Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/345

 9* s. vii. APRIL 27, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

337

book is " The Carthyn," which the editor re marks " is doubtless Carton." Thus the nam of this place was evidently so spelt in 1518 The editor also gives extracts from a ren roll of 1 May, 1684 (Harleian MS. 7200), on of which is as follows :

"The next item mentions a notable name, 'Col Richard Talbot,' who was charged 1(V. a year fo the chief rent of Carrtowne, instead of Sir Wm Talbott. He had paid the half-year's rent, bein probably then resident at Carton, now the seat o His Grace the Duke of Leinster."

I do not know at what date the Talbots firs became tenants of the Earls of Kildare. In little book en titled "Castle of Maynooth. 1868 Compiled by the Duke of Leinster for privat circulation" (Dublin, Hodges, Smith & Co. it is stated that

" in or about 1629, a letter was sent to the Lord Justices of Ireland, by order of Charles I., in whic it is stated that, as the title deeds of George, 16th Earl, then a minor, were in the custody of Chris topher Fitzgerald, formerly servant to Gerald, lat Earl, and who had grown very weak from old age he directed them to be placed under the charge o Lord Aungier, uncle to the Earl, and of Sir W Talbot of Carton, in a chest with three locks ; one key to be kept by the guardians of the Ear] another by Lord Aungier, and the third by Sir W Talbot."

"Carrtowne" of 1684 looks very like a variation of "The Carthyn " of 1518 ; and if the Talbots' tenancy only began in the seven teenth century, it is unlikely that Carton was so named after Carr in Lancashire. I may add that, having spent my childhood in its immediate vicinity, I can vouch for the fact that the modern orthography of the name is always Carton, pronounced with the accent on the penult. It is, however, often pro- nounced Cartown by the lower classes. Dr. Joyce, in his useful work 'The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places,' sixth edition, Dublin, 1891, vol. i. p. 245, states that

"in many parts of Ireland the Anglo-Norman settlers introduced terms derived from their own language, and several of these are now very common as townland names. Cartron signifies a quarter, and is derived through the French quarteron from the mediaeval Lat. quarteronus."

May not Carton have been derived from Cartron ? This, of course, is merely a guess, and I am aware how risky such guesses often are. It seems to me to be a pity that our Irish authorities on place-names, history, <fec

do not

appea

r to be so much in touch with

matters of interest relating to Ireland often crop up in its pages.
 * N. & Q. as they might be, since many

S. A. D'ARCY, L.R.C.P. and S.I.

Rosslea, Clones, co. Fermanagh.

BROKEN ON THE WHEEL (9 th S. vi. 251 314 373, 455, 513; vii. 135, 196). The most vivid description of this punishment which I have ever read occurs in an old novel, * Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred.' The note is perhaps worth preserving :

" The author here evidently refers to what is improperly called the breaking on the wheel ; for the criminal is stretched naked, except a cloth that goes round his waist, upon two planks, in the form of what is called St. Andrew's cross ; and then the executioner, with an iron bar, breaks all the bones of his arms, his legs, and thighs. A cruel punish- ment, the reader will say ; but it is trifling to what he has to suffer ; for he is then laid, with his face upward, upon a small wheel, about as wide as the length of his body only, and trussed up like a fowl for the spit ; his broken legs and thighs are brought back to his arms, and he is bound round with cords, hard as a merchant binds a bale of goods that is to go a long voyage, till the ropes cut into the flesh, and thus left, with his head hanging backwards off the wheel, to expire by agonies; while the gay, polite Parisians throng from every quarter to behold a sight that is a disgrace to their capital, to their country, and to mankind ; and while the softer sex, as the author says, gaze from the windows with insatiable curiosity. This punishment shows how strong the powers of life are in some men ; what tortures human nature is capable of sustaining. One would imagine that a man could live but a very short time in such a situation ; but the wretch I saw, who was young, and of a vigorous constitution, was placed on the wheel about six in the evening : at four the next morning, he complained of thirst, and drink was given him ; about an hour after, he expired.

" On revising this note, it occurred to me that the lard binding with ropes may be humanely intended circulation ; so when the executioner jumps on the shoulders of the man that is hanging he certainly ntends, and does, in many instances, shorten his ufferings. Doubtless, too, a great part of the spec- tators are carried to these executions by a desire to ympathize in the criminal's sufferings ; as, when a hip is in distress, the fond mother flies to the sea- hore, and while she strains her infant to the breast, ommiserates their calamity, though utterly unable
 * p shorten the criminal's tortures by stopping the
 * o relieve them."

THOMAS AULD.

"TAPPING" AND "TIPPING" (9 th S. vii. 105 91). "Tapping" is quite different from tipping." "Tapping" is, so to speak, oercive ; " tipping " is voluntary, or sup- posed to be, e.g. :

1 He had frequently succeeded in tapping Tyson or subscriptions to military tournaments, churches,

chools, &c. ; but deceased would never allow his ame to appear, preferring to be called 'A Friend.'"

'A Wanderer and a Gatherer,' in Blackwootfs

Magazine, March, p. 371.

WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK. Ramoyle, Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow.

A FRIDAY SUPERSTITION (9 th S. vii. 194). recollect, when I was a boy in Norfolk,