190
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. JULY. 1919.
by its being heard in the reign of Victoria.
The change from Hervey to Hervet seems
to be exactly opposite to a more usual change
of syllables which can be easily accounted
for. It is common in names and words for a
final long syllable to become a short one
ending in ey. For example, (1) Hithe in
Putney, Stepney, Bleadney, and many other
place-names. (2) I knew a man once who
was called Holly, pronounced fts " holy."
He told me that his grandfather's name was
Halbrook. (3) A man once asked me to
send him some certificates from the parish
register. The name as he wrote it was
Ratcliffe. I found it entered as Rackley.
(4) Falkland sometimes becomes Fally.
But no need to multiply instances : they
abound. In all such cases the final long
syllable becomes a short one ending in ey,
and it is easy to see why. It saves trouble.
It is less trouble to make the final syllable
short than to keep it long. In the one case
it is as a bicycle propelled along the plain,
in the other case it is as a bicycle running
down the hill. As the change from Hervey
to Hervet is the opposite to what is usual
and gives trouble instead of saving it, I
would ask whether there is not some law
(I don't mean an Act of Parliament) which
would account for it. I don't know what the
French custom is. S. H. A. H.
JAMES COCKLE, OF COCKLE'S PILLS (12 S. v. 154). The following extract from The Medical Directory for 1846 may interest your correspondent :
" Cockle, James. In practice before the Act of 1815 (when qualifications became necessary), matriculated at the University of Edinburgh in 1801, formerly, during many years, Parochial .Surgeon to Great Oakley and liamsey in Essex."
S. D. CLIPPINGDALE, M.D.
I have understood that Cockle practised .as a surgeon in a small town in Norfolk. 'Sir James Cockle, the judge, of Brisbane, was his son. J. FOSTER PALMER.
SIR CHARLES WILLIAM TAYLOR, BT. ( 12 S. v. 153). He was M.P. for Wells 1796 to 1830, married Lord Sydenham's sister, and died April 10, 1857, aged 86. The title expired with his only son Sir Charles Taylor, 2nd bart., at his death Aug. 26, 1876.
W. R. WILLIAMS.
The following account is taken from Boase's ' Modern English Biography ' :
" Sir Charles William Taylor, 1st Baronet (son of Peter Taylor of Burcot House, near Wells,
- Somerset, M.P. for Portsmouth 1774 to his death,
1777), was born April 25, 1770, and was M.P. for
Wells City from May 27, 1796, to July 24, 1830 ;
created D.C.L. at Oxford, July 6, 1810 ; created
baronet, Jan. 21, 1828. Died at Hollycoombe,
Sussex, April 10, 1857."
A memoir of him appears in The Gentle-, man's Magazine for May, 1857, which states that he was a favourite companion of King George IV. when Prince of Wales, was a constant visitor at Carlton House and the Pavilion, and that he was created baronet by that monarch. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. [W. A. B. C. also thanked for reply.]
ST. ALKELDA (12 S. v. 152). Of this saint nothing is certainly known. Dr Whittaker^ in his ' History of Richmondshire ' (vol. i. p. 333) says:
" In the east window of the north aisle of] Middleham Church was a stained - glass picture of St. Alkelda, the patroness of the church, in '. the act of being strangled by two females. The* story is said to be unknown to all the Catholic] martyrologies, and the history of the sufferer wholly forgotten."
In a ' Concise Guide to Richmondshire,' by] W T . Hylton Longstaffe (1852), it is stated* that Ralph, Lord Neville, the great Earl ofj Westmorland,
" obtained Richard II. 's charter for a weekly! market there, and a yearly fair on the feast ofj St. Alkelda the virgin, a local saint, of whom:, nothing more is known, beyond the fact that her martyrdom, two female servants strangling her, remains in a hideous state of dilapidation in the- windows. There are marks of screens having crossed the whole church, on the two piers of thej nave first from the east. At the south of these? two was an altar tomb, supposed to be that of St. Alkelda, on which payments of money were, required to be made (as on the tomb of John Harby in York Cathedral). The pulpit stands nearly on its site."
Murray's ' Guide to Yorkshire ' (1882) saygf speaking of Middleham Church, " There are some fragments of ancient glass, com- memorating St. Alkelda, of whom nothing is known."
In 1878 there was discovered in the nave of Middleham Church, near the site of the traditional tomb of St. Alkelda, a female skeleton in a stone coffin. Local opinion jumped to the conclusion that it was that of the saint, and a tablet has been placed in the church recording the discovery and marking the spot.
There was a holy well at Middleham dedicated to the saint, which is referred to in an indictment at the Richmond Quarter Sessions in July, 1640, as "St. Awkell's Well."
The only other church dedicated to this saint is that of Giggleswick in the West Riding. This parish has also a famous
