true" should symbolize nothing better than an in- been narrated by Wilkie himself at Rydal Mount, firm purpose and an unfulfilled behest.

Other moralizers have, however, dwelt upon the lesson, and Southey adduces instances on the very page already quoted; but in the particular instance under consideration the attendant circumstances of the refectory, the Cenacolo, and the "old monk" all point to a plagiarism-rather than a repetition. R. H. BUSK.

P.S.-In Wordsworth's 'Memoirs,' ii. 272-3, dictated more than thirteen years after the event, he says that he believes the story as embodied in his lines on his daughter's portrait was thus first communicated to the public; that Southey heard the story from Miss Hutchinson, and transferred it to 'The Doctor.' But these Lines' are dated 1834, and therefore must first have appeared in the 1836 edition of his poems, whereas the third volume of The Doctor' was published in 1835. The note in Rogers's 'Italy' was first inserted in

1838.

THE DATE OF THE 'ROMAN DE LA ROSE' (7th S. vii. 144).—The point noted by your correspondent F. N.-the bearing of the line

Est ore de cecile rois

by Méon as containing internal evidence of having
been written not later than 1305. The lines are
those in which the entering of certain religious
orders is advocated; and among these is mentioned
the order of the Templars, which Méon says would
not have been mentioned as a reputable body after
1305, about which time the scandals in connexion
with it came to a head. But these lines, on ex-
amination, seem, if they prove anything, to show
evidence rather of having been written after these
scandals had come to light. The speaker is Faux-
Semblant, the personification of Hypocrisy; and
after enumerating, as fit orders to be entered,-
Cil blanc moine,

Cil noir, cil reguler chanoine,
Cil de l'Ospital, cil du Temple,

he adds significantly,—

Car bien puis faire d'eus exemple.
He has told us before that he shuns really religious
folk, and he evidently means to imply that the
Templars were a fraternity after his own heart.*

Do not the MSS. throw any light on the question of date? Has any one attempted to note or collate the numerous MSS. of the Roman' which yet exist, or to fix the date of the earliest? In the valuable collection of books presented by Sir George Grey to the South African Public Library at Cape Town there is a fine folio MS. of the 'Roman de la Rose,' whose date has been assigned, from an examination of the illuminations, to the "close of the on the date of Meung's continuation-has been re- reign of Edward I. or the beginning of that of Edpeatedly taken notice of, ever since M. Paulin Paris ward II.," or somewhere between the years 1300 drew attention to it in the Journal des Savans, and 1320. This MS. has lost some leaves, and October, 1816, in a review of Méon's edition of appears, from the slight examination I was able to the 'Roman de la Rose.' But it should perhaps make of it, to have been written either from dictabe remarked that these lines occur in the first tion or by a very unintelligent scribe. Doubtless third, hardly beyond the first quarter, of the work. there are other MSS. which can be fixed to a date The writing of the remaining 15,000 lines must as early, perhaps earlier. In Ward's 'Catalogue of have taken some time, and the passage, which was Romances' there are mentioned twelve MSS. of the true when it was written, may have been left stand-Roman de la Rose' belonging to the British ing, even if no longer true by the time the poem was finished. One would like to know what authority Kausler has for stating (as your correspondent says) that Jean de Meung wrote his part of the 'Roman' before his translation of Vegetius, 'De Re Militari.' Further, of what value is the authority of Papirius Masson, who (as quoted by Méon) alleges that Jean de Meung lived in the reign of Philippe le Bel (1285-1314), and continued at his instigation the Gallicum poema cui Rosa nomen,' begun by William de Lorris "in the times of St. Louis" (1226-1270)? There are certain lines (11,608 Méon, 12,340 F. Michel)* which are quoted

I am taking my knowledge of Méon's statements from the edition of Francisque Michel, 2 vols., 1864, who reproduces most of Méon's prefatory matter, and this so slavishly (or in so slovenly a fashion) that he has not corrected the line citations to suit the numbering of his own edition. A difference of nearly 400 lines in the numbering is caused simply by a printer's error in

Museum (one contains only a few fragments).
Four of these are assigned to the "xivth cent."
Are there no indications in any of them of a more
definite date?
F. W. B.

WETHERBY (7th S. vi. 308, 414; vii. 9, 73, 253). EBORACUM makes kindly reference to my 'Cleveland Glossary.' But no one knows better than myself what need there is of excision, revision, correction, and addition in order to bring it up to Michel's edition. In vol. i. p. 112, the head-line, instead of 3408, is numbered 4008, and the mistake is carried on through the rest of the numbering.

* It may be worth remarking that in the English version, which Prof. Skeat puts "perhaps as early as 1350❞— that is, at least forty years after these scandals had ended in the suppression of the Order of Templars—these lines are arranged differently (the "templers and hospitelers" come first), and the last line, the point of its sarcasm being by this time obsolete, is altered to "I wole no more ensamplis make" (Bell's 'Chaucer,' vol. iv. pp. 224–5).

the present standard of philological knowledge and is not quite so Protean as the old name of Roseberry criticism. But I fear old age, and the pressure of work Topping, which assumes five-and-twenty to thirty undertaken long since, preclude the very possibility different aliases, but it is met with under such of such an attempt. Reverting to the communica- variant forms that it is hard to fix on any as tion signed EBORACUM; after passing with the the likely original one, although I think this writer through the stages of hard "hobby-riding," ultimately referable to Ivar, Iar, Ir. As to Englebi, the "derivation of names from places," my birth Mr. Green, after writing, "Other hamlets give us and upbringing, with the Cleveland dialect as the the names of the warriors themselves as they turned final halting-place, I feel as if I had been made to to 'plough and till,' Beorn and Ailward, Grim and perform an involuntary somersault which had Aswulf, Orm and Tol, Thorald and Swein "—all dizzied me a little. All the same, I am indebted quoted from my list above named-proceeds, "Three to EBORACUM for two pieces of information. My Englebys or Inglebys......tell how here and there autobiography, if ever projected, would-errone- lords of the old Engle race still remained on a ously, of course-have stated that I had never set level with the conquerors." To this I demur. It foot in Berkshire until I was nearer forty years of involves the anomaly that in three different instances age than thirty. And I was concerned about my within a very limited area, "C lords......on a level "ridden-to-death hobby." But, on looking into the stable, I am pleased to find he looks quite "fresh," and as equal to a long day across country or by the quiet roadside as he has ever been for many a year. And so long as he is backed by such supporters as he has met with the late J. R. Green being the last whose good word I have had the pleasure of noting-I hardly think he will be withdrawn from the course. At the same time, I should like to be assured that it is really a hobby of mine, and not some "dark horse," that EBORACUM is thinking about.

What I have advanced is this: that, so far as my own inquiries and studies have gone-and they have mainly been limited (as I have stated) to the place-names in this district of Cleveland -the prefix in the preponderating majority of place-names ending in by is an Old Danish personal name; and I may have added that I think it very likely the same rule may be found to hold good elsewhere. Now, I published a list of forty-three such place-names in the introduction to my 'Glossary' twenty-one years ago, all Cleveland names, and most of them still existing. Three of these names were given in the form Englebi, and two in the name Normanebi. Deducting these three duplicates, the total number remaining is forty. Of these forty the following, Normanebi, Ulgeberdesbi or Ugleberdebi, Baldebi, Barnebi, Alewardebi or Elwordebi, Grimesbi, Bergelbi or Bergebi, Rozebi or Roscebi, Asuluebi or Asuluesbi, Bollebi, Danebi, Leisingebi, Ormesbi, Bernodebi, Esebi, Badresbi, Tollesbi, Colebi, Maltebi, Tormozbi, Steines bi, Berguluesbi, Turoldesbi, Buschebi, Feizbi, and Swainby, twenty-six in all, are such that the prefix is, in nine out of ten of them, at once identifiable with familiar Norse or Danish personal names, and the residue equally recognizable on inquiry. Of the other sixteen, Staxebi, Michelbi, Rodebi, Cherchebi, Bordleby, Newby, Netherbi, Overbi, eight in all, are such that their prefixes are evidently qualifying terms; and I think Prestebi, and perhaps Witebi and another or two may admit of addition to the list. Yearby

with the conquerors were yet compelled to have Engle (or Anglian) tons or hams, or what not, renamed by Danish sponsors with appellations ending in the characteristic Danish by. On the contary, I hold that the name, in either case, which forms the prefix is infinitely more likely to be the personal Norse and Danish name which repeatedly appears in the form Ingald; which, moreover, occurs in the Yorkshire Domesday in the form Ingold; of Ingeld in two other ancient authorities; and of Inguald in yet a third (as noted by myself thirty years ago); all of which are in the same relation to the original Ingialldr as are Dane, Norman, and Dufgall to their several ascertained sources. On the whole, then, I think my position has been fairly stated; but, to put it in a still clearer light, let me refer to what I printed and published, about the year 1872, in my 'History of Cleveland' (vol. i. pp. 60-3). First, I quote from Freeman's 'Norman Conquest' (i. 562) the following sentence: "As for the nomenclature of towns and villages, it would seem that places were more commonly named directly after individuals in the course of the Danish Conquest than they had been by the earlier English occupiers." Then, after adverting to the self-evident absolute-not comparative-paucity of names of English imposition in the district under notice (or Cleveland), I remark on the fact that, out of a total of many more than 250 ancient place-names (119 of which were derived from Domesday and the rest from ancient charters and such-like documents), only six involving the patronymic ing (and one of these only apparently) are met with in the entire list. And then I proceed to say that "in respect of the great majority of local or place names to be met with in the district, involving all those that end in by, forty nine in number; in -thorpe, thirteen; in -thwaite, twelve; in -grif, seven or eight; in -dale, thirtyone; in -beck, -gill, -houe, -scar, -keld, -um (the most of them), -sty, wic or -wyke, &c., there can be no doubt that they are palpably, and with but few exceptions or qualifications, due to the Danish colonists who pressed in and began to occupy, certainly before the close of the ninth century;

Baillet, dropped the name of Segestre; and the
monastery and the little town by its side, which
still exist, near the source of the Seine at some
little distance from Dijon, took the name of the
saint, who deceased about A.D. 580.
WILLIAM COOKE, F.S.A.

