Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/421

 9" S. IX. MAY 24, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

413

Lord Mayor in the years 1689, 1690, and 1691. A copy of this picture is given in Wadmore's 'Account of the Skinners' Company.'

In the Guildhall hangs a fine portrait of Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor in 1679. It was painted by order of the Governors of the London Workhouse, and removed to its present quarters on the breaking up of that establishment. The frame was carved by Grinling Gibbons. In the British Museum collection is a mezzotint portrait of Sir Robert, drawn by Riley, and engraved by Smith. A process picture of this appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine for November, 1894 (p. 358). There is a life-size statue of Sir Robert Clayton in the central court of St. Thomas's Hospital. It is of white marble, and was erected by the governors during his lifetime. Sir Robert Clayton is buried at Bletchington [?], Surrey. In the south chancel of the church is a large monument to his memory, on which appears his figure in white marble, clad in the insignia of office as Lord Mayor of London.

In ' Memorials of Stepney Parish ' (Hill & Frere, 1890-1) is an engraving of Sir William Ryder, Lord Mayor in 1600. It is taken from a portrait published by G. Richardson in 1797. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

PRONUNCIATION OF "SEA" (8 th S. viii. 4, 109, 151, 209). At the third of these references PROF. SKEAT asked,

"for the sake of the information of us all, what quotations, later than 1780, can be found in which some standard author, using a pronunciation that is neither provincial, nor Irish, nor intentionally comic, clearly shows that he meant the word sea to be pronounced as say"

One quotation was furnished (8 th S. viii. 210) in reply from a poem published in 1825 ; and I would add another from ' The Rover ; or, a Pirate's Faith,' by Thomas Ansell, issued two years later by William Sams, "Bookseller to the Royal Family, St. James's Street, London." In this it was written :

Thus many a boisterous hour was spent

In strife upon the weltering sea :

For storm was the Pirates' element ;

And war to them but casual play.

But elsewhere in the poem Ansell gave the usual pronunciation by riming sea with lee ; while, as if in anticipation to justify PROF. SKEAT'S declaration (8 th S. viii. 152) that " the rhyme of seas with ease proves nothing at all," he spoke of

Revelling in the spicy breeze, In wanton luxury of ease, Sweetly breath'd o'er Levant seas.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

CAMBRIDGE HEATH, SOUTH HACKNEY (9 th S. ix. 205). COL. PRIDEAUX quotes from certain Hundred Rolls re Hackney showing that EgidiusdeWodeham made a toss, ditch, or moat at Kyngesteslane (Hackney), which, we are told, is doubtless the modern Mare Street. This brings forward a question I have often wished to asK, What is the origin of this name, Mare Street, and the meaning 1 ? Probably I may be told that the Question has been raised and answered in 'N. & Q.' before. If so, I beg pardon. If not, I would, while raising the question, suggest the answer that Con- jecture (precocious hussy !) has supplied me with. Mare Street she takes to be Mser Street. And if so it is noticeable that just as Hake(neye) has become lowered in the vowel tone to Hack, so Mser has become lowered in tone to Mare. The ditch, or moat, or foss of Egidius de Wodeham would pre- sumably be or form a landmark, instituting a boundary (mere) of some nature and pur- port.

" MACHINE " = PUBLIC COACH (9 th S. viii. 462 ; ix. 37, 116). Tramping from Strome Ferry to Balmacarra, co. Ross, in September, 1899, approaching the latter village, I asked a boy belonging to the place whether I could there obtain a vehicle to convey my party back to Strome. The boy looked puzzled, evidently not at all comprehending at first what I meant by a " vehicle." At length he replied, "Do you mean a machine, sir? Oh, you can get a machine at the hotel."

Lewisham.

"Machine" is still in use nearly, if not quite, all over Scotland, in the sense of "carriage," particularly of a four-wheeled carriage. I have heard it all over the west, and also in the east and centre. " To hire a machine" is the regular phrase for hiring a carriage. F. J. C.

The name " machine," given to public coaches, appears to have been much earlier than stated by any correspondent, so far, and really to have been contemporary with their introduction. The word "machine' really expresses the astonishment of the time at what was thought an extraordinary in- vention. Swift, writing about the year 1700, uses the word, applying it to the Chester stage coach, in a satirical description of a journey to Chester :

By steps and lanthorn enter the machine, And take my place how cordially ! between Two aged matrons of excessive bulk.

CHARLES G. HARPER. Petersham, Surrey.