Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/94

 78 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.vi. JULY 28,1000. (died 1263), with Margaret, daughter of Walter de Clifford and Agnes de Cundy. ARTHUR HUSSEY. Tankerton-on-Sea, Kent. " TYRE " (9th S. v. 516).—Is it possible that this word should have been spelt tire, meaning a headdress? I am given to under- stand the white frill on the inside of an old woman's bonnet or cap was usually called a tire. Dame Steles may have been a female sexton or pew-opener, or something of the kind, and probably was allowed the additional emolument of a tire. CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Bradford. Tyre,also spelt tire, was the attire, dress, or ornament with which women clothed their head (see 'World of Words,' by E. Phillips, 1720; Dr. Dyche's ' Dictionary,' 1754 ; N. Bailey's, 1759; and Dr. Ash's, 1775). EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER (9th S. v. 477).— This gentleman died on 3 January last, aged seventy-two. See the Surrey Comet of 6 and 13 January, of which paper he was the editor for ten years. C. D. PROVERB (9th S. v. 434, 503; vi. 37).—The earliest form I have met with appears in a pamphlet published in 1607, purporting to be written by one Richard Johnson, ana entitled 'The Pleasant Walkes of Moore Fields, reprinted in the late Mr. John Payne Collier's compilation ' Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature,' 1863-4. A word or two of introduction may not be unwelcome. When Stow died in 1605, Moorfields, extending front Cripplegate to Bishopsgate west and east, anc from the City wall to Hoxton south and north was waste ground reclaimed from fen or marsh land, and surveyed and intersected by paths and public walks during the reign oi Henry VIII., previous to which time the area had been the scene of tumultuous gather- ings and the resort of that section of the community we now characterize generally by the term " rough." In the monarch's reign j have mentioned some attempt was made to ensure propriety by levelling the land there tofore undulating and even broken, and bi promulgating regulations to ensure som< attention to order and decency on the part o its frequenters. In the two years following the death of the famous antiquary th( citizens took the area in hand, further levellec the site, laid it out in grass plots broken bj beds of flowers here and there, planted^ with trees designed for welcome shade, anc ut gravel paths at right angles after the manner of garden formation in those days, hen (vide Bacon's 'Essays') considerable attention was paid to this useful and ttractive art of horticulture. The author of the pamphlet I have indicated eulogizes this public work, and takes occasion a point out how much more meritorious is lenefactor is yet living and in a position to supervise personally the administration of lis bounty than when he leaves his benevolent lesigns to be carried out by his heirs or executors. The text is in the form of a dialogue 3etween a gentleman (presumably a stranger and a provincial visitor to London) and a itizen inhabitant of the metropolis. The latter, after giving his companion an account of the past and then living worthies of London, continues:— ' Thus have I made a briefe of some of our worthy citizens, and their charitable actions, some done in their lives, the rest left to their executors, I have heard some of them hardly (or never) per- formed " (sic). I suppose he means to say that he has heard that some of the benefactors' intentions are, or have been, hardly (or never) carried out. " VVherefore I wish men to make their own handes their executors, and their eyes their overseers, not forgetting this old and true proverb,— Women be forgetfull, children be unkinde, Executors covetous and take what they finde ; If any one aske where the legacies became ? They answere, so God helpe me he died a poore man. There is now living one Master Dove, a Marchant- taylor, having many yeares considered this old proverbe," 4c. And so the citizen proceeds to illustrate his principle by giving an account of the origin of the well-known " Bell-man of Newgate " dole, instituted while the donor was yet living and continued after his death by testamentary bequest. It will be observed that the citizen quotes the "proverbe" as being even then (1607) regarded as old. En passant, it may be noted that the citizen explains the origin of the appellation "Fisher's Folly,'' and indicates the situation of the house, which—standing to the east of Moor- fields in what is now Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate—would be an object in the land- scape then well within the purview of pro- menaders in the " Pleasant Walkes." GNOMON. Temple. MOATED MOUNDS (9th S. v. 309, 399, 454 ; vi. 11).—S. T. seems to have supplied another
 * he philanthropy that is exercised while the