10 s. x. NOV. 21, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
401
LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 31, 1908.
CONTENTS. No. 256.
NOTES : Pimlico : Eyeb right, 401 Isabella Lickbarrow Dodsley's Collection of Poetry, 403 Milton's House in Aldersgate Street, 404 Joanna Southcott's Celestial
405 _ Nancy Day " Liberte", Egalite", Fraternite" " J. Henry Martin, Artist Harewood House, Hanover Square, 406 Leland on Trowbridge, 407.
QUERIES : "Prussian" Lord Howe's Victory on 1 June
Richard Dighton, Caricaturist ' Chovevi-Zion ' Berge-
rode, 407 Authors of Quotations Wanted" Shibboleth "
Bruges : its Pronunciation ' The Shutes of Sheffield '
" Behold this ruin ! "The Disobedient Son, 408 Hynmers of New Inn Abb^ de Lubersac John Lawrence, Clerk- Edinburgh : its Name Ellen as a Surname Mitred Abbots, 410.
REPLIES : Raleigh's House at Brixton " Ising-glass," 411 Sydney, 1789-1908 Guernsey Lily First English Bishop to Marry St. Pancras Motto Dr. Beauford, Rector of Camelford, 412 Authors Wanted " Motte ": "Mot," 413 Philip II. of Pomerania Crows and Rain, 415 Dr. Gordon of Bristol Capt. Barton " Disdaunted" Edwards of Halifax Toothache Initial Letters instead of Words, 416 Anna, a Place-Name Shakespeare's Epitaph High Treason and its Punishment Sir A. Brett R. Belgrave Hoppner Paul Braddon : Water- Colour Art, 417 Shakespeare's Compliment to Elizabeth Snakes drinking Milk Social Life in the Southern States Special Jurisdiction Stammering, 418 "Por- tions " : " Pensions," 419.
NOTES ON BOOKS : Life of Bishop Burnet Mackail's 1 Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology.'
Booksellers' Catalogues.
Bookseller as Mayor.
Notices to Correspondents.
PIMLICO: EYEBKEGHT.
THE name of Pimlico, like that of Tyburn, -seems to be fast disappearing from the map of London. There is still a Pimlico Walk at Hoxton, but in the west of London the name has given way to the more fashionable appellations of South Belgravia and Victoria. I think this is to be regretted, as Pimlico possessed many associations of a literary 'character.
The origin of the name has often formed
- a subject for discussion in these columns,
'but no conclusion has hitherto been reached. It has been thought by some authorities to be derived from the name of a well-known vintner or publican ; and at 1 S. i. 474 that distinguished antiquary the late DR. E. F. RIMBATJLT quoted from what he described as a rare, if not unique, tract entitled ' News from Hogsdon,' 1598, the following passage : " Have at thee, then, my merrie boyes, and hey for old Ben Pimlico' s nut-browne." It is of course possible that Ben Pimlico may- have been some old salt who derived his sobriquet from having served in the West Indies, as another correspondent, R. (IS. ii. 13), quotes from * The True History of the Spaniards' Proceedings in America,' by
Ferdinand Gorges, Esq., London, 4to,
1659, in which, in an enumeration of "strange
birds " to be found in Barbados, there is
mention of " the Egge Bird, the Cahow, the
Tropick Bird, the Pemlico which presageth
storms." It is also stated at 6 S. ix. 148 that
there is an island called Pimlico in the West
Indian group, a mere dot of a thing in the
map, near the Bahamas. Whether the bird
derived its name from the island, or the
island from the bird, and whether the vendor
of " nut-browne " was called after one or
neither, it is certain that the appellation was
not confined to Hoxton. Besides the district
lying between St. James's Park and Chelsea,
it is stated at 1 S. i. 383 that Aubrey in his
' Survey ' mentions that he went to a Pimlico
garden, somewhere on Bankside.
There was also an Irish Pimlico. A quota- tion is made at 1 S. i. 474 : " Brown is fluctuant ; he once lay at a woman's house in Pemlicoe, Dublin (Earl of Orrery to Duke of Ormond, 5 Feb., 1663, in Orrery's ' State Letters')." On this the Editor remarked that Pemlico in Dublin still (1850) existed, as would be seen by reference to Thorn's ' Irish Almanac,' where we find " Pemlico from Coombe to Tripoli."
A mansion called Pymlico House flourished for many years near the site of the battle of Barnet. It was situated on Hadley Green, in the parish of South Minims ; and the Hadley register records on 10 Feb., 1673, " a travelling woman buried from the pim- blicoe house," which seems to imply an inn or lodging-house (Transactions, London and Midd. Arch. Soc., vi. 38).
At 6 S. ix. 418 a correspondent points out that there is a hamlet in Oxfordshire named Pimlico, near Cottesford, about four miles from the market town of Brackley. Pimlico House, situated here, was mentioned in connexion with Sir John Byron's affair in 1642.
Pimlico appears, therefore, to have been a popular name, and it probably originated in Hoxton, though it is possible that some of the frequent allusions that are made to it by dramatists and ballad-writers may refer to the West-End place of that name. The earliest mention of the latter occurs in the extracts made by Peter Cunningham from the Accounts of the Overseers of the Poor of St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields, which range from 1626 to 1630. The name may of course have been in use much earlier. However this may be, it was a place to which our easygoing ancestors resorted when inclined for merri- ment. In ' A Joviall Crew ; or, The Merry by R. Brome, which was first
