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French scribe has miswritten Adford for Acford because he did not understand it. These spellings are easily understood when we have the clue to them. When we have not, it would be quite a mistake to trust them.

Next, to take the Domesday Etiminstre for Yetminster. It is obvious that Eti- cannot mean at, because it is dissyllabic. It is equally obvious that it cannot represent the M.E. atte, because the scribe had not the gift of prophecy, and could not tell that that form would be invented after his death. When we collate this Eti- with the Mod. Eng. yet, very common for " 'gate,” and the direct descendant of A.-S. geat (with ge for y), we can see that the scribe simply dropped the initial y for the reason that he could not pronounce it, as it was not in his (pronounced) alphabet. For the same reason he dropped the initial y in other names. As to Yednaston, the collation of it with the Domesday Ednodestune is of great service, because we thus recover the lost second syllable. I would suggest that the A.-S. form was ēad-nōthestün; the combination ead-nōth is easy, and probably occurs, and the A.-S. ea sometimes produces a y sound in Mod. E., as in Yedward for Edward. But this is a guess.

Eiford is a very poor guide as compared with Mod. E. Yafforth. Th was another sound which the Anglo-French scribe could not pronounce. Surely in this case, whatever may be the right solution, the Domesday spelling is useless. No known force could turn Eiford into Yafforth by regular means.

Collating Yearsley with Everslage, the most likely original is eofores-leage, where eofor is the gen. case of eofor, a boar, and leage is the dat. case of leuh, a lea. The same A.-S. original would also produce Eversley. The loss of v occurs in e'er, ne'er, for ever, never, &c. Initial y might arise from the diphthong eo; cf. E. you, A.-S. ĕow.

I only give these as guesses, and shall be glad to be corrected by any one who better understands the phonetic laws of English. My point is that we must control the Domesday forms by our knowledge of the actual changes that take place in English.

I deny the fact of "corruption" in language, except by the way of forcible and intentional substitution, which only takes place when an attempt is made to give a thing a new sense. Thus crayfish, from écrevisse, gives an apparent sense to half the word. I think it also likely that the A.-S. Eofor-wic, i. e., Boar-town, whence Mod. E. York (where again y is due to co), was a deliberate substitution for a Celtic name which the English voted to be unintelligible. This is not 66 corruption," but intention. It just makes all the difference. WALTER W. SKEAT.

The REV. CANON TAYLOR adduces evidence from Domesday for the change of "Etiminstre"

into "Yetminster," and remarks that this form of initial mutation is "not unusual; the Domesday names Everslage, Eiford, and Ednodestune having, for instance, become Yearsley, Yafforth, and Yednaston." This has reminded me that Erdington, in Warwickshshire, is (or was thirty years ago, to my knowledge) called by country people "Yenton," and suggests to me to offer a few similar illustrations of DR. TAYLOR's remark. Adsall (Staffs) is otherwise called "Yeatsall"; Yarmouth (I. W.) was anciently "Eremuth"; Yeavering (Northumb.) was "Adgefrin" under Edwin of Northumbria; Earl Hill, in the same county, is known also as " Yeard" Hill; York, we all know, is the A.-S. "Eurwic"; Yarnton (Oxon) was "Hardintone" at the date of Domesday, and subsequently "Erdington "; and Yattendon (Berks) appears to have been, in 1258, "Etyndon."Readers of Shakespeare, too, will remember "Yedward" for "Edward" in the mouth of Falstaff (Henry IV."); and I have note that "yerle" for "earl" is "very common in MSS. of the time of Henry VIII." In Lancashire we say "yed" for "head"; and an anecdote (I do not remember where from, but it may be worth reproducing as amusing) contains something similar from Scotland. Lord Rutherford, a Scotch judge, asked a shepherd what he could say for an east wind in May: "Weel," was the reply, "it dries the yird (soil, earth); it slockens (refreshes) the ewes, and it's God's wull." JOHN W. BONE, F.S.A. Birkdale, Lancashire.

