Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/60

44 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. JULY IT, 1020. Saw next the Theatre, the Divinity hall, and -Convocation room, Radcliffe library and Christ <3hurch paintings and libraries, all admirable edifices in their kind. The front of the library of Oriel, an Ionic structure by Wyatt, is perhaps "the most classically chaste of any of the modern buildings. After Mr. S. took his leave we walked through the piazzas of Queen's, which afford a -singularly beautiful lessening perspective. Left Oxford about three, and proceeded for Walling- ford : a smart shower, but of short duration, so that we were quite dried again before we had finished our stage. A pleasant corn country. After tea set off for Henley. The first part of 'the ride wild and hilly : grew more wooded and rich after passing Nettlebed ; but we had only a moonlight view of it. 2nd. Tuesday. Walked on the beautiful banks of the river at Henley and set out after brea.kfast for i [Maidenhead. Stopped to view Park Place, Lord Malmsbury's formerly Gen. Con way's a high chalky brow above the Thames laid out in the finest natural taste. The most remarkable things 'in it are a subterraneous passage, 270 yards long, from the higher to the lower grounds, worked in the flinty soil and supported by natural pillars left in the excavation : it opens at length into the supposed ruins of an ancient theatre, with columns, statues, arches, etc., now overgrown with foliage and a perfect resemblance of reality : thence a hollow lawn or dale slopes downwards between hanging groves with the river at the end, seen through a ground rustic arch ; the druidical circle of stones from Jersey finely seated upon a bold eminence : a pheasantry and aviary enclosing a lawn surrounded with shrubbery : vai-ious grand views of the Thames, the valley through which it flows, the town of Henley and the distant country. Highly gratified with this sight we proceeded through a pleasant varied I tract to Maidenhead Bridge, and baited at the inn beautifully seated on the bank of the Thames. Thence to Windsor, where we arrived early and immediately set out to view the castle. Our I remaining ideas of Blenheim and Oxford rather ' diminished its grandeur to our eyes ; yet it is a noble mass of building, and the chapel, the apart- ments and paintings are worthy of much admira- tion. The view from the terrace wants variety of outline and striking features ; Eaton college and the Thames are the principal objects ; the rest is only extent of cultivation. In the evening our loyalty was gratified with no more than a glimpse of their majestys and the royal family getting Into their carriages to go to London. A stroll in the little park concluded the day. 3rd. Wednesday. After breakfast left Windsor and took the Egham road, keeping near the Thames of which we had some pleasing views. Crossed Runnymede, which ought to have some better memorial of the great transactions upon it than a race-stand. A foreigner would probably suppose that the races here were a sort of Grecian games to commemorate the obtaining of Magna Charta, whereas a fine piece of turf was probably the sole cause of their institution ! After leaving the 'forest and river scenery came through some of the wild Surrey commons to Cobham and again took a glance of Pains-hill, but the recollection of Park-place, rising boldly from the Thames, diminished in our idea the humble banks of the Mole. Finished our long morning stage at Leather- head, and reviewed with rapture the well-known objects of its vale. Soon after arriving at Bur- ford-bridge, a mizzling rain^ began, which pre- vented our walking. It was however almost compensated by the beauty of the clouds breaking away over Mr. Lock's woods as fair weather returned about sunset. We then turned out, but confined our walk chiefly to the high road on account of the wetness of the grass. 4/7?. Thursday. Spent the forenoon in a ride over Ranmor common to the charming wood near the Telegraph on the Guildford road. Returned through Dearleap wood by Wotton and Dorking. Fine weather, but very hot. After dinner walked into Mr Lock's woods, which command our unabated admiration. After tea ventured up Box-hill, a heavy pull even for younger legs than ours. And now we feel satisfied with this renova- tion of past scenes so tomorrow we set our faces homeward. oth. Friday. After a very hot and dusty ride reached home before three. PKONEPOS. "SHREWSBURY" AND " EPISTRO- PHIUS REX GR^ECORUM." IN Geoffrey of Monmouth's ' Historia ' (x. 1) we get a list of King Arthur's enemies. The foremost is " Epistrophius." Students who believe in Dr. Gudmund Schiitte's Law of Initial and Terminal Stress, where heroic lists are concerned, might regard the king of the Greeks as the most important of the enemies of Arthur; cp. ' N. & Q.,' 11 S. ix. 362. But the problems presented by this impossible name await solution, and investigators are faced by three obstacles : (1) the mediaeval tendency to make puns ; (2) an ancient phonological accommoda- tion ; and (3) a common scribal error. The scribal error yields t for c. In the foot-notes to his edition of ' Asser's Life of King Alfred' (1906), Mr. W. H. Stevenson cites a number of instances of eft confusion in the MSS. from which his text is derived. E.g. Beagstecg, Caruuist and Huuictiorum, for Beagscecg, Caruuisc and Huuicciorum, respectively : v. pp. 31, 38, 47. The phonological accommodation con- sisted in prefixing and uttering an i before s + consonant AQ as to make the pronuncia- tion easier. This practice appears in the fifth century. In vulgar Latin, by about A.D. 550, classical forms such as spatium, sperare, stare, &c., had become obsolete, and " ispatium," " isperare," " istare," and the like, with prothetic i, had taken their places. We gather this from Merovingian diplomas