410 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 157. 



*' evil eye," and tbey offer you some of the milk to 

 drink, by which they suppose that all evil conse- 

 quences are averted. E. J. Allen. 



Rhymes upon Places. — There are three little 

 villages on the Yorkshire bank of the Humber, 

 called High Paul, Low Paul, and Old Paul Town. 

 Upon these three there exists^ the following 

 couplet : 

 « High Paul, and Low Paul, and Old Paul Town, 



There is ne'er a maid married in all Paul Town." 



The explanation is, that tlie church lies at about 

 half a mile's distance from the three villages. 



S. A. S. 



Bridgwater, 



Merry Hewid. — There is a curious custom pre- 

 valent in some parts of South Wales. On Christ- 

 mas Eve a horse's head, decorated with ribbons 

 and carried by a party of men, is taken round to 

 the different houses in the neighbourhood. The 

 men sing a Welsh song, to which the people in the 

 house must reply in a similar manner, or give the 

 party admission, and regale them with ale, &c. 

 This custom is called " Merry Hewid," and, com- 

 mencing on Christmas Eve, continues for two or 

 three weeks. 



Can any of your correspondents give me any 

 information as to its origin, &c. ? I witnessed it 

 in the neighbourhood of Cardiff, in the winter of 

 1848. F. B. 



Sandgate. 



Kentish Local Names. — Perhaps the following 

 Note of a derivation may seem too far-fetched, but 

 I believe that it is genuine. 



On the river Medway, five reaches below the 

 town of Chatham, there is a portion of the river 

 which is called Pin Up. This was always, and is 

 now, correctly written Pin Cup. The reach thus 

 named is the shortest in the river. 



In Hone's Year Book is a woodcut of a peg 

 tankard, and an explanation, that under the do- 

 minion of some one of our Saxon kings, — Edgar, 

 as I tliink, — a law was enacted enforcing the intro- 

 duction of pegs at certain distances in the drink- 

 ing-vessels then in use, and the interval between 

 the lip and the first peg, or between intermediate 

 pegs, was to be the stint of the drinker. 



The law thus had for its tendency rather the 

 prolongation of a carouse than the insurance of 

 absolute sobriety. 



Another name for the peg-tankard was a pin- 

 cup, and the shortness of the reach doubtless sug- 

 gested a similarity. 



There are many other names of places in these 

 marsh districts curious enough. We find, for in- 

 stance, Coog Dich, which I believe is pure Saxon 

 for a crooked ditch. 



Some one of your correspondents may be able 

 to give some information as to the derivation of 



the following words : — Dray is of frequent recur- 

 rence. I have believed this to be a corruption of 

 the words drive-way, as it usually appears to be 

 conferred where some narrow passage through the 

 slime and mud exists. 



All through the marshes are little raised mounds,, 

 to which, when the salterns are submerged by the 

 tide, the shepherd or his flocks retire : these are 

 everywhere, through this joart of the country, 

 known as Cottevells ; and how this name may 

 come I know not. J. C. G^ 



Tavistock Square. 



iSJtnor §.aUi,^ 



Shahspeare a Calvinist. — Compare the follow- 

 ing passages : — 



Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 2. : 



" Why, all the souls that are, were forfeit once ; 

 And he that might the vantage best have took. 

 Found out the remedy." 



Merchant of Venice, KctTV. ^c.\.'. 



" Consider this. 

 That in the course of justice none of us 

 Should see salvation." \ 



Hamlet, KcilL^c. 2.: 



" Use every man after his desert, 

 And who shall 'scape whipping?" 



Can you refer me to more parallels from the 

 works of our immortal bard ? 



C. Mansfield Ingleby* 

 Birmingham. 



The Mathematical Society of Wapping. — In 

 the list of subscribers to Wren's Parentalia, pub- 

 lished in 1750, I observe as one of the scientific 

 bodies subscribing. The Mathematical Society of 

 Wapping. Can any reader of " N. & Q." give an 

 account of this society ? The locality is curious. 

 I am well aware of the vicissitudes of fortune ex- 

 perienced by various districts of London. I know, 

 of course, that the elite of society once dwelt in 

 and around Leicester Square ; it is also a matter 

 of notoriety that the mansion of the noble head of 

 the house of Baring stands on a spot designated 

 in old maps as " Penniless Bank," and that a 

 clause in the lease of lands on which Saffron Hill 

 and Leather Lane now stand, reserved a right ou 

 the part of the proprietor to enter and gather an- 

 nually " twenty bushels of roses." Still I was not 

 prepared to find that even one hundred years ago- 

 Science held her court at Wapping. It is true 

 that the street nomenclature of that district bears 

 testimony to great changes having taken place ; 

 " The Green Bank," " Pear Tree Alley," and " The 

 Orchard," have lost their Arcadian character, and 

 given place to guano heaps, saw mills, and lay- 

 stalls. 



