Oxoniensis.

Fresick and Freswick.—In the map of the kingdom of Scotland, occurring in the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, by John Speed, 1614, pp. 131-2., on the north-east point of Scotland a place is noted as Fresick East, in the present maps Freswick. Is Fresick a contracted form of Freswick? and if so, has it some reference to a settlement of the Frisians (anciently Fresians) on this coast? The village Freswick, on the borders of the Lek, and another Freswick in the neighbourhood of Deventus, both in the Netherlands, near the Frisians, are supposed to owe their names to a settlement or refuge of those first parents of the Anglo-Saxons.

D. H.

Has Execution by Hanging been survived?—I have heard vague and indiscriminate tales of persons who, as criminals, have undergone infliction of the punishment of hanging without total extinction of life; but I have always been disposed to look upon such accounts as mere fables, till lately, in turning over some newspapers of the year 1740, I found a case mentioned, under such circumstances that, if it were untrue, its refutation might have been easily accomplished. By The Craftsman of Saturday, Sept 27, 1740, it appears one William Dewell had been concerned in the violation, robbery, and murder of a young woman in a barn at Acton (which place has so recently been the scene of another horrible crime). The Craftsman of Saturday, Nov. 29, 1740, states that Dewell, having undergone execution, and being brought to Surgeons Hall to be anatomised, symptoms of life appeared, and he quite recovered.[[5]] This strikes me as a most unaccountable story; but perhaps similar ones may have been met with in the reading of some of your correspondents.

Σ.

Footnote 5:[(return)]

[Matt of the Mint in the Beggar's Opera says, "My poor brother Tom had an accident this time twelve-month; and so clever a made fellow he was, that I could not save him from those flaying rascals the surgeons; and now, poor man, he is among the 'otamies at Surgeons' Hall." The executed culprit noticed by our correspondent, however, seems to have been re-animated at Surgeons' Hall.—Ed.]

Maps of Dublin.—In Gough's Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, p. 689., it is stated that there is a map of the city and suburbs of Dublin, by Charles Brookin, 1728, and a map of the Bay and Harbour of Dublin, with a small plan of the city, 1728. I have Brookin's map of the city, 1728, but I have never seen or heard of any person who had seen the map of the Bay and Harbour of 1728. Possibly some of your correspondents could give information on the subject, and also state whether there be any map of the city, either manuscript or printed, between Speed's map of 1610 and Brookin's of 1728, and where?

C. H.

Dublin.