for independent verification on my part. 158, Noel Street, Nottingham. MAJOR HAMILL OF CAPRI (10 S. vii. 27). This gallant Irishman was wounded at the battle of Maida, in Calabria, 4 July, 1806, in which the French under General Regnier were defeated by the British under MajorGeneral Sir John Stuart. Major Hamill's "judicious conduct" in the field on a later occasion is noted by Lieut.-Col. Alexander Bryce, R.E., in a dispatch dated 8 Sept., 1808. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. G," HARD OR SOFT (10 S. vi. 129, 190, 236). I lately found that in the family name Gifford the G was hard in Ullenhall, near Henley-in-Arden, Warwick, while it is soft, I believe, in Bishopswood, near Brewood, Staffs. T. NICKLIN. · SPLITTING FIELDS OF ICE (10 S. iv. 325, 395, 454, 513; v. 31, 77). The following passage is from Sven Hedin's Through Asia,' 1898, vol. i. p. 160. It refers to Lake Kara-kul in the Pamirs, a saline sheet of water, with an area of 120 to 150 square miles : under which a deep, mysterious booming -as it were the reverberating knell of a thousand-ton gun-is heard now and again." In England, on the tidal Trent, the ice, fractured as it is forming by the up-rush of water from the Humber twice a day, finally freezes into a very rough surface, like a lot of stone slabs chucked together any way.' An old man bred up not far from the river informs me that he has more than once heard the thundering of the ice at East Butterwick when the thaw began after a severe blast." 66 M. P. Letters recently published in The Morning Post afford information illustrative of the words of Lowell and Wordsworth which were the subject of comment at the references given above. In a letter printed in the issue of The Morning Post for 3 January inquiry was made whether the writer of an article on the delights of a Canadian winter, which had appeared in a previous issue, could explain the "deep, mysterious booming "described as being "heard now and again" coming from the frozen waterways. the following replies, the first of which is The Morning Post of 7 January contained from the pen of the writer of the article which gave occasion for the inquiry :— SIR, The tremendous sound to which reference was made in Winter Joyance' has never yet, so far as I know, been scientifically explained. I have heard it many times not only on large ice-bound "We rode across the ice about three miles due lakes in Canada, but also in England-e.g., when west from the island, then stopped and set about skating at night in the early eighties on Hollingsounding the depth of the western basin. The worth Lake, a big reservoir near Rochdale, in normal tension of the ice was of course the same in Lancashire, and on that occasion the noise was every quarter. Our riding over it naturally dis- somewhat terrifying to the mind of a boy without turbed the equilibrium, by increasing the downward previous experience of such portents. In no single pressure. As we moved along, every step the instance was a thaw imminent; indeed, more often horses took was accompanied by peculiar sounds. than not the frost was tightening its grip on the One moment there was a growling like the deep snap" is sometimes marked by this booming; the waters. In Canada the beginning of a "cold bass notes of an organ, the next it was as though alteration in the volume of the covering of ice may somebody were thumping a big drum in the flat below,' then came a crash as though a railway-miles long), and this "ice-quake" has its thunder. cause the formation of a great crack (which may be carriage door were being banged to; then as though a big round stone had been flung into the lake. These sounds were accompanied by alternate whistlings and whinings; whilst every now and again we seemed to hear far off submarine explosions. At every loud report the horses twitched their ears and started, whilst the men glanced at one another with superstitious terror in their faces. The Sarts believed that the sounds were caused by 'big fishes knocking their heads against the ice.' But the more intelligent Kirghiz instructed them that there were no fish in Kara-Kul. Then when I asked them what was the cause of the strange sounds we heard under the ice, and what was going on there, they answered, with true Oriental phlegm, Khoda Villadi' ('God alone knows!)." In The Morning Post, 31 Dec., 1906, an article on Winter Joyance' speaks of the "wide frozen waterways" of Canada, At other times, it may be, harmonic vibrations are set up by a rapid change in temperature and the sound is produced-just as in the case of a sheet of iron when shaken. The theory of escaping gases is certainly not a good working hypothesis on which Canada has other weird noises not easily explained: to base an explanation. The winter of Western for example, the "noise of a going in the sky" (to translate a Cree term), which is mentioned, by the way, in Lorna Doone,' and certainly does suggest the passing by of a company of ululating demons. hope "Devon Prior" will succeed in obtaining a full and complete scientific explanation.