2^ S. No 64., Mab. 21, '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



239 



pearance of Mrs. Coleman as lanthe in 1656, must 

 have been very nearly, if not quite, the commence- 

 ment of the practice. In the *' Dialogue " pre- 

 fixed to Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, it is 

 said, " About the same tim© that scenes were in- 

 troduced upon the stage at London, women were 

 taught to act their own parts." Custom even ran 

 into the other extreme ; since in Killigrew's play 

 of The ParsorCs Wedding, printed in 1663, '■'■all 

 the parts were originally represented by women." 

 Pepys, speaking of this play, says, — 



" Luellia tells me what an obscene play this Parson's 

 Wedding is, and that it is acted by nothing but women at 

 the King's House." — Diary, vol. i. p. 314. 



This shows that the morality of the stage was not 

 materially improved by the introduction of females 

 on the stage. JPishey Thompson. 



Stoke Newington. 



Double Christian Names (2"'^ S. iii. 99.) — It 

 is a very common custom amongst the Greeks of 

 the present day to give their children double 

 Christian names, and even to give identically the 

 same names to two children of the same family ; 

 it is a source of great annoyance to strangers to 

 find two brothers or two sisters having the same 

 double Christian names, W. B. C. 



Meaning of ''In" (2"'^ S. iii. 169.) — T. S. will 

 observe that the prefix common to the geogra- 

 phical names he mentions is not In, but Inver. It 

 is frequent in the Highlands, particularly in the 

 county of Inverness, as applied to places at, or 

 near to, the moidh of a river ; which is, I believe, 

 the meaning of it : e. g., Inverness, Invergarry, 

 Inverury, are so named from being respectively 

 situated where the Ness runs into the Moray 

 Firth, the Garry into Loch Oich, and the Ury 

 into the Don. Inver, not compounded, is met with 

 at two or three spots on the west coast of Ireland, 

 apparently with a like meaning; We find the 

 prefix again in New South Wales — " ambigua 

 tellure nova" — at Invermeen and Inverary ; mere 

 transplants, of course, and put in with no re- 

 ference to their former situation. Of Infrex or 

 Inversk (q. Inveresk ?), I know nothing. K. mi. 

 [Consult also " N. & Q.^' 1" S. vi. 290. 366. 496.] 



Monoliths (2"* S. iii. 189.) — The famous obelisk 

 of Forres, so interesting to the antiquary, — which 

 has been described by some writers as formed of 

 a species of stone unknown in the district, and 

 which, according to a popular tradition, was trans- 

 ported from the Continent, — is evidently com- 

 posed " of a pure quartoze sandstone furnished by 

 the upper beds of the Old Red Sandstone system. 

 These are extensively quarried in Moray, near 

 the village of Burghead, and exported to all parts 

 of the world. It is the best building stone of the 

 north of Scotland, both for beauty and durability." 



See The Old Red Sandstone, by Hugh Miller, 

 ed. 6., 1857., p. 239. F. S. 



Churchdown. 



How do Oysters make their Shells (2°^ S. ii. 

 228.; iii. 158. 198.)— The following Note may 

 assist in furnishing a reply to this Query : 



" A London oysterman can tell the age of his flock to a 

 nicety. The age of an oyster is not to be found out by 

 looking into its mouth. It bears its years upon its back. 

 Everybody who has handled an oyster-shell must have 

 observed that it seemed as if composed of successive layers 

 of plates overlapping each other. These are technically 

 termed ' shoots,' and each of them marks a year's growth, 

 so that by counting them we can determine at a glance 

 the year when the creature came into the world. Up to 

 the time of its maturity the shoots are regular and suc- 

 cessive ; but after that time they become irregular, and 

 are piled one over the other, so that the shell becomes 

 more and more thickened and bulky. Judging from the 

 great thickness to which some oyster-shells have attained, 

 this mollusc is capable, if left to its natural changes un- 

 molested, of attaining a patriarchal longevity." 



R. W. IIackwood. 



Foreign Airs and Native Graces (2"'^ S. iii. 124.) 

 — Respecting the origin of psalm tunes, add the 

 following from the Illustrated Exhibitor : 



" The first tunes were popular airs and dances. The 

 Old Hundredth was a love ditty ; Rebuke me not was a 

 jig; and Stand up, Ijord, Avas a Poitou dance. Gar- 

 diner, under the sanction of George IV., and Archbishop 

 Manners, adapted 220 strains of Haydn, Mozart, and 

 Beethoven, to as many of the best versions of the Psalms ; 

 and he says, musically speaking, ' England has not pro- 

 duced a single original idea.' He ascribes the thoughts 

 of Arne and Purcell to the Italians, and our grave church 

 music to the Flemings." 



R. W. Hackwood. 



" Saucer," Derivation of the Word (2"'^ S. ii. 

 387.) — There can, I think, be little doubt that 

 Dr. Johnson is right in deriving saucer imme- 

 diately from the French sauciere, a sauce-boat; 

 and it is equally certain that sauciere comes from 

 sauce. But about the etymology of this last word 

 there have been many different opinions. Junius 

 even proposes the Welsh saws. I prefer the Latin 

 sal ; thus, a\s (a\os), sal {salis}, sals, saus, sauce. 

 (See some curious remarks on the subject in 

 Lemon's Etymological Dictionary.) In this case, 

 the word saucer would correspond to salsarius. 



J. Cyprian Rust. 



Norwich. 



" Nimkingang," §c. (2"'> S. iii. 189.) — Palmer 

 {Dial, of Devon, with a Gloss. Lon. 1837) writes 

 nymphinggang, but does not give any derivation. 

 Query corrupted from ndgel and gang (the Swe- 

 dish has nugel-trang for a whitlow). If not, then 

 perhaps the only etymological part of the word is 

 nim ; kin being a dim., as in Piphin, Tomhin, &c. 

 Palmer writes Pinswill, and derives it from Sax. 

 pynighen, to afflict. But query from Pain-swell- 

 ing ; thus Painswelling, PainsweU^ Pinswell. May 



