92 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 275. 



interesting work has often been questioned. I am 

 however enabled to state, that it was written by 

 the Rev. Erskine Neale, now rector of Wood- 

 bridge. This gentleman is still actively engaged 

 in literary pursuits. Among the best known of 

 his later works are The Experiences of a Gaol 

 Chaplain and The Coroner's Clerk. 



RoBEEX S. Salmon. 

 iS'ewcastle-.on-Tyne. 



Railroads in England (Vol. x., p. 365.). — The 

 following extracts may perhaps interest your Cor- 

 respondent W. W,, who inquires for notices of 

 railroads earlier than 1676 ; 



" It appears by the order of the Hostmen's Company, 

 'at a courte hoiden the thirde day of Februar}-, anno 

 Reginse Elizabethse, &c. 43, annoque Domini 1600,' that 

 waggons and waggon- ways had not then been invented ; 

 but that the coals were at that time brought down from 

 the pits in wains (holding eight bolls each, all measured 

 and marked), to the staiths by the side of the river 

 Tyne." — Brand's History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. ii. 

 p. 272. 



Again : 



'*' 1671. Waggon-ways, or railway's, for the conveyance 

 of coals, appear to have been in use on the Tyne at this 

 period. In Bailey's View of Durham, p. 35., it is stated 

 (on the authority of Mr. Robson, then agent at Ravens- 

 worth) that the earliest mention of coals delivered by 

 waggons occurs in 1671, at Team Staith." — Richardson's 

 Local Historian's Table Book, voL i. p. 301. 



And the following seems to confirm the date : 



" September 2, 1674. The hostmen of Newcastle en- 

 deavoured to procure an Act of Parliament to regulate 

 the great abuses and exactions upon the collieries for 

 their way leaves and staith-rooms." — Brand's History of 

 Newcastle, vol. ii. p. 297. 



To the coal-owners on the river Tyne, there- 

 fore, is due the honour of having commenced the 

 system of Railways. The system was not adopted 

 on the neighbouring river, the Wear, until a much 

 later period, as appears by the following extract 

 from Hutchinson's History of Durham: 



" 1693. Waggon-ways were now first used on the river 

 Wear by Thomas Allan, Esq., of Xewcastle, who amassed 

 a large fortune in collieries, and purchased estates, a part 

 of which still retains the name of ' Allan's Flatts,' near 

 Chester-le-Street." 



Robert S. Salmon. 



Xewcastle-on-Tyne. 



'■'■Talented" (Vol. xi., p. 17.). — Coleridge, a 

 great authority in such matters, objected to the 

 use of this word. In p. 181. of Table Talk, he 

 says : 



" I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable talented, 

 stealing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews 

 and most respectable publications of the day. Why not 

 shillinged, farthinged, tenpenced, &c. .' The formation of a 

 participle- passive from a noun, is a license that nothing 

 but a very peculiar felicity can excuse." 



Coleridge evidently is not aware of its being a 



revived word, for • he goes on to say that such 

 slang mostly comes from America. Your corre- 

 spondent adduces several words ; he might have 

 added gifted as analogous in formation to talented, 

 and in most constant use. E. 



" Snick up'' (Vol. i., p. 467. ; Vol. ii., p. 14. ; 

 Vol. iv., p. 28.). — Respecting this expression, I 

 quote a passage from Middleton's Blurt, Master 

 Constable, Dyce'sedlt., 1840, vol.i. p. 284., to show, 

 as I think, that it is not invariably used as a stage 

 direction for " hiccough," whatever it may signify 

 in Twelfth Night : 



" Sim. You smell a sodden sheep's head: A rat? 

 Ay, a rat ; and you will not believe one, marry, fob ! I 

 have been believed of your betters, marry, sriick up I " 



I think it likely to mean " shut your shop," a 

 vulgar expression of the present day, — " What do 

 you know about it ? " E. H. B. 



Demerara. 



The Post-mark on the Junius Letters (Vol. viii., 

 p. 8. ; Vol. X., p. 523.). — For the information of 

 your correspondents, allow me to say that I have 

 in my possession several letters of the required 

 date, and bearing the peculiar mark. They are 

 among the family correspondence of the late Dr. 

 Doddridge. One of his daughters, while on a visit 

 to the neighbourhood of London, writes to her 

 mother at Northampton, and posts her letter 

 (franked) at the suburban office. The mark is 

 invariably a triangular stamp, with the words 

 "pent-post patd," countersigned '■'■Mac Cul- 

 lock." These letters are written from the house of 

 a Mr. Streatfield ; and though the name of the 

 place is in no case given at the head of the first 

 page with the date (June, 1763), there is internal 

 evidence sufficient to fix the post-office to have 

 been situated in Highgate. Charles Reed. 



Paternoster Row. 



"■Nettle in, dock out" (Vol. iii., p. 463.). — In 

 addition to the instances already given of the use 

 of this expression, I give you one from Middleton's 

 More Dissemblers besides Women, Dyce's edit., 

 vol. iii. p. 611. : 



" Is this my in dock, out nettle ? " 

 And the editor, in his note, refers to Sir Thomas 

 More's Works, 1557, fol. 809. E. H. B. 



Demerara. 



Poems of Ossian (Vol. x., pp. 224. 489.). — The 

 John o' Groat Journal says : 



" We lately sent , a deputation to wait on an aged 

 widow of fourscore years, resident in Sutherland, who can 

 repeat not much less than a thousand lines of poetry, 

 which she regards as Ossianic, or belonging to a very 

 remote age ! Upwards of eight hundred lines, rather im- 

 perfectly copied, we have got and can produce them . . . 

 In the language of our friends who waited upon her, and 



