the forms rauky and roky are Norse. German refers is certainly a very different one from The substitutes ch for k; hence German Rauch, Seven Champions. An old English metrical smoke. English often has the sound of long eversion of it (The Seven Sages) forms one of the where German has au, as in beam, belief (Baum, Glaube), &c. With E. reek, as cognate with G. Rauch, compare E. leek, as cognate with Lauch.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

BEN JONSON (6th S. v. 247).-The birth of this "Benjaminus Jonson filius Martini" is a curious coincidence, but no more; that is, that, according to our known data, this child and Ben Jonson the poet were two different beings. These data are, at least three in number. Jonson himself told Drummond, "His father came from Carlisle, and, he thought, from Annandale to it." Secondly, the father was not a lawyer; Jonson continues, His father losed all his estate under Queen Marie, having been cast in prisson and forfaitted; at last turned minister." Thirdly, as Lieut.-Col. Cunningham says, 66 Coming from Annandale, the family name must have been Johnstone"; and certain it is that the first three known spellings of his name are Johnson, and that his first known adoption of the spelling Jonson was in 1604, when it appears in a Latin title-page in the genitive, "B. Jonsonii." I would add further that, considering the date of Anthony Wood and his general accuracy, one sees no reason for doubting his statement that Jonson was born about a month after his father's death, "within the city of Westminster." BR. NICHOLSON.

MR. MOORE says that the date he gives, viz., Aug. 12, 1574, "exactly corresponds with that of the poet's birth as given by his biographers." Gifford, however, says, in The Works of Ben Jonson (1816), vol. i. p. 2, that Jonson was born in the early part of the year 1574. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, says that he "was born in Hartshorn Lane, near Charing Cross, Westminster, June 11, 1574, about a month after the death of his father." Haydn, Hole, and Woodward and Cates all give the same date. Prof. A. W. Ward, in his sketch of Jonson in vol. xiii. of the Encyclopædia Britannica (new edition), says that Jonson " was born about the beginning (N.S.) of the year 1573." The fact of finding the name of a Benjamin Jonson in the Sutterton register is, I think, hardly sufficient to establish a theory that the poet was of a Lincolnshire family in the face of his conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden (Lee, Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden, Shakespeare Society, 1842). The statement to be found in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary as to his birthplace has, however, I believe, not been yet verified. G. F. R. B.

"A HISTORY OF THE SEVEN WISE MASTERS" (6th S. v. 248).-The work to which MR. GOMME

reprints issued for the Percy Society (in vol. xvi.) about forty years ago, edited, with an elaborate introduction, by Thomas Wright, furnishing a very interesting analysis of the several versionsunknown Indian original, entitled The Book of Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, English, &c.-of a now Sendabad. Another old English version (or rather an epitome) of The Seven Wise Masters is found in Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, Bohn's edition. I may also refer your querist to the Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, by Deslongchamps, where a most exhaustive account is given of this remarkable work. And, finally, I may perhaps be permitted to mention that the Bakhtyar-nama (or Story of Prince Bakhtyar and the Ten Viziers), of which I am about to reprint for subscribers Sir William Ouseley's translation, adding an introductory essay and notes, is a Persian work written in imitation of the Sendabad-nāma; there is also a Turkish imitation, The King and the Forty Viziers, part of which was done into English early in the present century from the French version of M. Petis

de La Croix.

233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow.

W. A. CLOUSTON.

A History of the Seven Wise Masters, or the Romance of the Seven Sages, is of great antiquity, translated from the Arabic, and probably of Indian origin. Versions exist in all the languages of the civilized world. In English there are two metrical translations, and also one in the humble form of a chap-book. A version by John Rolland, of Dalkeith, bears the title of "The Seven Seages, translated out of Prois into Scottis Meiter," 1578, 4to.; 1592, 8vo.; 1620, 8vo.; 1631, 8vo. "I think he" (Don Quixote), writes Cervantes, "is one of the Seven Wise Masters. I thought he knew nothing but his knight-errantry, but now I see the devil a thing can escape him; he has an oar in every man's boat, and a finger in every man's pie." WILLIAM PLATT.

Cullis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet.

