Sandgate.

She died R. J. FYNMORE.

In the bibliography of John Norden's works attached to the reprint of the 1598 edition of Norden's Description of Hartfordshire,' the following are recorded:

1593. Speculum Britanniæ. The firste parte; An historicall and chorographicall Description of Middlesex. Wherein are......sett down the names of the cyties......parishes, etc. The title-page is engraved, three folding plates, pp. 50. London, 1593. 4to.

1596. Norden's Preparative to his Speculum Britanniæ. Intended as reconciliation of sundrie propositions by divers persons tendred, concerning the same.-London, 1596. 8vo.

1598. Speculi Britanniæ Pars. The Description of Hartfordshire. With engraved title-page and map.-London, 1598. 4to.

I may, perhaps, mention that although the Middlesex and Hertfordshire volumes are usually found together they were issued separately. Both were reprinted in one volume in 1723, but the edition of 1637 mentioned by Lowndes has apparently no existence. W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

ANN RADCLIFFE (10th S. iv. 9).—In 'Novels and Novelists from Elizabeth to Victoria,' by J. Cordy Jeaffreson, 1858, vol. ii. p. 1, may be found the following:

"Although Ann Radcliffe's parents were in rank no higher than respectable tradespeople, she was more than decently descended. Her paternal grandmother was a sister of Cheselden, the distinguished surgeon; her maternal grandmother was Anne Oates, a sister of Dr. Samuel Jebb, of Stratford, who was father of Sir Richard Jebb; and she was lineally descended from a De Witt, a near relative of John and Cornelius, who came over from Holland to carry out a Government plan to drain the fens of Lincolnshire, a design which the popular rising and the execution of Charles I. expelled from the minds of its projectors. maiden name was Ward, and she was born in London on the 9th of July, 1764. When she was only three-and-twenty the lovely creature gave her heart and hand to a Mr. William Radcliffe. This fortunate gentleman was a graduate of Oxford, a law student, and a man of considerable literary abilities. Upon his marriage, deeming it prudent to exercise his talents in some way that should reward his exertions with immediate payment, he relinquished his legal pursuits, and, devoting his time and powers to journalism, eventually became the proprietor and editor of The English Chronicle.

Her

was

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

The ring in question cannot have belonged to the eminent novelist, who was born only three years before the death of the person whose memory was cherished in the inscription. Ann Radcliffe, whose maiden name was Ward, was born in 1764, and married to William Radcliffe about 1787. She died in 1823. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

[The 'D.N.B.' states that the novelist died 7 February, 1823. MR. A. R. BAYLEY is also thanked for reply.]

ROWSE OR ROUS OF CRANSFORD, WEST SUFFOLK (10th S. iii. 270).—E. S. R. might gain some information regarding the Suffolk Rouses by referring to Savage's 'New England Genealogical Dictionary.' Many families came from Suffolk and Essex to New England.

Can he inform me who were the following Rouses mentioned in the will of Edward Peters, 1638, of Bristol? He was a merchant, and desires to be buried at St. Nicholas's Church, Bristol. Among others he names brother George Peters (he was a minister, graduate of Oxford), sister Rouse, aunt Alice Gleason, mother-in-law Ann Grey, cousin Ann Morgan, wife Margaret, children Edward, George, Ann, Elizabeth, and Grace Peters. This Edward Peters was son of George Petre or Peter and his wife Grace (daughter of John Pyle, of Exeter). The Peters were of Devon. G. A. T.

Albany, N.Y.

SCOTCH BURIAL CUSTOM (10th S. iv. 10).— Had the occurrence at the burying ground of Longforgan, Dundee, been of an ordinary character, it would not have been chronicled in the newspapers. It is unusual in Scotland for women in any circumstances to attend a funeral, though the custom is less stringently adhered to than was the case twenty years ago. In the Highlands people cling to old habits more tenaciously than in the south of

Scotland, and this is especially the case with respect to the rites of sepulture. It has long been, and still is, the custom in the north for the nearest male relative to stand at the head of the grave and hold the cord next to him by which the coffin is lowered. This is the place of a husband in laying the remains of his wife in the grave, of a father burying his son, and of the eldest son attending the funeral of his father. A near relative takes his place at the foot of the grave, and kinsmen and friends stand at each side and assist in lowering the coffin. J. GRIGOR.

