Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/117

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10 s. XL JAN. so, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


93


among Laskars or Indian Sailors,' by Capt. T. Roebuck, revised by W. C. Smyth and G. Small (W. H. Allen & Co., 1882). In case MR. PLATT is unable to procure it, I shall be happy to lend him my copy if he will favour me with his address.

W. CROOKE. Langton House, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham.

I cannot help thinking that a paragraph from an intended w6rk on the manners and customs of the English in India has been accidentally transferred to MR. PLATT'S query, as I fail to see any connexion between " a book of phrases in the Lascar jargon " and " the vocabulary of the British officer." On this day that I am writing, the 12th of January, begins my fiftieth year of army service, of which thirty-five years were spent in official employment in India and the East. During that period I have passed much of my time in the society of British officers, and I cannot agree with MR. PLATT that their vocabulary is " mainly objurgatory." His experience seems to be as exceptional as his Hindxistani. " Tumhari joru bhej do " does not mean ' Give your wife the job to do," but merely " Send your wife," and whatever significance may attach to this order, it is certainly not " objurgatory." English cooks and parlourmaids are occa- sionally trying, and though the Indian ser- vants are as a rule much more willing and faithful than the home-bred product, as well as better educated in their respective metiers, at times they may fail to give satis- faction, and hasty words may be spoken by their masters. Such a term of abuse ai that mentioned by MR. PLATT is, however, exceedingly uncommon. People in anger are not always particular in their language I have even heard an Arab in a fit of rage call another Muslim " Ibn al-mahruk,' i.e., " son of the burnt one," which mean? that there is no possibility of his going to Paradise. W. F. PRIDEATTX.

EGYPT AS A PLACE-NAME (10 S. x. 447). Out of my list I can add to MR. O. G. S CRAWFORD'S examples.

There is a hamlet so called in Nettlecombe parish, Somerset.

There is a field called Egypt in Leckhamp stead, Berks, which may be the same a that near Speen mentioned by the inquirer.

There is a field with the name in Wes Parley, Dorset ; one in Aberdour parish Aberdeen ; and one in Seend, Wilts.

Egypt is the name of a bay on the nort coast of Kent, 8J miles N.E. of Gravesenc


s it is also that of a point of land with a >attery on it near Cowes, Isle of Wight.

If my memory serves me, a part of Plum- tead Marshes, Kent, was called Little 'gypt, or New Berber, by the soldiers when he returned stores from the first Egyptian xpedition were deposited there.

The important thing to know in these ases is when the name was first bestowed, >r first appeared in print or on a map, Because many of these names corresponding with places abroad, such as this Egypt, >r Porto Bello, Havannah, &c., can be ex- jlained by an authentic case where the name of Vigo was bestowed. This would not apply in every case, such as Bunker's Hill. A. RHODES.

Besides three Egypts mentioned in Bar- jholomew's ' Gazetteer,' there are at least three localities bearing that name which are personally known to myself. One is in

he village of Haddenham, Bucks, and con-

sists of a large walled-in orchard and garden.

Another is at Alston, Cumberland a 'arm-house on the road to Brampton, marked " Eygpt " on the Ordnance map.

The third is here, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Of this Mackenzie in his history of the town 1827), describing the road to North Shields, writes :

" During the seasons of scarcity, about the aeginning of this [nineteenth] century, when such 'mmense quantities of foreign corn were imported, large temporary granaries were erected on both sides of this 'road. These the people termed ' Egypt,' in allusion to those erected by Joseph in that ancient country, which appellation was con- firmed by the proprietors."

At the present time Egypt Square and the " Egypt Cottage Inn " preserve the nomen- clature on the spot so named.

RICHARD WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Half a mile west of the Castle at West Cowes, Isle of Wight, is an ivy-clad mansion called Egypt House ; and between the two, according to the map in Jenkinson's ' Guide to the Isle of Wight,' is Little Egypt. The name Egypt occurs at this point in the small map of the island in William Cooke's ' New Picture of the Isle of Wight,' South- ampton, 1813. Is it a reminiscence of our expulsion of the French from Egypt in 1801 ? FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

There is a locality called Egypt in the Morningside district of Edinburgh. In the immediate neighbourhood are also Canaan and Jordan Lane. C. G. CONDELL.