186
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. SEPT. 5, 1903.
that learned body of savants mentioned in
'Gulliver's Travels.' It does not account,
however, for the presence of the final r. As
a matter of fact, the Magyars also " mis-
pronounce " the name of their old enemies,
who between the thirteenth and eighteenth
centuries devastated Hungary on several
occasions; and history does not record the
fact that the latter took Chinamen specially
with them on their raids to teach the unlucky
Magyars how to pronounce their name.
L. L. K.
FIRST
recently
RAILWAY
published
IN SCOTLAND. In the
section of the ' Oxford
English Dictionary ' it is stated that a rail-
way existed at Newcastle in the beginning
of the seventeenth century, but no quotation
is given in reference to it. The earliest rail-
way in Scotland seems to have Jpeen a hun-
dred years later, as appears from the follow-
ing passages in M'Neill's ' Tranent and its
Surroundings ' (pp. 4, 30) :
" In 1719 the York Buildings Company, of London,
became possessors of the YVinton estates This
company had the honour of constructing, in 1722, the first tram-road, or waggon-way, that ever was made. The rails were formed of wood, and it
stretched from Port-Seton harbour to the west
cod of Tranent Down this wooden tramway
both coals and panwood were hurled in waggons containing two tons each, one horse being attached to each waggon. By this means were the salt pans at Cocken/ie and the shipping at Port-Seton har- bour supplied. In 1815 Mr. John Cadell, who some- time previous to this had acquired the lands of Tranent, removed the wooden tramway and had an iron one substituted."
The old wooden-railed line is the " waggon- way" which is so frequently mentioned in accounts of the battle of Prestonpans in 1745.
W. S.
MARSHALL FAMILY. It may be of interest to some of your genealogical readers to know of the existence of the following family register contained in a Book of Common Prayer according to the Use of the Church of England, post 8vo, Edin., 1761, which is No. 208 in Catalogue No. 116 of Mr. Walter T. Spencer, 27, New Oxford Street, W.C. :
" On the fly-leaves is inscribed a, register of a family commencing with the marriage of David Marshall and Isobel Boyd, at Stonehaven, in 1769, with the births of seven children, and probably some grandchildren, named respectively Marshall, Buchan, and Meidment."
11. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE. Lostwithiel, Cornwall.
" BISK." The * N.E.D.' gives this word in the sense of a kind of soup. This can hardly be its meaning in the following. Writing of the Bannians at Surat in 1690, j. Ovingtoii,
in 'A Voyage to Suratt in the Year 1689'
(London, 1696), says :
"Therefore they never taste the flesh of any thing that has breath'd the Common Air, nor pol- lute themselves with feeding on any thing endued with Life ; and are struck with astonishment at the voratious Appetites of the Christians, who heap whole Bisks of Fish upon their Tables, and sacrifice whole Hecatombs of Animals to their Gluttony.
EMERITUS.
EPITAPH AT STANFORD KIVERS. The fol- lowing epitaph, of the early nineteenth cen- tury, is on a marble slab on the north wall of the chancel of Stanford Rivers Church, near Ongar, Essex : Had prayer been gifted to avert thy fall, Cou'd Love have saved thee or might tears recall, Were lengthened life allied to female worth, Thou, dearest, still wert habitant of earth. Ah, Mem'ry fondly wins thee back to life, Hails her loved friend, her daughter, sister, wife, While Hope, by some descending angel given, Points to the 'bleeding cross, and whispers peace from heaven.
T. WILSON.
Rivers Lodge, Harpenden, Herts.
BEN JONSON AND TENNYSON. On p. 52 of his admirable monograph on Tennyson in the " English Men of Letters " series, Sir Alfred Lyall makes some pertinent remarks on the stanza of ' In Memoriam.' He says :
"We know from the 'Memoir' that Tennyson believed himself to be the originator of the metre of ' In Memoriam,' until after its appearance he was told that it might be found in Elizabethan poetry and elsewhere. Of the two specimens in Ben Jonson, one of them, the elegy ' Underwood,' has a certain resemblance in movement and tone with Tennyson's shorter pieces in the same metre."
This is an imperfect reference. In Jonson's 'Underwoods' there are nine lyrics, each of which is entitled " an elegy." That which anticipates Tennyson's stanza is marked No. xxxix. of the collection, and is not readily found unless alluded to by its specific num- ber. THOMAS BAYNE.
SEXDECIM VALLES. This name is a diffi- culty to those who are unacquainted with Yorkshire topography. In the Surtees Society's Publications, vol. Ixxxviii. p. 310, Marma- duke de Tweng (i.e., Thwirig in the East Riding) wishes to produce one Laurence de Sexdecim Vallibus as a witness, and in the index this is said to stand for " Severs." In vol. xc. p. 180, another witness is named " Magister Thomas de xvj vallibus "; but the editor quietly ignores him, and omits him from the index. Again, in vol. xcii. p. 556, mention is made of "Nicholas de Sexdecim Vallibus," who is so indexed. The present name of the place is Thixendale, a village