St. Sequanus, in French Seine, is commemorated on Sept. 19. Baronius, in 'Mart. Rom.,' calls him "presbyter and confessor," with a reference to Gregory of Tours, De Glor. Confess.,' cap. lxxxviii., and Trithemius, 'De Viris Illustr. O.S.B.,' l. iii. cap. 302, for his history. Alban Butler states that he was "born in the little town of Maymont, in the extremity of Burgundy," and that he "built a monastery in the forest of Segestre, near the source of the river Seine, which still bears his name "; also that he is supposed to have died "on the 19th of September, 580, and that his relics are kept in the monastery."

ED. MARSHALL.

and it is quite worthy of remark that the greatly preponderating majority give up the names of the individual Northmen who in effect stood sponsors for them." And in order that it may be apparent that such a distinct statement does not rest on an ipse dixit only, or in any sense, I adduce in a note some five-and-twenty instances in which the fact is obtrusively as represented, and allege that a long list of the same nature still remains; ending up with these words: "Indeed, the rule in Cleveland seems to have been that each settler, with singularly few exceptions, called the place which his lot gave him after his own name; but that the subdivisions of the allotment, some of which are perpetuated in the townships of the present day, were much the most frequently distinguished by designations suggested by some local peculiarity or accidental circumstance; as in the case of Netherby, Overby, Priestby, Stakesby, Thingwala, &c., all in or close to Whitby." When, then, EBORÁCUM mentions my "hobby of place-names being derived from the ASTARTE says that he (or, as Astarte was "queen owners of property," without any reference to the of heaven," I suppose she) cannot call to mind " & essential qualifications of district and race, broadly Mr. Ouse, a Mr. Humber, a Mr. Thames, or a stated by myself in divers of my numerous Mr. Trent." I have no recollection of ever meetwritings," I hardly think that it is " my hobby" ing with the first three either in real life or in at all of which he is writing, but "a horse of quite fiction, but the last must be for ever dear to lovers another colour." Of course, such criticisms-if the of Dickens, as it is Little Nell's surname. As this word may be applied at all-do no real damage, devoted and charming child is invariably spoken although they may and do excite a smile on more of, in allusions to her, as “Little Nell," I dare say countenances than mine only; but they often sug- there are scores of people, even of people well gest to me the thought, "Oh, that mine enemy "acquainted with Dickens, who could not at a would-not "write a book"-Heaven forfend!- moment's notice say what her surname is. I underbut compile the necessary lists of names, personal stand that there is a tendency to a reaction against and local, make the necessary researches, investiga- Dickens. If so, I grieve to hear it. Dickens, though tions, collations and comparisons, engage in the not so great a literary artist as Scott or Thackeray, requisite studies of language, folk-speech, and is as true a genius as either, and Little Nell (not history, all of which must be undertaken before to speak of others of his characters) is, like Coreven the most exhaustive, faithful, and thoughtful delia, Jeannie Deans, and Rebecca, one of the list, or series of lists of the nature indicated can canonized saints of fiction, never to grow old so be made available for such an object as "writing | long as English literature is remembered. a book," and then he would find how much easier it is to write careless, inaccurate, and flippant paragraphs than it is to qualify oneself for speaking on such matters at all. J. C. ATKINSON.

MONTE VIDEO (7th S. vii. 7, 293).-About the
pronunciation of Video there can be no question.
The accent is on the e, Video.
G. D.

ST. SEINE (7th S. vii. 205).—If ASTARTE had recalled the Latin name of the river Seine, Sequana, and upon this hint had turned to September 19 in Alban Butler's 'Lives,' she would have found a brief account of St. Sequanus, otherwise St. Seine, otherwise St. Sigon. His piety culminated in the foundation of an abbey in a situation which Adrien Baillet, 'Les Vies des Saints,' vol. ix. p. 496, describes to have been 66 un lieu affreux nommé Segestre, enfoncé dans une épaisse forêt qui n'avoit servi de retraites jusques-la qu'à des voleurs et à des bêtes farouches." This site, according to

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

I am sorry to say I know nothing of St. Seine, alias Sequanus, alias Segonus, alias Sigo the Abbot, beyond the date of his death being Sept. 19. But if it is of any service to ASTARTE to know it, I have two friends by the name of Trent, and he will find three or four persons of that name, and one or two of Humber, in the 'London Directory'; or at all events there are such in a country copy of 1884 I have just taken up.

R. W. HACKWOOD. But there is, or was, a gentleman of that name, an we have not a Mr. Humber." engineer, who wrote a treatise on ironwork.

W. C. B.

THE ORTHODOX DIRECTION FOR BUILDING CHURCHES (7th S. vii. 166, 250).—With regard to the chancel not always being in a straight line with the nave, it was, so far as I know, first suggested by