Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/465

 9* 8. IX. JUNE 7, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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there is evidence which weighs more than conjecture. Not that conjecture is to be con temned when thus earmarked ; it is at leas interesting, and may be useful as tending towards the ultimate discovery of fact.

My correspondent does not seem to think much of the " long-legged Anglo-Saxon " who would get no further from primitive London than the stream which we (at any rate) know as the West Bourne. It was not far enough west to be known to A.-S. as the western bourne, and he could easily have stridden on to the Brent. Of course ; but in many cases might not the distance have been found sufficient? The ground was rough in those days, and A.-S., with the lowering sun before him, may have considered that the return to his home required daylight and circum- spection. Besides, if he did call it the Western Bourne, he need not be thought to have been ignorant of other streams more westerly ; even as, doubtless, the " Man of Kent" knew of bournes more northerly than his North Bourne.

I was rash to name the other streams on this west side of London. One and all are, to repeat my borrowed phrase, highly charged with argument, and so, like dangerous sleep- ing dogs, it is best to leave them undisturbed. Perhaps West Bourne may be now allowed to sleep with them. But I feel sorry that dear old " Tamese " should have been assailed. It is well that Canon Taylor (whose loss we regret) should have passed to his rest. The meaning was so intelligible, and, moreover, poetical. We questioned, perhaps, whether it was the character of our river to be tran- quil and spreading in its normal condition ; but we know that much of it is subject to flood, and that the region now South- West London was seen by A.-S. in a chronic state of over- flow. Thus we were satisfied. The sturdy Saxon, however, did not give the name, and we are now told that its barbarian root and meaning is lost and "irrecoverable."

I may just add that the late Canon, in his 'Names and their Histories,' says : "East- bourne, in Sussex, is called Burne, the ' brook,' in the Chronicle. The prefix is a later addi- tion which may have served to distinguish the stream from another burn further west, now called the Cuckmere River."

W. L. RUTTON.

GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FAWCETT (9 th S. ix. 368). General Sir William Fawcett was the son of William Fawcett, of Halifax, and Martha, daughter of James Lister, apothecary in the same town, afterwards of Shibden Hall, his wife. Born at Shibden Hall 30 April,

1727, at the age of sixteen he entered the army as an ensign in General Oglethorpe's Regiment of Foot. Served in Flanders, then resigned his commission, but, being dissatisfied with a civilian's life, joined the 3rd Regiment of Guards as ensign. He was aide-de-camp to General Eliottand the Marquis of Granby, and was appointed to bear the news to Eng- land of the battle of Warburgh, fought 31 July, 1760. He gave King George IL a graphic account of the battle in the German language. Created K.B. 20 December, 1786, general 3 May, 1796, and 12 July following was made a Governor of Chelsea Hospital ; sworn a Privy Councillor 23 January, 1799. He married Susanna, daughter of William Brooke, of Hampstead, in 1 749. Died 22 March, 1804, and was buried at Chelsea Hospital. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

"PASCHAL": " PASCUA " (9 th S. ix. 364). In the * Metrical Life of St. Cuthbert,' edited by me for the Surtees Society, and issued in 1891 (vol. Ixxxvii.), we find Pace, Pase, Pasche, and Pasce used for Easter (glossary, p. 267). But Pace is once used for Christmas, as I then thought "in error," thus : " Done solempnite of pace, To fame agayne he takes his trace " ("peractadie solemni nativitatis Dominicae," Bseda, ' Vit. S. Cuthb.,' cap. xxxvii.). But it was the editor who was "in error"; "adsum qui feci." Ducange says that Pascha may mean "quodlibet magnum festum." Hence Pascha floridum, P. rosarum, Fr. Pasque do Noel, Sp. Pascua de Natividad. See also Sir H. Nicolas, ' Chron. Hist.,' 128, for some more valuable information on this point.

J. T. F. Durham.

" ONLY TOO THANKFUL" (9 th S. ix. 288, 370). I think that we must decompose this remarkable phrase into its two distinct elements. The desire to express themselves very forcibly drives men to choose words which in themselves would be too strong for the occasion. Wishing to say " You are very dnd," they say "You are too kind." In many cases this " too " may make sense still. But owing to exaggeration, which is such a 'avourite in conversational speech, too has 3ome to mean often not an excessive, but a ugh degree of some quality. Women espe- cially indulge in that sort of overdoing state- ment. Instead of simply asserting that they are happy, they are " too happy.' This would account for the too. Now for the only. When asked, " Was it not hot?" we Germans >ften answer by way of irony, "No, it was ot hot, it was only very hot." This pro- uces, of course, a comical effect, as we