384 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 181, 



me the dancing-house. The sword dance, with a 

 great deal of intricate crossing, and its peculiar 

 simple tune, still exists in Orkney, but is not 

 danced with swords, though I heard of clubs or 

 sticks having been substituted. There are found 

 in these islands the two circles of stones at Stenness, 

 and single standing stones. One of these, at 

 Swannay in Birsay, is said by tradition to have 

 been raised to mark the spot where the procession 

 rested when carrying the body of St. Magnus after 

 his murder in Egilshay in 1110, from that island 

 to Christ's Kirk in Birsay, where it was first in- 

 terred. Here is a date and a purpose. The single 

 standing stones, in accordance with Sir James's 

 opinion, and to use nearly his expressions, are said 

 to mark the burial-places of distinguished men, 

 to commemorate battles and great events, and to 

 denote boundaries ; and these, and still more the 

 circles, are objects of respect as belonging to ages 

 gone by, but principally with the educated classes, 

 and there is no superstition remaining with any. 

 Such a thing as the swathing stone of South 

 Inchkea is not known to have existed. The stones 

 in the two circles, and the single standing stones, 

 are all plain ; but there was found lately a stone of 

 the sculptured symbolical class, inserted to form 

 the base of a window in St. Peter's Kirk, South 

 Konaldshay, and another of the same class in the 

 island of Bressay, in Zetland. The first is now 

 in the Museum of Scottish Antiquaries in Edin- 

 burgh ; and the Zetland stone, understood to be 

 very curious, is either there or in Newcastle, and 

 both are forming the subject of antiquarian in- 

 quiry. W.H.F. 



AUTOGBAPHS IN BOOKS. 



(^Continued from Vol. vii., p. 255.) 



The following are probably trifling, but may be 

 considered worth recording. Facing the title- 

 page to The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, 

 London, W. Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, &c., 

 1717, 8vo., no date at end of preface, is in (no 

 doubt) his own hand : 



" To the Right Honorable the Lord Viscount Bo- 

 lingbroke, from his ever-oblig'd, most faithfull, and 

 affectionate servant, Alex. Pope." 



Cranmer's Bible, title gone, but at end, Maye 

 1541: 



" This Bible was given to me by my ffather Coke 

 when I went to keepe Christmas with him at Holckam, 

 anno Domini 1658. Will. Cobbe." 



Sir William Cobbe of Beverley, York, knight, 

 married Winifred, sixth daughter of John (fourth 

 son of the chief justice), who was born 9th May, 

 1589. 



This copy has, before Joshua and Psalms, a 

 page of engravings, being the " seconde " and 



" thyrde parte ; " also before the New Testament, 

 the well-known one of Henry VIII. giving the 

 Bible, but the space for Cromwell's arms is left 

 blank or white. Cromwell was executed July 

 1540; but do his arms appear in the 1540 im- 

 pressions ? 



Cranmer's quarterings are, 1 and 4, Cranmer ; 

 2, six lions r. ; 3, fusils of Aslacton. In the 

 Gent. Mag., vol. Ixii. pp. 976. 991., is an engraving^ 

 of a stone of Cranmer's father, with the fusils on: 

 his right, and Cranmer on his left. The note at 

 p. 991. calls the birds cranes, but states thai; 

 Glover's Yorkshire and other pedigrees have peli- 

 cans ; and Southey (Book of the Church, ii. p. 97.)r 

 states that Henry VIII. altered the cranes to pe- 

 licans, telling him that he, like them, should be 

 ready to shed his blood. The engraving, how- 

 ever, clearly represents drops of blood falling, and' 

 those in the Bible appear to be pelicans also. 



This Bible has the days of the month in MS. 

 against the proper psalms, and where a leaf has 

 been repaired, ".a,d. 1608, per me Davideni 

 Winsdon curate." A. C. 



(Vol. vii., pp. 107. 307.) 



I think I can supply I. E. with another example 

 of the application of this name to a place. A few 

 miles east or south-east of Exeter, on the boi-ders 

 of a waste tract of down extending from Wood- 

 bury towards the sea, there is a village which is 

 spelt on the ordnance map, and is commonly 

 called, Greendnle. In strictness there are, I be- 

 lieve, two Greendales, an upper and a lower 

 Greendale. A small stream, tributary to the 

 Clyst river, flows past them. 



Now this place formerly belonged to the family 

 of Aumerle, or Alba Maria, as part of the manor 

 of Woodbury. From that family it passed to 

 William Briwere, the founder of Tor Abbey, and 

 was by him made part of the endowment of that 

 monastery in the reign of Richard I. In the twa 

 cartularies of that house, of which abstracts will 

 be found in Oliver's Monasticon, there are many 

 instruments relating to this place, which is there 

 called Grendel, Grindel, and Gryndell. In none 

 of them does the name of Greendale occur, which 

 appears to be a very recent form. Even Lysons, 

 in his Devonshire, does not seem to be aware of 

 this mode of spelling it, but always adopts one ot 

 the old ways of writing the word. 



I have not seen the spot very lately, but, ac- 

 cording to the best of my recollection, it has not 

 now any feature in keeping with the mythological 

 character of the fiend of the moor and fen. The 

 neighbouring district of down and common land 

 would not be an inappropriate habitat for such a 

 personage. It has few trees of any pretension to 