"SLOPSELLER" (8th S. iii. 289).—What the meaning of a slopseller is scarcely needs explanation, since the word speaks for itself and may be seen over the shops of many who sell slops in seaside towns. Moreover, in a directory of the home counties (Kelly's), I find slopsellers given by themselves in the trades portion of it, as well as being named in the present 'London Directory.'

But what I wish to ask is, Are cheap ready-made clothes-as stated in the editorial note to the query-properly described as being slops? I think not, because slops are themselves one particular garment of a sort, viz., the huge baggy trousers or breeches which our seamen adopted after the petticoat period (if the petticoats were not themselves slops), and which were more huge and more baggy then than now. On the other hand, Falconer-author of the 'Shipwreck-in his Marine Dictionary,' gives slops as being" a name given to all species of wearing apparel, bedding, &c., which are supplied to His Majesty's ships in commission"; while, to mark slops as being particularly a naval garment, the French dictionaries of naval terms translate their hardes de matelots into

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all slops"; while Steevens, the commentator, thinks it necessary to explain this with a foot-note to the effect that "slops are loose breeches "; and again in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' "Disfigure not his slop" (IV. iii.). Nathan Bailey (1721), however, puts the slops as a naval garment very far back, saying in his Dictionary' that they are "" a wide sort of breeches worn by seamen." Ready-made clothes are, therefore, properly not slops at all, though custom has affixed the title to them, in much the same way that, in the East End, another title is given to the same kind of articles, viz., the

title of "reach-me-downs."

Barnes Common.

JNO. BLOUNDElle-Burton.

Edward George Barnard, of the parish of St. Nicholas, Deptford, Kent, and of Gosfield Hall, near Halstead, Essex, was M.P. for Greenwich from December, 1832, until his death on June 14, 1851. He was a ship-builder at Deptford. G. F. R. B.

Edward George Barnard was a shipbuilder at On his first election for the Deptford, co. Kent. borough of Greenwich, in December, 1832, he declared himself in favour of the immediate abolition of slavery, of triennial parliaments, of a repeal of the assessed taxes and the "taxes on knowledge," and, if it should be necessary, of the vote by ballot. In January, 1835, he was again returned for the borough, and was re-elected with

The following appears in 'The London Trades-out a contest in 1841. In 1847 he encountered man' (1747), by R. Campbell :

"The Slop-shop sells all kinds of Shirts, Jackets, Trouzers, and other Wearing Apparel belonging to Sailors, ready made. It is a Business of great Profit, but requires

no great Skill to become master of it."-P. 301. See also Admiral Symth's 'Sailor's Word-Book,' 8.v. “Slops” and “Slop-shop."

Liverpool.

J. F. MANSERGH.

This is a word of some age. For we read of an item: "For making a payre of sloppys for Jakes when he played the Shipman," among the Lord of Misrule's charges, in 1522. (Household Expenses of the Princess Mary,' in Collier's 'Annals,' vol. i. p. 9.) EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M. A. Hastings.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, CAMPVIRE (7th S. x. 69, 117, 212; xi. 257).-In 1891 I asked a question about the communion cups of this church, which were exhibited at the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in that year. A very full description of these cups is to be found in the Society's Proceedings for 1890 and 1891; but I have had no answer to my inquiry as to how and when they became the property of Lord Egerton of Tatton, who showed them in Edinburgh two years ago. It may interest some of your readers to learn that they have just been presented to the Cathedral Church of Manchester by his lordship, and were placed on the communion table, filled with choice flowers, for the first time on Easter Sunday.

APPLEBY.

BARNARD (8th S. iii. 327).—Mr. E. G. Barnard, of Deptford Green, and of Gosfield Hall, Essex, whom I well recollect as a neighbour of my father in the last-named county, was a ship-builder at Deptford, as, I believe, his father had been before him. He sat as a Liberal M.P. for Greenwich from December, 1832, down to the General Election of 1852, when he retired. There are no details of his life given in Dodd's 'Parliamentary_Companion' during those twenty years of his Parliamentary life. E. WALFORD, M.A.

