Laurence Whitaker may readily be forgiven for this excellent, but tart, pun; yet, gentle reader, I adjure you to avoid the low, and detestable, sin of punning. The punster ever plays a losing game-for one good pun he makes eleven bad ones, and tortures, and disgusts, his hearers with his false witin good troth, he highly deserves to be punished.

NOTE 20 (p. 226.)

"Ambresbury." This town has been reported to have derived its name from Aurelius Ambrosius, an ancient British King, the successor of Vortigern.

The Welsh Triads, it is said, mention this Aurelius Ambrosius, and the fabulous Jeffry of Monmouth records many of his alleged acts; but little dependence can, I think, be placed on his asserted history, and no sure connexion be established between him, and the ancient town of Ambresbury, and its neighbourhood.

In my attempted developement of the name of this place, I beg permission to make the following quotation from the splendid work on "Auncient Wiltescire," by my friend, Sir R. C. Hoare, published in 1812: "In my account of Stonehenge" (says he) "I took occasion to notice the very improbable idea, that the British King Ambrosius had imparted his name to the adjoining town of Amesbury; and we must now endeavour to trace its derivation to a more remote, more probable, and more dignified origin. There can be but one opinion respecting the high antiquity of the temple of Stonehenge, and the numerous sepulchral memorials around it, (some of which I have proved, in more than one instance, to have been raised since the construction of the building,) seem to attest the high veneration, in which it was held by the Britons; thither they resorted as to the Great Sanctuary of the Dominion, and there they seemed desirous, that their ashes should be deposited. In short, Stonehenge was to the Britons, what Mecca is now to the Turks.

"I need not, by torturing etymology, endeavour to seek for an appropriate derivation for the word Amesbury, or Ambresbury, as it has been frequently denominated; for in Ambresbury, we recognise the town of the Ambres. Mr. Camden, in his description of Cornwall, tells us, that near Pensans there

was a noted stone called Maen Amber, which, though of vast bigness, you might move with your little finger; notwithstanding which, a great number of men could not remove it out of the place. It was, however, thrown down during the civil wars by the Governor of Pendennis. The Cornish historian, Mr. Norden, supposes these stones were so set, and subtilly combined, not by art, but by nature, and by referring to the drawing he has given of it, I am inclined to be of the same opinion.

"Maen Amber signifies Lapis Ambrosius, or Petra Ambrosia, derived from the British word maen, a stone, and augos, divine or holy. Dr. Stukeley, in his description of Stonehenge, at page 50, has engraved one of the coins belonging to the city of Tyre, on which are represented two large upright stones placed before an altar with the inscription of Ambrocie Petre. I find, also, another coin in Vaillant, with a similar inscription. From these authorities I think we may reasonably infer, that the modern name of Amesbury, or Ambresbury, derives its origin from the maen Ambres, or petræ ambrosia, and not from the British Emperor Aurelius Ambrosius."

I will now further pursue the etymology suggested, and, I think, correctly so, by Sir R. C. H. I believe it to be an established fact, that all places, which, in their nomenclature, end in the adjunct bury, either have, or had, in their vicinity an ancient encampment. The Saxon Word denotive of a camp is burig. The connexion, and the interchange, of the Saxon and the modern English Letters g and y are well proved. In the early language of the nation the words gate and given were, for instance, written, and pronounced, as yate and yeven. Here we have the obverse change-the Saxon Burig became the English Burie, and, subsequently, Bury. This leads me to the observation, that between Stonehenge and Ambresbury, yet very near to the latter place, there is an ancient encampment, which Stukeley, without any solid reason, assigns to Vespasian; and, from hence, it is now well known, as "Vespasian's Camp." I cannot but, therefore, express my belief, that Stonehenge and the encampment in question unitedly imparted the name to the neighbouring town, and that Ambres-burig, or Ambres-burie, or bury, did signify the camp near the Holy Stones.

Auncient Wiltescire, Vol. 1, p. 197.

NOTE 21-(p. 228.)

"William of Malmesbury." See Note 12, p. 576.

NOTE 22-(p. 230.)

"She was a worthy woman all hire live,

Housbondes at the chirche dore had she had five."

Chaucer has, as usual, drawn this character with the hand of a master. He denominates her as a good Wif," and makes her to dwell" beside Bathe." He depicts her as industrious, for she could make cloth—as religious, for she had made many pilgrimages, and never omitted the payment of her offerings. She dressed well-she attired herself in a handsome suit-for thus says he :

"Hire coverchiefs weren ful fine of ground;

I dorste swere, they weyeden a pound;

That on the Sonday were upon hire hede.