-Yours, &c., I Jan. 5. E. B. OSBORN. SIR,-In reply to a letter signed "Devon Prior," I write to say that when I was a girl and lived with my father in Canada he went every Sunday afternoon from Three Rivers across the St. Lawrence River for a service at a place called Nicolay, and I accompanied him in a canoe in summer and a sleigh R. S. M. 15 May, 1743, and was at the time of his The Rauthmell family was settled at THE OLD HIGHLANDER (10 S. vii. 47, These letters are, I think, worthy of tinguished Scots as Lord Chief Justice Sir reproduction in N. & Q.' F. JARRATT. "MITIS T. O. H. 'THE TIMES,' 1962 (10 S. i. 470).-There was an earlier squib of a similar kind, viz., in 1850, The Times Newspaper, as it may be in 1950,' printed by John Such, of No. 1, (10 S. vii. 68).-DR. BRADLEY Norman Terrace, Wandsworth Road, in the is quite right in supposing that mitis-green no etymological parish of Clapham, and published by him and mitis-casting have at his office, 29, Budge Row, Watling Street; connexion. The former is from Mitis, the sold by Newman & Co., 48, Watling Street, name of the Vienna manufacturer who disLondon. It covered four pages, and the covered it in 1814. The latter according price was 6d. The Parliamentary intelli- to Brockhaus, Konversations - Lexikon," gence includes reports from the House of Jubilee edition-is from Latin mitis, "soft," Peeresses and the House of Ladies. The no doubt on account of the fluidity which Court of Queen's Bench appears under that this process gives to the molten metal. name; but judge, counsel, and jury are clockwork automata. Some fun is made at the expense of old Henry Widdicombe. RICHARD H. THORNTON. DUKE OF KENT'S CHILDREN (10 S. vii. The father of Constance Kent (Road 6 JAS. PLATT, Jun. 66 the MOKE," A DONKEY (10 S. vii. 68).I remember an epic poem published in 1844 called Duck-legged Dick had a Donkey,' in which the term in question appears several times; author unknown; publisher, J. Catnach, Monmouth Street, Seven Dials. Though not so long as Homer's Iliad,' it is too long for the columns of N. & Q.' moke was sent to the greenyard" during the One verse recorded the fact that period of its master's imprisonment for disorderly conduct, and died for want of the The owner afterwards necessaries of life. 17 bob and a kick" (17s. 6d.); but through bought A new moke and a hamper for deficiency of vision and means of locomotion was as quiet as the one that was dead." Cum multis aliis. WALTER SCARGILL. 66 "the new moke " declined taking the evidence of the donkey." This fixes the use of the word ten years earlier than 1851. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. "MULATTO" (10 S. vii. 68).—If this word is not a corrupt metathesis of muwállad, or a mot savant from mulatus, can it be that the termination is the Baskish diminutive to, tto, cho, tcho, added to mula? The Basks have been so fond of taking Romance words into their vocabulary, and have had so much influence in the Spanish colonies, that such an origin does not seem impossible, though their own word for mule is mando. A half-caste may be said to be "adopted" into one of two races. E. S. DODGSON. Oxford. ROYAL KEPIER SCHOOL, HOUGHTON-LESPRING (10 S. vii. 68).—In a list of eminent scholars who were educated at Kepier School, given in Nicholas Carlisle's 'Grammar Schools in England and Wales,' are the names of Christopher Hunter, the distinguished physician, concerning whom see Surtees's Durham' and Nichols's Literary Anecdotes'; and William Romaine, the eminent divine and writer (see Rose's 'Biog. Dict.'). J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. "WROTH" (10 S. vii. 67). The note showing that Shakespeare and others used wroth as a substantive, and that wrath has been used as an adjective, is useful and much to the point. But it is, as usual, a question of chronology and dialect. Before 1500, I can find no such examples in the Midland dialect. On the contrary, the A.-S. wrath, adj., became, regularly, the M.E. wrooth or wroth, as used by Chaucer at least twenty times (I give the references in my Glossary). But the A.-S. wraththe, sb., with longa, became the M.E. wraththe, wratthe, wrathe, as in Chaucer, at least seven times; and was accompanied by the verb wratthen or wrathen, to be angry, used by Chaucer at least five times. But, as time went on, confusion set in; and that is why Shakespeare and Butler use the sb. in a form which, in Chaucer's time and dialect, would have been inadmissible. It is perhaps worth mention that in Barbour the adj. is wrath, and the sb. is wreth; as also in Hampole's Psalter, which is likewise in the Northern dialect. WALTER W. SKEAT. ADMIRAL BENBOW'S DEATH (10 S. vii. 7, 55). The recent disastrous earthquake in Jamaica reminds me that it may not be out of place to record under this heading the inscription to the memory of Admiral Benbow which was placed over his gravein the church of St. Andrew, Kingston, Jamaica. I copied it recently as follows from The Leisure Hour of 17 Jan., 1863 : Here lyeth Interred the body : Besides the above inscription the slab contains the crest and coat of arms of Admiral Benbow; but of these I have no record. JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire. VINING FAMILY (10 S. vii. 28).