This marble stone, wherein her cindres rest,
For sure her ghost lives with the heavenly powers,
And guerdon hathe of virtuous life possest."
Can any of your readers give me any other instances of children being called imps? and also tell me wherefore the name was given them? and how long it continued in use?
T. W. D. Brooks.
Cropredy, Banbury.
[The inscription is given in Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire. Horne Tooke says imp is the past participle of the A.-S. impan, to graft, to plant. Mr. Steevens (Note on 2 Henry IV., Act V. Sc. 5.) tells us, "An imp is a shoot in its primitive sense, but means a son in Shakspeare." In Hollinshed, p. 951., the last words of Lord Cromwell are preserved, who says, "And after him that his sonne Prince Edward, that goodlie impe, may long reign over you." The word imp is perpetually used by Ulpian Fulwell, and other ancient writers, for progeny:
"And were it not thy royal impe
Did mitigate our pain."
Again, in the Battle of Alcazar, 1594: