Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/26

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18


NOTES AND QUERIES. to* s. n. JULY 2,


pression obviously cannot have that meaning when used as the initials of the name of an author, and the Museum authorities, in placing the title under the last initial, simply carried out not only their own long-established rule, but that of libraries in general.

GASTON DE BERNEVAL. Philadelphia.

"HARRY-CARRY" (8 th S. xi. 427, 475; xii. 70 ; 9 th S. i. 429). MR. HOOPER'S interesting contribution at the last reference recalls to my mind the fact that there is a fine specimen of a harry-carry on exhibition in the museum at the Old Tol House, Great Yarmouth. On the occasion of a visit to this "playground by the sea " last year, I took the opportunity of going over this ancient house, and saw the harry-carry there. Affixed to it was a card bearing an inscription to the effect that the carts came into use in Henry VII. 's reign, and, although 1 cannot be sure of the exact words, some reference was made to their having been called harry-carries after the monarch in whose reign they were first devised. C. P. HALE.

POPLADIES (9 th S. i. 448). Mr. Ditchfield, in his 'Old English Customs extant at the Present Time,' 1896 (p. 46), states that on New Year's Day "at St. Albans Pop Ladies are cried and sold in the streets." Why so cried and sold Mr. Ditchfield does not explain.

H. ANDREWS.

A BEADING IN MILTON (9 th S. i. 464). I agree with the emendation of the editors from 1692 downwards. But is MR. THOMAS BAYNE quite accurate in saying that the oldest reading " yet found he relief " is in accordance with the drift of the Scriptural narrative, when in Genesis xxi. 17 we read, " And God heard the voice of the lad " 1

T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

BAYSWATER (8 th S. xii. 405 ; 9 th S. i. 13, 55, 154, 293). Until the origin of that particular Bayswater is proved by a chain of connected links leading up from it to bayard, a horse, the most that can be said in its favour is that such may be its origin ; for since other origins are possible, to fix upon any one without proof is but guessing, and any one may be guessed as well as another. My learned critic, of course, never gives fancies for facts, and therefore, no doubt, has at least one example of some place now called Bays- water which did positively and demonstrably as above noted, get its name from bayards (horses) being watered there. He will, oi course, produce it.


Bayswater, instead of Baywater, may be 'difficult" parlance to him ; but to me it is not, for the connecting s, giving fluency, annuls the jolt of disconnected syllabification, and so the parlance is easy instead of rough. That this is so, at least to many, is proved by the names which have acquired s because it makes them fluent and easy of vocalization. See, for instance, ' The Final s ' (8 th S. ix. 373). But, it may be objected, in those instances bhe s is a final ; in Bayswater it is not. Stop a bit. The word is a compound of Bay and tvater, so there was a time when the name Bay stood alone, and hence it is just as likely that it acquired a final s as has Marseille(s), Thebe(s), et al., and retained it when joined to loater, as the two cities mentioned do when the word denoting their character is added ; thus, Marseillestown, Thebestown.

Red ma,n has not turned into redsman because the first is sufficiently easy to say, no matter how many other reasons exist for it. Ease in parlance has no law but ease ; if that at times demands addition instead of subtraction, it cannot be helped.

And now as to my, as printed, declaration that " no horse, in serious earnest, could ever have been called bayard unless he were of a bay colour." I first wrote it as a question, not as a positive assertion ; but in rewriting, its form got changed by my inadvertence. However, even with my critic's examples, I am rather more inclined to believe in its fitness as a declaration than as a mere question. But take it as a question, one which is answered in the affirmative, provided the examples have no arriere-pensee lurking in them, a thing very likely in the instance of ' Piers Plowman,' since it is a satirical poem.

A..

Philadelphia, U.S.

GENERAL BENEDICT ARNOLD (9 th S. i. 429). He died 14 June, 1801, in London. I think I can find particulars if M. W. will write to me. MRS. STEPHENSON.

Warley Barracks, Brentwood.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury. By the

Rev. C. F. Routledge, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon

of Canterbury. (Bell & Sons.) UNIFORM in shape and appearance with Bell's "Cathedral Series," and issued under the same editorship, the present work will, with accounts of Beverley Minster and other edifices of kindred position, form a pleasing and valuable supplement to the series. Uood reason exists for a new history of the edifice. During many years the opinions of antiquaries have been divided as to its antiquity.