314
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL is, 190*.
quarter whence the rain came. This remark-
able sculpture in wood was executed by an
artisan named Fairchild, and cost 1,057.
The inn also contained a large round bed,
capable of accommodating forty persons. It
would be interesting to know what has
become of these antiquities. Are any of
them still in situ? and, if not, where may
they be seen ? J. HOLDEN MAC-MICHAEL.
This does not seem to be a difficult problem. The ' Promptorium Parvulorum ' was written at Lynn, and contains many Norfolk words. It has the entry : " Scale, to wey wy the, scale, balawnce, Libra, balanx vel bilanx." That is, scole is an old Norfolk word for a pair of scales. And seeing that the arms of a pair of scales are of equal length, it appears that the " Scole Inn " was so called because it was at equal distances from four towns which are named, the distance in each case being twenty miles.
It is obvious that this is only a medieval joke ; for the conditions are hardly possible. Neither are the arms of the balance straight. There is actually a village called Scole, near the river Waveney, a little below Diss ; and this is somewhere near the position. It is, as the crow flies and roughly speaking, about seventeen miles from Norwich, nineteen from Thetford, twenty-one from Bury, and twenty- two from Ipswich. And the " Scole Inn " may really have meant the inn at Scole. If this is not correct, perhaps we may hope to be told where the inn actually stood.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
If a misprint in the I for r, the meaning is clear ; or could it be a joke on schola, accommodation for learned conversational- ists? HAROLD MALET, Colonel.
The late Rev. C. R. Manning, of Diss, a frequent contributor to ' N. & Q.,' informed me that he traced the name to a shoal in the river Waveney, utilized by travellers.
A. HALL.
"KICK THE BUCKET" (10 th S. i. 227). This phrase is probably drawn from the expe- rience of milking, in which it is not an unusual occurrence for a restive cow by an unhappy kick to upset a pail full of milk ; ' for we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again " (2 Samuel xiv. 14).
W. C. B.
/ ^MDEN N SURNAMES : MUSSELWHITE (10 th S. i. 248). The passage required may be in the author's 'Britannia,' to which I cannot at present refer, but it is also con- tained in his 'Remaines,' arid runs as follows
" Neither is there any village in Normandy, that
gave not denomination to some family in England ;
in which number are all names, having the French
De, Du, Des, De-la prefixt, and beginning or ending
with Font, Fant, Beau, Sainct, Mont, Bois, Aux,
Eux, Vail, Vaux, Cort, Court, Fort, Champ, Vil,
which is corruptly turned in some into Feld, as in
Baskerfeld, Somerfeld, Dangerfeld, Trublefeld,
Greenefeld, Sackefeld, for Baskervil, Somervil,
Dangervil, Turbervil, Greenevil, Sackvil ; and in
others into Well, as Boswell for Bossevil, Freshwell
for Freshevil." Camden's 'Remaines,' London,
1614, p. 113.
The only change in the spelling I have made is to put v instead of u in such words as Baskervil. JOHN T. CURRY.
May not Mussell be derived from the mollusc? A Nicholas le Musele is found " Placit : in Dom. Cap. Westminster," and the humble barnacle and whelk both lent their names to human beings.
Camden refers to the Norman origin of many English surnames in his 'Remains concerning Britain' (p. 118, ed. M. A. Lower, 1870) ; and there is much information on the subject in chap. vii. of the late Canon Isaac Taylor's well-known ' Words and Places.'
A. R. BAYLEY.
" Neither is there any village in Normandy that gave not denomination to some family in England " occurs at p. 118 in John Russell Smith's edition of Camden's ' Remains.'
ST. SWITHIN.
LATIN LINES (10 th S. i. 248). The lines are leonine verse, and I think should be read :
Hse [sc. literae] regis natte sunt mentis, ibique locates, Per quas irrores nos, Christe, docendo, sorores. O felix anima quse non descendit ad ima Ut facie cseli potiatur luce fideli ! Virgineus coetus, perdulci carmine Ijetus, Gaudet in aeternum regem speculando supermini Hoc nobis dona sanctorum Christe corona Sedibus aeternis quo sociemur eia.
These (pictures or letters) are sprung from the king's mind, and are placed there that by them, by their teaching, thou mayest refresh the sisters.
happy spirit which does not go down to the pit That it may enjoy the face of heaven in loyal light. The assembly of maidens, rejoicing in sweet har- mony,
Rejoices for ever gazing on the king supernal ; Therefore present us, Christ, with the crown of
the saints, That we may be joined to them in eternal abodes.
1 take it that " nobis dona corona" is careless Latin for " nobis dona coronam."
HERBERT A. STRONG. University, Liverpool.
TASSO AND MILTON (10 th S. i. 202, 249). Voltaire has something to say on this subject, and as his remarks are very sensible they
