concerning members of my family, which I am desirous of putting right, in addition to making an inquiry in the columns of 'N. & Q.' Mr. John Stubbs (my maternal grandfather), originally of Press, co. Salop, and afterwards of High Holborn and Brighton (goldsmith), who was one of the contributors to a fund for defraying the expenses of the Rev. Charles Wesley's funeral, was twice married. His first wife-not second, as stated in the above-mentioned work-was a Miss Millicent Reynolds, of Peckleton, co. Leicester. The marriage was solemnized at Peckleton parish church in June, 1785, the original licence for the marriage being still in my possession. There were five children of this marriage, viz., Mary Ann (who died under two years of age), John, William, Millicent, and a second Mary Ann. Mrs. Millicent Stubbs died 13 March, 1794, and her youngest child two days after. John Stubbs's second wife was a Miss Sarah Nolloth (not a "Miss Reynolds," as stated by the author). She was a sister of John Nolloth, Esq, of Camberwell or Peckham. He held an important position in the Admiralty in connexion with Portsmouth Dockyard. The second marriage took place in March, 1795, as appears by one of several entries in my grandfather's Bible, also in my possession. This book was one of numerous exhibits to an affidavit of Sarah Stubbs (the elder) sworn before Lord Henley on 16 April, 1835, in a suit for the administration of the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Ives, of Lambton Hall, Middlesex. She was a sister of John Stubbs. The costs in Stubbs v. Sargon were so enormous that Lord Brougham brought a Bill into Parliament to amend the law, and thus prevent a similar misfortune in the future. There were nine children of the second marriage, viz., Charles Nolloth, Sarah, Thomas (who died in infancy), George, Ann, another Thomas, William, Henry Ovendon, and Joshua. Ann married my father, Richard Ormond Birch, solicitor, of Marylebone. My Own name is John Henry Basil Stubbs Birch; but finding it most inconvenient to sign four Christian names (except in legal documents), I have for years past adopted only two. There is also another error in the beforementioned work, in the copy of the inscription on tomb 97 in the City-Road Chapel. A Mrs. Largon is stated to have been a niece of my great-aunt, Mrs. Ives. It should have been Mrs. Sargon. I may mention that Mrs. Ives used to entertain large gatherings of Wesleyan ministers and others at Lambton Hall. WELDS OF WILLEY PARK, SALOP.-Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of George Weld, of Willey Park, married Brooke Forester, of Dothill, Salop. Their son George, "Squire Forester," died without issue, and left the double property to George, afterwards Lord Forester, his nephew, who is now represented by the Weld-Foresters. The additional name of Weld was taken by the Foresters on account of the property. Who are now the representatives of the Welds of Willey Park, Salop? Fort Agustus, N.B. Beylies. "POUR." (10th S. v. 261.) B. W. ASSONANCE may account for some of the rimes in which pour has a share, but it is at the same time noteworthy how readily certain poets allow the word to have the sound of power. It is this value which is given to it in 'Hudibras,' I. iii. 935, where Trulla's satellites press forward to wreak vengeance, Which now they were about to pour Upon him in a wooden show'r. Cowper, translating Milton's Death of Damon,' says that Thyrsis awakened the echoes all day with his lamentations, ་ standard of refinement. This is probably represented in Burns's "low'ring and pouring" in the lyric entitled To Ruin,' especially when it is considered that the poem is written in English and that other poets-Prior, Campbell, and so on-rime lower with power. In another English poem, the Epistle from Esopus,' Burns has this characteristically trenchant couplet :Why, Lonsdale, thus thy wrath on vagrants pour; Must earth no rascal save thyself endure? In other lyrics-The Birks of Aberfeldy, Her Answer,' 'Sleep'st Thou' the poet again uses endure as a rime for pour, making also bower, flower, hour, and shower conveniently responsive. In all these the dominant Scottish pronunciation may well be represented. But Burns's contemporary, the Rev. John Morrison of Cannisbay, Caithness, who died in 1798, probably gives the scholarly value in the well-known hymn which he contributed to the collection of Scripture Paraphrases, prepared for the service of praise in the Church of Scotland. Based on St. Matthew xxvi. 26-29, this is No. 35 of the series, and it is inseparably