1 1 I Mr. URBAN, Thaxted Vicarage, May 1. TAKE the liberty of sending you a drawing of Codham Hall, in the county of Essex, by my friend Mr. Lynes. Codham was originally a hamlet belonging to the parish of Wethersfield, and had a Chapel of its own, which is now suffered to decay. The Hall was the residence of the antient family of de Codham. Henry de Codham lived there A. D. 1255. One of the same family was a great benefactor to Colne Priory; and another was Prior of Dunmow, who died A. D. 1270. Soon afterwards it became the property and residence of the family of de Coggeshall, who were succeeded by the Wentworths of Nettlested in the county of Suffolk, a family of great antiquity and distinction.. From them it came into the possession of William Spencer, esq. of Cople in Bedfordshire, who sold it to Sir Ri chard Pyne, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, from whom it is now inherited (in the female line of descent) by Arthur Pyne, esq. a Captain in the Army, who served with great distinction in the East Indies, and was the only officer of that rank who survived the taking of Bedanore by Tippoo Sultan, where General Matthews perished, with most of his army. Captain Pyne married Miss Masters of CastleMasters, in the county of Cork, by whom he has several children. The arms of Pyne are either, Argent, on a mount in base a Pine-apple tree fruited proper-or, Gules, a Chevron ermine between three Pine-apples erect Or. THOS. JEE. P. S. Perhaps some of your Correspondents can give an account of the antient Castle of the Nevile family, situate at Wethersfield, but of which no other vestige now remains except the moat, and some parts here and there of the foundations. It was formerly the residence of Sir Hugh de Neville, who attended King Richard I. in the Crusades, and was so famous for his strength and courage. Viribus Hugonis, vires periére leonis. The strength of Hugh A strong lion slew. Mr. URBAN, Sloane Street, May 12. I HAVE long been induced to consider that some of the materials in PRIOR's ballad of "The Thief and the GENT. MAG. June, 1811. MR. URBAN, Bath, May 20, TAVING promised to point out some of the articles in Mr. J4 mieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, in which that acute and learned Lexicographer might have advantageously drawn his Illustrations from Rowley's Poems, I shall take this opportunity of noticing his remarks on the Scotch Expressions o, OE, and OYE-which he renders a Grandson; notwithstanding it it appears from his own quotations, that by those expressions, any son, or any child, male or female, may be understood; witness that from Ramsay: "Auld Bessie, in her red coat braw, Came wi' her ain oe Nanny." If Mr. Jamieson had made use of Rowley's Poems (or Chatterton's, as he, in so unqualified a manner, has pronounced them to be), he might have discovered that the oe of the Scotch, when it signifies a son, a daughter, or a grandson, is merely a different orthography of the old English word Eye or Eyne, which we are indebted to Rowley's Poems for now clearly understanding to be sometimes used in the endearing sense of a child. I sincerely hope that Mr. Jamieson's valuable publication may meet with such deserved success as soon to arrive at a second edition. In that case, Mr. Urban, be may, perhaps, pay some attention to the following note from the second part of my Examination of the internal Evidence respecting the Antiquity of Rowley's Poems; in which, if I am ever called upon for a first edition, I have no doubt of being able to demonstrate the absurdity of the opinion that Rowley's Poems were written by the late Thos. Chatterton. When the literary world will condescend to read the first part or "the Introduction to this Examination, printed by Meylers, Bath, and sold by Longman and Co. London, for the Benefit of the Literary Fund in Gerrard-street, Soho," then will the second part, now, and long since, ready for the press, dedicated by permission to that venerable and worthy character Dr. Harrington of Bath, make its immediate appearance. In that beautiful simile in the second Battle of Hastings, l. 640, where the painctyd Bruton pursues the wolfyn wylde that had carried off his yonge childe, he Ne stynts, ne lagges the chace, tylle for his Eyne {chyne." In pieces hee the morthering theef doth He skyms alofe, and blents the beatynge Ne stynts, ne lag ges the chace, tylle for kis Eyne [chyne." In pieces hee the morthering theef doth served, p. 146 of his edition of RowDr. Milles has very properly obley's Poems, that the criticks who attacked the language of Rowley, were inattentive to the beauties of his Poetry, and the force of his expressions. He adds, that he is obliged to construction of the phrase "for his a very learned Friend for an elegant Eyne," "i. c. in revenge for his child. Some frigid critic had understood "for his Eyne" to mean fore or before his Eyne; taxing the phrase with absurdity from his own misconception. But the Doctor adds " that tire idea is most exquisitely classical, perhaps not to be found in any modern author." He has brought forward passages from Ausonius, Sophocles, Eschylus or Euripides, in confirmation, which are perfectly satisfactory. If that learned Friend of the Doctor's tified by finding that the idea of