Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850 | Page 3

conjecture what can be here meant by _collapsed_, unless it be fallen off to Romanism." Now it is not a little curious, and it proves Mr. Craik's capability for the task of illustrating family history from the obscure allusions in letters and documents, that there exists cotemporary authority for fixing the meaning Mr. Craik has conjectured to be the true one, to the word collapsed. A pamphlet, with the title _A Letter to Mr. T.H., late Minister, now Fugitive_, was published in 1609, with a dedication to all Romish collapsed "ladies of Great Britain;" which bears internal evidence of being addressed to those who were converts from the Church of England to Romanism. {395}
Theophilus Higgons, whom the above initials represent, was himself a convert to the Church of Rome.
It may be worth while making a further note, that the copy of the pamphlet before me belonged to Camden, and is described in his autograph, _Guil. Camdenj. Ex. dono Authoris_. It forms one of a large collection of tracts and pamphlets, originally the property of Camden, which are now in the library of the dean and chapter here.
It is curious that another document quoted by Mr. Craik in the same volume (p. 286 _note_), seems to fix the meaning of a word or expression, of obscure signification, in the authorised translation of the Bible. In Judges, ix. 53., we read, "A certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all tobrake his skull." I have heard some one, in despair at the grammatical construction of the latter clause, suggest that it might be an error for "also brake his skull;" and I have been told, that some printer or editor solved the difficulty by turning it into "and all to break his skull." But in the Lieutenant of the Tower's marginal notes on an inventory of the Countess of Hertford's (Lady Katherine Grey) furniture, quoted by Mr. Craik from Lands. MS. 5. art. 41., he described the sparrer for the bed as "_all to-broken_, not worth ten pence." There seems, therefore, to have been a compound, "to-breck, to-brake, to-broken" (_perfrango_), of which the word in the "Book of Judges" is the preterite. I may be exposing my ignorance, when I say, that the quotation in the Romance of the Peerage is the only other instance of its use I ever met with.
WILLIAM H. COPE. Cloisters, Westminster
[The word "to-break," is not to be found in Nares.--Mr. Halliwell, in his _Archaic Dictionary_, has TO-BROKE, broken in pieces:
"The gates that Neptunus made A thousand wynter theretofore, They have anon _to-broke_ and tore." From the Gower MS. Soc. Ant. 134, f. 46.
The word occurs also in Chaucer (p. 549. ed. Urry):--
"To-broken ben the Statutes hie in heven;"
and also in the Vision of Piers Ploughman (p. 156. ed. Wright):
"The bagges and the bigirdles He hath to-broke them all."
And Mr. Wright very properly remarks, that "_to_- prefixed in composition to verbs of Anglo-Saxon origin, has the same force as the German _zu_, giving to the word the idea of destruction or deterioration."]
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NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON.
_Lambeth Wells._--A place of public entertainment, first opened in 1697. It was celebrated for its mineral water, which was sold at one penny per quart. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was provided with a band of music, which played at intervals during the day, and the price of admission was threepence. A monthly concert, under the direction of Starling Goodwin, organist of St. Saviour's church, Southwark, was held here in 1727.
_Hickford's Rooms, Panton Street, Haymarket._--These rooms, under the name of "Hickford's Dancing Rooms," were in existence as early as 1710. In 1738, they were opened as the "Musick-room." A contemporary account says:--
"The band was selected from the Opera House; but the singularity most attractive consisted of an organ combined with a harpsichord, played by clock-work, which exhibited the movements of an orrery and air-pump, besides solving astronomical and geographical problems on two globes, and showing the moon's age, with the Copernican system in motion."
In 1740, Mr. Galliard's benefit is announced to take place "at Mr. Hickford's Great Room in Brewer Street, Golden Square."--See the Daily Post of March 31. The "Great Room" is now known as "Willis's Dancing Academy."
_The Music Room in Dean Street, Soho._--The Oratorio of Judas Maccabeus was performed here in great splendour in 1760. It was afterwards the auction room of the elder Christie; and is now "Caldwell's Dancing Academy." George III. frequently honoured this "musick-room" with his presence.
_The Music Room in Charles Street, Covent Garden_:--
"The Consort of Musick, lately in Bow Street, is removed next Bedford Gate, in _Charles Street, Covent Garden_, where a room is newly built for that purpose."--_Lond. Gaz._ Feb. 19. 1690.
"A Consort of Music, with several new voices, to be performed on