associated with the celebration of the Holy Communion. The closing stanza is interesting, not only for the rime in which pour has a share, but also because of the example it affords of the early pronunciation of draught. It is as follows: With love to man this cup is fraught, The same rime occurs in the tenth Scripture In the second section of 'The Poet's Mind' Tennyson writes: Holy water will I pour Into every spicy flower. Examples of the conventional pronunciation of pour may easily be found in the English poetry of the last three centuries. There is, for instance, Gray's strenuous description of the stream of music in the opening strophe of The Progress of Poesy': Headlong, impetuous, see it pour; The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. Young, whose miscellaneous poems are a curious storehouse of references as well as rimes, frequently uses pour as the closing syllable of his couplets, but always links it with a word that suggests its modern sound -more, roar, shore, and so on. This, from the poet's Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job,' 11. 125-30 is a good example of the dexterity with which he balances his vowel- Christ, rimes adored with poured, and in Burns, in 'The Vision,' Duan II. st. 5, has the series gore-pour-roar-lore; while he Epistle to William Creech. Once in 'The conjoins door and score with pour in the Pleasures of Hope,' Part I., Campbell associates adored with pour'd; and he assigns the same position to restored in "The Ritter Bann.'. With pour'd Tennyson conjoins stored in The Palace of Art,' oar'd in "To E. L. on his Travels in Greece,' and stored and Lord in the Ode sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition.' THOMAS BAYNE. Her leave I now my conscience for to scour...... Of liquid oriental pearls a shower. 'Lips and Eyes,' by T. Carew, 1610. Fairest when thine eyes did pour A crystal shower. 'Julia Weeping,' by John Hall, 1646. But finds the essence only showers, Which, straight, in pity back he pours. 'Eyes and Tears,' by A. Marvell, 1681. Winter invades the spring, and often pours A chilling flood on summer's drooping flowers. 'Table Talk,' by W. Cowper, 1782. An instance of pour pronounced as poor occurs in a poem (attributed by Turbervile to the Earl of Surrey) in Tottell's 'Miscellany,' second ed., 1557: Then set this Drivel out of door That in thy brains such tales doth pour. That door usually had, at this time, the vowel-sound now heard in poor, moor, &c., is evident from what Puttenham says, 'English 34 (Globe edition, p. 138); Pope, transl. of Poesie,' II. viii. 94 (Arber): "If one should rime to this word [Restore] he may not match him with [Doore] or [Poore] for neither of both are of like terminant." An example of door riming with poor and dure (endure) will be found in King Heart,' ninth stanza from the end. In the course of an extended search within the years 1500-1800 I have failed to find one instance of pour rimed with a word having the vowel-sound of lore, sore, and the like. I have occasionally heard pour pronounced as poor nowadays. T. HUTCHINSON. AS PROF. SKEAT asks for other examples of pour pronounced as power, in the normal way, I give one or two quotations from poets of an earlier date than Pope or Gay. Campion, in a song in his 'Two Books of Airs,' circa 1613, writes: Sooner may you count the stars Or Goodwin sands devouring, When o'er the Germans first his Eagle tower'd, What saw the Legions which on them he pour'd? | PROF. SKEAT says that pour rimes with no word ending in our except four. But does it not rime with the personal pronoun your? To my ear it seems to do so. It may, however, be noted that some of our earlier poets gave this word also the power rime. Thomas Lodge, in his poem 'The Lover's Theme,' writes: To write in brief a legend in a line, My heart hath vowed to draw his life from yours; But O, Young Beauty of the Woods! Should quickly make the example yours. I have occasionally heard country people pronounce pour as power, but unfortunately failed “to make a note of" place and person. W. F. PRIDEAUX. PROF. SKEAT asks for examples of pour rimed with the power sound. Here are a few: Pour with shower. Spenser, F. Q.,' 2. 8. 48; Dryden, Æn.,' 4. 233 and 11. 801; Thren. Aug.,' 294-7; 'Political Prologue No. II.,' Thebaid,' 1. 494: with flower, Drayton, Polyolbion,' 22. 75: with hour. Campbell, Pl. Hope,' 1. 275 and 2. 61; Wordsworth, 'Pedestrian Sketches,' 270 (Macmillan's 1888 edition, p. 15, left-hand column): with Stour (river), Polyolbion,' 16. 164 (but Stour is rimed with shore, id., 19. 