Ventnor.

successfully the opposition of Mr. Alderman Salomons, who was afterwards elected his successor. Mr. Barnard, who had purchased Gosfield Hall, near Halstead, Essex, from the Marquis of Buckingham, died there June 14, 1851, aged seventythree. DANIEL HIPWELL.

17, Hilldrop Crescent, N.

OLD ENGLISH SPINNING (8th S. iii. 368).There is a short article on this subject in "The Book of Days,' i. 68. Another, of greater length, and well illustrated, I remember in the Penny Magazine. The year I cannot give positively, but I have a reference to the article as occurring in No. 274, which would, I calculate, appear in 1837, The volume for that year I have unfortunately lost or mislaid, but in vol. ix. (1840), now before me, there is a series of articles on The History of a Cotton Gown,' in one of which an illustration of the "little wheel" (as used in Germany) is given. This is very similar to two wheels we had in my home in South Notts. They were somewhat different in the driving wheel, but the principle was the same. We had many articles in the house of my mother's own spinning, and I have often heard her speak of the time (before her marriage) when she and her sisters used to spin the greater part of their household linen. I never saw a spinning-wheel in use. C. C. B.

A description, with an illustration of a lady spinning, from a richly illuminated manuscript of the fourteenth century in the British Museum, will be found in Homes of Other Days,' by Thomas Wright, F.S.A.

71, Brecknock Road.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

There is such a print in Chambers's 'Book of Days,' with an account of the employment, vol. i. pp. 68, 69, 70.

ED. MARSHALL. [Will ARANEOLUS send address ?-we have a letter for bim.]

“ZOLAESQUE” (8th S. ii. 468; iii. 54, 115, 213).— Of course your correspondent J.B. S. is entitled to en

tertain his own opinions respecting the length of realism to which writers are allowed to run; but not one of his observations has changed by one jot my opinion of Zola as a writer; and in both his attempts to get himself elected amongst the sacred forty he has most signally failed. I still think that his name will be mainly associated with literary filth, and I could mention two or three other French writers who have run him close in Holywell literature. As to the Debâcle; I was most intimate with the officers of the Cent Garde; for many years I almost lived among them, and after the "break down" was visited in my house in England for many weeks by some of the chief officers, both those who had remained with the Empress, and those who wept" that they might not be parted from the Emperor. I know the common talk of these gentlemen, so that I am not forming a random opinion when I say that Zola has wholly failed to solve the great secret of the debacle. To place Zola on the same pedestal as our immortal Sterne is literary high treason.

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I very well remember an old Waterloo man
relating this story at my father's table in my boy-
hood, say 1847 or 1848, but I have never seen it
in print.
H. S. G.

It is years since I saw the book, but I believe
my first acquaintance with this story began when
I read Sergeant Cotton's book on the Battle of
Waterloo.
PAUL BIERLEY.

J. B. S. says, "It passeth my understanding how those who rail most at Zola's works never fail to read them." In what other way would they be competent to form any just opinion on their merits? When Colenso issued his two great books on Genesis and Exodus I made myself entire master of his arguments. Calling one day on a clergyman with whom I was intimate, I happened to say that I had read them, when he flew out into a violent BRACEBRIDGE HALL (8th S. ii. 288, 371, 471, passion, and begged I would never mention the 518; iii. 273).-In 'The Baronial Halls......of Engname of Colenso in his house again. He raved land,' London, 1858, vol. ii. p. 5, under the headagainst the books as infidel, immoral, and untruth-ing "Brereton Hall" is the following:ful. I quietly asked if he had ever read a line of them, or even seen the outside of them. He rose in a storm of passion, saying if he had ever done so he should be defiled beyond hope of redemption, and left the room. Of course, I left the house; but, according to J. B. S., this friend of mine was quite as competent as I was to pass an opinion on

the merits of Colenso's books.

E. COBHAM BREWER.

P.S.-What would persons say to see "Flaubertism" introduced into our 'N. E. D.'? Zola must die, and that in a few years. All that he has written is for the passing moment.

