NEWGATE AND WILKES.-Noorthouck in his History of London,' under date 31 May, 1770, after recording the laying of the foundation stone of old Newgate Prison by Lord Mayor Beckford, says :—

"If No. 45 was cut upon this stone in large characters, as was reported, it is to be hoped the antiquarians of the present time are employed in deciphering more sensible monuments than those who find these mystical figures ages hence may be, if they labour at a meaning for them."

Was this stone recovered on the destruction of the prison? and if so, does it bear the alleged numerical reference to Wilkes ? CHAS. H. HOPWOOD.

22

"TORY": "SKEAN." For how long after the date of the following paragraphs did the Irish tory or rapparee continue his depredations in outlawry? It must have been considerably later than the death of James II. in 1701. And at what precise time did the term become applicable especially to those who stood by Church and State ?

"We have an Account from Clonmel in Ireland of a large Gang of Tories or Rapparees having done great Mischief in those Parts, by robbing and pillaging the Country for some Time past; upon which a Party of Horse of the Regular Troops being sent in Pursuit of them, they took Sanctuary in a Smith's forge, and made such a desperate Defence, that having shot the Cornet's Horse under him, who commanded the said Troops they were obliged to Fire on the Forge, before they could reduce them, and the Flames increasing, they attempted to escape, and two of them did so by the Thickness of the Smoke, and a third by burning his Cloaths, and coming out in a Blanket wrapt about him; but six others of them were shot, and four taken Prisoners, and one of those who escaped is since dead of his Wounds. The Horses which the Rapparees rode on could not be saved from perishing in the Flames, tho' all possible Endeavours were used to get them out."London Evening Post, 22 Feb., 1732.

"We hear from Catrick in the County of Monaghan, that on Sunday Night last James Calan, a proclaimed Tory in the Counties of Meath and Cavan, was taken in a House, within three Miles of that Town, by Mr. John Johnston's Men. He was a very bold and desperate Fellow,

and had a great Part of the Country about under Contribution to him; there passed several Shots between him and one of the Men, both within and when Calan was thrown on the Ground, he and without the House; at length they engaged, whipt out of his Breeches a long Skean, and stabbed Mr. Johnston's Man along the Ribs."St. James's Evening Post, 26 Sept., 1738.

Was this Skean" the rapary or halfPike with which the robbers were armed, and from which they had their name?

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

[For the early history of "Tory" see 5 S. ix. 25, 211, 317; x. 45; 6 S. i. 395, 445; iv. 403; v. 33; vii. 6, 279.

"Skean" is defined in the four-volume edition of

Annandale's Imperial Dictionary' as "a short of Scotland."1 sword or a knife used by the Irish and Highlanders

The chronological order is not always maintained. Thus, e.g., on pp. 252 and 253 extracts from documents of 1685 are inserted between some of 1686, and on p. 267 extracts from papers dated 1701 follow some of 1705. As a matter of fact the petition of George Brankovics, which I have now found, bears no date at all. PROF. MARCZALI assigned it to 1691, and then states in his Hungary that the waywode (he means the despot) was cast into prison in that year. On turning over a few leaves, however, in the Regesták' we find the victim's own statement that he was imprisoned in 1689.

Turning to another part of the 'Regesták,' we find on p. 133 a title in bold type to indicate that what follows has been extracted from documents in the "English Royal Archives," and illustrates the history of Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania. To all appearance, this section extends to p. 247, where there is another heading in bold type "From the Berlin Archives"; but the last document bears the date 1664, when Bethlen and two of his successors on the throne were dead. Probably the extracts from English State Papers end on p. 151; but in that case the question arises, Where can the originals of the bulk of the State papers in that section be found?

With regard to "Dobzse László" (in English "Ladislas All-Right "), although the difference between Ladislas and Uladislav may be purely one of orthography, according to PROF. MARCZALI's own list (on p. xiii) the last four kings bearing that name spelt differently are (in chronological order) denoted as follows: Ladislas IV., Wladislav I., Ladislas V., and Wladislav II., and thereby all confusion averted.

2

As regards the Rascians, I maintain that no explanation of the name is given in the text on p. 197, but the reader is referred to the foot-note on the same page; and in the glossary and subject-index under Rascians (Serbs) we are referred for an explanation of the name to the same foot-note, and also to pp. 198 and 199, where we find "Serbs," "Thraces" (in a foot-note), "Rascian Serbs" and "Rascians," without an explanation. On the other hand, under Serbs we are referred for an explanation of their "relation to Rascians to the first mentioned footnote, which does not explain the relationship. As a matter of fact, the Rascians are Serbs of the Orthodox Greek faith.

