Chapter C: Forbes

Temple.

At the conclusion of the preface to the thick 8vo. edition of the _Elegant Extracts, Verse_, published by C. Dilly, 1796, you will find these words:--

"I will conclude my preface with the _ideas of Montaigne_. 'I have
here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought
nothing of my own but the thread that ties them.'"

R. S. S.

56. Fenchurch Street.

_Table Book_ (Vol. i., p. 215.).--See _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. xxi., Antiq. pp. 3-15, and some specimens in the museum of the Academy. (_Proceedings_, vol. iii. p. 74.)

R. H.

_Briwingable_ (Vol. iv., p. 22.).--I cannot find this word in any authority to which I have access. I derive it from Sax. {briþan}, to brew, and {Eafel}, a tax; and think it the same as _tolsester_, a duty payable to the lord of the manor by ale-brewers, mentioned in Charta 55 Hen. III.: "Tolsester cerevisie, hec est pro quolibet braccino per annum unam lagenam cerevisie."

F. J.

_Simnels_ (Vol. iii., pp. 390. 506.).--T. very sensibly suggests that Lambert _Simnel_ is a nickname derived from a kind of cake still common in the north of England, and eaten in Lent. I have never met with _Simnel_ as a surname, and have actually been told, as a child, that the Simnels were called after Lambert; which is so far worthy of note as that it connects the two together in tradition, though, no doubt, as T. suggests, it is Lambert who was called after the Simnels. As a child I took the liberty to infer, in consequence, that Parkins (gingerbread of oatmeal instead of flour, and also common in the north of England) were called after Perkin Warbeck. I am aware of the superior claim of Peterkin now; but the coincidence may perhaps amuse your correspondents.

[Dagger symbol]

_A Ship's Berth_ (Vol. iv., p. 83.).--I would suggest to your correspondents S. S. S. (2) another derivation for our word _berth_.

The present French _berceau_, a cradle, was in the Norman age written _ber[gh]_, as appears in a MSS. _Life of St. Nicholas_ in the Bodleian Library. This Life has been printed at Bonn by Dr. Nicolaus Delius, 1850; but in the print the character [gh] has been represented by the ordinary z. This is a pity, because, as all know who are familiar with our MSS. of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this figure [gh] took not unfrequently the place of ð (th); and on this account it is a character which ought to be scrupulously preserved in editing. _Ber[gh]_ then was probably pronounced _berth_, or possibly with a little more of the sibilant than is now found in the latter. How easily the _sibilant_ and the _th_ run into one another may be seen by the third person singular of our present Indicative:

saith says.
doth does.
hopeth hopes.

J. E.

Oxford, August 2. 1851.

_Suicides buried in Cross-roads_ (Vol. iv., p. 116.).--P. M. M. makes inquiry respecting a practice formerly observed of _burying murderers in cross-roads_. I have often heard that _suicides_ were formerly interred in such places, and that a stake used to be driven through the body. I know of two places in the neighbourhood of _Boston_ in Lincolnshire, where such burials are stated to have taken place. One of these is about a mile and a half south of Boston, on what is called the _low_ road to Freiston; a very ancient _hawthorn tree_ marks the spot, and the tree itself is said to have sprung from the stake which was driven through the body of the self-murderer. The tradition was told me sixty years since, and the interment was _then_ said to have occurred _a hundred years ago_; the suicide's name was at that time traditionally remembered, and was told to me, but I cannot recall it. The tree exhibits marks of great age, and is preserved with care; it still bears "may," as the flower of the whitethorn is called, and _haws_ in their season.

The second grave (as it is reported) of this kind is on the high road from Boston to Wainfleet, at the intersection of a road leading to Butterwick, at a place called _Spittal Hill_; near the site of the ancient hospital or infirmary, which was attached to the Priory of St. James at Freiston. This spot is famous in the traditions of the neighbourhood as the scene of the appearance of a sprite or hobgoblin, called the "_Spittal Hill_ TUT;" which takes, in the language of the district, the shape of a SHAG _foal_, and is said to be connected with the history of the suicide buried there.

TUT is a very general term applied in Lincolnshire to any fancied supernatural appearance. Children are frightened by being told of _Tom Tut_; and persons in a state of panic, or unreasonable trepidation, are said to be _Tut-gotten_.

P. T.

Stoke Newington, Aug. 30.

_A Sword-blade Note_ (Vol. iv., p. 176.).--The sword-blade note, to which R. J. refers, was doubtless a note of the Sword-blade Company, which was intimately connected with the South Sea Company. In the narrative respecting the latter company, given in _The Historical Register_ for 1720, is an account of a conference between the South Sea Directors and those of the Bank of England: therein is the following passage:

"And when it was urg'd that the _Sword Blade_ Company should come
into the Treaty; _By no means_, reply'd _Sir Gilbert_ [Heathcote];
_for if the_ South Sea _Company be wedded to the Bank, he ought
not to be allow'd to keep a Mistress_. The Event show'd that the
Bank acted with their usual Prudence, in not admitting the _Sword
Blade_ Company into a Partnership."--_Historical Register_ for
1720, p. 368.

At p. 377. of the same work it is stated, that on the 24th of September the Sword-blade Company, "who hitherto had been the chief cash keepers to the South Sea Company," stopped payment, "being almost drain'd of their ready money."

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to elucidate the rise, transactions, and "winding up" of the Sword-blade Company.