Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/194

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NOTES. AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. AUG. 31, 1001.


veh " (neither more nor less), was posted in Chicago, and duly delivered ! I write, how- ever, to ask if any one can suggest a reason why this name should have been given to these places. C. C. B.

" GHETTO.'-The 'H.E.D.' says, " Of the many guesses as to the ultimate etymology, perhaps the most plausible is that it is an abbreviation of borghetto^ diminutive of borgo, borough " ; but MR. ST. GLAIR BADDELEY, in a learned contribution on the Roman ghetto (9 th S. iii. 91), states in a note that ghetto means the "shut-in," corrupted from a Hebrew term. What is the Hebrew term? There is no explanation of the word in Graetz's great work on the Jews.

JAMES HOOPER.

" BOLTEN." The Ruc/ly Advertiser of 27 April uses the word " bolten " to describe a truss of straw. Should it not be bolt=ti'U.8S (a rounded bundle), plural lolt-en ? K.

"THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE LAND."- A. H. Clough, in the days of his boyhood at Rugby, wrote a poem with this refrain, of which I recall two stanzas, recited to me some fifty years ago :

When juniors on the pump were set, To pelt at and to sing,

And sent to buy

A pennyworth of string :

When we walked about the playground

With our breakfast in our hand, Ere the days of tea and coffee,

There were giants in the land ! Can any old Rugby man supply what is incomplete in the former stanza ?

C. B. MOUNT. 14, Norham Road, Oxford.


ST. CLEMENT DANES. (9 th S. vii. 64, 173, 274, 375 ; vm. 17, 86.)

IN reference to COL. PRIDEAUX'S inter- esting note he may like to know

1. The place-termination wick. Bacon's Popular Atlas of the British Isles ' does not show one single instance of the termination -wich in the main valley of the Thames about London Bridge, except " Wych Street," quoted by COL. PRIDEAUX. Of Wick or Wyck I have found five instances, viz. (1) Hannington Wick, near Cricklade, Wilts Here for the -ey termination we have Elsev Meysev, though near Water Eaton. (2) Hard- wick House, near Goring, Oxfordshire, possibly modern. The -ey termination is found in Chazey


Farm, Sonning Eye, Boulney Court, and Cholsey. (3) Eton Wick, near Windsor, Bucks, near Boveney. (4) Hampton Wick, Surrey, near Molesey ; and (5) Chiswick, near Putne"y. I cannot trace a single instance in the Rennet, Cherwell, Ock, or Colne valley. In that of the Lea we find Eastwick, Herts, near Harlow, although on the Essex coast, starting from Shoebury Ness, we find Great Wakering Wick, Land Wick, Wick, East Wick, Bridge Wick, Ray wick, Lower West Wick, Steeple Wick ; but between the Black- water and Stour only Jay Wick, till we come to Harwich on the Orwell, followed by Dun- wick and Walberswick, with Bawdsey Ferry. AsislandswehaveCanvey Island, with Knight's Wick, Wallasea, Northey, Osea, and Mersea (contrast Meysey, Gloucestershire), all three in the Blackwater estuary, followed by Horsey, inside the Naze. In Surrey there appears to be no Wyck, Wick (except Hampton Wick), or Wich, but we have Chertsey, Molesey, and Putney as contrasted with Battersea, above London Bridge, whilst following the river and Kentish coast below London Bridge we find Greenwich, Woolwich, Burntwick Marsh, Chitney Marsh, Sheppey Island, Harty Island, Elmley Island, and round the North Foreland Sandwich, Fordwich, with Romney and Scotney in Romney Marsh ; but no instance of any of these terminations occurs in the valley of the Medway. Clearly, then, the presence of some barrier like London Bridge had an important influence in deter- mining the nomenclature of the Thames Valley, though, of course, if COL. PRIDEAUX can prove his case that the name of Wych Street was derived f rom Aldewych, this would be an important proof of the presence of a Danish colony near St. Clement Danes ; but I still cannot understand why a colony of traders should have been placed in such a position, when all the other foreign colonies in London were established so much nearer to the trading centres at Cheapside and Dowgate. If the Danes were to be lodged on the west side of the Fleet at all, I should have thought they would have naturally have been placed nearer Ludgate Circus. However, the cathedral at Roeskilde is placed in a somewhat similar position to that of St. Clement Danes with reference to the town landing-place on Lsa Fjord, and those who know that lovely town may, perhaps, see in the narrow tree-shaded lanes which lead down from the cathedral to the water- side, with their elms and very Highland-look- ing cottages, the prototypes of the earliest Fleet Street. 2. My quotation with reference to Gothia