed to the Oirlington family.and was besieged and a con- siderable portion of it destroyed during the Civil War. It has since been restored. The name of Tunstall is mentioned in the parish registers of Whittington, and no doubt will be found in the registers of Tunstall, in which parish the castle is situated. In Tunstall Church there is an effigy said to be that of Sir Thomas Tunstall, who fought at Agio- court. J. R. NUTTALL. Lancaster. A similar question appeared in ' N. & Q.,' 4th S. viii. 264. By the reply at p. 338 the pedigree of Tunstall of Thurland Castle (not Thurlow) appears in Baines's 'History of Lancashire,' 4 vols., iv. 616. EVERABD HOME COLBMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. WIRE POND (9th S. vi. 246, 298, 352).—It is to be hoped that DO one will take seriously the remarkable effusion of A. H. at the last reference, which contains, among others, the statement that " Wire may be converted into Wray, a water-name" (tic), or Rea, Ray, or Rye. Wraysbury, which he instances, is not on the Thames (unless it has recently ad- vanced thither), and it was formerly called Wyrardisbury or Wyrardsbury—apparently the Dooiesday Wirecesberie—a name clearly eponymic. Nor is Wrayton on the Lune, and it has no more to do with " wire" than has the neighbouring Wray (formerly Wra and Wro). It belongs to the numerous class of animal place-names, and is equivalent to Rowton (A.-S. rd, rce'ge, roe); cf. Shipton, " the sheep-farm." Its prothetic w is due to false analogy, other examples of which are Wridgway for Ridgway, Wrigg for Rigg, Wrigley for Rigley, £c. Ray river is one of a large number of animal water-names—e.g., Raeburn, Roeburn, Roe Beck, Hartburn, Hiudbum, Daybrook = Doebrook, Bugbrooke = Buckbrook (from deer); Swinbrook, Swinburn, Hoggbeck (from pigs); Cowburn, Oxenbourne, Rother river (from cattle); Shipbourn, Shipbrook, Fair- burn (from sheep); Gatebeck, Qadbrook (from goats)—whose origin is perfectly well understood. The numerous English pools or ponds called " wires" or " weres," i. e., weir-pools (A.-S. wer have, of course, no connexion with such a river-name as the Lancashire Wyre, which is Celtic and to be equated with the Cardiganshire Big and Little Wyres (Yr WyreTfawr, Yr Wyre Fach), whose meaning is quite clear. Where English " wire-" or " were-" or " wyr-" place-names have no con- nexion with ponds or weirs, they must be explained by the A.-S. wir or wy'r, "myrtle," as in the case of the picturesque piece of hill-and-dalc country called Wirral, formerly Wirehall, A.-S. Wirhalas ("on Wirhalum "X "Myrtle-Slopes." Wir=mi/rtus is duly re- corded in Prof. Earle's 'Old English Plant- Names.' Our Celtic Rye rivers are well known, but the "Rye-" or "Ry-" of English