The Committee of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Statistics, and Natural History, believing that a periodical conducted on a similar plan to the well-known "Notes and Queries," but confining itself to questions bearing on Local History and Science, would be useful and edifying, propose, with the concurrence of the other Archæological Societies of the district, to issue an occasional sheet of Notes and Queries on subjects connected with the Counties of Suffolk, Cambridge, and Essex. The advantages of such means of intercommunication, more especially for the Members of the various societies, are too self-evident to be dwelt upon. Those who meet with facts worthy of preservation may here record them; while those again who are pursuing enquiries may through this medium ask for information on points which have baffled their own individual researches. Many a book, not professedly bearing upon the Eastern Counties, contains notes which may usefully be transferred to these pages; and many persons have time and inclination to write a valuable Note who cannot undertake an elaborate Essay. It will in fact be the COMMON PLACE Book of the learned and intelligent; a depository for those who find, and a resource for those who seek; and thus it is hoped become an important contribution to a more perfect history of the district than it now possesses. The frequency of its publication will depend in some measure upon the urgency of the Queries propounded, and the amount of interest evinced in its progress. B NOTES. ON LOCAL PECULIARITIES, PHYSICAL OR MENTAL, ARISING FROM SOIL OR CLIMATE. The varieties of soil and climate, even in the limited district of one country, have a remarkable effect on the physical and, probably also, on the mental character of the inhabitants. The same results which occur in comparing the diversities of character in the inhabitants of different countries may be found, though of course in a minor degree, in the districts even of one county. Nor is this confined to mankind only; animals are similarly liable to be impressed physically by soil and climate. Thus in Suffolk, which consists principally of heavy soil, the horses, cows, and hogs, have all the same short, squab, punchy character; even our peasantry are also said by "Foreigners" (i.e. all not Suffolk born), to be on the same short, dumpy scale; and Punchy, or Suffolk dumplings, are the terms they sometimes think fit to designate us with. Metropolitan hatters and craniologists affirm that the Suffolk people have the smallest heads in the kingdom, with the exception of the men of Essex, and the Spitalfields weavers. This may perhaps account for Suffolk being mentioned assilly" Suffolk, and Essex being called the county of "calves". Yorkshiremen and South Scotch are said to have the largest heads, and the terms a “cute” Yorkshireman and a "cannie" Scot, are proverbial. But on our side we may argue that as they are larger races of men, they of course ought to have larger heads than the more diminutive Suffolcians. After all we retaliate by looking down upon Foreigners, and despising all importations from " the Sheers," as we have some reason in a few matters, such as agricultural horses and implements. Even depreciated Suffolk has within itself its own peculiar Boeotia, and we ridicule the inhabitants of our heaviest lands as dull and stubborn as the clods they cultivate. But like the "Far West" in America, "High Suffolk," as this part is termed, is always at a distance. Many confess to live near it, none exactly on the spot. In Norfolk (principally sandy land) men and animals are of a light wiry make, and formed for activity rather than strength. Marshall, an agricultural writer of about 80 years ago, mentions his astonishment at the activity and quantity of work performed by Norfolk men and horses; and even 400 years ago this was proverbial. Chaucer, who describes classes: in his individual portraits, makes his Norfolk Reve or Bailiff, a most active aud irascible man, and withall" as lean as is a rake." Jocelyn de Brakeland who wrote 700 years ago, says, referring to Sampson, a Norfolk man, then Abbot of Bury St. Edmund's, that he was called by his opponents a Norfolk "Barrator," that is, a litigious quarrelsome fellow. And Fuller, who wrote 200 years back, mentions in his "Worthies," that the litigiousness and knowledge of law in Norfolk men, was proverbial, and that Norfolk had then produced more and better lawyers, than any other district in England, of similar size. Tusser, the author of the "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," writing about 250 years ago, complains of "Norfolk wiles," he having married a Norfolk lady, and lost his money by farming in that county. "For Norfolk wiles, so full of guiles, The following more modern stanza describes in short, the peculiarities of the three counties, "Essex miles, Suffolk stiles, Norfolk wiles, Many men beguiles." The old Norfolk sheep were noted for their length of limb and activity, and the old Norfolk hackney was noted as a fast trotter. Turning to the Fens of our eastern counties, we find still a different character in men and animals. Physically