136
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL FEB. is, IOOD.
phrases I quoted I have actually heard
from the lips of a British naval officer, whose
name wild horses shall not drag from me ;
and he certainly used them as " objur-
gatory," in its dictionary sense of scolding
or chiding.
I am much obliged to MR. CROOKE for giving me just the information I needed. JAS. PLATT, Jun.
BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM AT CHURCH (10S. xi. 10). Ordinary weddings that is, working people's weddings differ in detail from those of the middle and upper class. As often as not, they are walking weddings, the whole party going arm-in-arm. Great care is, however, taken that the bride and best man head the procession, for if the bridegroom with the bridesmaid enter first, the wife for all her married life will " walk behind." If it is the other way about, the husband will play " second fiddle." I know of one instance where the bridegroom of a wedding party was "diddled." He was advised to be at the church by himself in good time, and as the rest of the party came to the door to meet them. He did so, and in this way " lost his kail," and was twitted with it by his friends after the ceremony. The best man with the bride reached the parson before the bridegroom and the bridesmaid. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
OXEN DRAWING CARRIAGES (10 S. xi. 70). I have always heard the quotation relating to "an ancient lady and a lady of very good quality, I assure you drawn to church in her coach by six oxen," attri- buted to De Foe. Sussex roads were notoriously bad, and Judith, widow of Sir Richard Shirley, by will, desired to be buried at Preston " if she should die at such a time of the year as the roads thereto are passable." Th Shoreham to Lond n coach in the middle of the seventeenth century made use of a pair of oxen to drag it over some ot the worst stretches of the road. Oxen have been in use for draught purposes in Sussex up to recent years, and are still occasionally so used in the neighbourhood of Lewes ; but the picturesque sight of oxen ploughing on the South Downs will soon become only a memory. P. M.
, , Avebur y ^ his ' Scenery of England '
,1902), p. 441, quotes Arthur Young's Tour through England' (1771). He is alluding to the Sussex Weald : _ e " Here I had a sight, which indeed I never saw in any other part of England, namely, that going to church m a village not far from Lewes, I saw
an ancient lady of very good quality drawn to-
church in her coach with six oxen ; nor was it
done but out of mere necessity, the way being
so stiff and deep that no horses could go in it,"
Kenelm Henry Digby in his ' Compitum/ i. 393, says :
" Carriages even did not always exclude the advantages of the ancient mode of travelling. Lord Carnarvon describes an illustrious Portuguese lady setting forth in a vehicle drawn by oxen, the coachman marching humbly by her side."
EDWARD PEACOCK.
There is a much more recent instance than the time of Fuller or Defoe of a carriage drawn by oxen, and it was also in Sussex, about ten miles north of Lewes. About 100 years ago the Lord Sheffield of the day used to have his carriage drawn up Danehill by oxen when on his way to London. B. D .
WADDINGTON AS A PLACE-NAME (10 S. xi. 70). The query seems here to arise with respect to the first syllable, for ington apparently presents no great difficulty. In Islington, Kensington, and many other place-names the same combination occurs. According to Isaac Taylor ('Words and Places'), ing was the usual Anglo-Saxon patronymic, equivalent to Mac in Scotland, Ap in Wales, and so forth. His explanation is that names ending in ing indicate the original settlement of the clan bearing the name embalmed in the prefix. When this clan off-swarmed and established a new settlement, then ton was added in the name of the latter. As regards ing, it is said to occur in more than one-tenth of the whole number of the names of English villages and hamlets. But if the explanation as regards ington be correct, it remains for some one versed in the ' Saxon Chronicle ' or other records to say who was the Saxon chief, or which the clan, whose name has here come down to us in the form of Wadd. That Waddington has any connexion with Woden and his worship, as, for example, is stated of Wadley and many other places, seems contradicted by its clannic affix.
DOUGLAS OWEN.
Perhaps the ton or village of Wadding the son of Woden, the Northern Zeus.
A. R. BAYLEY.
Wadding- is a patronymic of Wada, a common A.-S. personal name, whence Wade and Wadeson. 1. P. L.
MR. HERBERT WADDINGTON will find a paper of great interest in ' The Commune of London,' by J. Horace Round, published in 1899. D. G. P.
