404 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. VII. May 14. '69. 



Oxford Ale-wives (2°"^ S. vii. 275. 343.) — In 

 addition to the particulars mentioned by Dr. 

 DoRAN, concerning " Mother George," other par- 

 ticulars are mentioned by Dr. Bliss in his note to 

 the Life of Anthony d Wood. As I had referred 

 the reader to this note, and was unable to add to 

 it any new item of intelligence, I purposely for- 

 bore giving any account of Mother Louse's " more 

 celebrated" contemporary. Dr. Bliss records 

 Mother George's birth and parentage, — her mar- 

 riage, and fifteen children, — the philosopher 

 Locke's visit to her when she was 108 years old, — 

 her death, — her portraits, &c. Cuthbbet Bede. 



Mother (2°^ S. vii. 343.)— It seems that in the 

 reign of King James I. the term " Mother " was 

 prefixed to the surname of old women seriously, 

 and without any intention of either ridicule or 

 reproach. John Smyth, Esq., M. P. for Midhurst 

 in that reign, in his MS. " Lives of the Berkeley 

 Family " (now in the Heralds' College), seriously 

 mentions " Mother Breton," " Mother Parnell," 

 and " Mother Peter," who are evidently old cot- 

 tagers. The passage is cited by the Rev. T. D. 

 Fosbroke in his Abstracts and Extracts of those 

 lives, p. 157. Hence the favourites of our child- 

 hood, — Mother Goose, Mother Shipton, and 

 Mother Hubbard. Does this give us a clue to 

 the date of these supposed old ladies ? 



F. A. Carrington. 



Ogboume St. George, Wilts. 



Abbreviated Names of English Counties and 

 Towns (2"i S. vii. 257.) —What E. H. D. D. terms 

 the " By-names of Counties," are more properly 

 their abbreviated names, taken from their forms 

 in legal documents, which were written in Latin. 

 This is evident in the examples Oxon and Salop, 

 and from this view the final s in Beds, Berks, 

 &c., may certainly be taken as signifying shira. 

 The Latin names of some towns are analogous : as 

 Sarum for Salisbury, and Barum for Barnstaple ; 

 where the um seems to be nothing more than an 

 unscholarly misreading by half-informed lawyers 

 of the contracted form representing Sarisburice in 

 the former case, and of some word not less prolix 

 in the latter, but which I am not prepared to give 

 in extenso. The bishops of English sees have been 

 accustomed to sign in abbreviated Latin, and I 

 believe in some cases continue to do so : though 

 in what proportion it will be for some autograph- 

 collector to saj. The bishops of Durham have 

 been used to sign in Latin and in French, alter- 

 nately, as each succeeded to the see : thus, if the 

 last bishop signed Dunelm^ the living incumbent 

 of the see would sign Duresm, and the next again 

 Dunelm. I speak from what I have long under- 

 stood to have been the practice ; and, if I am not 

 precisely accurate in my statement, I beg to be 

 corrected. I may add an amusing anecdote 

 with regard to Bishop Buckner, which. I know 



from the information of one who was privy 

 to the circumstance was an actual occurrence. 

 The worthy promoter of one of our London chari- 

 ties was desirous to induce that eminent prelate 

 to preach a sermon on its behalf: and wrote to 

 solicit the favour. At the next meeting of the 

 committee of the charity, he told his friends that 

 he had written with his best pen to the bishop, 

 who had not condescended to answer him ; but, 

 as it happened, he had just received a letter from 

 a gentleman named Cicest, volunteering to give 

 them a sermon, and he should be half inclined to 

 accept the offer, if he could but make out who 

 Mr. Cicest was ! John Gough Nichols. 



Brest-summer, or Bressommer (2°* S. vii. 89.) — 

 The derivation of this word has been a great puz- 

 zle to the philologists. Every inquiry was made 

 when the article was prepared for the Dictionary 

 of the Architectural Publication Society. No one 

 seems to have thought of the word brace : and 

 your correspondent D. is probably right as to this 

 half of the expression ; but is it not brace-sommer f 

 This word (derived from the French sommier) 

 signifies the main timbers of a floor. These in 

 effect are braced together by the bressummer, and 

 the floor thereby supported. The wall is also 

 supported by it, but scarcely can be said to be 

 braced together ; while the timbers, which are 

 framed into this beam, may be strictly said to be 

 so. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Richard Tuke (2"^ S. vii. 279.)— Although I am 

 unable to speak with certainty, I believe that 

 Richard Tuke, respecting whom Mr. Inglis in- 

 quires, was a descendant of John Tooke (fl. 1418 

 — 61) of the manor of Bere, parish of West 

 Cliffe, Kent. From him descended Ralf ; William 

 (married in 1502, and the purchaser of the manor 

 of Pope, Herts) ; Walter ; George (who in 1625 

 was captain of a band of volunteers against Cadiz, 

 and who married Ann, daughter of Thomas Tooke 

 of Bere) ; John ; and, in the sixth generation, 

 Richard, who may be the author in question. If 

 Mr. Inglis has not consulted Nichols's Literary 

 Anecdotes, and the Poetical Miscellanies, 1712, &c., 

 he may find in these repositories the information 

 he requires. 



I should be glad if any of your readers could 

 inform me what, if any, connection exists between 

 the Kent and Essex families of the Tookes or 

 Tukes, and those of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, 

 and Yorkshire. Were Sir Samuel Tuke, of Cres- 

 sing Temple, Essex, and his namesake, the author 

 of the well-known work on the York Retreat, 

 originally of the same family? A Ralf Tuke pur- 

 chased his freedom of the city of York in 1612. 

 Was he related to Ralf Tooke or Tuke who was 

 grand-uncle of the Richard Tuke respecting 

 whom the present inquiry is made ? The last- 



