10 s. x. NOV. 7, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
373
traces of what may be called modern aspects
of the subject is to be found in ' The Feeling
for Nature in the Greek and Roman Poets,'
the first of a brilliant series of essays by
Prof. W. R. Hardie entitled ' Lectures on
Classical Subjects ' (Macmillan, 1903).
HlPPOCLIDES.
ST. BARBARA'S FEATHER (10 S. x. 308). Mrs. Jameson, who had never met with any explanation of the attribute, believed that it referred to a German version of the legend of St. Barbara which asserts that when she was beaten by her father, angels turned the rods into feathers (see ' Sacred and Legend- ary Art,' vol. ii. p. 494). ST. SWITHIN.
The lady is represented either with a palmleaf or holding a peacock's feather. The latter symbol is in commemoration of the miracle wrought in her favour when the rods with which she was being scourged were turned into peacock's feathers. Cf. Mueller and Mothes's ' Archaeologisches Worterbuch,' wherein other symbols are mentioned. L. L. K.
The querist may like to know that at the Guildhall Museum, amongst the ancient pilgrim tokens, are several small leaden feathers with the name St. Barbara below them; so that, whatever the origin of the saint's feather, it was evidently a recognized attribute of her shrine. DOUGLAS OWEN.
"PIDDLE" AS A LAND MEASURE (10 S. x. 326). This word is given in the ' N.E.D.' and in the ' E.D.D.,' and will be found under the spelling " pightle " in both works. It was not used as " a measure of land," nor is this the meaning conveyed in MR. GAY- THORPE'S citation. What is there described is a small piece of land of unspecified area. Similarly " a close," or " a croft," or " a toft " may be used, not as "a measure of land," but in indicating a small enclosure. A " pightle," or " pittle," or " pickle " pro- bably meant an odd nook or corner of insignificant size. The Northern form of the word may be recalled in the proverb " Many a pickle makes a mickle," a phrase equally applicable to the acquisition oJ land and to gear of any kind accumulator by little and little. R. OLIVER HESLOP.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
" Piddle " is a Berkshire pronunciation o: " pightle," as may be seen from 'N.E.D. and * E.D.D.' The word has been discussed over and over again in ' N. & Q.,' as is apparent in the ' E.D.D.' quotations, and ir the indexes of N. & Q.' from 1859 onwards
The word does not mean a land measure,
!t has only one meaning, namely, a small
field or enclosure. The change of tl into dl
s very common. It occurs in Kent and
Sussex, and in all the dialects of the West of
England. See ' English Dialect Grammar '
1905), 283. A. L. MAYHEW.
Oxford.
[Several other correspondents thanked for replies.]
ARACHNE HOUSE, STRAND -ON-THE-GREEN (10 S. x. 290). Zoffany the portrait painter died at his house in this village in 1810. " Joe " Miller died at Strand-on- the-Green in 1738 ('London and Middlesex,' vol. iv., by J. Norris Brewer, 1816, p. 329).
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
Possibly it is Zoffany, R.A., that your correspondent refers to. He settled at Strand-on-the-Green after his return from India in or about 1796, and died there on 11 Nov., 1810. In 'Greater London,' i. 17, the author mentions that " the house which Zoffany inhabited is still shown. It faced the river, in about the middle of the little terrace." I do not know whether Arachne House answers this description.
ALAN STEWART.
SALFORD : SALTERSFORD : SALTERSGATE (10 S. x. 222, 256, 274, 297, 337). I beg leave to protest against the conjoining of Salford with two other names with which it has nothing whatever to do. Must we always be mixing up things that are incon- gruous ?
Of course Salford means " willow-ford," as explained in my ' Bedfordshire Place- Names.' A local notice says : " This tree grows in great luxuriance on the banks of the Salford brook." But what has this to
do with Saltersford ?
WALTER W. SKEAT.
MONKEYS STEALING FROM A PEDLAR (10 S,
vi. 448 ; vii. 13, 256). If MR. A. M. HIND
can do with further information on the
subject of his query, he may like to be
referred to Cory at' s ' Crudities,' where in
his ' Observations of Lyons ' (vol. i. p. 213,
MacLehose's edition) the traveller relates
that on one of the walls of a court in the
inn under the sign of " The Three Kings,"
where he lodged, there was a merry story
painted, which was this :
" A certain Pedler having a budget full of small wares, fell asleep as he was travelling on the way, to whom there came a great multitude of Apes, and robbed him of all his wares while he was asleepe : some of these Apes were painted with pouches or