—William and Henry Vining were brothers of Frederick and James Vining. Fanny Vining married Charles Gill (manager of the Lynn, Ipswich, and other theatres). who was very much her senior. On one occasion she acted at Windsor Castle under her married name. She went to America in the fifties, and continued there. Gill died in this country WM. DOUGLAS. in 1869. 125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill. BISHOP ISLAND, SOUTH PACIFIC (10 S. vii. 69).-There is no island so named in the Macquarie group. The rocks south of Macquarie Island (discovered 1811) are the If MR. MICHELL will consult the older charts Bishop and Clerk and the Judge and Clerk. of the Central Pacific, he will find in the Capt. Charles Bishop, of the brig Nautilus, Kingsmill group an island named after who discovered this chain in 1799. The island subsequently received the names of Blaney and Sydenham; its native name is Nanouti. There is also a Bishop's Rock in the Bonin group, N.W. Pacific, discovered by Capt. Bishop in 1796. 66 Streatham. E. A. PETHERICK. WYBERTON, LINCS (10 S. vii. 69).-There is a valuable description of this church, with illustrations of the exterior and of the ' handsome octagonal font," in An Account of the Churches in the Division of Holland in the County of Lincoln,' with sixty-nine illustrations, Boston, 1843. The name was also spelt Wibertune; see Lincs N. & Q., vol. vii. (Jan., 1902-Oct., 1903), p. 106. Wyberton church bells are somewhat famous 76 in that part of the county. The custom 1861) of Islington Wells; or, the Three- In the first volume of The Antiquary, April, 1880, p. 183, it is noted that some interesting archæological discoveries have been recently made at the church of Leodegar, in Wyberton, Lincolnshire, during the work of clearing preparatory to the restoration of the fabric, which is about to be carried out under the superintendence of Mr. G. Gilbert Scott, F.S.A." Leodegarius (St. Leger), Bishop of Autun, and martyr, was killed by Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace, in 678. His martyrdom is still commemorated in St. Leger's Wood, the scene of his death. See further Smith's Christian Antiquities.' J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. There is a short notice of St. Leodegar's, Wyberton, in Reports and Papers Reports and Papers' of Associated Architectural Societies, vol. x. p. 191. It was among the churches which the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society visited from Boston in 1870. Murray has also an interesting paragraph concerning it in the Handbook for Lincolnshire,' p. 122. ST. SWITIHN. LITTLETON'S HISTORY OF ISLINGTON' (10 S. vii. 70).-MR. E. E. NEWTON, in his interesting query about this fragmentary publication, refers to the little book by Samuel Lewis, jun., Islington as It Was and as It Is,' published by John Henry Jackson (an old friend of my family's) at 21, Paternoster Row, and Islington Green, in 1854. It may be useful to add that another writer, bearing the same patronymic as the author in question (one Thomas Lewis), wrote A Retrospect of the Moral and Religious State of Islington during the last Forty Years,' published by Ward & Co., 27, Paternoster Row, and K. J. Ford, Islington, in 1842. The earliest reference to Islington I have met with is a broadside published in 1684, named A Morning Ramble; or, Islington Wells Burlesqt,' printed in London by George Crown for an anonymous author. Fair Park, Exeter. ADAMS'S MUSEUM, KINGSLAND ROAD (10 S. vi. 306). In my note I was only able to "collection suggest that a catalogue of this of curiosities and rarities had been published, but it is now possible to be more definite, as there was a copy in George Daniel's library. In Sotheby's catalogue of the sale (July, 1864) of that remarkable collection it occurs in lot 296 :: "Catalogue of the Rarities to be seen at Adams's at the Royal Swan in the Kingsland Road, very scarce, 1756. Catalogue of Rarities to be seen at Don Saltero's Coffee-House in Chelsea, n.d. Calf extra, g. e., in one vol. 8vo." The volume was bought by Boone for 10s. 6d. It would provide interesting reading if it were possible to trace its present whereabouts. That the original and the parody should be bound together was essential. Robins's sale catalogue of the "Classic Contents of Strawberry Hill' should be accompanied by a copy of Croker's The Great Sale at Goosebery Hall with Puffatory Remarks.' ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. ROWE'S SHAKESPEARE' (10 S. vii. 69).— At first sight it is not, one is inclined to think, very probable that the only plays to be illustrated should be the six doubtful ones. That of itself, though not conclusive, lends some weight to the conjecture that MR. TUDOR'S copy is imperfect. A reference to Mr. Sidney Lee's biography of Shakespeare and Lowndes's Bibliographical Manual' does not throw much light on the subject, as in the former work there is no mention of there being any illustrations to Rowe's edition, and the latter merely states that it is "the first small edition and the first with plates." In his edition of Charles Lamb's works Mr. Lucas gives a reproduction of one of the plates from Rowe's Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida '), to which Lamb alludes in his Elian essay 'My First Play.' Mr. Lucas, however, gives no indication as to the edition of the plays from which it was taken. Amongst rare little books upon Islington More conclusive evidence is perhaps to be I possess a reprint (by J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S., | found in a catalogue issued by Messrs. John It is apparent that MR. TUDOR's set of the 1709 edition is very imperfect. The fact of a book showing no trace of the removal of leaves is a somewhat untrustworthy test of its completeness. It is very easy to remove plates or pages when rebinding, and occasionally books are actually imperfect when they first leave the publishers. The edition in question to be entire should exhibit a frontispiece portrait and a full-page Perfect sets can plate before every play. be consulted at the British Museum and at the Bodleian. Birmingham and Cambridge WM. JAGGARD. also possess sets. talent and had come to see him act......It was shortly after Dickens had first seen him at Walworth that Mr. Toole took a holiday in Dublin, where Charles Dillon, the manager of the Queen's Theatre, persuaded him to act Simmons in The Spital fields Weaver. What correspondence had passed between Toole and Dillon before the choice of Dublin as a holiday-resort we are not told. At any rate, Mr. Toole's success was immediate, and from that moment he became a professional actor." After a few lines about his doings in Ireland and Scotland, The Times says: "In 1854 he made his first professional appearance in London, at the St. James's Theatre, then under the management of Mrs. Seymour.” 6 The Dramatic Peerage,' by Erskine Reid and Herbert Compton, 1892, says (p. 218) "made his appearance at the that Toole old Theatre at Ipswich....1852.” ROBERT PIERPOINT. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Society in the Country House. By T. H. S. Escott.. (Fisher Unwin.) THIS is just the book to afford delight to the readers of N. & Q.,' for Mr. Escott has in its pages J. L. TOOLE (10 S. vi. 469).—Possibly the condensed the social experience and observations following may be of some use :— "It was at the Haymarket Theatre on the 22nd of July, 1852, or rather on the 23rd of that month, that he [Toole] made his first essay as an actor, the occasion being the benefit of the stage-manager Mr. Frederick Webster......an evening's entertainment of extraordinary length......The Merchant of Venice' in four acts; then a concert; and next the comedy, in three acts, of Mind Your Own Business,' with the entire strength of the Haymarket Company; followed by Keeley worried by Buckstone'; and at nearer one o'clock than twelve, Toole, as Simmons, in The Spitalfields Weaver,' must have made his first acquaintance with the Representative London stage as a regular actor.' Actors,' by W. Clark Russell, 1888, p. 423. Mr. Russell gives the above from It is not not named. correspondent," clear whether the correspondent speaks of Toole's first appearance as a regular actor at any theatre or at a London theatre. If the MS. note quoted by MR. BULLOCH and the account given above are both true, it is curious that Toole's first appearance of all and his first London appearance as a professional actor should have both been benefit" nights. on 66 а In the obituary notice in The Times of 31 July, 1906, is the following: : "Mr. Toole, at the age of 20, appeared for one night at the Ipswich theatre, and joined a dramatic club at the Walworth Institute. It was there that he made the acquaintance of his firm friend and admirer, Charles Dickens, who had heard of his Mr. Escott maintains of a lifetime as well as the literary work of several cure. In treating on 'The Fashionable South Downs' Mr. Escott shows how prolific Stanmer has been in its social offspring: Brighton and the Pavilion were both its children. From these descended Bayham Abbey, Lamberhurst, and West Dean. It was on Sunday, the 7th of September, 1783, that the |