LAVINGTON (8th S. iii. 287).-James Carrington, watchmaker, will be found in the records of the Company of Clockmakers, with the name and abode of his father, and also in Overall's history of the Company, wherein are five Carringtons. If he is the man I remember, he was well known in London as having a bottle-nose, or a great protuberance on his nose, and was called Nosey Carrington. I had a sketch of him from an etching on glass. It is, however, possible this Carrington was a descendant, and may have been named Thomas Carrington. HYDE CLARKE,

"In 1722 the male line of the family became extinct by the death of Lord Brereton. The hall and estates sabsequently passed, through female inheritance, to A. To which is appended this note: "Brereton is Bracebridge, Esq." the Bracebridge Hall of Washington Irving." S. C. Hall, the author of the text of the book, should be a good authority on the point.

THORNFIELD.

SECOND SIGHT (8th S. iii. 307).-A somewhat remarkable instance of the improvement of the eyesight at an advanced age will be found in St. James's Gazette, August, 1885, in the account given of a centenarian, Mrs. Catherine Voss, the daughter of an old Staffordshire potter, who left off the use of spectacles at seventy. In the Times obituary, July 22, 1889, her death was reported at the age of a hundred and five years, and it is stated that "her hearing, sight, and memory were unimpaired, and to the last she was able to read and write without spectacles." B. D. MOSELEY.

Burslem.

When I lived in Yorkshire I often heard it said that people whose eyesight was bad when they were young would be able to see well when they grew old. In the case of my own mother it was

So.

When she was a girl she could distinguish meaning a maiden or a doll, was also used to exobjects at a short distance with difficulty; but as press the pupil of the eye. There is an interesting she grew older she had splendid long-distance eye-criticism on the word in Longinus, 'On the Subsight, though she used spectacles to read with. I lime,' iv. § 4 :believe the idea of "second sight" is very common.

PAUL BIERLEY.

I knew an old gentleman, a literary man, learned, and a Portuguese poet of some reputation. He at about seventy-five found his sight very defective, shortly after he had a slight illness and his early sight came back to him. He could again read without glasses, and even rather small print. He died recently, about ninety years of age, and retained the rejuvenescent sight till his death. The cutting of new teeth is a comparatively common experience. These strange phenomena are natural suggestions that encourage sanguine dispositions to seek after potable gold, divine ambrosia, and elixirs of life. C. A. WARD.

Chingford Hatch, E.

"Xenophon, in his account of the Spartan polity, has these words: Their voice you would no more hear than if they were of marble, their gaze is as immovable as if they were cast in bronze; you would deem them more modest than the very maidens in their eyes. To speak of the pupils of the eye as modest maidens' was a piece of absurdity becoming Amphicrates rather than Xenophon......Timæus, however, with that want of judgement which characterizes plagiarists, could not leave to Xenophon even this piece of frigidity. In relating how Agathocles carried off his cousin, who was wedded to another man, from the festival of the unveiling, he asks, 'Who could have done such a deed, unless he had harlots instead of maidens in his eyes."-From translation of H. L. Havell, B.A. C. R. HAINES.

Uppingham,

THE MOTHER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH WYDVILLE (8th S. ii. 309, 431; iii. 273).—A very "THE BABIES IN THE EYES" (8th S. iii. 181).- extraordinary instance of early maternity is to be In the dialect of this part of Lincolnshire the found in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloureflection of objects seen in the human eye or incestershire Archæological Society, vol. x. 'Notes any other small reflecting surface are called 66 babies," or rather "babbies."

A Winterton lady a few years ago saw some little children intently gazing at a polished doorknob. On asking what there was to see, one of the children answered, "Please m'm we're lookin' for babbies." Cleveland speaks of some one

Angling for babies in his mistress' eyes.
'Poems,' 1665, p. 117.

Aphra Behn tells of some one who
Sigh'd and lookt babies in his gloating eyes.
'City Heiress,' Act III. sc. i.

John Scott employs the same idea

To look babies in one another's eyes.

'Christian Life,' 1696, part iv. p. 70. The earliest example in the 'New Dictionary' is of the year 1593. EDWARD PEACOCK.