The custom in Scotland of the chief mourner holding the principal cord in the lowering of the coffin is alluded to in 'Poems' by the Rev. John Black, of Butley, in Suffolk. 1799, p. 10, in "An Elegy on the Author's Mother, who was buried in the churchyard of Dunichen, in Scotland," which contains the stanza :Oh, how my soul was griev'd when I let fall The string that dropt her silent in the grave! Yet thought I then I heard her spirit call: "Safe I have pass'd through death's o'erwhelming

wave.

See Brand's Popular Antiquities,' revised by Sir Henry Ellis (Bohn, 1854), vol. ii. p. 274.

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

I believe it to be the custom throughout Scotland for the chief mourner to lower the head of the coffin into the grave, the second the foot, and those further in degree the sides, the position of each mourner being indicated to him on a card sent before the funeral by the undertaker.

R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.

Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

PINCHBECK FAMILY (10th S. iii. 421 ; iv. 33). -The doggerel lines quoted by MR. W. H. PINCHBECK were, when I was at school in Somersetshire, fifty years ago, well known as a schoolboys' catch for the innocent new boy and for our unwary sisters; and they were also familiar to a younger generation seven years ago at St. Albans Grammar School but in each of these cases the first line read as follows::

Adam and Eve and Pinch me, and the object of the ditty can be clearly diagnosed from this reading of the first line, coupled with the obviously necessary reply to the question asked in the fourth line. The substitution of the surname "Pinchbeck " for "Pinch me" in the first line would seem to destroy the whole point of the catch.

F. DE H. L.

I venture to think that the surname was originally derived from Pinchbeck, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, rather than the nick

name of somebody remarkable for having a pincer-like mouth or nose, as has been ingeniously surmised. Domesday Book, in one instance, registers the place as Picebech. ST. SWITHIN.

The first line of the doggerel quoted is, in Devonshire, always given "Adam and Eve and Pinch me," while the remaining lines are as you print them. And the Devon version appears to me to be the correct one, inasmuch tionee the obvious answer, "Pinch me,” never as the questioner, on getting from the quesfails to administer a pinch.

Teignmouth.

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.I.

S. iii. 387, 435; iv. 36).-There is always a HOLLICKE OR HOLLECK, CO. MIDDLESEX (10th risk of confusion when we find contemporaries bearing the same or similar names. We find from the I.P.M. of Philip Basset, 6 November, 56 Hen. III., that the deceased held Elsefeld manor in Oxfordshire, in exchange for a manor of Walter de Morton called "Ledred in Soserey" (Leatherhead, in Surrey). This shows that a certain Walter de Morton existed temp. Henry III., but for the reasons given in my former reply, I think that the owner of Haliwick manor was Walter de Horton. There are, of course, several places from which he might have derived his surHorton in Bucks, opposite Stanwell on the name, the nearest to "Little Bernete" being other side of the river Colne.

Norden says that Muswell Hill was also called Pinsenall Hill, and a variant of this word is Pensnothyll. The first syllable of the word reminds us of Penshurst and Penshanger, and would seem to point to a wooded hill. I would, therefore, tentatively suggest that the constituents of the name are the A.-S. pīn, a pine, hnut, a nut, and hyll, a hill, the complete word signifying Pine Nut (or Pine Cone) Hill. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

The oldest form of this place-name appears to be "Halewik " (cf. the Hale, Tottenham)— generally a piece of flowing water, and very A. H.

common.

JOSIAS CATZIUS (10th S. iv. 10).-It is more than probable that he is a fictitious character, and "the gathering together of the Jews in great bodies under" him did not take place at all. There is a copy of the 'Doomesday' in the British Museum among the pamphlets collected by George III. The press-mark is E. 383 (23). It is a short tract of six small quarto pages, one and a half of which are blank and one is occupied by the title. The purpose of the gathering of the

Jews ("in Illyria, Bithinia, and Cappadocia ") is stated to have been the conquest of the Holy Land "out of the hand of Ottaman." The anonymous author had "certaine and credible information" about it, and refers also to "letters from beyond the seas." The patronymic "Catzius" is Dutch, but Van der Aa's Dutch dictionary of biography does not seem to mention him. L. L. K.

