Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/599

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

io*s. ii. DEC. 17.19M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


495


tinned in print till 1867, as improved. The archbishop of the same name was born in 1720; so, allowing five years for a first edition, he would, aged thirteen in 1733, be out of date for this publication. P. N. R.

"STOB" (10 th S. ii. 409). The mention of " Stobhill in the neighbourhood of Newbattle Abbey " reminds me of Olivestob, the old name of an estate in Haddingtonshire (see 10 th S. i. 201). The origin of this name has been the subject of many conjectures, none of them satisfactory. It has been generally admitted that "Olive" is a corruption of

    • Holy." Some writers have said that "stob"

is a corruption of the word " step " a step to a holy spot of some kind ; other writers have said that it is a corruption of the word " stop " a stopping-place for religious pro- cessions carrying the Host from or to New- battle Abbey, a few miles off. I find among some old notes of mine that in a work dated 1687 mention is made of " the lands of Holie- stob, now vulgo Olivestobe." The name may have been derived from some sacred enclo- sure. . W. S.

For " stob " and ' : stob and staik," see 3 rd S. iy. Ill ; 5 th S. iv. 147. Halliwell, in his ' Dic- tionary of Provincialisms,' defines "stob" to mean

"A small post. The gibbet post of the notorious Andrew Mills, in the bishopric of Durham, was called Andrew Mills Stob. To stob out, to demand or portion out land by stobs. It is also used in reference to spines or thorns that have pierced the flesh."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

In Northumberland, near Morpeth, there is " Stobhill," and in Durham co., near Corn- forth, is Stob Cross. On the moors above Elsdon, in Northumberland, there is a gibbet known as " Winter's Stob," from the name of the man who was suspended on it about the end of the eighteenth century for murder. There may be other places, but these are all I remember at the moment. R. B R.

S. Shields.

The Government recently bought the estate of Stobs, three miles from this place, for military purposes. " Stobitcote " is the name of a cottage in this neighbourhood.

W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

CRICKLEWOOD (10 th S. ii. 408, 476). I am obliged to Q. V. for his early references to Oicklewood. Mr. C. W. C. Oman, of All Souls' College, has kindly supplied me with the spelling " Crykyll Wood" in December, 1510. It is evident from this that the name


is not derived from Chichele, for that arch- bishop's fame must c. 1500 have been well in mind of even the local people, to say nothing of those who made records of the college estates. The fact that his name should have been recently selected for a new road adjoining, or upon, the lands settled on his foundation must be considered sufficient to keep ever green his memory in the district. FRED. HITCHIN-KEMP. 6, Beechfield Road, Catford, S.E.

Halliwell, 'Archaic Diet.,' quotes "crickle" as bend, stoop, a variant of " crooked." Would it represent what is elsewhere termed a "hanging" wood 1 ? or is it from the crow,


ngmg like Rook wood ]


A. H.


GWILLIM'S 'DISPLAY OF HERALDRIE' (10 th S. ii. 328, 416). Few things are more popular than theories which suggest that a man was not the true author of the books published under his name; but, before credence is given to such theories, the grounds upon which they are based ought to be most rigorously examined. The sug- gestion that Barkham, and not Gwillim, compiled the 'Display' was, I submit, demolished by Bliss in his edition of Wood's 4 Athense Oxonienses,' ii. 297-9. See also the 'D.N.B.,' xxiii. 330. In his 'Preface' to the

  • Display,' as reprinted in the edition of 1724,

Gwillim speaks of his "long and difficult labour " over the book ; and he apparently took fourteen years to complete it. See Bliss (loc. cit.). Has l ' the original MS. wrote with Mr. Guillim's own hand," which Ballard had before him when he communicated with Dr. Rawlinson (see Bliss), been lost irretriev- ably 1 H. C.

I find that the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' in the articles on Guillim and John Barkham dis- cusses the question whether the latter was the real author of the ' Display.' The conclu- sion it comes to is that the contention is not made out, but that Barkham, in all proba- bility, merely supplied Guillim with some notes for his work. T. F. D.

"MOCASSIN": ITS PRONUNCIATION (10 th S ii. 225). Amongst huntsmen in Virginia, and I think in the Southern States generally, the pronunciation mocassin universally prevails, whether applied to the snake of that name or to the shoes of deerskin called after it. As the ancestors of these huntsmen mu^t, have learned the word from the Southern Algonquins, it was in all probability pro- nounced so by them. Nowhere in the States have I ever heard the word pronounced