Hire hosen weren of fine scarlet rede,

Ful streiste yteyed, and shoon ful moist and newe."

She was, moreover, comely of visage :

"Bold was hire face, and fayre, and rede of hew.”

The Poet, then, fully sets forth her worth; for, says he, "She was a worthy woman all hire live:"

and well, indeed, was her worth full proved, for

"Housbondes at the chirche dore had she had five."

Let us ever bear in mind the regard this excellent dame did pay to the holy state of matrimony-let us freely, and frankly, acknowledge the honour, which she yielded to the male part of the creation-let us, gentle reader, when we meet, drink-To the memorie of the good Wif of Bathe :-for

"Housbondes at the chirche dore had she had five."

Here you ask me, why "at the chirche dore?" and, in answer to this question, I beg leave to refer to the "Sacra Institutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium Celebrandi," &c., or the Book

of Offices of the Church of Salisbury in the days of the Papists. I see, that the Rubric, for the order of Matrimony, opens thus: "In primis statuantur vir & mulier ante ostium Ecclesiæ coram Deo, Sacerdote & populo, vir à dextris mulieris, & mulier à sinistris viri." The service then proceeds before the door of the Church in the manner the Rubric, occasionally, points out, until the union be entered into, and the blessing given. The married parties then go into the Church, and advance to the step of the Altar, the Priest repeating, as he walks, the 127th Psalm; and, after further prayers, &c., the remainder of the ceremony is there concluded.

NOTE 23-(p. 234.)

"Who has not heard of the pathetic ballad of Admiral Hosier's Ghost,' by Glover, the author of the poem of Leonidas?"

The occasion of the above-mentioned pathetic ballad occurred in the year 1726. It may be found in Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," vol. ii. p. 376. The facts, on which the ballad is founded, are thus related in Smollett's " History of England," vol. x. p. 311: "Rear-Admiral Hosier, with seven ships of war, had sailed in April for the Spanish West-Indies, with instructions to block up the galleons in the ports of that country; or, should they presume to come out, seize and bring them to England. Before his arrival at the Bastimentos, near Porto Bello, the treasure, consisting of above six millions sterling, had been unloaded, and carried back to Panama, in pursuance of an order sent by an advice-boat, which had the start of Hosier. This Admiral lay inactive on that station, until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He returned to Jamaica, where he found means to reinforce his crew then he stood over to Carthagena. The Spaniards had by this seized the English South-sea ship at La Vera Cruz, together with all the vessels and effects belonging to that company. Hosier in vain demanded restitution: he took some Spanish ships by way of reprisal, and continued cruizing in those seas, until the greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that unhealthy climate; and his ships were totally ruined by the worms. This brave officer being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of his courage, seeing

his best officers and men daily swept off by an outrageous distemper, and his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, is said to have died of a broken heart; while the people of England loudly clamoured against this unfortunate expedition, in which so many lives were thrown away, and so much money expended without the least advantage to the nation."

Glover, the ingenious author of the poem of "Leonidas," wrote these well-conceived verses-" Admiral Hosier's Ghost" -on the occasion of the taking of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon, Nov, 22, 1739. He supposes the victorious fleet of Vernon as lying at anchor, and the shades of the lamented Hosier, and of his brave officers, and crews, as "rising from their wat'ry grave."

The ghost of Hosier then calls on, and addresses, Vernon in strains of lamentable woe-he finely contrasts their varied fortunes, and adjures him to remind his country of their wrongs in language so plaintive, that it cannot fail to reach the heart, and excite the feeling of deep commiseration.

NOTE 24-(p. 275.)

"The word shoon is the plural number of the Anglo-Saxon Word schoo."

The reliques of the olden language, and manners, and customs, are by far more often to be found amongst the lowerindeed, I may say the lowest grade of society, and hence it is no disparagement to the philologist-to the inquirer into ancient lore-here to exercise his critical acumen in the developement of the vestigia of those early æras, which are altogether lost amongst the changeful fashions of the higher classes. In the language of the commonalty, the Saxon Plural ending in en, or n, not unfrequently meets the ear, e'en as it did in Shakspeare's time. Thus shoes are still vulgarly called shoon, as houses are, in a similar manner, denominated housen. The erudite, and discriminating, Lowth, in his "Introduction to English Grammar," observes, that the ancient plurals sowen, and cowen, are now abbreviated into swine, and kine.