COKE OR COOK? (10th S. iii. 430 ; iv. 13.)— There is no difficulty in this matter to any one who is acquainted with the regular historical development of English sounds. At p. 48 of my 'Primer of English Etymology I show that every A.-S. ō (long o, as in note) normally becomes oo (as in boot) in modern English. Among the instances I cite do, I do; col, cool; rod, rood; fōda, food, &c. I then note that this oo (as in cool) is shortened before a final k, formerly written c, as in hōc, a hook; hrōc, a rook; scōc, shook; cōc, cook; bōc, book. It may further be noted that Norman scribes, in the fourteenth century, whilst the word was still pronounced coke, and before the change of ō to u had set in, frequently used the spelling coke instead of the more correct cook, especially in the genitive case. Thus the Ellesmere MS. of Chaucer has 'The prologe of the Cokes Tale,' immediately succeeded by The Cook of London,' as in three other MSS. But the Petworth and Lansdowne MSS. have 'The Coke of London,' for they exhibit later spellings.

There was no difficulty as long as cook and coke were both pronounced like mod. E. coke. But when the regular lowering (not "hardening") of guttural vowels set in, the trouble began, and coke became ambiguous. Archaically, it represented the sound coke, but practically people came to sound it as mod. E. cook. The sound changed so gradually that at first it was hardly noticed; but there came a time when no one could be sure about it. All therefore that we know about Coke for certain is that it really means "Cook"; but as to the pronunciation, all depends upon chronology. No doubt the appearance of the word has largely influenced the sound; and many moderns would pronounce coke as coak without the slightest hesitation.

The history of Cuckfield is similar: the old Coc-feld, Anglo- French Cokefeld, regularly became Cook-field; but in this instance the influence of the following kf further shortened the oo (as in cook) to the oo in blood.

All such changes present no difficulty to the student of phonetics; but most English

men have resolutely determined that this is the last_subject which they would willingly learn. It is certainly the one which they least understand. WALTER W. SKEAT.

The 'Life of Sir Edward Coke,' by Cuthbert W. Johnson, is a work of no authority, according to an amusing article of thirteen columns in the Gent. Mag., November, 1837, p. 502, which points out the grossest blunders. RALPH THOMAS.

We are promised an authoritative account of THE OXFORD RAMBLE' (10th S. iv. 43).— this Alderbury Churchyard broadside ballad, which is mentioned in Roxburghe Ballads,' vol. viii. p. 181, an exemplar being in Roxb. Coll., iii. 490, and an important book-form copy, dated 1744, and holding two extra stanzas, in possession of Mr. J. W. Ebsworth. The account will describe his own three A. N. Q. exemplars and three others.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, 1778-1840. With Preface and Notes by Austin Dobson.. Vol. VI. (Macmillan & Co.)

MR. DOBSON's self-imposed and admirably executed is now in the hands of his subscribers and readers. task is accomplished, and his concluding volume Itis, in some respects, the best of the series. If it is a little less fresh and winsome than the earlier volumes, it is written in a more sober period and deals with more serious matters. The change of which we are conscious is that from adolescence into middle, and, at the close, elderly life. The girl has ripened into the matron, and the difference between the earlier and the later records corre-sponds precisely to that between youth and age. Men of ripe years are generally tender and hood, and the joyous aspirations and anticipations caressing in their feeling towards youth and girlwhich attend the dawn of life move most those who know best how quickly the radiance will fade. Each stage of the work has, however, its own attractions, and we may almost say, in rising from. the consideration of the last, in Donne's gracious words, as we recall them :

Nor spring nor summer beauty has the grace That I have seen in an autumnal face. The volume opens and the work virtually closes. with a postscript, which consists naturally, to a certain extent, of afterthoughts, and is, in part,. an apologia. Comments upon previous volumes are answered, and a defence of the heroine is undertaken against such gently questioning remarks as have been provoked. We fancy though this is perhaps a piece of self-delusion

that we trace special response to observations of our own. No very serious complaining had Mr. Dobson to face, and his defence-if such it may be called when there is no attack-may be easily accepted, while Macaulay's vindication, which is selected as the epigraph for the volumes, is exactly just: "If she recorded with minute.