432
NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s.m. SEPT., m?.
ARMS OF ST. WILFRID (12 S. iii. 250, 310,
"372). The arms assigned to St. Wilfrid,
namely, Az., three estoiles or, are shown
in two or three places in Ripon Minster, in
old work. The three stars are supposed to
have reference to his three great churches
of York, Hexham, and Ripon. J. T. F.
OLD INNS (12 S. iii. 169, 257, 314, 370). The. Field of June 23 last contains an interesting and well-illustrated article on "' Ancient Hostelries,' signed " H. W."
S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN, Walsall.
AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED (12 S. iii. 387). The verses beginning
My dead love came to me, and said, are in Stephen Phillips 's first book of poems, ' Primavera.' F. LANG WORTHY.
These stanzas are one section of a poem by Stephen Phillips. They'are quoted in ' The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse,' but the whole poem will be found in the volume of Phillips's poems con- taining ' Christ in Hades,' &c. C. C. B.
Cheshire Proverbs. By J. C. Bridge. (Chester,
Phillipson & Goldor ; London, Simpkin
Marshall, 7s. Qd. net to subscribers.)
T)R. J. C. BRIDGE has found time outside his musical work to compile an interesting collection of proverbs and proverbial expressions heard in Cheshire. Some are current beyond the limits of the county, and in some cases Cheshire mother-wit has added a tag to familiar sayings, as in " Fine feathers make fine birds, but not tatty-birds." Dr. Bridge has much increased the vnhie of the collection by his notes, which embody consider- able research. ' N. & Q.' has proved a fruitful jnine of information, and is frequently referred to on obscure allusions, such as the Cheshire cat made famous by ' Alice in Wonderland.' We are afraid, however, that the contributor who said in ' N. & Q.' in 1850 that Cheshire cheeses were sometimes shaped like cats must have drawn largely on his imagination. The allusion still remains mysterious, as does that of the proverb "As wyndy [i.e., unreliable] as a whisket." The usual meaning of " whisket " is a flat basket used in a garden, or a fishmonger'^ mat-basket, but neither seems appropriate. In North Shropshire 'the name is given to a wicker strainer used in brewing, and the sense may be lack of holding or staying power.
Another puzzling saying is " all Collywesson " for " awry." It does not seem to have had anything to do with Colly Weston in Northamp- tonshire and its stone roofing slates. That village takes its prefix from Nicolas de Segrave, one of its early lords. The expression is in common use in Shropshire, but can hardly have come from the fact that in 1270 John, son of Nicolas de Segrave, married Christiana, the heiress of Stottes'den, a Shropshire manor which remained with the Segraves till 1353.
Dr. Bridge gives several Welsh allusions to the
men of Chester, not all complimentary, and we
feel that local knowledge of the " Dym Sassenach "
of a Welshman who does not understand English
has taken shape in the equivalent of " None so
deaf as those who won't hear " " It's all Dim
Sarsnick with him ! "
The proverbs conjure up many interesting details of history and folk-lore, for which we must refer readers to the book itself. They will tuus realize the truth of the lines of John Heywood (written in 1562) with which Dr. Bridge prefaces his collection :
Among other things profiting our tongue, Those which much may profit both old and young, Such as on their fruit will feed and take hold, Arc our common, plain, pithy proverbs old.
London County Council: Indication of Houses of Historical Interest in London. Parts XL., XLI., XLII. (P. S. King & Son, Id. each.)
WE always receive with great pleasure the brief notes which record the tablets set up by the L.C.C. to commemorate the residences of dis- tinguished men. They give in concise form the results of careful research, and they show the catholicity of the Council's regard for fame. That body is rightly taking up the duties of the London historian, and its publications are so moderate in price that they ought to be generally appreciated. It publishes monographs besides these records of tablets, and we hope that after the War it will extend its energies in this direction. A hand-list, for instance, of the buildings in London extant from Elizabethan days would be very useful, and with the authority of the Council behind it, it might be regarded as official and beyond doubt.
The Parts before us record tablets put up in 1914. They include the residence of an American, Benjamin Franklin; two ecclesiastics of very different calibre, Manning and Spurgeon ; a novelist, Trollope ; and a poet, Tennyson. Trollopc, when he took a house in Montagu Square, hoped to live and die in it, and here he had great pleasure in arranging his books, which were dearer to him than his horses or his wine. His best novels were written before he settled here, but he continued his old precise habit of writing so much a day. Tennyson we connect chiefly with the Cock as a Londoner, though he did not, we believe, go there often. The place now com- memorated is 225 Hampstead Road, N.W., which was formerly 25 Mornington Place. Here Tennyson lodged, and here he nearly lost the " long, butcher-ledger-like book " which Coventry Patmore found for him, and without which the world might have been deprived of ' In Me- moriam.'
Last, but not least, we notice the record of Robert and James Adam at 4 Adelphi Terrace. To Sir Henry Trueman Wood, so long the Secre- tary of the Royal Society of Arts, the identifica- tion of this house is due, and the tablet em- phasizes a memory which is already preserved in the word " Adelphi " itself. The architect brothers remade the neighbourhood. A brief outline of the story is given from, ' The Adelphi and its Site,' the work of that accomplished anti- quary whose loss all true lovers of London regret, H. B. Wheatlev.