large, bulky, and powerful, they, from the effect of soil and climate, become slower and more inactive. Thus, the Lincoln horses are large, heavy, and slow; the Lincoln sheep large and inactive; while the men of the fens are phlegmatic, fond of religious discussions, and inclined to calvanistic and fatalistic doctrines and ideas. The eastern fens were, and are the stronghold of dissent, and in the time of Charles the First, produced many of those gloomy enthusiasts who overturned church and state in Ireland, and laid in America the foundations of a great nation. I shall add a few words on the influence of soil, &c., on the colour of animals. We all know how Providence, to enable animals and insects to escape their enemies, has assimilated their colour to that of their numerous resorts, and that in Polar regions, where snow covers for the greater part of the year all the earth, nature changes the colour of fur and feathers to white also. But the principle exists in all districts and results in a permanent and distinct hue, unless by crossing we cause both colours and breeds to intermix and vary. Thus, iu Devon, the soil is for the most part of a bright red clay, the cattle are similarly of a bright red colour. In the North of Scotland, where dark moory soil and hills covered with heather shews black for nearly all the year, the horses and cattle are almost uniformly black. Just, as on our black-earthed English fens the horses are of a similar black colour, and in Suffolk, likewise, our breed of horses are uniformly of a light red chesnut or sorrel, and the native breed of cattle most of them so likewise, because the majority of soils, whether of clay or sand, are yellowish, with sometimes a tinge of redder earth or sand intermixed. June 29th, 1858. LOCAL PROPHECIES. W. Some years since a friend shewed me the following lines, which he said he copied from an old Court Book of the manor of Shimpling Thoine, between Bury St. Edmund's and Sudbury. "Twixt Lopham forde and Shimpling Thorne May I suggest that the " Notes and Queries" should endeavour to collect, record, and explain, all such matters affecting the district. * Suffolk, his old and favourite abode. W. r ON THE WORD TOT," TAT," THET." East Anglia abounds in names of villages containing this monosyllable in composition. Tottenhill and Tottington, Tatterford and Tattersett in Norfolk, the two Tuddenhams in Suffolk, one Thetford in Norfolk and another in Cambridgeshire, are instances, Rivulet is the meaning usually, and I believe rightly, assigned to our little friend. I have no personal acquaintance with the Norfolk villages, but the others bear out the derivation. My object is to unite all these varieties under the captaincy of our old English tide' or tyd,' and further to suggest an origin for this father of them all. Voltaire never said a truer word than that in Etymology the vowels go for nothing. The same vowel is not only pronounced differently in different districts, but the same man will pronounce one vowel often in more ways than one, sometimes in more than two. I remember my father saying that he has heard a man from the Suffolk woodlands, after calling a mill a mill, proceed in the course of a few minutes to call it a 'mell' and a 'mull.' We know from the acknowledged derivation of Teddington' (Tide-end town), that 'tyd' can become in composition 'ted'; then why not 'tud' 'tod' (Toddington, Beds), tot' and 'tat"? The word tyd' names the adjoining villages of Tydd St. Giles (Cambs.) and St. Mary (Linc.) There is a place in the latter parish known as Tydd Gote' (tide-go-out), or the turning-point of the salt-tide, as I presume; but it seems not improbable that a running stream of any kind was a' tyd.' Who does not remember Why weep ye by the tide, ladie ? Why weep ye by the tide ?" " I don't mean to say that the lady, like Achilles, might not have" loot her tears doon fa"" παρὰ θῖνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης but I think the general impression is that "the cold streams ran by her," as "her eyes wept apace." I think myself fortunate in thus finding even a single specimen of 'tyd' in the old sense. Who has ever found 'ham,' 'ing,'' worth,' &c. even in our oldest writers ? In the oldest ballad in Ritson's Robin Hood there is the classical rivere.' By Spenser's time the word 'tide' had reached its present state (see "Faerie Queene," b. iv., canto ii.) "Which have the sea in charge to them assinde, To rule his tides." But in the earlier part of the eighteenth century the old meaning revived a little "See yonder river's flowing tide." H. Carey. (Percy's Reliques, B. III., No. 21). Supposing this to be the true "theory of tide," I think no one would be inclined to doubt the intimate relation of all the monosyllables in question to one another. As to the origin of the family, is it not the " tattling" of the brook? We may observe the same variation in vowel in the cognates of " tattle," "«titter,' "stutter." The two sets of words may be thus independently traced to the sound which most truly reflects the things they are respectively intended to represent. I Í may add that there is a place in Kent (I believe in Romney Marsh) |