12 s. vii. SEPT. is, 1920. NOTES AND QUERIES.
229
THE LIGHTS OF LONDON. This familiar
phrase was used, I believe, by Mr. G.
Sims as the title of a melodrama I have not
seen. I was surpised the other day to find
it as far back as 1773 in Henry Mackenzie.
As few are likely nowadays to read the
tear-drenched story of 'The Man of the
World,' I give the passage. In Part I., chap.
21, Annesly is being transported. Going
down in a boat the precise places are not
indicated to the ship which is to carry
him off, he "kept his eager eyes fixed on
the lights of London, till the increasing
distance deprived them of their object."
At that period the lights cannot have been
very brilliant. They cannot have been BO
to modern ideas when Tennyson wrote in
'Locksley Hall' (first published in 1842)
the striking lines :
And at night along the dusky highway, near and
nearer drawn, Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a
dreary dawn.
I do not know why a " dreary " dawn should flare more than any other, and suspect the adjective came in to echo "nearer."
Lord Tennyson in the ' Eversley ' edition of his father's works adds the following note to the lines : "A simile from old times and the top of a mail-coach. They that go by trains seldom see this."
But they that go by motor-cars and climb heights may frequently do so to-day. London is visible as a luminous haze in the sky from several high points how far off perhaps some correspondent can say.
No doubt Tennyson's lines are a reminis- cence of his own, like the great world spinning down the grooves of change which recalled travel on the first train from Liver- pool to Manchester in 1830. Before the introduction of gas and electric lighting any powerful concentration of light in London does not seem probable. Yet Portia ex- claims in ' The Merchant of Venice,' V. i., How far that little candle throws his beams !
V. R
WILLIAM BILLYNG AND HIS DEVOTIONAL VERSES. At 4 S.iii. 103, 229, allusion is made to a remarkable parchment, then at Lomber- dale House. It is a devotional poem on the 'Five Wounds of Christ,* dating from the end of the fifteenth century. Since English verse is not common at this period, and there is an attempt at form in the alliteration and rhythm of the poem, it is surprizing that it
does not appear to have been included in any
anthology. It is probably very little known,
as it has never been in print, except when it
was edited by William Bateman, and forty
copies were privately printed at Manchester
in 1814. Not only the verses, but also the
identity of the writer become interesting.
Mr. Bateman has taken it for granted that
the author was a monk. It is signed by
William Billyng and the editor has ignored
the significance of the mark attached to the
signature. This is plainly the mark of a
wool stapler, formed as usual by the cross of
St. John Baptist, with two streamers issuing
on the right, and the base shaped into a W.
A curved lateral stroke which makes the
cross may be a perverted B.
The question was, who was William Billyng ? I find at Deddington in Oxford- shire a brass inscription to William Billyng merchant of the staple at Calais, who died in 1533, and to his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1522. I also find that John, second son and heir to William Billyng of Deddington married twice ( ' Visit of Oxfordshire ' 1566 and 1574).
Billyng is a Cornish name, and one family were seated formerly at Treworder. But it is, I believe, also known in Northamptonshire. I should like to know more about William Billyng, the writer of the verses. Is there an example of the merchant's mark used by William of Deddington, and was he related to Sir Thomas Billyng the Judge, who died in 1481 ? I also find that a John Billyng and another man bought lands in Deddington in 1498. (Charter in Bodley's Library). Deddington would not be the only habita- tion of a woolstapler, and the answer to the question of identification might be sought in the records of some town Guild.
J. KESTELL FLOYER.
Esher.
DUCKS AND DRAKES. This common
expression for lavish expenditure does not
seem to me to be quite fully accounted for
in the 'N.E.D.,' where it is described aa
"throwing a flat stone or the like over the
surface of water " so as to rebound once
twice, thrice, or more. We used to say " a
duck and a drake and a penny white cake
and a screwball " for four rebounds. I think
that the origin of the phrase has been throw-
ing of actual coins, included in "or the like,'*
and referred to in quotation c. 1626.
J. T. F.
Winterton, Lines.
