280 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 177. 



and " "Woterkin." In following up bis argument 

 upon this subject, Mr. Lower speaks of a person 

 being called " Little Wilcock," as an instance of 

 complete tautology : if, however, it is meant by this 

 (as it seems to be), that a diminutive name was 

 only applied to a diminutive in person, or only 

 expressed such a one, I am sure he will find very 

 many differ from him, as affection or familiarity 

 was at least as likely to have originated its use. 

 Tims, Peter de 'Gaveston would surely not be 

 deprived of his knightly fame because he was 

 called by Prince Edward "Perot" (Pierrote a 

 Pierre). Thus also came "Amyot" from Amy, 

 " Launcelot" from Laui-ence, " Gillot" from Giles. 

 And " kin" has as much right to be so considered. 

 But there being already these two diminutives in 

 ordinary use as to names of persons, there surely 

 was no occasion to apply to the same purpose a 

 syllable which (with a mark of contraction) cer- 

 tainly had a direct meaning, and expressed a 

 vocation ; and which has very rarely been other- 

 wise used in a diminutive sense. 



My object is not so much to advocate any par- 

 ticular solution as regards these names, as to 

 submit evidence bearing upon the subject, with 

 such explanations as have occurred to me. 



Joseph Burtt. 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



The habit of this celebrated author, to annotate 

 in the margins of books which he was reading, must 

 be well known to many of the subscribers of 

 " N. & Q." 



I have in my possession a curious little volume 

 of notes, &c. in Mr. Coleridge's handwriting, of 

 course very highly prized, from which extracts 

 were made in vol. i. pp. 274-5., &c. of Coleridge's 

 Literary Remains, collected and edited by his 

 nephew, H. N. Coleridge, Esq., 4 vols., 1836 : 

 Pickering. 



But, in addition to this volume, I have a few 

 with S. T. Coleridge's pencillings in the margins. 

 The following is selected from Dr. Parr's cele- 

 brated Spital Servian, and is appended to one of 

 his (Dr. Parr's) notes, wherein he says : 



" Upon the various effects of superstition, where it has 

 spread widely and thriven long, we can reason from 

 facts. But in the original frame of the human mind, 

 and in the operation of all those usual causes which re- 

 gulate our conduct or affect our happiness, there seems 

 to he a most active, constant, and invincible principle 

 of resistance to the approaohments of atheism. ' All 

 nature cries aloud ' against them, ' through all her 

 works,' not in speculation only, but in practice." 



Mr. Coleridge's annotation upon the foregoing 

 opinion of the learned Doctor is as follows ; and I 

 select it as a specimen of Coleridge's astonishing 

 recollection of any opinions he had formerly pro- 

 mulgated, which might have called any laxity of 



principle, religious, moral, or political. Into doubt, 

 and of his extreme anxiety to refute or explain 

 them : 



" I never had even a doubt in my being concerning 

 the supreme Mind ; but understand too sufficiently the 

 difficulty of any intellectual demonstration of his exist- 

 ence, and see too plainly how inevitably the principles 

 of many pious men (Locke, Priestley, Hartley, even. 

 Archbishop King) would lead to atheism by fair pro- 

 duction of consequences, not to feel in perfect charity 

 with all good men, atheist or theist ; and, let me 

 add, though I now seem to feel firm ground of reason 

 under my belief in (jod, not gratefully to attribute my 

 uniform past theism more to general feeling than to 

 depth of understanding. Within this purpose I hope 

 that, without offence, I may declare my conviction, 

 that in the French Revolution atheism was an effect, 

 not a cause; that the same wicked men, under other 

 circumstances and fashions, would have done the same 

 things as Anabaptists within Munster, or as Inquisitors- 

 among the South American Indians; and that athelsnv 

 from conviction, and as a ruling inotive and impulse 

 (in which case only can it be fairly compared with 

 superstition), is a quiescent state, and per se harmless 

 to all but the atheist himself. Rather is it that over- 

 whelming preference of experimental philosophy, which, 

 by smothering over more delicate perceptions, and de- 

 bilitating often to impotence the faculty of going into 

 ourselves, leads to atheism as a conscious creed, and 

 in its extreme is atheism in its essence. This rather 

 is, I should deem, the more perilous, and a plainer and 

 better object for philosophical attack. O ! bring back 

 Jack the Giant Killer and the Arabian Nights to our 

 cliildren, and Plato and his followers to new men, and 

 let us have chemistry as we have watchmakers or sur- 

 geons (I select purposely honourable and useful call- 

 ings), as a division of human labour, as a worthy 

 profession for a few, not as a glittering master-feature 

 of the education of men, women, and children. — 

 S. T. C." 



J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



FOLK LORE. 



The ancient Custom of Well-flowering. — At Tis- 

 sington, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, annually, on 

 Ascension Day, a beautiful ceremony called the 

 " well-flowering " takes place ; and in it Psalms 

 used by the Church of England are partially em- 

 ployed. It Is a popular recognition of the value of 

 those " perpetual fountains which gush out from 

 below the dry wolds and limestone hills, bearing 

 life and beauty on their course, — objects," i-emarks 

 Professor Phillips In his admirable work on The 

 Rivers, Mountains, and Sea Coasts of Yorkshire 

 (recently published), "on which rustic love and 

 admiration may tastefully bestow the emblematic 

 flowers and grateful songs, which constituted a 

 pleasing form of popular worship in the earlier 

 ages of the world." Perhaps some correspondents 

 of "N. & Q." may be enabled to mention, other 



