Chapter C: N. S

_Rhymes on Places_ (Vol. v., p. 404.).--The places mentioned in the following lines are all within about four miles of each other in the county of Gloucester, and twenty years ago the adjectives exactly described the condition of the people; but the great civiliser, the steam-engine, has now taken away the force of the description; and although the first and third lines may be as true as ever, the second and fourth are not:--

"Beggarly Bisley,
Strutting Stroud,
Hampton poor,
And Painswick proud."

W. H. BAXTER.

_Old Scots March, &c._ (Vol. v., pp. 280. 331.).--I have to thank both MR. CROSSLEY and DR. RIMBAULT for their information regarding the _Ports_, of which I have willingly availed myself by consulting the various works to which they refer; and I have been fortunate enough to see a _translation_ of the greater portion of the Straloch lute-book. Hitherto, however, I have failed in my endeavours to discover two of the _ports_ mentioned by MR. TYTLER namely, Port _Gordon_ and Port _Seton_, both of which I am anxious to obtain.

E. N.

_Ecclesiastical Geography_ (Vol. v., p. 276.).--Allow me to add to the list of books on this subject, _Atlas sacer sive ecclesiasticus_, Wiltsch, published at Gotha in 1843.

W. S.

"_Please the Pigs_" (Vol. v., p. 13.).--I am inclined to think that this phrase has more to do with the animate than the inanimate. It is a common saying in Devonshire "please the _pixies_," or _fairies_, and this reference is much more likely; as our ancestors were most particular in their superstitious attentions to the requirements of this most mischievous fraternity.

C. R.

_The Word Shunt_ (Vol. v., p. 352.) is quite common in the North of England; in Lancashire it is perhaps especially so. It signifies to shift, to move, to give way: as, speaking of a thing, a wall or foundation, which has moved from its position, we should say, "it has shunted;" or of a thing which requires moving, "Shunt it a little that way," "Shunt it at the other end." _Shunt_, to move, to slip, to give way; _shuntu_, they move; _shuntut_, they moved.--See Bamford's _Lancashire Dialect_: Smith, Soho Square.

The word _grin_, in the same county, signifies a noose to catch hares or other game, as well as the act of grinning with the teeth. The word _gin_ is seldom used, except to express a horse gin-wheel, or the _blue-ruin_ of the Pandemoniums.

P. D.

_Plato's Lines in "Antho. Palat."_ (Vol. v., p. 317.).--

"Star of my soul! thine ardent eyes are bent
On the bright orbs that gem the firmament:
Would that I were the heaven, that I might be
All full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee."

"You look upon the stars, my star! would I might be
Yon heaven, to look with many eyes on thee."

V.

_Abigail_ (Vol. iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94.).--As your correspondents have not thrown much light upon this subject, I will here mention that the use of this name in the sense alluded to has probably originated from a "waiting gentlewoman" who figures in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of _The Scornful Lady_. As this play appears from Pepys's _Diary_ to have been a great favourite after the Restoration, it was then most probably that the term came into use.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Nuremberg Token, or Counter_ (Vol. v., pp. 201. 260.).--G. H. K. appears to consider the object of H. C. K.'s Query a tradesman's token. This is by no means the case. It is a jetton, or counter, such as was formerly much in use for casting accounts, on a principle very similar to that of the abacus. They are found in vast numbers in England, but were principally manufactured at Nuremberg, where a large trade in them must have been carried on. The greatest manufacturers of the "Rechenpfennige" were the members of the families of Schultz, Laufer, and Krauwinckel. Of the three Krauwinckels, the productions of Hans are most numerous. Many of them have legends of a moral or religious character, as "Gottes Segen macht reich," God's blessing maketh rich; "Gott allein die Ehre sey," To God alone be the glory; "Heut rodt, Morgen todt," To-day _red_, to-morrow dead, &c. The date 1601 occurs on several of those of Hans K., with mythological devices.--See Snelling's _Treatise on Jettons, or Counters_.

J. E.

The legend on the counter described signifies

"John Kravwinckel in Nuremberg."
Rx "God's kingdom remains always."

I know not the signification of the solitary E. Snelling (_Treatise on Abbey Pieces, &c._) has engraved and described many of these counters, and to him I must refer H. C. K. Hans means John, and has no reference to the Hanseatic League.

W. H. S.

Edinburgh.

_Meaning of Lode_ (Vol. v., p. 345.).--_Lode_ and _load_, in Cornwall, is the name given to the vein that _leads_ in the mine; or, the _leading_ vein. The word _lode_ is also in common use in Cambridgeshire, having similar reference to the watercourses by which the fens are drained.

_Lodestar._ The pole-star; the _leading_ star, by which mariners are guided. The magnet is _load-stone_, that is, leading, or guiding stone. (Nares' _Glossary_.)

"O, happy fair!
Your eyes are _lode_-stars----."

_Midsummer Night's Dream._

WM. YARRELL.

Rider Street.

_Lode_ (Vol. v., p. 345.).--Lode seems to have been anciently used as signifying merely a ditch to carry off water. (See "Inquisition, 21 Henry VIII." in Wells's _Hist. of Bedford Level_, vol. ii. pp. 8-17.) Lode means to carry. (_Promptorium Parvulorum_, ed. Way, p. 310.) The term _lode_ is now used to signify a navigable ditch. In Cambridgeshire we have Soham Lode, Burwell Lode, Reach Lode, Swaffham Lode, and Bottisham Lode.