254
NOTES AND QUERIES, p* s. VIL MABCH 30, 1901.
generation may have settled away from
Highbury. True, she alienated the family
estates in Middlesex, but her bequests were
to the Church, and safe from collateral
claims. Yet Maud Barrow, if of this race,
may by her marriage have strengthened any
claims held by Berners, and the 'Testa de
Nevil ' dates after the death of Dame Alice.
A. H.
ACHILL ISLAND (9 th S. vi. 489 ; vii. 36, 133, 171) I fear MRS. O'HANLON has been im- posed upon. The value of her communication on its linguistic side I will leave to Irish scholars. Her topography is quite astray. There is no ford near Kildavnet Castle, and, it would seem, never could have been, since the sound was formed in some remote geologic period. You can walk across the sound at low-water spring tides, some three or four- miles north ; and, before the (1888) bridge and causeway furnished a roadway, some traffic crossed at low water by a ford about five hundred yards south of the modern crossing, the rest by a ferry just north of the present structure. C. S. WARD.
Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.
WHIFFLERS AND WHIFFLING (4 th S. xii. 284. 354, 397, 416, 525 ; 9 th S. vii. 116). The art of the whiffler-waffler is still known, though I have not seen the practice for a number of years. Whiffling- waffling was common when I was a boy, arid many boys could give very creditable exhibitions of the art. It was always done with a stick, as thick as, but shorter than, an ordinary walking stick. I have seen it done to the beat of a lively jig on the fiddle. Some men were great experts, making the stick twirl in the hands round and about all parts of the body round the head, behind the back, under the thigh, the whiffling-waffling being done as easily with the left as with the right hand. When the exhibition was put of doors the stick was sent whirling high, the performer dancing round a considerable circle before catching it at the right moment of its descent. The display was at times remarkably clever, and was not at all displeasing
THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.
"BULL AND LAST" (9 th S. vii. 128). The symbol of one trade or avocation was often and for varying reasons, adopted in addition to the pre-existing sign of another. This being the case, such combinations as the above present as a rule and the "Bull and Last" is probably no exception little difficulty as to a solution of their origin I
have heard it said that the "Last" alludes
to the fact that it was the last tavern in
Kentish Town before breaking into the open
country of Highgate and Hampstead, but
this is sheer fancy, Compound signs of the
u Bull " are quite common, as the ** Bull and
Bush," the " Bull and Garter," &c. So also
the shoemaker's last lent itself to other com-
binations, as the "Last and Golden Still,"
against the "White Hart "Inn, South wark,
and a " Last and Horseshoe " in St. James's
Street, Haymarket, neither of which is
mentioned in the * History of Signboards.'
The "Blue Last" was a common sign, dis-
tinguishing a " house of call " for the sons of
St. Crispin. Instances still exist in Broad-
way, Ludgate Hill, in Dorset Street, Fleet
Street (?), and in Clerkenwell ; and there was
one (in the middle of the eighteenth century)
in the Tyburn Road. There is a "Golden
Last" two or three doors from the Cord-
wainers' Hall in Cannon Street ; and in the
'Vade Mecum for Maltworms' a "Last" is
described as situated at Old Bedlam, and
another at Islington. The last is not borne
in the Cord wainers' arms, so that its adop-
tion as a sign is probably owing to its being
the most indispensable instrument of the
shoemaker's craft, rather than to the censure
addressed by Apelles to the cobbler, "Ne
sutor ultra crepidam," a proverb which no
doubt a son of St. Crispin resolved to re-
member in some degree when he became
tavern-keeper at the Bull" in Kentish Town,
of which, before it was rebuilt, there is an
engraving in ' Old and New London.'
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
As there is a "Bull and Gate" in the Kentish Town Road, I imagine the sign of the more northern house was merely adopted to show that this was the final inn along the road for some distance. The original " Bull and Last " must have been considerably older than the "Duke of St. Albans " at the corner of Swain's Lane. Thus there was probably no beerhouse before reaching the now ex- tinct "Fox and Crown" upon West Hill. The board which chronicled the brave and timely act of the landlord there in stopping the too rapid descent of our- late Queen's carriage at that dangerous spot, and thereby no doubt preventing an accident, is, I think, now preserved at the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution. CECIL CLARKE.
Try Boulogne l'Est = Boulogne -sur- Seine, in contradistinction to Boulogne-sur-Mer, at the estuary of the Somme (Boulogne 1'Ouest). Cf. "Bull and Bush" (at Hampstead)=:Bou- logne Bouche; also "Bull and Mouth"