THE REVIEWER,

BOASE'S MODERN ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY': WILLIAM ROUPELL (11 S. ii. 226).—It is strange that Mr. Boase, so well known for his accurate biographies in the 'D.N.B.' (I remember the care he took with the notice of my father, seeing me several times in reference to it), should have fallen into error as to the death of William Roupell. No doubt he was led into the mistake by the general idea that Roupell was dead. Some newspapers found this to their cost, and ventured on libellous and sensational accounts of his romantic career, when they discovered Roupell to be very much alive, and had to pay damages for their indiscretion. Roupell, on being released from prison, returned to reside near the home of his boy. hood in Roupell Park. He felt that he had done his utmost to atone for the great wrong he had committed, and had suffered his punishment; and he determined to do his best to show by a consistent life that he thoroughly repented of his crime. It is believed by many that all through the legal proceedings he was intent on shielding another.

The present Vicar of Christchurch, Streat. ham Hill, the Rev. C. Southey Nicholl, related in The Times that on Roupell's release the then vicar, the Rev. Wodehouse Raven, one of the most courtly of men, received Roupell cordially, and took him round to all the chief parishioners, asking them to bid him welcome. Roupell from that time, though always in very humble circumstances, did his best to aid the working-men in the district, being secre tary of their Slate Club, and on Sundays was a regular attendant at his old church in the Christchurch Road. He was always hard at work, and devoted much time to the culture of grapes, for some of these obtaining prizes at the shows of the Royal Horticultural Society, of which he was a Fellow. His little cottage (more like a Robinson Crusoe hut than a cottage) was close to where I live, so I saw him fre quently, and many a delightful chat we had together. He was full of political informa tion of the fifties and early sixties, and numerous are the anecdotes of statesmen of these times which he recounted to me in his beautiful mellow voice, his fine open countenance lighting up with the pleasant smile with which he greeted all.

On the Sunday week before he died-the 14th of March, 1909-he came to my house and spent the day, bringing the volumes of McCarthy's History of Our Own Times' which I had lent him. He gave expression

to the pleasure the work had afforded him recalling as it did many events in which he himself had taken part; and he spoke of its great fairness. Unfortunately, on that day he took a chill: there was snow on the ground, but he would attend the morning service. On parting at night from my wife and myself he said the day had been one of the happiest Sundays he had ever spent. On the Tuesday he had a severe attack of pneumonia, and on Thursday, the 25th of March, 1909, as stated by W. C. B., he died. On the following Thursday, after a service at Christchurch in which many neighbours took part, he was buried at Norwood in the same grave as his sister. Among the tributes of flowers was a beautiful wreath from old comrades of the Volunteer corps of which he had been colonel.

Roupell would frequently say to me that when he died "all the terrible past would be revived," and so it proved. He was desirous that his life should be written as a warning to young men. If this were done, it would truly point the moral, "Good in all, and none all good."

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

"UNECUNGGA": "YNETUNGA": "GA" (11 S. ii. 143, 211).-PROF. SKEAT'S timely remarks about the word gā cannot fail to have a twofold effect: on the one hand, they will prevent investigators from speaking of gå as A.-S.; on the other, they will serve to emphasize what I said in the concluding sentence of my note (supra, p. 144), when I classified my emendations into *Oxna ga, *Ohtna ga, and *Ytena ga, as Jutish. It is a pity, however, that when PROF. SKEAT was condemning J. M. Kemble he did not at the same time identify the dialect to which ga really does belong; for the impression that would be received from his remarks by a student of the subject who had not read Helfenstein's Comparative Grammar of the Teutonic Languages (or some other author's) would be that there was not the least justification, apart from the dubious authority of the MSS. of the ⚫ Tribal Hidage,' for tendering such a word. But gå stands to O.H.G. gou-, A.-S. *gea, in the same relationship that such a word, for instance, as O.F. hlapa (a) does to O.H.G. hloufu (ou) and A.-S. hleape (ea). I submit that the fact that ga is not true to dialect is not sufficient reason for denying its appearance in an A.-S. document compiled in the seventh century.