A large collection of instances of this conceit may be made by referring to Grosart's edition of 'Marvell,' i. 114; Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic Words,' i. 129; the 'N. E. D.,' i. 606, col. 3. To these add G. Wither, quoted in 'N. & Q.,' 2nd S. x. 205. But in addition to the foregoing, reference should be made to the interesting notes of Dr. Delitzsch on Psalm xvii. 8, "keep me as the apple of an eye," where the original means not "apple," but "manikin" of an eye, i.e., the little image reflected in it. The learned commentator confirms this from Syriac and Assyrian, shows that the phrase is an ancient term of endearment, and quotes the Indian Upanischads. "Pupil" has an analogous origin. 'Psalms,' 1887, i. 297. W. C. B.

The writer of the note on the above does not mention the Greek use of kópŋ, a word which,

on the Manors, &c., of Birt's Morton and Pendock,' by Sir John Maclean, F.S. A., contains a careful pedigree of the Nanfan family. From it the following is extracted and abridged (p. 220). Richard Coote, second Lord Coote, of Coolony, who died 1700, married in 1676 Catherine, daughter and heir of Giles Nanfan, lord of the manor of Birt's Morton. She was born Feb. 9, and baptized Feb. 13, 1665, at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London. At the time of her marriage she was eleven years of age. Her son and heir, Nanfan Coote, who became second Earl of Bellamont, was born 1677, when his mother was only twelve years of age. After the death of Lord Coolony, in 1700, she married successively in 1702, Capt. Wm. Caldwell, Alderman Wm. Bridgen. R. N.; in 1720, Samuel Ritts, Esq.; in 1737, She had no issue by these three husbands, and died March 12, 1737/8, aged seventy-two. These facts seem well established, and Sir John Maclean is too accurate a genealogist to admit into a pedigree what he does not credit. He himself notes the extraordinary incident. A. W. CORNELIUS HALLEN.

FAMILY OF GREEN (8th S. iii. 267).—As Sir Henry Green was executed (however unjustly) as a traitor, he has no Inquisition: but a note on the Close Roll, 23 Ric. II., stating that he held Combreton Manor, co. Cantab., helps us to trace his descendants. His ancestors are less easy. I should advise KANTIANUS to consult the following Inquisitions:

Henry Green, 30 Edw. III., ii. 45; 34 Edw. III., ii. 12; 36 Edw. III., ii. 1; 43 Edw. III., 48; Prob. Et., 15 Hen. VI., 48; 7 Edw. IV., 1. Margaret, widow of Henry Grene, 16 Edw. IV., 2.

Ralph (of Comberton), 5 Hen. V., 41. Thomas (of Claxton, co. Leic.), 15 Ric. II., 24; 5 Hen. V., 39; 2 Edw. IV., 4; 4 Edw. IV., 21; Prob. Æt., 9 Hen. V., 66.

Mary, wife of Sir Thomas Grene and John Nottingham; dower (from Claxton), 9 Hen. V., 1; 9 Hen. VI., 2; 12 Hen. VI., 20.

The following notes may help to cast light on the pedigree which the Inquisitions, and especially the Probationes Etatis, will, I hope, enable KANTIANUS to construct:

1378-9, Inq. of Thomas Mauduyt. Maud, wife of Henry Green, Knt., daughter, is heir, and at. 24 years (Nicholas's 'Calendar of Heirs,' Addit. MS. 19,706, 2 Ric. II., letter M).

1399, Oct. 21, grant of goods of Henry Grene, deceased, to his children, Thomas, John, Henry, Mary, and Philippa (Patent Roll, 1 Hen. IV., Part 1).

1400, Sept. 15, Henry Grene married Maud; both deceased. Their son Ralph is heir of his mother (Close Roll, 1 Hen. IV., Part 2).

1401, Feb. 2, livery of raiment ordered from the wardrobe to Maud Grene, of the suite of damsels of the King's hostel (Patent Roll, 2 Hen. IV., Part 2).

1416, May 6, charter of John Grene, son and heir of Sir Henry, wherein he mentions "Ralph my brother" (Close Roll, 3 Hen. V.).

1419, Feb. 16, Katherine, widow of Ralph Grene (Close Roll, 6 Hen. V.).

