Notes and Queries, Number 15, February 9, 1850

But thou shall have; and creep time ne’er so slow,
Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good.
I had a thing to say,—But let it go:’—

forty monosyllables.”

“Credimus? an qui amant ipsi sibi somnia fingunt.”

The very passage he quoted seemed, to my eyes, rather a corroboration of the theory, than an argument against it! I might, I think, have quoted the remainder of Lear’s speech ending with the words “Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill,” and, with the exception of three words, consisting entirely of monosyllables, and one or two other passages. But I have written enough to express my meaning.

    C. FORBES.

Temple.

NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM’S HAND-BOOK FOR LONDON

Wild House, Drury Lane.—Mr. Cunningham says, “Why so called, I am not aware.” Wild is a corruption of Weld. It was the town mansion of the family of the Welds, of Lutworth Castle.

Compton Street, Soho.—Built in the reign of Charles the First by Sir Francis Compton. New Compton Street, when first formed, was denominated Stiddolph Street, after Sir Richard Stiddolph, the owner of the land. It afterwards changed its name, from a demise of the whole adjoining marsh land, made by Charles the Second to Sir Francis Compton. All this, and the intermediate streets, formed part of the site of the Hospital of St. Giles.

Tottenham Court Road.—The old manor-house, sometimes called in ancient records “Totham Hall,” was, in Henry the Third’s reign, the residence of William de Tottenhall. Part of the old buildings were remaining in 1818.

Short’s Gardens, Drury Lane.—Dudley Short, Esq., had a mansion here, with fine garden attached, in the reign of Charles the Second.

Parker Street, Drury Lane.—Phillip Parker, Esq., had a mansion on this site in 1623.

Bainbridge and Buckridge Streets, St. Giles’s.—The two streets, now no more, but once celebrated in the “annals of low life,” were built prior to 1672, and derived their names from their owners, eminent parishioners in the reign of Charles the Second.

Dyot Street, St. Giles’s.—This street was inhabited, as late as 1803, by Philip Dyot, Esq., a descendant of the gentleman from whom it takes its name. In 1710 there was a certain “Mendicant’s Convivial Club” held at the “Welch’s Head” in this street. The origin of this club dated as far back as 1660, when its meetings were held at the Three Crowns in the Poultry.

Denmark Street, St. Giles’s.—Originally built in 1689. Zoffany, the celebrated painter, lived at No. 9. in this street. The same house is also the scene of Bunbury’s caricature, “The Sunday Evening Concert:”—

“July 27. 1771.—Sir John Murray, late Secretary to the Pretender, was on Thursday night carried off by a party of strange men, from a house in Denmark Street, near St. Giles’s church, where he had lived some time.” —MS. Diary quoted in Collet’s Relics of Literature, p. 306.

    EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

QUERIES

FOLK LORE

Metrical Charms.—In the enumeration of the various branches of that interesting subject, the “FOLK LORE OF ENGLAND,” on which communications were invited in the last number of “NOTES AND QUERIES,” there is an omission which I beg to point out, as it refers to a subject which, I believe, deserves especial investigation, and would amply repay any trouble or attention that might be bestowed upon it. I allude to Metrical Charms, many of which are still preserved, and, in spite of the corruptions they have undergone in the course of centuries, would furnish curious and valuable illustrations of the Mythological System on which they are founded.

“Spirits of the flood and spirits of the hills found a place in the mythology of Saxon England,”

says an able reviewer of Mr. Kemble’s Saxons in England, in The Anthenæum (13th Jan. 1849); and he continues,

“The spells by which they were invoked, and the forms by which their aid was compelled, linger, however, still amongst us, although their names and powers have passed into oblivion. In one of the Saxon spells which Mr. Kemble has inserted in the Appendix, we at once recognised a rhyme which we had heard an old woman in our childhood use,—and in which many Saxon words unintelligible to her were probably retained.”

