There seems to be no tradition connected with its use. In this part of the principality, the name
has generally been assumed more from its euphonistic character than from any family connexion.
E. L. B.
Ruthin.
The Whetstone (Vol. vii., p. 208.).—In your No. 174. of "N. & Q.," E. G. R. alludes to the Game of the Whetstone. The following quotation, as bearing on that subject, may not be uninteresting to your readers:
"In the fourth year of this king's (Edward VI.) reign, in the month of September, one Grig, a poulterer of Surrey (taken among the people for a prophet, in curing of divers diseases by words and prayers, and saying he would take no money), was, by command of the Earl of Warwick, and others of the Council, set on a scaffold in the town of Croidon, in Surrey, with a paper on his breast, wherein was written his deceitful and hypocritical dealings: and after that, on the eighth of September, set on a pillory in Southwark, being then Our Lady Fair there kept; and the Mayor of London, with his brethren the aldermen, riding through the fair, the said Grig asked them and all the citizens forgiveness.
"'Of the like counterfeit physicians,' saith Stow, 'I have noted, in the summary of my Chronicles (anno 1382), to be set on horseback, his face to the horse-tail, the same tail in his hand as a bridle, a collar of jordans about his neck, a whetstone on his breast; and so led through the city of London, with ringing of basons, and banished.'
"Whereunto I had added (with the forementioned author) as followeth:—Such deceivers, no doubt, are many who, being never trained up in reading or practice of physicke and chirurgery, do boast to doe great cures, especially upon women; as to make them straight that before were crooked, corbed, or cramped in any part of their bodies, &c. But the contrary is true; for some have received gold, when they have better deserved the whetstone."—Goodall's Royal College of Physicians: London, 1684, p. 306.
J. S. S.
Bath.
Surname of Allen (Vol. vii., p. 205.).—Perhaps A. S. A. may find the following words in Celtic of use to him in his researches as to the origin of the name of Allan:—Adlann, pronounced allānn, means a spearman or lancer; aluin, a white hind or fawn (Query, Do any of the name bear a hind as a crest?); allin, a rocky islet; alain, fair, bright, fair-haired, &c.
Fras. Crossley.