12 S. I. JAN. 8, 1916.1
NOTES AND QUERIES.
35
original memorial rings, and have made
copies to replace lost ones. There exists a
bill of " John Salter to Lady Hamilton, from
Jan., 1800, to 1803," and among the " items "
are many presents ; so that if she gave
n-emorial rings after 1306 she probably em-
ployed his firm to make them. After her
death in 1813 " the effects of Lady Hamilton,
deceased," were advertised to be sold by
auction by Messrs. Abbott at the instigation
of a Mr. McGorman and other creditors, and
Salter was instructed to safeguard " Miss
Nelson's " interests by inspecting the cata-
logue before the sale to ascertain if any of
the articles belonged to her. His bill " for
examining the inventory, and for making
three fair copies thereof, and for giving
notice to Abbott," &c., amounted to
31. 5s. Wd. In vol. vii. p. 389 of Sir Harris
Nicolas' s ' Nelson's Dispatches ' is the
account of Lord Nelson's visit to the shop
of John Salter very early in the morning
af Aug. 30, 1805, together with a copy of a
paper " in the possession of Mrs. Salter "
relating to the purchases he then made.
If any reader can give a detailed description of the diamond memorial ring, with Nelson's hair and inscription at the back, lent by Messrs. Lambert & Co. to the Chelsea Exhibition, it would be a valuable addition to the lore already collected by
- N. & Q.' on the subject of Nelson memorial
rings. THOMAS FOLEY.
THE MEANING OF "TRENT" (11 S. xii. 502). The two lines of verse quoted by MR. DODGSON seem to be altered from Drayton, ' Polyolbion,' song 12, 11. 548-53, and song 26, 11. 187-92. Here are the lines from song 12 :
A more than usual power did in that name consist, Which thirty doth import ; by which she thus
divin'd,
There should be found in her ; of fishes thirty kind ; And thirty abbeys great, in places fat and rank, Should in succeeding time be builded on her bank ; And thirty several streams from many a sundry
way, Unto her greatness should their wat'ry tribute pay.
The note to " Trent " by the Rev. R. Hooper in his edition of 1876 is to the effect that the word means " thirty." S. L. PETTY.
It is the merit of Dr. Henry Bradley to have first discovered the ancient name of the River Trent, " Trisantona," by his ingenious emendation of Tacitus's * Annal.,' xii. 31, and, simultaneously, to have identi- fied with it the River Transhannonus, Trahannonus, or Trannonus of Nennius's
- Historia [Britonum ' (cf . his two letters to
The Academy, vol. xxiii., of April 28 and
May 19, 1883).
As to the original sense of this river-name, a foot-note may deserve to be quoted which occurs in Jos. Stevenson's edition of ' Nennii Historia Britonum ' (Lond., 1838), on p. 56, viz., that its (Cymric or Ancient Welsh) equivalent appears to have been the " Traeth Annwn," i.e., the Tract or Shore of the deep (sea) or region of the British Neptune.
Nennius describes the estuary of the Trent among the topographical wonders of Britain : " Ostium Trans Hannoni fluminis, quia in una unda instar montis ad sissam tegit littora, et recedit, ut cetera maiia " (Z.c.), thus alluding to the famous " Eagre, or tide-waves of its mouth, reaching as far back as Gainsborough " on its shore.
H. KREBS.
The lines quoted form the concluding couplet of stanza xxxv. of Canto XI. in the Fourth Book of Spenser's ' The Faerie Queene.' If the English river is derived from the French trente, surely it must be unique among river-names ; for such, as a rule, seem to be connected with the earliest settlers in a country in ours being derived from Keltic, Cymric, or Gaelic roots.
Can it be related to the verb " trend," in the sense of bending in some direction ?
A. R. BAYLEY.
Viator asked this question in the second chapter of the second part of ' The Compleat Angler,' but Piscator was unable to answer it ; and Mr. Johnstone in his recently pub- lished book on ' The Place-Names of England and Wales ' confesses that the origin of the name " seems unknow r n." G. F. R. B.
NATHANIEL LEE, THE DRAMATIST (11 S. xii. 502). It is hardly correct to say that Lee, " according to Lord Rochester, was 'well lasht' by the headmaster Busby." The lines to which reference is made, and which occur in Rochester's ' Horace's Tenth Satire of the First Book Imitated,' bear, as will be seen, a rather different signification. I quote from the Rochester of 1739' The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscomon, and Dorset. . . .,' 2 vols. : When Lee makes temperate Scipio fret and rave, And Hannibal a whining am'rous Slave, I laugh, and wish the hot-brain'd Fustian Fool In Busby's Hands, to be well lash'd at School. Scipio and Hannibal are important char- acters in Lee's ' Sophonisba ; or, Hannibal's Overthrow ' (4to, 1676), a vehement riming tragedy produced with great success by the King's Company. This passionate drama