Notes and Queries, Number 37, July 13, 1850 by Various
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page 16 of 66 (24%)
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laws of those days, and when time permits, will transcribe them for you,
if you deem them worthy of being laid before your readers. T.S.D. [Footnote 2: Mr. Cunningham, speaking of Houndsditch, merely quotes the words of Stow. It would appear that Stow's reason for the name is entirely conjectural; and indeed the same reason would justify the same name being applied to all the "ditches" in London in the year 1500, and indeed much later. This passage of Arnold throws a new light upon the _name_, at least, of that rivulet; for stagnant its waters could not be, from its inclination to the horizon. It, however, raises another question respecting the mode of keeping and feeding hounds in those days; and likewise, as suggested in the text, the further question, as to the purpose for which these hounds were thus kept as a part of the civic establishment.] [Footnote 3: This view will no doubt be contested on the authority of Stow, who describes the tonne as a "prison for night-walkers," so called from the form in which it was built. (Cunningham, p. 141., 2nd ed.) Yet, as Mr. Cunningham elsewhere states (p. xxxix.), "the Tun upon Corn-hill [was] converted into a conduit" in 1401, it would hardly be called a "prison" a century later. The probability is, that the especial building called the tonne never was a prison at all; but that the prison, from standing near or adjoining the tonne, took its name, the tonne prison, in conformity with universal usage. It is equally probable that the tonne was originally built for the purpose to which it was ultimately applied; and that some delay arose in |
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