"THE FIVE-FOOT-HIGHIANS" (6th S. v. 209).This tract is "Against the Antichristian Practice of rising a Standard in Enlisting of Soldiers." My copy, "Dublin, printed; London, reprinted," contains some more racy matter in "The Wounds o' the Kirk of Scotland, in a Sermon, preached in St. Geil's the Great Kirk in Edinbrough, in the year of our Lord, 1638. By James Row, o' Strowan"; with "An Elegy on the late Rev. Mess Alexander Sinkler, Teacher, &c., Dublin;

*See Sibbald's Chron. of Scot. Poetry, iii. 117; Brydges's Restituta, i. 177 (by R. P. Gillies), reprinted from the edition of 1578, and edited by David Laing, Edin., 1837, 4to. (Bannatyne Club).

have the same mode of distinction applied to streets, as in the case of Much Park Street and Little Park Street, the former a main thoroughfare in the neighbourhood of the Great Park, and the latter leading directly into the Little Park. In some of our earlier documents we find Much Park Street described as Great Park Street, clearly showing that the terms are equivalent. The

as also the North Countryman's Description of Christ Church, Dublin." Under the head of Jas. Row, a copy of my fuller edition of this pamphlet appeared in Mr. Maidment's Catalogue, with the note, "This tract, of which I never saw another Copy, contains, among other odd articles, the 'Pock-Manty Sermon, &c,' alluding to Row's Wounds o' the Kirk, a very fit companion for that clerical jest-book, Scotch Presbyterian Elo-earliest plan we have of the town (1610) gives quence Displayed."

J. O.

THE BRITISH OAK (6th S. v. 208).—I suppose that the modern rules of historical correctness forbid the idea that the customs of Druidic worship had anything to do with the introduction of this tree as a national emblem. But was not Arthur's Round Table made of oak, and Edward II.'s cradle? Under the oaks of Dartmoor were held meetings of Britons and Saxons, and Augustine preached under oak trees, and Queen Elizabeth made an oak "honourable" by sitting sub tegmine. In Evelyn's Numismata there is a medal struck by Charles I., representing the oak under a prince's coronet, with the inscription, "Seris nepotibus umbra," a legend which afterwards came to be looked upon as prophetical. E. H. M. "MUCH" AND GREAT" AS APPLIED To VILLAGES (6th S. v. 88).-The following remarks of the Rev. Isaac Taylor on words denoting relative magnitude may possibly prove of interest to your correspondent:

"From the Celtic word mor or mawr, great, we have the names of Benmore, and Penmaen-Mawr, the great mountains; Kilmore, the great church; and Glenmore, the great glen. Much Wenlock, Macclesfield, Maxstoke in Warwickshire, Great Missenden, Grampound, and Granville, contain Teutonic and Romance roots of the same import. Similarly Mississippi is an Indian term of precisely the same meaning as the neighbouring Spanish name Rio Grande, which as well as the Arabic Guadalquiver (keber, great) and the Sarmatian word Wolga, signifies the great river.' Lakes Winnipeg and Winnipegoosis are respectively the great sea and the little sea. From the Celtic beg or bach, little, we have Bally begg and Inis beg, Glydwr Fach, Pont Neath Vechan, and Cwm Bychan. We find several Teutonic Littleburys, Littletons, and Clintons. Majorca and Minorca are the greater and lesser isles. Boca Chica is the great mouth." Words and Places, p. 317.

F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY.

Much Park Street. W. G. FRETTON, F.S.A. 88, Little Park Street, Coventry.

The use of the word much in this way is to be found in two or three other counties besides Herts.

In Herefordshire we find Much Marcle and Little
Marcle, Much Cowarne and Little Cowarne; in
Lancashire Much Woolton, and Little Woolton.
G. F. R. B.

An instance in Lancashire is Much Hoole and
Little Hoole, about seven miles west of Preston.
C. R.

Lytham.

AMMONIUM SULPHIDE A RESTORER OF FADED WRITING (6th S. v. 288).—In reply to MR. MARSH JACKSON and to some correspondents who have written to me privately on the matter, I may say that I cannot give the exact strength of the solution of ammonium sulphide which I use. It is a chemical reagent much employed in laboratories, and can be procured of those chemists who supply chemicals for such institutions. It is of a pale yellow colour, and should be kept well corked, otherwise it loses much of its power by evaporation. I do not think it can be used too strong, for, according to my experience, it is quite harmless so far as the texture of the parchment or paper is concerned. The yellow tinge which it imparts disappears more or less completely in course of time. A weak solution would not in many cases turn the faded ink black enough to be legible. A simple plan for those who search registers much is to carry a small phial of this solution, tightly stoppered, enclosed in a small wooden case with a top that screws on. This enables the solution to be carried in the pocket without risk of the bottle being broken. Most chemists keep these wooden cases.

