Feb. 8. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



109 



peared, also connects the song with the princi- 

 pality. An Edinburgh reviewer (vol. xi. p. 37.) 

 says that it is " one of the love songs " by Stephens 

 (meaning George Steevens), a strange mistake, as 

 the poeiu appeared in print ten years before 

 Steevens was born. 



I notice this error for the purpose of asking 

 your readers whether many poems by this clever, 

 witty, and mischievous writer exist, although not, 

 to use the words of the reviewer, " in a substan- 

 tive or collective form ?" " The Frantic Lover," 

 referred to in the Edinhui-gh Reviciu, and con- 

 sidered by his biographer as "superior to any 

 similar production in the English language," and 

 the verses on Elinor Rumniin, are the only two 

 poems of George Steevens which now occur to 

 ine ; but two or three others are noticed in 

 Nichols's Literary Anecdotes as his productions. 



J. H. M. 



SRcpTir^ to iHinor caucrtrS. 



Did St PauTs Cluck strike Thirteen? (Vol. iii., 

 p. 40.). — Mr. Campkin will find some notice of 

 the popular tradition to which he refers, in the 

 Antiquarian Repertory, originally publislied in 

 1775, and republished in 1807; but Idoubt whether 

 it will satisfactorily answer his inquiries. 



I. H. M. 



By the bye ("Vol. ii., p. 424.). — As no one of 

 your correspondents has answered the Query of 

 J. R. N., as to the etymology and meaning of by 

 the bye and bi/ and by, I send you the following 

 exposition ; which I have collected from Richard- 

 sou's Dictionary, and the authorities there re- 

 ferred to. 



Speluian informs us, that in Norfolk there were 

 in his time thirteen villages with names ending in 

 by: this By being a Danish word, signifying 

 "villa." That a i^e-law, Dan. by-lage, is a law 

 peculiar to a villa. And thus we have the general 

 application of bye to any thing ; peculiar, private, 

 indirect, as distinguislied from the direct or main : 

 as, l)i/e-ivai/s, bye-talk, &c. &c. In the trial of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, State Trials, James I., 1603, are 

 these words : — 



" You are fools ; you are on the hye, Raleigh and I 

 are on the mnin. AVe mean to take away the king 

 and his cubs." 



Here the contradistinction is manifest. Lord 

 Bacon and B. Jonson write, on the by ; as if, on 

 the way, in passing, indirectly : — 



"'There is, upon the l>y, to be noted.' — 'Those 

 wlio have seluted poetry o/t the liy' — sucli being a 

 collateral, an<l not the main iihjuct of pursuit." 

 This I think is clear and satisfactory. 



liy and by is quite a different matter. Mr. 

 Tyrwhitt, upon the line in Chaucer, — 



" These were his words by and by." — R. Ii. 4581. 



interprets " separately, distinctly ;" and there are 

 various other instances in Chaucer admitting the 

 same interpretation : — - 



" Two yonge knightei ligging by and by." 



Kn. T., V. 1016. 

 " His doughter had a bed all by hireselve, 

 Right in the same chambre by and bi/." 



The Beves T., v. 4441. 



So also in the " Floure and the Leafe," stanzas 

 9 and 24. The latter I will quote, as it is much 

 to the purpose : — 



" The semes (of the surcote) echon, 

 As it were a maner garnishing, 

 Was set with enierauds, one and one. 

 By and by." 



But there are more ancient usages, e.g. in 

 R. Brunne, bearing also the same interpretation. 

 "The chartre was read ilk poynt bi and bi :" 

 William had taken the homage of barons " bi and 

 bi." He assayed {i e. tried) " thaiu (the horses) 

 bi and bi." 



Richardson's conception is, that there is a .mb- 

 auditiim in all these expressions ; and that the 

 meaning is, by point and by point; by baron and 

 by baron ; by horse and by horse : one and one, as 

 Chaucer writes ; each one sej)arately, by him or 

 it-sali. And thus, that by and by may' be ex- 

 plained, by one and by one ; distinctly, both in 

 S[)ace or time. Our modern usage is restricted to 

 time, as, " I will do so by and bi/ :" where by and 

 by is equivalent to anon^ i. e. in one (moment, 

 instant, &c.). And so — Good B'ye. 



Bloomsbury. 



Clement's Inn (Vol. iii., p. 84.). — This inn was 

 neither " a court of law" nor " an inn of court," 

 but "an inn of chancery;" according to the dis- 

 tinction drawn by Sir John Fortescue, in his De 

 Landibus Legmn Anglice, chap, xlix., written be- 

 tween 1460 and 1470. 



The evidence of its antiquity is traced back to 

 an earlier date than I486; for, accor<ling to Du"- 

 dale (Orig., p. 187.), in a Record of Michaelmas, 

 19 Edward I V, 1479, it is spoken of as then, and 

 diu ante, an Inn " hominum Curife Legis tempo- 

 ralis, necnon hominum Consiliarioruni eiusdem 

 L. „ J 



egis. 



The early history of the Inns of Court and 

 Chancery is involved in the greatest obscurity; 

 and it is difficult to account for the oiiinnal dif- 

 ference between the two denominations. 



Any facts which your correspondents may be 

 alile to communicate on this subject, or in re- 

 ference to what were the ten Inns of Chancery 

 existing in Fortesoue's time, but not named by 

 him, or relating to the history of either of the 

 Inn.s, whether of Court or Chancery, will be most 

 gratefully received by me, and be of important 

 service at the present time, when I am pruparinw- 



