Negro Poet (or poetess)," "the surprising African poetess,' "the famous Phillis Wheatley," &c., not to mention "her celebrated miscellaneous poems." In the face of this absolutely overwhelming mass of contemporary evidence in favour of the authenticity of the poems, MR. THORNTON raises for the first time (so far as the present writer is aware) the question of their genuineness, and asserts that 66 the internal evidence stamps them as a literary fraud.” "Is it credible," he asks, except to a ‘Judæus Apella,' that a full-blooded negro child, in less than twelve years, could acquire such a knack of versifying, and so much classical knowledge, and classical instinct too, as is here displayed?" This argument, like that of the so-called Baconians, fails to carry conviction. ALBERT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S.

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SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS (10 S. x. 489).-G. H. S. will find a complete list of Speakers of the House of Commons "from the earliest authentic records of Parliament (1260) at pp. 247-51 of Haydn's Book of Dignities,' continued to the present time (1890) by Horace Ockerby, published by W. H. Ållen. list gives, besides the dates of the tenure of office, the constituency by which each Speaker was returned to the House of Commons.

This

The list given in Haydn ends in 1886 with the election, for the third time, of Mr. A. W. (now Viscount) Peel. It can be completed to date by the addition of the names of Viscount Selby (Mr. William Court Gully, M.P. for Carlisle 1886 to 1905), Speaker 1895 to 1905, and of the Right Hon. James William Lowther, M.P. for the Penrith division of Cumberland, elected Speaker in June, 1905, whose impartiality, dignity, and sense of humour make everybody who is under his sway hope that he may establish a record for the long duration in his person

of the exalted office which he fills.

In it

I would recommend to the notice of G. H. S. a work entitled 'Parliament, Past and Present,' by Arnold Wright and Philip Smith, which I have often found very useful. It was published only a year or so ago by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. will be found much interesting matter on the subject asked about. The index is full, and in it is given a list of over sixty holders of this office, besides references to many pages of the book where things connected with the Speakership are mentioned.

Westminster.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

THE TYBURN (10 S. x. 341, 430, 494).—I have refrained from saying anything on this subject hitherto, on account of its difficulty. I was also wholly puzzled to the A.-S. two- could be sustained. There imagine how the proposed derivation from is that the w would not be lost; and are two fatal objections to this. The first secondly, even if it could be, it would give a modern Teeburn, and not Tyburn at all. of the letter w in tweo presents no difficulty," The last article says that "the elision because "two is pronounced too." combinations) is never lost unless the sound cases are not parallel: the w in tw (or other of o or u follows. But the sound of eo had nothing of the nature of an o or u about it. Twiford still; it never became Tiford, nor is This is why the old form Twiford remains explained more than a hundred instances of ever likely to pass into such a form. I have the loss of w in the Cambridge Phil. Soc. Trans., vol. v. part 5.

But the

tigan was itself derived (with the usual vowel-mutation) from the sb. teag-, nom. teah, a tie, band, also an enclosure or paddock; which was itself derived from teah, the second grade of the root-verb tēohan, which is cognate with the G. Ziehen and the wellknown Lat. ducere. Indeed, the sb. teah sometimes appears as tih, with the mutated vowel, as is clearly shown in Bosworth and Toller's Dictionary.' Toller quotes from Thorpe's Diplomatarium,' p. 467, the following: clausulam quam Angli dicunt teage, que pertinet ad predictam mansionem.' And I have myself noticed the compound tīg-wella, i.e. Tye-well, in a list of boundaries, in Birch's Cart. Saxon.,' iii. 223. Cf. æt Tigan, i.e. at Tye (Thorpe, 'Dipl.,' pp. 507, 523), with reference to Essex.

C

WALTER W. SKEAT.

No one has as yet mentioned that a place called Tyburn near Micklegate Bar, whence 66 'York o'erlooked the town of York after the battle of Wakefield, was the spot of execution in former times. Here was hanged the famous Dick Turpin, whose irons are yet preserved at York Castle.

What the derivation of the name may be, or how it was assigned at York, I cannot say; but I remember that an old friend of mine

erroneously supposed it to be the place of execution of Adam Sedbergh, Sedbar, or Sedbury, who suffered in 1537 for his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace. This idea was effectually disproved by the carving in the Tower of London which the abbot left by way of epitaph before suffering capital punishment at the well-known Tyburn near London. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

THE CURIOUS HOUSE, GREENWICH (10 S. x. 469).—Where was this house situated? To one who has known the town for many years, and studied its history, the query is a puzzler. A friend of mine, Mr. Smithers, whose name is not unknown to the pages of 'N. & Q.,' and whose knowledge of Greenwich extends back to the forties, agrees with me in saying that there must be some mistake as to the locality. The description

22

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H. S. SMITH-REWSE.