Who would not gladly recover this “old rhyme?”—I can say for myself, that if these lines should ever meet the eye of the writer of the passage I have quoted, I trust he will be induced to communicate, in however fragmentary a shape, this curious addition to our present scanty stories of mythological information.

While on the subject of Charms and Spells, I would ask those who are more familiar than myself with the Manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and of our University Libraries, whether they have ever met with (except in MSS. of Chaucer) the remarkable “Night Spell” which the Father of English Poetry has preserved in the following passage of his Miller’s Tale. I quote from Mr. Wright’s edition, printed for the Percy Society:—

“‘What Nicholas, what how man, loke adoun:
Awake and think on Cristes passioun
I crowche the from Elves and from Wightes.’
There with the night-spel seyde he anon rightes
On the foure halves of the hous aboute
And on the threissh-fold of the dore withoute.

“‘Lord Jhesu Crist and seynte Benedight,
Blesse this hous from every wikkede wight
Fro nightes verray, the white Paternoster
When wonestow now, seynte Petres soster.’”

This charm has long occupied my attention, and as I hope shortly to submit to the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries an attempt to illustrate some parts of it which are at present certainly involved in very great obscurity, I shall be glad to be informed whether any other early version of it is to be found in MS., and if so, where; and also whether any other version, corrupted or not, is still preserved, if not in use, at least in memory. I should also be especially glad of references of any other allusion to the “white Paternoster” or “seynte Petres soster,” or for any information as to sources for ascertaining the history, whether authentic or legendary, of the personage supposed to be alluded to in the closing words of this remarkable spell.

    WILLIAM J. THOMS.

ALLUSIONS IN THE HOMILIES

“A Good Wife,” &c., and “God speed the Plough!”—I should hold myself deeply indebted to any of your correspondents who would inform me where the two following quotations are to be found.

I have been anxiously looking for them for some years. I have taken some pains myself—“I have poached in Suidas for unlicensed Greek”—have applied to my various antiquarian friends (many of whose names I was delighted to recognise among the brilliant galaxy that enlightened your first number)—but hitherto all in vain; and I am reduced to acknowledge the truth of the old proberb, “A – may ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years:”—

I. “For thus will most truly be verified the saying of the poet, ‘A good wife, by obeying her husband, shall bear the rule, so that he shall have a delight and a gladness the sooner at all times to return home to her.’ But, on the contrary part, ‘when the wives be stubborn, froward, and malapert, their husbands are compelled thereby to abhor and flee from their own houses, even as they should have battle with their enemies.’”—Homily on Matrimony, p. 450. ed. Oxford, 1840.

Query—Who is the poet?

II.   “Let no good and discreet subjects, therefore, follow the flag or banner displayed to rebellions, and borne by rebels, though it have the image of the plough painted therein, with God speed the plough written under in great letters, knowing that none hinder the plough more than rebels, who will neither go to the plough themselves, nor suffer other that would go unto it.”—Fourth Part of the Homily against Wilful Rebellion, p. 518.

In what rebellion was such a banner carried?

These questions may appear very trifling; but each man has his hobby, and mine is, not to suffer a quotation to pass without verification.

It is fortunate that I am not a despotic monarch, as I would certainly make it felony without benefit of clergy to quote a passage without giving a plain reference.

    L.S.

MINOR QUERIES

Pope’s Translations of Horace.—In a pamphlet against Pope, entitled, A True Character of Mr. Pope and his Writings, by the author of The Critical History of England, written in May, 1716, and printed in that year, Pope is reproached with having just published a “libellous,” “impudent,” and “execrable” Imitation of Horace. Twenty years later such a reproach would be very intelligible; but can any one favour me with a reference to any Imitation of Horace, published by Pope prior to 1716, of which any such complaint could be made?

    C.

Etymology of “Havior.”—Can any of your readers inform me what is the etymology of the word Havior, by which all park-keepers denote an emasculated male deer, affording good venison between the buck and doe season?

Never having seen the word written or printed, I am guided, in attempting to spell it, by the usual pronunciation.

    BRAYBROOKE