476
NOTES AND QUERIES. tio'- s. HI. JUNE 17, 1905.
secluded, it is a very feast for the archaeo-
logist. One of its chief characteristics is
the beautiful early fourteenth-century east
window, which will alone repay a journey.
An antiquary staying at Tunbridge Wells would find it worth his while to spend some days in the neighbourhood of Mailing, making that town his centre from which to visit the numerous places of interest in the neigh- bourhood. JOHN SYDNEY HAM.
Portions of the first Carmelite friary in England are still to be seen at Aylesford. Boxley Abbey remains ; Bay ham, ditto ; Leeds Castle ; Mailing Abbey gateway, a huge Norman structure ; Rochester Cathedral, formerly a priory all within easy reach of Tuubridge Wells. JOHN A. RANDOLPH.
"!N CAUDA VENENUM" (10 th S. iii. 428). I have alsvays regarded this saying as derived from the well-known definition of an epigram, which occurs in a variety of forms, e.g. :
Omne epigramma sit instar apis, sit aculeus illi,
Sint sua niella, sit efc corporis exigui.
King, third edition, p. 395.
An English version is :
The qualities rare in a bee that we meet In an epigram never should fail
The body should always be little and sweet, And a sting should be left in its tail.
Mr. Dodgson's version is : Three things must epigrams, like bees, possess : Their sting, their honey, and their littleness.
Topsell, in his ' Serpents ' (1653), p. 756, states :
"Some learned Writers have compared s
Scorpion to an Epigram because as the sting o)
the Scorpion lyeth in the feayl, so the force anc vertue of an Epigram is in the conclusion." Quoted by 'JST.E.D.,' sub roc. 'Epigram.'
Defoe, in his 'Tour in the Eastern Coun ties ' (1724), Letter i. (ed. 1894, p. 107), says :
"The assembly he [="a late writer"] justlj commends for the bright appearance of the beauties but with a sting in the tail of this compliment where he says they seldom end without some con siderable match or intrigue ; and yet he owns tha during the fair these assemblies are held ever night."
WM. SWAN SONNENSCIIEIN.
NORMAN INSCRIPTIONS IN YORKSHIRE (10' S. iii. 349, 397). May I thank Miss POLLARD and LORD SHERBORNE for their letters, am suggest that we are no nearer a solutio even after their criticisms? The headin given above is perhaps a little unfortunate but the inscriptions were called old Frenc in the note itself, so there need have been n confusion. The wording was rightly given "Dieu temple y aide et garde du royne" therefo/e " du royne " cannot be put for de I
n7ie, as reine is of the feminine gender,
urther, as "temple " is declared not to have
een Norrnan French, it is no use explaining
royne" by recourse to any Norman word, n regard to "salme," the difficulty does not e in the elision of the a of sa before a eminine noun, for this is quite a common sage, but in the fact that an I is inserted in
word that is anima in Latin and dme ia nodern French. We have in Spanish and n Italian alma, in Provencal anma and arma % n old French alme and ainme, but why 1
G. H. CLARKE.
THE STREETS OP LONDON ' (10 th S. iii. 428> In the eighties, when George R. Sims's The Lights o' London' was being presented t the Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street, the olio wing lines appeared in the advertise,- nent in the London daily papers :
The way was long and weary,
But gallantly they strode, A country lad and lassie, Along the heavy road. The night wa dark and stormy, But blythe of heart were they, For shining in the distance
The Lights of London lay ! gleaming lamps of London, that gem the city's-
crown,
iVhat fortunes lie within you, Lights-ofi London* Town !
With faces worn and weary, That told of sorrow's load,. One day a man and woman
Crept down a country roadi. They sought their native village^.
Heart-broken from the fray ; Yet shining still behind them
The Lights of London lay. cruel lamps of London, if tears your light could"
drown, Your victims' eyes would weep them, Lights of
London Town ! George R. Sims.
The song was set to music by Louis Diehl* My copy is at the querist's service.
JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
"GuARDiNGs" (10 th S. iii. 429). If your correspondent, when consulting the ' H.E.D./ had only turned to the word garden, he would? have found that yarding, gardyng, and r/aird- iny are there recognized as Scotch spellings ; and one quotation also gives garthynge as in use in the Northern Counties in 1522. It now appears that the same form also once obtained in Norfolk. I believe I have heard it myself, but I cannot now remember where, s WALTER W. SKEAT.
It is customary amongst the lower- classes to knock off the g in most words s ending in ing. Some of the agi/sjculturab labourers hereabouts who habitually do this;