ADRIAN SCROPE (10 S. x. 469), the Regicide, who was executed at Charing Cross, 17 Oct., 1660, was most certainly not buried later at years Sonning, Herts (if such a place exists); neither does the name occur in the copious extracts from the registers of Sonning, Berks, in Col. Chester's collection. The name Adrian was a very common one in the family. 'Adrian, son of Raphe Scroope, Gent.,' was bap. 21 Sept., 1589, at Ruscombe, Berks. Sir Adrian Scrope of Cockerington, co. Lincoln, who died 10 Dec., 1623, a brother of the said Raphe, was father of Adrian Scrope, living 1642, the father of another Adrian Scrope, born shortly after 1622. The above-named Sir Adrian Scrope was, by his son Sir Gervase Scrope, grandfather of another Sir Adrian Scrope, K.B., who died in or shortly before Sept., 1667. Moreover, there was an Adrian Scrope, of Hambleden, Bucks, died 1577 (uncle to Sir Adrian Scrope first mentioned), who, by

his son Robert Scrope, was father of Adrian Scrope the Regicide, first above-named, who was bapt. 12 Jan., 1600/1, at Lewknor, Óxon. See an elaborate pedigree in Foster's 'Pedigrees of Yorkshire Families,' vol. iii. 1874, and Maddison's Lincolnshire Pedigrees' (Harl. Soc., vol. lii.). See also 9 S. v. 495 and vi. 54. G. E. C.

The Adrian Scrope referred to by the querist was perhaps Sir Adrian Scrope, made a K.C.B. by Charles II. at his Coronation in 1661. W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

eyes

NEW ZEALAND FOSSIL SHELLS (10 S. x. 489). The shells referred to by MR. JAMES PLATT are by no means fossil. The " are, as he states, the opercula of a kind of shellfish commonly met with on the seashore in many parts of New Zealand, and in my schooldays I often cut them off and collected them. A larger kind is imported from the more tropical Pacific Islands. I do not remember to have seen fossil eyes," but they are occasionally washed up on the beach, when the green has usually changed to a tawny yellow.

black."

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W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.

This title rather reminds one of Mr. Punch's picture in which the governess was reproving her pupil for speaking of blackbeetles, as they were not beetles and not Similarly the operculum or eyestone referred to does not come from (though it may easily find its way to) New Zealand, is certainly not a shell, and I doubt its being a fossil. I had a largish number of them brought to me years ago by a sailor brother who had been to the South Sea islands-Viti Levu or Levuka, notably. My recollection (possibly at fault) is that he had gathered the eye-stones himself: quite likely he caught the shellfish as he did other curious fish, in the coral pools. That the operculum is not a fossil is, I think, pretty obvious from its appearance : on one side white and shell-like, on the other brightly coloured, polished, and unscratched. DOUGLAS OWEN.

ERNISIUS: A PROPER NAME (10 S. x. 388, 471).-MR. TRICE MARTIN'S note seems conclusive as to the fact that there is a name Ernisius. Unless my memory deceives me, it is in Wright's 'Courthand' that the suggestion is made (under query) that Ernest is the equivalent of Ernisius; there seems now a general agreement that this is incorrect, and the translation will doubtless not appear in succeeding Patent Roll Calendars.

The particular Nevill was certainly Hervey. The REV. EDMUND NEVILL sends me the following from Salisbury Charters, XCIX. Lib. Evid. C. 479, A.D. 1215: "Hugo Crassus filius Hervei de Nevill." This is the man called Hervesius in the Durinton Rolls. His descendant is called Ervisius in the Quo Warranto Rolls, No. 4, and without absolute evidence I cannot believe there was more than the one name in this family.

MR. ELLIS's list is not evidence, as I understand his instances to be taken from the printed charters, &c. The same remark applies to the Domesday instance of Erneis. It seems probable, in the face of MR. MARTIN'S exact evidence, that there was a name Erneis, and that MR. ELLIS's examples are correctly so given; but the late instances are to my mind a little suspicious, and suggestive of the Elizabethan herald.

"Ernisius" has a good start, but I think what I have said shows that in all cases the name requires careful authentication. The suggested connexion with Anjou seems possible. Perhaps some French authority can help us to the root and modern form of the name. RALPH NEVILL, F.S.A.

Castle Hill, Guildford.

The Erneys were an ancient Chester family in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, and married into the family of Norris of Speke (Lancs). The name occurs as Hernisius in charters, and as Erney, Herneys, and Ernay. See vols. ii. and x. (N.S.) Chester Arch. Soc.; vol. ii. Hist. Soc. of Lancs and Cheshire; and Cal. of Cheshire Recog. Rolls. R. S. B.

