ignorant to form part of the wheel, has been by them corrupted from spike: and that the act is, driving a spike into the nave, so as to prevent the wheel from turning on its axle.
Q.
Bloomsbury.
Ballina Castle (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—O. L. R. G. inquires about Ballina Castle, Castlebar, and of the general history, descriptions, &c. of the co. Mayo. In the catalogue of my manuscript collections, prefixed to my Annals of Boyle, or Early History of Ireland (upwards of 200 volumes), No. 37. purports to be "one volume 8vo., containing full compilations of records and events connected with the county of Mayo, with reference to the authorities," and it has special notices of Castlebar, Cong, Burrishoole, Kilgarvey, Lough Conn, &c., and notes of scenery and statistics. I offered in the year 1847 to publish a history of the county if I was indemnified, but I did not succeed in my application. I have, of course, very full notices of the records, &c. of Ballina, and the other leading localities of that interesting but too long neglected county, which I would gladly draw out and assign, as I would any other of my manuscript compilations, to any literary gentleman who would propose to prepare them for publication, or otherwise extract and report from them as may be sought.
John D'Alton.
48. Summer Hill, Dublin.
Mardle (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—This is the correct spelling as fixed by Halliwell. I should propose to derive it from A.-S. mathelian, to speak, discourse, harangue; or A.-S. methel, discourse, speech, conversation. (Bosworth.) Forby gives this word only with the meaning "a large pond;" a sense confined to Suffolk. But his vocabulary of East Anglia is especially defective in East Norfolk words—an imperfection arising from his residence in the extreme west of that county.
E. G. R.
Charles Diodati (Vol. viii., p. 295.).—Mr. Singer mentions that Dr. Fellowes and others have confounded Carlo Dati, Milton's Florentine friend, with Charles Diodati, a schoolfellow (St. Paul's, London) to whom he addresses an Italian sonnet and two Latin poems. Charles Diodati practised physic in Cheshire; died 1638. Was this young friend of Milton's a relative of Giovanni Diodati, who translated the Bible into Italian; born at Lucca about 1589; became a Protestant; died at Geneva, 1649?
Ma. L.