Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/134

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NOTES AND QUERIES. uo s. VH. FEB. 9, 1907.


\vas anything wrong. She discovered that about four pounds worth of clothes and jewellery had been stolen from her bedroom, and suspicion falling upon two of her lodgers who had left suddenly that

day, the police were informed. The pair were

charged at the Hants Quarter Sessions yesterday with the offence."

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

" BOZ-POLE." I do not find this word in any dictionary, but it is in the following paragraph, which appeared in The Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer, for Saturday, 18 January, 1718 :

" Last Sunday, as the Lord Bishop of York went To preach at St. Anne's in Blackfryers, his Coach over-set behind Ludgate-Prison, occasioned by the Prisoners taking in their Boz-Pole, to make room ; and letting it fall betwixt the Coach arid the Coach- man, put his Grace into some surprize, but did no other Damage than that of breaking the Glasses, which made his Grace walk a-foot to the Church."

That it should have been a " Boz " who called such striking public attention to the sufferings of the " poor prisoners " in the Fleet as to ensure their redress adds interest to this particular word.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

" To GO TO POT." This phrase appears to have meant, in some instances at least, " to go to prison " :

" When great Rogues are in Authority, and have the Laws against Oppression and Robbery in their own Hands, little Thieves only go to Pot for't ; and inferior Pirates are punish'd with Death at the Gallows, while those of superior Orb, or first Rate Offenders, live safe and successful at the Helm of Government." ' English Proverbs with Moral Re- flexions,' by Oswald Dykes, 2nd ed., 1709, p. 36, ' One Man had better steal a Horse, than another look over a Hedge.'

"All ] (lotting against the Lives, or the Govern- ments of Princes, is but playing the Fool at the best. Plots for the most Part miscarry, and then the Plotters are sure to be soundly hamper'd, or to iio to Pot for their Pains in the Discovery."- ll>i<l.. l>. 142, in the reflexion on 'Harm watch, Harm catch.'

Jamieson's ' Scottish Dictionary ' has " Pot, Pott, a pit ; a dungeon," and gives a quota- tion from Douglas's ' Virgil,' 108, 16, in which is the following :

iK-ip in the sorout'ull grisle hellis pot.

ROBERT PIERPOIXT.

HORXSEY WOOD HOUSE : HARRINGAY HOUSE : ^ HIGHGATE. As the object of 4 N. & Q.' is to prevent the perpetuation of error as well as to record valuable items of knowledge, I beg leave to call attention to the following blunder in the Christmas Supplement of The Hornsey and Finsbury Park Journal, 14 Dec., 1906, so that when


future references are made for the purposes of topographical information, searchers may not be confused or misled. The article, which is signed W. B., is headed ' Harringay Past and Present,' and a picture is repro- duced from a print published in 1809, with the following remarkable description and fanciful variants :

" Harringy, Harringay, Harringee, Harringhee, Harnesey, Harnsey, Hornsey House.

" This was a noted house of entertainment which stood towards Harringay, and near to the present lake in Finsbury Park."

The latter part is correct. The picture represents old Hornsey Wood House, which had no more connexion with Harringay House than St. Paul's Cathedral has with the Alhambra in Leicester Square. The \ two places were entirely distinct.

Harringay House stood at the back of the Green Lanes, on the eastern side of the rail- way, behind Hornsey Station and south of ! Hornsey Church. It was built on the site | of a fine old Tudor mansion, pulled down about 1750, and Mr. Lloyd in his 'History of Highgate ' (which see) says it was the seat of the family of Cozens for 200 years. The property was (a portion of it, if not all) in that interest for nearly four centuries. Harringay House w r as rebuilt or renovated about 1793. It has never been known by any other name, and the nomenclature did not arise early enough for any variant of it to have been used.

Hornsey Wood House was so called in 1791 in the Burial Register of Hornsey. In 1764 the sign of the tavern was " The Horns " (see Wroth's ' London Pleasure Gardens,' 1896, p. 169). In 1735 it had a synonymous name to its ancient one of 1313, but it had nothing to do with " Harringy," &c.

In 1200 the present Harringay is spelt " Haringue " ; in 1231, " Harengheye " (Feet of Fines) ; and in 1244, Harengee " (Pat. Roll 28 Hen. III.). There are number- less other variants, but in no case have I found the double consonant used in any reliable document until 1402, and that was an exceptional instance.

In ' The Story of Hornsey,' by R. O. Sherington, 1904, p. 16, it is said : "In earliest of all records the name is Haringhaia, an enclosure of the field of hares." I have frequently challenged this statement, which has not an iota of truth in it.

Under the same initials W. B., those of the compiler of ' Harringay Past and Present,' were reproduced in The Hornsey Journal's Supplement, 10 Dec., 1904, two photographs