Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/281

 9 s. viii. SEPT. 28, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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present no difficulty to the etymologist, but I did not adopt the Wrekin solution because of my belief that Worten was the true form of the name, which Wartnaby seemed to preserve. It may, of course, turn out that Worten, Worcen, Wrocen, and Wroten are but different forms of the same name. My theory identifies the " Wocen ssetna " with the main body of the Mercian people, including Bede's Southern Mercians, with their 5,000 hides (the Nox or Hex gagal), dwelling in the present counties of Leicester and Northampton, and the old diocese of Lich- field* (a little over 2,000 hides in Domesday Book), in which latter the Wrekin and Lilies- hall are included, though Cardington is just over the boundary. Bede's Northern Mer- cians, with 7,000 hides, may be identical with the " Lindes farona with Hseth feld land," who are obviously the South-humbrians of the ' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' (a. 702). Thus the three Mercian "kingdoms" have 7,000 hides each. The Middle English would seem to be the Wigesta, Fserpinga, and others. The identification of the " Wocen ssetna" with Woking was Mr. Birch's.

I am also obliged by WILLIAM OF WYKE- HAM'S correction. I took the name " river Titchfield " from ' Bartholomew's Royal, Atlas ' (Newnes). In this case also I believed that Huta was the better reading, and allied with Ytene, the "Jutarum provincia," or New Forest district. The pedigree of the modern Everton, near Lymington, appears to be that suggested Ivelton, Evelton, Everton ; and the first of these, comparing it with Ilchester, or Ivelchester, may point to an original Givelton, or settlement of the Gifla, who may have spread from this centre into districts so wide apart as Somerset and Bedfordshire. Swarraton is not satisfactory as a representative of Sweord ora.

A different solution of the ' Tribal Hidage ' may be seen in Mr. W. J. Corbett's essay in the Royal Historical Society's Transactions for 1900 (New Series, vol. xiv'.). J. B.

"PACK" (9 th S. viii. 144). From com- paratively early times carting and whipping at the cart's tail seem to have been punish- ments meted out to women guilty of immoral conduct.

Stow, in his ' Survey of London,' says that so early as 1383 the citizens of London took upon themselves to imprison unfortunates in the Tun upon Cornhill ; as a further punishment their heads were shaved and

with about 1,180 carucates, very nearly equal to the traditional 1,200 hides of the Pec ssetna.
 * Excluding Derbyshire and South Lancashire,

they were driven through the streets pre- ceded by trumpets and pipes.

Harrison, in 'A Description of England' (in Holinshed's ' Chronicles '). regrets that carting, ducking, and doing penance in a sheet in churches and market-places were the severest punishments to which unfortu- nates were subjected in his time (sixteenth century).

Thornbury ('Shakespere's England') alludes to this form of punishment, adding that a metal basin was beaten before women found guilty of immorality, and that they were publicly whipped at the cart's tail.

Numerous allusions to the carting of women of ill fame will be found in the dramatic works of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries. For the purpose of illus- tration, reference can be made to Jonson's 'Bartholomew Fair,' IV. iii. ; Middleton's ' Chaste Maid in Cheapside,' II. i. ; and * A Fair Quarrel,' IV. iv., by Middleton and Rowley. ALBERT GOUGH.

Glandore Gardens, Antrim Road, Belfast.

The punishment of " carting" lewd women is almost too familiar for elucidation in your pages. See Brand, ' Pop. Ant.,' i. 89,' 90 ; also 'H.E.D.,' s.vv. 'Cart,' sb., 'Cart,' vb., and 'Carted,' for examples from Shake- speare, Butler, Swift, Pope, Crabbe, and other authors. Herrick ('Hesp.,' No. 533, Aldine ed.) alludes to a man thus put to shame for lechery. Whittier describes a sea captain :

Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart Tarred and feathered, and carried in a cart, By the women of Marblehead.

CHAS. P. PHINN. Watford.

SWEENY TODD (9 th S. vii. 508; viii. 131, 168). The suggestion that the late George Augustus Sala was the author of this ghastly " catchpenny " tale is capable, it appears to me, of easy refutation. With several other of your correspondents, I was acquainted with the story in print before 1840. Now Mr. Sala was born on Monday, 24 November, 1828. It cannot surely be contended that he wrote and published before he attained twelve years of age ! GNOMON.

Temple.

There are, I believe, few people now living who know as much about the early life and adventures of G. A. Sala as myself. Though I can only claim to receiving my information more or less at second hand, still I have no hesitation in asserting that G. A. S. did not write 'Sweeny Todd.' For one thing, he would have been too young. The literature of a somewhat similar character to which he