2 nd S. IX. Ait.il 14. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



293 



child amongst the lower classes any other name 

 than a " dickey " applied to a donkey ; while a 

 donkey-cart is here always called " a dickey-and- 

 cart." Before I myself adopted the phrase, I 

 found on more than one occasion that the village 

 children did not knoio what I meant when I spoke 

 to them of a " donkey." Nearly all over England 

 when a donkey is called by a "pet name" at all, 

 he is called " Neddy : " but I doubt whether " a 

 neddy " is the ordinary designation for the animal 

 (as I think F. C. H. will allow that " a dickey" is, 

 amongst the Norfolk poor), or " a neddy-cart " for 

 a donkey-cart. The Query, thrown in at the end 

 of a reply to another correspondent, was perhaps 

 a trivial one; yet Mb. Rix's communication (p. 

 229.), which might be greatly enlarged, shows 

 how much of instruction often lies concealed 

 under our vernacular phraseology. Ache. 



Let me add to the familiar names of this much- 

 abused animal, Cuddy {i.e. Cuthbert), which I 

 have heard in the county of Durham, and Jenny, 

 the usual name for the female ass in South York- 

 shire. 



I may add also, in connexion with this, that 

 when the spinning-je?»<y was superseded by the 

 much more powerful machine now in use, the 

 latter received the name oimide. In like manner 

 the machine which spins the wool into a state 

 ready for the mule (slubbing is the technical 

 term) is called a Billy ; so when a certain much- 

 enlarged form of scribbling or carding machine 

 was first introduced it was called Big Ben. 

 Perhaps also the name Willy, applied to the ma- 

 chine which tears the wool to pieces in the first 

 process connected with cloth making, is of similar 

 origin. J. Eastwood. 



The De Kingebfoed Inscbiption (2 nd S. ix. 

 49. IGo.) — I would refer your correspondents upon 

 this subject to Lansd. MS. 901., wherein is a good 

 account of the De Hungerford family. To the 

 pedigree the following memorandum of Sir Robert 

 is added : — 



■ S r Rob< de Hungerford. 1 Edw. 1. He was a Comiss r 

 to enquire into y c estates of Hugh Le Despenser and his 

 son. 8 Edw. 3. He gave lands to Ivy church in Wilts, 

 also to y e Hospital of St. John at Cain for a mass for the 

 soul of Joan his wife. Likewise lands in Hungerford and 

 elsewhere for a mass in y" church of St. Lawrence at 

 Hungerford for the soul of himself, his wife Geva or 

 Joan, and divers others, and dying s. p. (for his brother 

 was his heir) 28 Edw. S. was" bur d in a chap, on y e S. 

 side of Hung. ch. His effigies in stone, cross legged, lay 

 against j* wall, but is now removed and much defaced. 

 The following inscription remains on a yellow marble ah* 

 2 f sq r Gxed into y« wall. The arms on y e stone are his 

 mother's and not those of his father. [Here follows a 

 draught of the monument with the arms in colours in 

 the centre of the lower arc of the quatrefoil.] S r Will. 

 Dugdale by mistake says this inscription is in a glass 

 window." 



The copyist of this inscription has given it 

 nearly the same with your correspondents, ex- 



cepting that he appears to have turned Eveques 

 into Pisqes (line 5.), and quei into quel (line 6.). 



Abeacadabba. 

 Epigbam on Homee (2" d S. ix. 206.) — In the 

 " Greek Anthology " edited by Mr. Burges, Lon- 

 don, Bohn, 1852, occur three Epigrams on Homer 

 in connexion with his birth-place, but none of 

 them to the same purpose as Heywood's. Indeed 

 the first is an Epigram only in the primary sense 

 of the word, viz. an Inscription merely : — 



" Seven Cities contend for the origin of Homer, Cyme, 

 Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Pylos, Argos, Athens." — P. G. 

 , No. xix. 



The authorship of the above is stated to be un- 

 certain. The following note is appended : — 



"A. Gellius in Noct. Attic, in. 11. has 'S.jj.vpva, 'Pc'So?, 

 KoAo^ajv, 2aA<x/AU', "Ios, "Apyo?, 'AOfivat." 



The next is by Antipater of Sidon, and is thus 

 rendered by Mr. J. H. Merivale : — 



" From Colophon some deem thee sprung ; 



From Smyrna some, and some from Chios ; 

 These noble Salamis have sung, 



While those proclaim thee born in Ios; 



And others cry up Thessaly, 



The mother of the Lapitha;. 



Thus each to Homer has assigned 



The birthplace just which suits his mind ; 

 But if I read the volume right, 



By Phoebus to his followers given, 

 I'd say — They're all mistaken quite, 



And that his real country's Heaven; 



While for his Mother, she can be 



No other than Calliope'." * 



The third is of uncertain authorship : — 



"Not the plain of Smyrna produced the divine Homer, 

 nor Colophon, the bright star of the luxurious Ionia ; not 

 Chios, nor fruitful Egypt; not holy Cyprus, nor the an- 

 cient Island (Ithaca) the country of Laertiades ; not Ar- 

 gos (the land) of Danaus and the Cyclopean Myce'ne, nor 

 the city of the Cecropians descended from old ; for he was 

 not by nature a production of the Earth ; but the Muses 

 sent hiin from the Sky, that he might bring gifts desired 

 by beings of a day."f 



In my last Note Dr. Seward's modification of 

 Heywood's Epigram was misprinted ; which (writ- 

 ten with the common contraction ivh) being mis- 

 taken for all : — 



" Seven mighty Cities strove for Homer dead, 

 Through which the living Homer begged his bread." 



Query. Was Hey wood the original author of 

 the Epigram, or can it be traced to an earlier 

 source? Query, also, what is meant by the refer- 

 ence " Ath. i. 384." given in the Life of Tasso ? 



ElBIONNACH. 



Eably Communion (2 nd S. ix. 222.) — In the 

 parish church of Usk, Monmouthshire, the Holy 

 Communion has, up to the last year, always been 

 administered after morning prayers at six o'clock 



* P. 201. Edwards' Selections, No. cli. 

 t P. 28G. No. OOCXC I have made a slight alteration 

 in Mr. B.'s version of the last Epigram. 