J. P. EARWAKER.

A RAPID THAW, 1607 (6th S. v. 226).-Your correspondent will find a very interesting account of the frost of 1607 in Arber's English Garner, vol. i. pp. 77-99. Mr. Arber has there reprinted "The Great Frost. Cold doings in London, except In further illustration of the examples quoted it be at the Lottery," a very rare tract, from Mr. by MR. GOSSELIN I may add Much and Little Huth's copy. The following passage, from the Wenlock (Shropshire), Much and Little Dewchurch same, records a rapid thaw, which your corre(Hereford), Much and Little Birch, in the same spondent may not object to have brought before county; in Essex are also two Birches, distin- | him:guished as Great and Little. In Coventry we

"There was one great frost more in England, in our

namely, Hindehlyp (as it was called in Anglo-"nothing now remains of Old Conghurst, except the Saxon times) and Inlip. Knightwick.

One would like to know of the lives of such religious devotees as pass their career by the cool, translucent waves, deep in such recesses, so amazingly like a plunging bath, with tier upon tier of dressing boxes. Was Rebecca's nose-ring a symbol of servitude ? LYSART.

the alms plates were only plated; they bore no
inscription, and I did not examine the hall-mark;
but finding that Mr. Parkin gave 50l., by will in
1759, to be expended in the purchase of church
plate, I had the flagon of that date, with the four
plates, put into the scales, and as they exactly
weighed 136 ounces, it became clear how the 50%.
were applied; and flagon and plates are now duly
inscribed as the gifts of Mr. Parkin.
ALFRED GATTY, D.D.

THE PULTENEY CORRESPONDENCE (6th S. v. 320). If the correspondence of Sir James Murray Pulteney does not extend beyond his time it is difficult to understand how any part of it can relate to the battle of Waterloo. The baronet re- CHILD'S "DISCOURSE OF TRADE" (6th S. v. ferred to was originally a Murray, and attained 309). According to Davenport Adams's Dictionary high rank in the army. In 1794 he married Lady of English Literature, Sir Josiah Child's New Bath, who was the only daughter of Sir W. John-Discourse of Trade was first published in 1668. stone Pulteney, Bart., by his wife, who succeeded. Macaulay says (History of England, chap. xviii.) to the estates of Sir William Pulteney, Earl of that it was published soon after the Revolution; in Bath, on the death of his brother, General Harry Bohn's Guinea Catalogue, 1841, a copy is priced Pulteney, who had inherited the earl's property on two-and-sixpence. WM. H. PEET. his death in the previous year, 1764. Sir W. Johnstone assumed the name of Pulteney, and left one daughter, who was created Baroness Bath in 1792. Her ladyship, as I have said, married General Sir James Murray in 1794; he assumed the name of Pulteney. Lady Bath was created Countess of Bath in 1803, and died in 1808, having survived her husband some years. I do not seek to disparage the collection alluded to at the above reference, but it is clear that either it has been wrongly described, or that it is more than the correspondence of Sir James Murray Pulteney. I may mention that the other series, catalogued "Second Series," related to Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, Bart. I purchased this collection for the Duke of Cleveland at the same sale.

R. E. PEACH.

FONTS OF THE RESTORATION PERIOD (6th S. v. 9, 177, 317). The large stone font in Ecclesfield Church is dated 1662. These figures are cut in strong relief round the bowl. It was turned out of the church in 1825, when the dilapidated Jacobean furniture was replaced by pews of neat but unecclesiastical pattern. I found the font amidst a heap of rubbish in a corner of the churchyard; and in 1852 my old friend Canon Trevor of York was active in getting it restored to the church, after the paint with which it was bedaubed had been removed. The Lord's table here is dated 1624, as we discovered by the initials of five churchwardens carved upon it, who were in office during that year. The table was inconveniently small, and I have had it enlarged to the exact size of the high-altar stone, now sunk into the pavement, and on which the table stands. The measurement is exactly seven feet by three feet. I would add the story of our communion plate, which consists of a paten dated 1675; two flagons, with the dates 1713 and 1759; two chalices, with covers, dated 1663; and four alms plates-all silver. For many years I thought

Child was an eminent merchant and writer on political economy temp. Charles II. A fifth edition, to which is added "A Treatise against Usury" by the same author, issued from the press in 1751, Glasgow, 8vo. (? and 12mo.).

WILLIAM PLATT.

Callis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet. FUNERAL ARMOUR IN CHURCHES (5th S. ix. 429; x. 11, 73, 129, 152, 199, 276, 317; xi. 73, 178, 252, 375, 457; xii. 155; 6th S. i. 446; ii. 218, 477; iv. 38, 256, 314; v. 58, 177, 217).-In Hanwell Church, near Banbury, Oxon, I observed a few years ago three helmets fastened high up on the wall of the chancel. Two of these were surmounted by a crest in the form of a fleur-de-lis, and the third had still the spike on which the crest had formerly been placed. There were also several small broken pieces of armour. I imagine, from the number of memorials of the Cope family in this church, that the helmets must have been used at the funeral of some member of that family.

WALTER J. WESTON.