9- s. xii. SEPT. 12, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
211
sionate Pilgrim.' I do not think critics are
so easily misled as he supposes, and it is
certainly beyond the limits of credence that
Shakespeare would have desired to appear as
the author of his contemporaries' inferior
productions. HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.
I fear MR. STRONACH'S new theory cannot stand. The immortal Sonnets may have been addressed to two or more different persons, but they all came from one splendid head, and are autobiographical of the same splendid genius. Moreover, the * Partheno- phil ' of Barnes (1593) is too early in date to meet the case. It was after 'Lucrece' (1594) that the question of the rival poet or poets arose, and Chapman and Daniel both suit ever so much better than Barnes. Chapman wrote hymns, and called them so, as well as Barnes, and both Prof. Minto and Mr. Tyler have given good reasons for the former being at least one of the rival poets. But, through recent discoveries, the question of the Shake- speare Sonnets has entered into quite a new phase. The same illustrious Elizabethan genius who "showed his head "in 'Lucrece' also showed it at the very beginning of his " sugred " sonnets, and he showed it with his rose upon his breast. NE QUID NIMIS.
" SUR LE PONT D' AVIGNON " (9 th S. xii. 170). This song appears to be the French equiva- lent for our English ' Mulberry Bush,' and verses may be added at discretion. The fol- lowing is from Spiers's 'First French Book for Children' :
Sur le Pont d' Avignon L'on y danse, Ton y danse ! Sur le Pont d' Avignon L'on y danse tout en ronde.
1. Les beaux messieurs font comme ca
(Us saluent). Et puis encore comme ca
(Us saluent encore). 2 Les belles dames font comme ga
(Elles font une reverence). Et puis encore comme ca
(Elles font encore une reverence). 3.
Les cordonniers
4.
Les cochers , &c.
M. E. F. [Very many similar replies are acknowledged.]
ASH : PLACE-NAME (9 th S. xii. 106). Any place named Ash, or commencing Ash-, may almost certainly be assumed to refer to the ash tree. The Anglo-Saxon form was cesc (in Mercian dialect pronounced ash, there being no sh in the language). The Norman scribes
who compiled Domesday Book could not say
ash, or bring themselves to write cesc, so they
record it as Aissa, Aisse, Asch, Esce, Esche,
and Esse, according to the taste of the indi-
vidual scribe. The Middle English forms
are asch, asche, esche, assche, aish, ashe. The
suggestion that ash has any relation to esca,
or water, may be discarded as impossible.
W. H. DUIGNAN.
To the instances given there may be added Ash in Surrey, Ash in Somerset, and Mountain Ash in South Wales. They all appear to refer to the tree, as do also Ash Vale and Ashton, and many other place- names beginning with Ash. Is there not also a One Ash somewhere in Lancashire? If so, this would seem decisive. C. C. B.
MAYORS' CORRECT TITLE AND THEIR PRE- CEDENCE (9 th S. xi. 389, 437 ; xii. 57). In
- Lincolnshire Tradesmen's Tokens ' Mr. Justin
Simpson remarks :
" I believe it is a fact not generally known that at all royal presentations at which civic and municipal magnates from all parts of England are invited to attend, the Worshipful the Mayor of Stamford has precedence over all the others, save those of London, York, and Dublin, a precedency which was recog- nised at the opening of the World's Fair in 1851."^ P. 46.
ST. SWITHIN.
So early as the year 1537 Thomas Dorset, curate of St. Margaret's, Lothbury, addressed a letter to the Mayor of Plymouth, beginning "To the right worshipfull Mr. Horsewell." See * Excerpta Historica,' 1831, by Samuel Bentley. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
FLATS (9 th S. xii. 49, 134). In his communi- cation on this subject MR. E. H. COLEMAN refers to a definition of the word "flat" in the ' Imperial Dictionary,' published in 1888, and remarks that "flats must have been in existence before" that date. It must not be supposed from this that "flats" are a modern invention, for they have been in existence in Scottish towns for hundreds of years. The definition quoted by MR. COLE- MAN is fairly accurate, and is practically the same as that given in the 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary.' Nuttall's 'Dictionary' (1890 edition) inaccurately defines a " flat " as " In Scotland, a floor in a house " !
Green's 'Encyclopaedia of Scots Law,' vol. iii. p. 132, 1896 (voce ' Common Interest'), says :
"The term 'common interest' is peculiarly applicable to the rights of proprietors of different flats, or dwelling-houses contained in a single building with possibly different entrances, but under one roof, and contained between the same gables and walls, over every part of the building