Eye be yet living, he may perhaps be graEnglish language rest solely on the or Eyne for a child does not in the authority of Rowley's Poems. Our modern word Heir (notwithstanding its'near affinity with the Latin Hæres), seems to be formed upon it, and was antiently written Eyer: "and I will, that ich child be his Father's Eyer," Charter of William the ConLondinopolis, p. 40.; and it is so spelt queror to the City of London. Vide in Arnold's Antient Chronicle. tame hawk, was so called from its The Eyas, a particular species of being brought up by the Faulkoner with all the tenderness of a young child. See Latham's Falconry, p. 33. The nest or place where hawks or eagles are bred is called au Eiery; and Latham, p. 104, adds, "the Eyas of this kind (the Haggard Lanner) exceedeth other bawkes, towardes their keeper, in love and gentleness." We find in the second act and the sixth scene of Hamlet, that our great Dramatic Bard connects the idea of a child with that of the Eyas Hawke. "But there is, Sir, an Airey of Children, little Eyases that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapt for it.” This relates to the contentions of the different play-houses, Bankside, Fortune, Fortune, &c. &c. where the children of the Royal Chapel performed. There can be little doubt that the expression Pigsneye is of the same origin, Sir Thos. Chaloner, in his Translation of the Encomium Moriæ of Erasmus, renders Puellam, Pigsneie "another fall in love with some younge Pigsneie (puellam) usyng more fondnesse, &c. &c." vid. fol. 22, Anno 1549. There is, perhaps, still less reason to doubt its connexion with the last syllable of the long-contested word Cockneie; and the first being as nearly related to a culinary dainty, a cake; possibly the true meaning of this antient nick-name was a cakered or cockered, pamper ed child, i. e. a caken eie or a coken eie. But to return to the Eyas in Falconry. From the above expressions it appears probable that Eye or Eyne was an endearing word, applied to the young of every species of animal. The very curious synonym of Eye for a child, and Eye for the organ of vision, may, perhaps be accounted for. Ey is now well-known to be an old English word for an Egg; and Eye the organ of vision, is also called Eag in the Anglo-Saxon: there cannot, therefore, be a doubt that the modern word Eye originated in the resemblance of that organ to an egg whether we consider it in its general shape, or in the contexture of its different parts. The lens and the yolkthe vitreous humour and the albumen may be aptly compared--the sclerorepretic and other coats are not bad sentatives of the shell with its lining; admit but the analogy of the Egg, and the embryo may follow till it become a child. Sure I am that the concatenation may be traced with, at least, as much ease as the formation of an elephant from the simple fibre, filament, or anther, of Dr. Darwin, This long disquisition on the word Eye will be pardoned, if it enable us to comprehend the expression ONYERS in the first part of K.H, IV. which has hitherto completely foiled every com mentator; "Act ii. Scene i. Gadshill.] I am joined with no fool land-rakers, no long staff sixpenny strikers, none of those mad, musta, chio purple-hued malt-worms: but with fobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great nyers; such as can hold in such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray and yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint the common. wealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots." This passage is pregnant with obscurity, notwithstanding a profusion of the most laborious annotation. If the land-rakers, the sixpenny strikers, and the purple-hued malt-worms, have been properly explained, I trust that we may now be able to give a satisfactory account of the great Onyers, perhaps the most difficult word in the whole vocabulary of Shakspeare. Since Eye signified a child, and the word Heirs was formerly written Eyers, we have only to add the syllable on, which we know from numer ous passages in the plays of Shakspeare and his contemporaries, was frequently the old mode of writing the word one; it follows, that the great Onyers of this passage are great oneEyers or sole Heirs, rich only sons; and the merry mad-cap Prince of Wales, the Heir apparent to the Crown, is the great one-Eyer of whom Gadshill is thus covertly boasting. Other difficulties still remain to exercise the ingenuity and sagacity of future commentators. Is there the most distant probability that Chatterton could, either by accident or design, have hit upon this very curious phrase of Eyne for a child which enables us also to explain the following lines of Chaucer's Coke's Tale, which Mr. Tyrwhitt was under the necessity of passing over. "And afterwardes toke their course And went streight their way; nest, But in it was none ay." i. e. no Egg or young one, metaphorically for no person or property, If any thing farther were necessary to prove the use of Eye for a child, the following lines of Allan Ramsay would be sufficient; vide Vol. ii. p, xl, of his Poems, "Sae hollow upstarts strive with care to hide Their mean descent (which inly gnaws their By counting kin, and making endless faird, ' To this let us add the quotation of And |