397, as well as with lower (verb), 18. 745). Pours with flowers, Cowper, Table Talk,' 210. Poured with deflowered and scoured, ‘F.Q.,' 4. 11. 42. On the other hand, the following examples show pour rimed with the pore sound : Pour with Polydore, Dryden, Æn.,' 3. 93. Poured with restored, id., 5. 131: with roared, Polyolbion,' 18. 418: with adored, 'Pleasures with implored, Cowper, trans. of Milton's of Hope,' 2. 83; also Keats's Lamia,' 16: Byron, Ch. H.,' iii. stanza 43, and also in fourth Latin poem, 1. 31: with deplored, "Thy days are done": with accord, Gray, 'Installation Ode,' 52: with chord and sword, Mrs. Hemans, Greek Songs.' Pour with store, Prior, Solomon,' 1. 657 and 668; Keats, 'Endymion,' 3. 433: with more, id., 2. 982: with shore, id., 'Lines to Fanny,' 35: with door, 'Endymion,' 1. 580: with score, Swinburne, 'A Sea-Mark.' Tennyson rimes poured with oared ('To E. L.') and with stored (Exhibition Ode'), and also pouring with roaring. Finally, we must not forget Thy choicest gifts in store Two more words ending in -our have to be reckoned with. Paramour is rimed with bower by Chaucer, 'Sir Thopas,' 32; Spenser, F. Q.,' 2. 6. 16, 2. 9. 34, 3. 9. 35, 4. 9. 6, and passim; Drayton, Polyolbion,' 18. 92: with flower, Spenser, Sh. Cal.,' Apr. 139: with hour, power, and your in the 'Nutbrown Maid,' stanza, 26: with hour, Jonson, 'Chloridia,' penult. line; and Swinburne, 'Locrine,' 1. 2. 155. Bellamours with flowers, Spenser, Sonnet 64. But with sycamore, Browne, Brit. Past.,' 1. 4. 669: with shore, Ch. H., 1. 13. In Milton's 'Nat. Hymn Shelley, Epipsych.,' 535: with o'er, Byron, with her, but that is a freak. Amours is rimed with scores, 'Hudibras,' 3. 1. 1023: with doors, 3. 1. 975: with yours, Prior, Turtle and Sparrow,' 190: with worse, Hudibras, 3. 1. 680: with course, id., 'Heroical Epistle,' 233 and 279. (Course with worse, id., 229.) But I have noted the following (amid dozens of other) instances which upset any theory: - Power, adore, and flower, swore, Gray. Power, more, Pope and Prior. Power, shore, Cowper; restore, devour, adjourn, morn, 'Hudibras'; mourn, born, Prior; bourn, for sworn, mourn, suborn, Dryden. Surely the reasonable conclusion of the whole matter is that in such cases rime-tests are inconclusive. That the our combination in English is as fully entitled to the ore sound as to the other is obvious, not only from the examples above, but from the following:Court is regularly rimed with sport, &c. (Ever with "thou'rt"?) Mourn is commonly rimed with born, &c. (Ever with our'n?) Source, course, &c., regularly with horse, force, &c. Gourd with afford (Polyolbion,' 20, 59), scored (Browning). (Ever with scoured?) Scourge regularly, of with course, urge, but I think any poet would admit forge. Or is one to be restricted to this sort of thing?We will ne'er entrust with our gees Him who spurs or goads or scourges. H. K. ST. J. S. I think that it is impossible to equate the verb pour with a French purer, "to clarify." The fact that the word pour was rimed by Dunbar, Pope, Gay, and Burns with shower, flower, hour, proves that this etymology is untenable. Such an explanation is forbidden by the laws which govern the relation between French words and their English equivalents. Fr. purer represents Lat. purare, with long u. This remains in English words; compare mule, bugle, fescue, muse (vb.), puce, pure, cure, endure, immure, sure. According to this rule it is impossible to accept the equation of E. scour, "to cleanse by rubbing," with O.Fr. escurer; such a form would have given in English *scure, compare cure. The regular source of ou pronounced as in spouse, in English words derived from the French, is Romanic o close or open, from Latin o long or short, or short u. The following examples will suffice: hour, flour, flower, devour, tower, vow, gout. Nor is the proposed etymology warranted by a comparison of the senses of the two words, for there is no necessary association between the notions of pouring and clarifying; surely it is possible to clarify without the act of pouring. Hence it seems to me that we have still to seek the etymology of pour. It is a pity, but it is better to be still seeking than to be contented with an this word: How gay they smile! such blessings Nature pours O'erstocked, mankind enjoy but half her stores. 