438
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. NOV. 28, 1903.
it continued to exist, appearing in the thir
teenth century in the horethome of the old
Staffordshire scribe, and represented at the
present day by the corresponding name white-
thorn. But whether hoar (hdr) thorn gradu-
ally assumed the form hawthorn as well, by a
process of conversion, when tribal communi-
ties, beginning to settle in fixed localities,
discovered that the hoarthorn made excellent
hedges that is a question on which I did
not ^intend, and should not presume, to pass
judgment. My note was a query.
May I add that the ancient charter which I quoted is one of those preserved at the William Salt Library, Stafford ? It is un- dated, and must, therefore, have passed early, and the style of writing would place it about the year 1220. CHARLES SWYNNERTON.
PLAY ACTED AT TRIN. COLL., CAMB., 1632 (9 th S. xii. 349). See Masson's ' Life of Milton/ vol. i. p. 218, where there is a full account of the scene. Two plays were acted : 'The Rival Friends,' by Peter Hausted, of Queens', and ' The Jealous Lovers,' by Thomas .Randolph, of Trinity. J. L.
This was Randolph's ' Jealous Lovers.'
G. THORN DRURY.
MADAME DU DEFFAND'S LETTERS (9 th S. xii. 366). I would ask MR. HEBB to reconsider the statement which he has made regarding the adoptive mother of Mr. Dyce Sombre. I believe he will find that this lady was not "the Begum Sombre" (as he curiously calls her) of Bhopal, but the Begum Sumroo of Sirdhana, in the British district of Meerut in the North-West Provinces of India a very different person, indeed ; and as the matter is really important, I do not think MR. HEBB'S statement ought to stand unchal- lenged in such an organ as 'N. & Q.'
Bhopal is a feudatory state in Central India governed by a Mahomedan princess, or Begum ; and during the great Mutiny in 1857-8 its then ruling princess acted with such loyalty towards the British Govern- ment that, among other rewards, she was made a Grand Commander of the Star of India.
On the other hand, Zeb ul Nissa, commonly called the Begum Sumroo, was a native of Cashmere, of obscure birth, originally a dancing-girl, and subsequently a concubine of Walter Reinhard, alias Somers and Sombre, an adventurer of German origin, who, by various unscrupulous intrigues' acquired the territory of Sirdhana above referred to, as well as other tracts in its vicinity. A European or Eurasian person of the name of Dyce having been adopted by
this Begum and constituted her heir, he
thereupon assumed the name of Dyce
Sombre, of which latter word Sumroo is a
corrupted form, just as this last was a
corruption of Somers.
If I am in error I throw myself on the mercy of MR. HEBB, but I venture to think I am not in error. PATRICK MAXWELL.
Is it possible that your correspondent takes a Delhi dancing-girl for a Begum of Bhopal 1 The Begum Sombre, more com- monly known as the Begum Somroo, was first the mistress, and subsequently the wife, of the ruffianly German adventurer who, on account of his hang-dog looks, was nicknamed Sombre by the Company's officers ; and to confuse such a low-bred wanton with a blue- blooded princess of the noble and loyal house of Bhopal is, to those who know and under- stand something of India, indeed a horrible profanation. CH UTTER MUNZIL.
EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN (9 th S. xii. 329). A biographical notice with a portrait appears in vol. viii. (p. 455) of the ' National Cyclopaedia of American Biography ' (New York, James T. White & Co., 1898).
WILLIAM E. A. AXON.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
A Social History of Ireland. By P. W. Joyce
LL.D. 2vols. (Longmans & Co.) SLOWLY the knowledge that Ireland possesses a history, a literature, an art, and institutions older and better worth study than those of other countries of Western Europe, has filtrated into English minds. During recent years volume after volume dealing with its antiquities and its eccle- siastical remains has been set before the English public. Of works of this class Dr. Joyce's now- published work may claim to be the most autho- ritative and encyclopaedic. Much of the informa- tion it imparts maybe found in works more popular in aim, notably in Wakeman's more - than - once reprinted 'Handbook of Irish Antiquities,' the writings of Dr. Kuno Meyer, Dr. Whitley Stokes, Dr. George Petrie, the Revue Geltique, the Brehon Laws, the previous works of Dr. Joyce him- self, the "Irische Texte," and other works, a list of which might be almost indefinitely pro- longed. In two volumes of some six to seven hundred pages each we are now supplied with an account which, though condensed, is virtually complete of the government, laws, religion, learning, arts, trades, manners, customs, domestic life, &c., of the ancient Irish people, accom- panied by a full series ,of illustrations, many of them familiar to students of Irish antiquities, but, as a whole, not elsewhere accessible. As one of the commissioners for the publication of the ancient laws of Ireland, Dr. Joyce devotes special attention to legal subjects, and the sketch of the
