328
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii B. x. OCT. *, m*.
latter occurs in the ' N.E.D.' as kevel, and
in the ' Engl. Dial. Diet.' as kevel and keevel,
with the meanings " a bit of wood," " a
staff," " a hammer for shaping or breaking
stone," " a wooden mesh-gauge used in
making nets."
Are other instances of this word known, either as a place-name or otherwise ?
W. F.
225, HAMPSTEAD ROAD. When, in 1850, Tennyson lodged at this house on which a tablet has recently been placed by the London Coxmty Council it was called 25, Mornington Place. My father took it at Christmas, 1854, and lived there till Febru- ary, 1858. Thus I passed more than three years of my childhood in it, and it was there that I began to learn to read. There also my mother died in September, 1857, which led my father to leave the house a few months later. My grandmother, who lived with us, took in The London Journal, and though I could not read it, I was deeply interested in Gilbert's illustrations, about which so much has appeared lately in ' N. & Q.' ; and I would get her to tell me about the incidents depicted. Thus many of these illustrations became deeply en- graven on my memory. My grandmother did not save the numbers at that time, but she did so after we left the house, and hence I have in my possession seven volumes (xxvii. to xxxiii.), which I have had bound. They contain three of the " Waverley Novels," viz., ' Kenilworth,' ' The For- tunes of Nigel,' and ' Ivanhoe.' The first two have illustrations taken from the Abbotsford edition of the novels. The last is illustrated by Gilbert.
In the first of the seven volumes men- tioned appears that erroneous illustration by Gilbert to Egan's ' Snake in the Grass ' to which I have already referred in ' X. & Q.' (US. vii. 297), a man being represented on horseback who is described in the story as being on foot.
Some time after we left the house, though whilst I was still in my boyhood, the name " Mornington Place " was abolished, and the houses were renumbered with odd numbers only in the Hampstead Road. I regretted the change, but was pleased to find that my old home had still " 25 " in its number.
More recently the name of Mornington Place has been given to a short turning^ out of Mornington Crescent, which was ~ pre- viously called Crescent Place.
W. A. FROST.
" TROOPER." Not many years ago it was
the invariable rule to designate privates in
cavalry regiments as "Trooper So-and-So."
Now the term seems to be applied only to-
the Household Cavalry, with one singular
exception, viz., the Imperial Yeomanry. It
seems strange to run the eye down the lists-
of killed and wounded, and read the word
" Private " prefixed to name of Hussar r
Lancer, and Dragoon, and then to see Yeo-
manry who in the last war were used as-
mounted infantry called "Troopers."
A cavalry officer on attaining the rank of captain was said to obtain his "troop,' r as his infantry brother his " company " ; and though the troop is now abolished, and the squadron made a captain's command, it seems but logical that the term " trooper" should either be given up, or applied to ali privates of cavalry as in days gone by.
E. L. H. TEW.
Upham Kectory, Hants.
" FREELAGE." This word in the ' English Dialect Dictionary ' is said to be used in Northumberland, Cumberland, and York- shire. It is also found in Clitheroe deeds of about the year 1700, the " freelidges and privilidges " attached to certain tenements- being mentioned therein. J. B.
BELL INSCRIPTION. The following note occurs on the back of the title-page of a Bible in my possession :
"1752, Dec r 8 th . Asthall [Oxfordshire] first Bell was cast by Matthew Bagley atChipinnorton Letter* Matthew Bagley made mee."
G. POTTER.
296, Archway Road, Highgate, N.
SIR ALEXANDER CUMING, 1690-1775. Two interesting note-books of this King of the Cherokees have recently come into my possession. In 1733, and again in 1764, he addresses draft petitions from the master'* side of the Poultry Cornpter, but in 1730 his memoranda deal with a visit to Dantzig. These dates amend the biography in the 'D.N.B.,' where he is said to have been confined in the Fleet Prison from 1739 until 1765. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
" ONTO." This seems to deserve a sepa- rate note. The ' N.E.D.,' with good reason, casts doubt on citations furnished by Pickering and Bartlett, and gives an example from Keats (1819) as the earliest genuine one. But see Thomas Phaer's ' Eneidos/ 1555 [1562], B iii : " By heare [hair] and head onto the ground Achilles hath him.