'Love of Fame,' Satire 5. Gray too, differs from Pope : He nor heaps his brooded stores, 'The Triumph of Owen.' Another example is in the 'Ode for Music.' E. YARDLEY. I hardly think that the examples cited from Dunbar and Burns by PROF. SKEAT (if one may venture to differ from so high an authority) regarding the pronunciation of pour are quite conclusive. In The Ballad of Kind Kittok,' Dunbar, PROF. SKEAT states, "rimes pour with hour, sour, clour." But in old Scots, and in common speech in many districts of Scotland to-day (as the PROFESSOR is perfectly aware), the latter words are pronounced 'oor, soor, cloor, and therefore rime with the usual North-Country pronunciation of pour poor. Burns's poem On the Birth of a Posthumous Child' is written in the vernacular. The following is the stanza from which the PROFESSOR quoted two lines: May He who gives the rain to pour, Heavy rainfall in Scotch colloquial speech is called a poor; shower is pronounced shoor; and from the character of the poem the vernacular reading seems to me better to reflect the poet's sentiment than does PROF. SKEAT'S contention that Burns here rimes J. GRIGOR. pour-power with shower. My father, who was a Worcestershire man by birth (he lived from 1807 to 1880), in variably pronounced pour as power. I have "Place" from that which subsequently heard the same pronunciation from other Worcestershire men. On the other hand, my mother's relatives in Staffordshire invariably pronounced pour as poor. This pronunciation I have often heard in Scotland. V.H.I.L.I.C.I.V. In the Sussex dialect there were (and to a certain extent are) two pronunciations of this word: the one to rime with shower, and the other to rime with poor or pure. The former may still be heard, especially amongst elderly people; but the latter is not common now, though I hear it occasionally. E. E. STREET. My grandfather, Lord Suffolk, born in 1776, always pronounced pour as power. SHERBORNE. PROF. SKEAT Omits from his very valuable note the well-known line in 'Macbeth,' I. v., That I may powre my Spirits in thine Eare, And with him poure we, in our Countries purge, PROF. SKEAT might also have referred to the EDWARD S. DODGSON. [A. H. also refers to purée.] "PLACE" (10th S. v. 267, 316). DR. MURRAY'S inquiry opens up an interesting subject, which I trust may be definitely settled in these columns. The earliest "Place" seems to have been a synonym for the inns and hostels of the bishops and great nobles who possessed town houses in London, and included not only the mansion, but the stables, outbuildings, gardens, and other appurtenances. Of such a kind were Ely Place, the residence of the Bishop of Ely; Durham Place, the residence of the Bishop of Durham; Exeter Place, the residence of the Bishop of Exeter, which after it passed into the possession of William, Lord Paget, became known as Paget Place; and York Place, the palace of Wolsey, which after its transformation into Whitehall, handed on its name to another York Place, near Charing Cross, famous as the birthplace of Bacon. It is obvious that this was a different kind of signified a row of houses. It was this term which was employed for a country house, as Cumnor Place, and was probably derived from palatium rather than from the platea after which the German platz, the French place, &c., were called. I doubt if the French word place was ever used to denote an open square in London, because when "squares were first constructed in England the idea of the residential "Place was not extinct. " known generally as "Fields," as Lincoln's In 'London Survey'd or an Explanation of the large Map of London by John Ogilby and William Morgan,' 1677, which is a very early list of streets, &c., in London, there is not a single "square," and the only "place is Duke's Place, Aldgate, which was called after the Duke of Norfolk, to whom the precinct of the priory of the Holy Trinity descended by his marriage with the heiress of Lord Audley. This place" was built about 1550, and it is the oldest in London. It probably derives its designation from the earlier connotation of the term. In the West End, Park Place, St. James's Street, was perhaps the first to be so named. The rate-books of St. Martin's parish show that it was built in 1683. Shortly afterwards-in 1694, according to the rate books— St. James's Place was built. On the north side of the Oxford Road, Rathbone Place was, I think, the earliest to be so denominated, the date of construction being, according to an inscribed stone let into a corner house, 1718. Until the brothers Adam built Portland Place sixty years afterwards, the term seems to have been very sparingly used in London. It afterwards became common. W. F. PRIDEAUX. antiquity of Place as applied to a country Can any one enlighten us as to the house, e.g., Ashburnham Place, Sussex? As |