1420, June 14, pardon for unlicensed marriage of John Notyngham and Mary, widow of Thomas Grene (Patent Roll, 8 Hen. V.).

1439, March 6, marriage contract of Henry Grene, ar., and Constance, widow of John Paulet, Knight, to marry within three months (Close Roll, 17 Hen. VI.).

1454, June 8, Isabel Grene, daughter of Dame Philippa, deceased, who was daughter of Robert, Lord Ferrers, and wife of Thomas Grene, Knight, father of said Isabel. Thomas, son and heir of said Philippa (Close Roll, 33 Hen. VI.).

1472, June 12, pardon for unlicensed marriage of Richard Midelton, ar., and Maud, widow of Sir Thomas Grene (Patent Roll, 12 Edw. IV., Part 1). 1482, Oct. 8, Sir Thomas Grene made his will, Friday before Nativity of our Lady, anno 2 (Sept. 3, 1462). His widow, Dame Mawde, married Richard Middleton, ar. Thomas Grene, ar., their son and heir (Close Roll, 22-3 Edw. IV.).

HERMENTRUde.

Sir Henry Greene (Grene in the Rolls of Parliament), "q feust adjuggez a la mort a Bristuyt," July 29, 23 Ric. II. (so in Rot. Parl., 13 H. IV.), was of Drayton, a younger son of Sir Henry Greene, of Green's Norton, Ch. Just. The eldest branch ended in two coheiresses, married to Lord Vaux and Sir Thomas Parr. The younger, or Drayton branch ended in Sir Henry's great-granddaughter

Constance, who married John Stafford, Earl of Wilts. If KANTIANUS really wants details, I can give him some eight generations of the main line, Sir Henry the younger's children and grandchildren. THOMAS WILLIAMS.

Aston Clinton.

Sir Henry Green, “creature of Richard II.,' co. Northampton. was of the family of Green, of Green's Norton,

Sir Henry Green, Lord of Buckton,_married and had issue,— Catherine, the heiress of the Draytons of Drayton,

(1) Sir Thomas Green, Lord of Buckton.

See

(2) Sir Henry Green, of Drayton, who assumed his mother's arms (Az., a cross eng. gu.). Halstead, 'Succinct Genealogies of the Noble and Ancient House of Alno,' &c., London, 1685 (Halstead being the pseudonym of Henry, Earl of Peterborough), which gives pedigrees, deeds, &c. The work is rare, but there is a copy in the British Museum. Also see Bridges's History of Northamptonshire.'

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Britannia,' vol. ii. p. 180, ed. 1789 :-
The following is an extract from Camden's

"Sir Henry Green, Chief Justice of England temp. Edward III., succeeded the Draytons here [Drayton], and his son Henry for his inviolable allegiance to Richard II. was surprised in Bristol Castle, and beheaded by Henry IV. His heirs female brought it to the Staffords, Earl of Wilts, one of whose heirs female descendant was created Earl of Peterborough."

brought it to the Lord Mordant, her first husband, whose

vol. vi., having reference to the Greens of Green's There is an article in the Herald and Genealogist, origin, but the data given do not seem very trustNorton, and attempting to prove their Yorkshire worthy.

F. W. G.

ITALIAN IDIOM (8th S. ii. 445, 498; iii. 37, 171, 289).-I do not know which MR. YOUNG will consider the higher authorities for deciding as to the use of voi in addressing royal personages -8 number of persons who are not known to have had any connexion with the Court, and therefore may be presumed to have no special knowledge of its usages, or the correspondent quoted by me, who has off and on acted as equerry in Italy for the last ten years, and who, at my request, took such extreme care to be accurate in this matter that he referred his note, before sending it, to another equerry, who had had even greater experience than himself. If we are talking of two different things there is no need of further discussion; but if it is a question as to the correct mode of addressing in can be no higher authorities than those who are speech royal personages in Italy, I think there always with them and who are thoroughly saturated with Court usages.

HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

INSCRIPTIONS ON POOR-BOXES (8th S. iii. 228). -Perhaps these two instances of ancient poorboxes may be of interest to more than one reader

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