12 g. ii. NOV. ii. 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
399
and Westmorland a dish of earthenware;
wood, or metal is known as a " dibbler.'
As a "dribbler" is a tippler, and "dribb-
ling " means tippling, drinking, or " boosing,"
the word " driblow " (assuming the word l<>
be correctly transcribed) might be thought to
denote a pewter drinking vessel or tankard,
but I am afraid this assumption would only
supply another illustration of " false ety-
mology." A. C. C.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (12 S. ii. 290, 336). The couplet given at the latter reference :
Though lost to sight to memory dear, The absent claim a sigh, the dead a tear,
wherever it originated, is clearly an echo of
Pope's
Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear : A sigh the absent claim, the dead a tear.
N. W. HILL.
If G. W. E. R. consults ' Douglas' j 40,000 Quotations ' he will find the line
Though lost to sight to memory dear attributed to " George Linley." The second line there is :
Thou ever wilt remain.
WILLIAM L. STOREY. 1 Harden Villas, Rosetta, Belfast. [The reference to Linley's song was included in the editorial note, ante, p. 290.]
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DENTISTS (12 S. ii. 64, 115, 194, 218). The quack mentioned by DR. CLIPPINGDALE at the second reference is not an isolated example of an eighteenth-century dentist engaged in general practice. As a distinguished Casanovist, MR. HORACE BLEACKLEY will remember that the adventurer during a visit to Parma found himself in need of medical advice. The following extract from the ' Memoires ' is of interest :
" My case was not one for an empiric, and I
thought I had better confide in M. dc la Haye
This man, whose age and experience demanded respect, put me in the hands of a clever surgeon, who was also a, dentist." Ed. Flammarion, ii. 155. Ed. Gamier, ii. 251.
J. D. ROLLESTON, M.D.
GRAY : A BOOK OF SQUIBS (12 S. ii. 285). It may perhaps interest your correspondent to know that the Gray MSS. referred to in the quotation from Tovey's ' Gray and his Friends ' were sold at Sotheby's in August, 1854. They formed the subject of an article in The Athenaeum of July 29, 1854, and an account of the sale appeared in the issue of the same journal of Aug. 12, 1854. The collection appears to have been dispersed
into various hands, but only one name is
given Mr. Wrightson of Birmingham, who
purchased the ' Elegy ' for 13H.
JOHN T. PAGE.
on
A Descriptive Catalogue of Miscellaneous Charter* and other Documents relating to the Districts of Sheffield and Rotherham, with Abstracts of Sheffield Wills, 1554 to 1560. Compiled by T. Walter Hall. (Sheffield, W. Northend.)
THE Miscellaneous Documents included in this work begin with the Kilnhurst deed of covenant belonging to the later twelfth century, which is followed by the charter of William de Lovetot y the treasure in the possession of the Town Trustees of Sheffield, the date of which is prior to 1181. The various other documents which come under this heading are spread pretty evenly over the next three centuries, and are both interesting and, for the restricted area to which they belong, fairly numerous. The Wills, as the title-page indicates,, are mostly of the mid-sixteenth century, but a few later ones have been added, and chief among; these is that of William Burton of Boyds Mill dated 1734/5 important for the light it throws on the history of Wadsley Hall and Ecclesfield. Mr. Walter Hall appends to this two or three pages of useful notes on the different owners of that estate, and on the structure of the house, and mentions a curious custom said to have been kept up there through mediaeval times : every Christmas twelve men and their horses were entertained at the Hall for twelve days, and each man, before he left, stood by the hearth, where the ashes of departed ancestors were supposed to be buried, and drove a large pin into the oaken beam forming the lintel of the fire- place.
The charters, leases, and other like documents of which the bulk of the volume consists, are mainly of interest to the local antiquary ; the families most abundantly illustrated are Mpntfort (under several variations), Kilnhurst (in the earlier years), and Creswick. Under date 1381 is an acquittance of Agnes del Thwayt to John Moumforth for forty pounds and one gown with one fur, in payment for certain things he had bought from her. In 1405 we have an abstract of the lengthy will of William Cresewyk of London, of which most of the details concern London the testator being of the Sheffield family of Creswick and mentioning his cousin John of that town. To the prior and convent of Holy Trinity called " Crichirche within Algatc," William left, among other things, his Mass book, vestment,, chalice, two new books called " Greylles " (grail- books, graduals) and a large " porthors " (i.e.* portiforium, a breviary). Another good document Is a View of Frankpledge (April 15, 1448), having; several noteworthy names among the jurors, to establish a right of way upon which encroachment had been made ; this deed, dated at Norton, remains in the custody of the vicar. A deed which it would be instructive to have explained is the licence to one Robert Brommefy and Margaret his wife to depait from the house of St. Robert of the order of the Holy Trinity. Two inventories occur, the one of 1549 (goods of