6

The Jutish tract of country, apart from Kent, was originally assessed at 12,300 hides. It comprised 19. Wihtgaraland (600); 20. Oxna ga (5,000); 21. Ohtna ga (2,000); 24. Hendrica (3,500); 25. Ytena ga (1,200). It extended from Southampton Water and the Wight northward towards Northamptonshire. It was bounded by Dorsætnaland (26. Arosetna), Wilsætnaland (29, 30. East Willa, West Willa), Hwiccaland (22. Hwinca), Ciltensætnaland (23. Cilternsætna), Suderignaland (28. Widerigga), and Billingaland (27. Bilmiga). The last regio lay, I believe, in West Sussex, and Billing's Hurst would appear to preserve the name of the eponymus of the race.

With the Editor's permission I hope at some future time to deal with the palæographical difficulties presented by widerigga, bilmiga, and hendrica. The first two I have emended above. The third represents Keardica, and signifies the land of the Ceardicas, or descendants of Cerdic.

2

ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

May I call the attention of your contributors who are interested in the 'Tribal Hidage to Mr. J. W. Corbett's very elaborate study of that document in Trans. Royal Historical Soc., N.S., vol. xiv. pp. 187230? Mr. Corbett gives weighty reasons for regarding it as an artificial scheme of hidation for fiscal purposes, dating from the time of Northumbrian supremacy in the seventh century; and he identifies the various hundreds of hides in it, not with the hundreds of hides in Domesday Book, as does MR. BROWNBILL, but with the Domesday hundreds. Mr. Corbett's detailed identifications of the various tribal areas may be open to criticism on the ground that they do not allow sufficiently for eleventh-century rearrangements; but the broad principles of his scheme require either acceptance or refutation by those who are working at the same subject.

Writing from memory, for I have not Mr. Corbett's paper at hand, I think that his identification of Unecungga " is Hunting

32

66

A. MORLEY DAVIES.

Winchmore Hill, Amersham.

FOLLIES (11 S. ii. 29, 78, 113, 158, 215).Not very many years ago there was on the rock of Gibraltar O'Hara's Tower, alias O'Hara's Folly. See 'Handbook to the Mediterranean,' by R. L. Playfair (John Murray, 1881), p. 497, and the plan of Gibraltar facing p. 494. I remember the tower, of which the story was that Governor O'Hara had built it in the belief that the particular point of the rock chosen for it was the highest; but this being a mistake, the tower was useless. I think that I am right in saying that it was shot down in gun practice about fifteen years ago.

In Old England: a Pictorial Museum of....Antiquities,' published by Charles Knight & Co., vol. ii. p. 326, the Folly House, Blackwall, is mentioned as one of the most noted places of entertainment in the eigh teenth century. On p. 324 is a picture of the house from an old print."

66

Mr. William B. Boulton in 'The Amusements of Old London,' 1901, vol. ii. p. 241, writes of

"The Folly, the only floating place of entertainment of which there is a record, a large hulk moored off Somerset House in the days of the Restoration, and fitted up as a musical summerhouse......even the easy morals of the times of George the Second could not tolerate the Folly, and put an end to its pleasantries."

It would appear that it lasted a long time.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

as

There is a tall octagonal tower in Icknield Street West, Birmingham, known Parrott's Folly, mentioned by Eliezer Edwards in his 'Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men,' 1877. Two motives are given for its erection— one for the purpose of studying the stars (the owner being an astronomer), and the other to enable him to witness the sport of coursing-and it may have been used in both instances.

near Sutton Coldfield, built (tradition has I remember another of these Folly towers it) by a jealous husband as a place of observation when his wife was abroad, to enable him the better to keep his eye upon her!

Solihull.

J. BAGNALL.

An early exploit of the brave man who became Sir Henry Keppel, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet, gave rise to the name of Keppel's Folly for a precipitous road near Simon's Town, Cape Colony. The tale is thus set down in Sir Algernon West's 'Memoir,' pp. 16, 17:

"At the Cape, in 1828, Harry was the author of a foolish freak which nearly cost him his life. As he relates, while driving a tandem both horses were inclined to run away, which I did not so much mind if I could keep in the road. It appears that my leader had been accustomed to work on the near side in a team, and bore in that direction. However, there was but little traffic. Martin held the whip, while I twisted the leader's rein round my forearm and pulled all I could. up." I told him that my neck was as strong as his, instead of sitting quiet, began to "touch the leader and chucked the reins on to the shaft horse's back. The leader threw up his head, turned sharp to the

Martin,