PHILIP STUBBS, AUTHOR OF THE ANATOMY OF ABUSES' (10 S. x. 308).—MR. BELLEWES's query is very similar to one of mine (5 S. vii. 87, 495) thirty years ago. So far as I know, not much fresh light has been thrown on Stubbs's life in the interval. I was specially anxious to learn if the particulars of his life, "which had hitherto escaped notice, but were worth preserving," promised in 1849 by Mr. James Purcell Reardon in the old Shakespeare Society

author.

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in

a

In 1879 I chanced on a bond, dated July, 1586, executed by "Philip Stubbes of Benefield in Northampton, generosus, to "William Stubbes, of Ratcliffe Middlesex, generosus ; it relates to messuage in Congleton, Cheshire, which Philip grants to William for ever. The author in The Anatomy (Part I.) speaks of knowing a man for a dozen or sixteene yeares togither in Congleton, and this may furnish a possible link between the two names. The late Bishop Stubbs made some searches in the Congleton records, but found nothing to the point. None has been made at Benefield, so far as I am aware. As to any relationship between John Stubbs, "Scæva," author of A Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf,' &c., and the author of "The Anatomy,' it is significant that in 1719 Dr. Wolfran Stubbs, grandson of Scæva," by his will left the reversion of his three manors in Norfolk to the Rev. Philip Stubbs, then Rector of St. James, Garlickhithe, London, who was the eldest surviving son of Philip Stubbs the vintner. Had there been no relationship between the families, it is difficult to account for the testator's making this disposition of his estate. But what the connexion was is now unknown. H. STUBBS.

Danby, Ballyshannon

In a memoir prefixed to my copy of the above work it is stated that Young was in 1708 nominated to a law-fellowship at All Souls, and that in 1714 "he took his degree of Bachelor of Civil Law, and his Doctor's Degree on 10 June, 1719." On the titlepage, however, he is styled LL.D. No doubt considerable laxity obtained in the use of the two styles. H. P. L.

According to the memoir of Dr. Young prefixed to an edition of his 'Night Thoughts' On the title-page, and at the beginning printed in 1807, he possessed both degrees. of the memoir, he is described as LL.D., and further on in the latter it is stated that he D.C.L. in 1719. took the degree of B.C.L. in 1714, and

Dr. James Dugdale in his British Traveller' (who was LL.D. himself) gives the whole of Young's epitaph in Latin, beginning LL.D." "M. S. Optimi parentes Edwardi Young, J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. [MR. A. R. BAYLEY also thanked for reply.] 66 WANEY simply means diminution.'

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66

TIMBER (10 S. x. 490).—Waney defective," from the sb. wane, When the moon is on the wane, it might have been called wany, though this use is not actually recorded.

book, viz., in the English Dialect DictionThe word is duly explained in the right ary,' vol. vi. p. 377. It is only applied to wood or timber, and expresses a certain kind of deficiency. The given thus:explanation is

boards. "Wane, a natural unevenness of the edges of Hence waney, (1) tapering, irregular, having an imperfect edge, gen. used of wood; (2) of wood; having the grain separated by the violence Six illustrative examples are given, which of the wind, partially unsound."

W. ROBERTS CROW.

:

In the same book (p. 34) is the following: "Gravel lane in Southwork, betn the Upper ground (near the Falcon Stairs) Nly, and Dirty lane by St. George's fields Sly, and from P. C. [St. Paul's Cathedral Sd, 800 Yds."

In Mason and Payne's reprint of a map called A Survey of London, made in the Year 1745,' Bandy Leg Walk extends further south than does the present Guilford Street, i.e., as far as Mint Street.

Is the suggestion too fanciful that Bandy Leg Lane was so called because it and that part of Gravel Lane south of Maid Lane (Maiden Lane in the 1745 map) are shaped like a pair of bandy legs, or that Bandy Leg Lane alone took its name from its bent shape? At their north ends they are about 165 yards apart; at Duke Street (now, I think, Union Street) about 350; and at their south ends they approach each other pretty closely, their curves being about equal.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

Strype's edition of Stow's 'Survey,' vol. ii. p. 28 (6th ed.), under the heading of St. Saviour's, Southwark, describes Maiden

SHOREDITCH FAMILY (10 S. x. 369, 455).— Some useful matter anent this old Middlesex family may be found in vol. i. of the 'Calendar of Husting Wills,' and also in the several volumes of Letter-Books, edited by Dr. Sharpe, and published by the Corporation of London. W. D. PINK.

THE GUARD ALOFT (10 S. x. 487).—It is a pleasure to have the opportunity of supplementing ST. SWITHIN's note concerning the discomforts and hardships suffered by the guards of passenger trains sixty years ago. Those men were originally perched outside a quota of carriages on every train, in order to assist in keeping a look-out, and to apply the hand-brakes if anything went wrong, either on their own responsibility, or on receiving instructions, conveyed by a code