Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/122

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96 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12S. X. FEB. 4, 1922. (ib., p. 218), he does not seem to me to have as good a claim as William. There does not appear to be any one in the Acornbank branch of the family who could have mi- grated to Ireland in or about 1601. JOHN R. MAGRATH. " THE RUNNING HORSE," PICCADILLY (12 S. x. 49). I am noting MR. W. R. DAVIES' s j information on this inn, as it helps to locate | with greater precision its proximity to Hyde | Park Corner. Mr. Davies will find that it j was duly entered by me at 12 S. vii. 145. It was one of a group of hostelries that, like the "Hercules Pillars " (12 S. vi. 85), served passengers alighting from West of England coaches. Larwood states that " The Running Horse " was a very common sign, but he fails to supply topographical ex- amples. Personally I have met with no other house of this name, which led me to suspect I trust I am not guilty of a flagrant ! anachronism that it was inspired by " The Running Footman " hard by (12 S. vi. 127). I feel sure that Mr. Davies will share with me the hope that one of the pewter tankards j bearing " The Running Horse " inscription, ' found in the Piccadilly excavations, will be j lodged in the London Museum, an institution j with so many weighty claims to public recognition and support. J. PAUL DE CASTRO. . I "TIME WITH A GIFT or TEARS" (12 S. x. 18, 54). I add to the protest of youri correspondent at the last reference against | altering Swinburne's text direct evidence ! that it was written as it stands, and ! meant as it stands. Mr. James Douglas, ' in The Sunday Times of Jan. 22, records ! .a visit to Swinburne at the Pines, during which the great chorus, including the two lines in question, was recited by the poet | himself. Mr. Douglas writes as follows : At the end I masked my emotion by asking whether it was true that he originally had written Grief, with a gift of tears, Time, with a glass that ran, and afterwards had transposed "grief" and " time " in order to make an alliterative paradox. " No 1 " he thundered, " I never revise ! " He went on to explain that all his verses were com- pleted in his mind before he wrote a word, and that after he had written them he never altered a line, a word, or a comma. I do not think he ever altered a word. . . . What he had written,

he had written.

Very diffidently I asked him whether his love of alliteration had led him to use " gift " in order . to alliterate with " glass." Again he thundered out a denial. There was no other conceivable -or imaginable word ! Aldis Wright left for future commentators this check on ingenuity : After a considerable experience I feel justified in saying that in most cases ignorance and con- ceit are the fruitful parents of conjectural emenda- tion. V. R. In regard to the quotation from Shelley, ' P.U.,' Act I., 11. 344-346, if H. K. ST. J. S. will insert a comma after " gnash," delete the comma after " fire " and place it after " wail" as in the " Oxford " Shelley, there will not be any incitement to some idiot to transpose " gnash " and " wail." W. A. HUTCHISON. 32, Hotham Road, Putney, S.W. LAND MEASUREMENT TERMS (12 S. x. 48). " Wylot " is probably the same as warlot or warnot, both well-known Lin- colnshire terms for " some kind of waste or common lands," perhaps connected with warland, " agricultural land held by a villein." Ware is " field produce, crop, vege- tables." Warlots, then, are apparently cul- tivated lands as distinct from pasture ; arable lands in the common field (see

  • N.E.D.' and Peacock's ' Glossary').

" Gad," among other things, is a measuring- rod for land, hence a division in an open pasture, in Lincolnshire usually 6Jft. wide ('N.E.D.' and Peacock). In " bi- land " or " byland," by may have its sense of " outside of," " beside," as in byland or biland, a peninsula (1577-1630) ('N.E.D.'). As an agricultural term, perhaps land in some way separate from the rest. " Gildam " is the accusative of gilda, a money payment or tribute, in this case Id. per gad. J. T. F. Winterton, Lines. PRINCIPAL LONDON TAVERNS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY : " THE SWAN TAVERN," CHELSEA (12 S. vi. 144). These premises, the freehold of Christopher Kemp- ster of Chelsea, gentleman, a grandson of Christopher Kempster of Burford, Oxon, one of Wren's master masons, were,' by his will, proved Oct. 11, 1770 (P.C.C.), left to his three sons, John, Christopher and James. They were then in the occupation of Michael Tool. In the will of his son, James Kempster, proved April 4, 1794 (P.C.C.), the premises are referred to as " in Swan Walk, formerly called the Swan Tavern, and now in the occupation of Mr. Joseph Munday." I am informed that a toyshop at the corner of Church Street and Cheyne Walk stands