BRAYBROOKE.
[O.P.Q., who has kindly replied to M.'s inquiry, has appended to his answer the following Query:—"Is Smollett justified in using the words assassin and assassinate, as applied to cases of intended homicide, when death did not ensue?">[
The Darby Ram (Vol. ii., p. 71.).—There is a whimsical little volume, which, as it relates mainly to local matters, may not have come under the notice of many of your readers, to which I would refer your querist H.W.
It is entitled,—
"Gimcrackiana, or Fugitive Pieces on Manchester Men and Manners ten years ago. Manchester, 1833." cr. 8vo.
It is anonymous, but I believe truly ascribed to a clever young bookseller of the name of J.S. Gregson, since dead.
At page 185. he gives twelve stanzas of this ballad, as the most perfect copy from the oral chronicle of his greatgrandmother.
In The Ballad Book (Edinb. 1827, 12mo.), there is another entitled "The Ram of Diram," of a similar kind, but consisting of only six verses and chorus. And the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i., p. 283., contains a prose story, entitled "Darby and the Ram," of the same veracious nature.
F.R.A.
Rotten Row and Stockwell Street.—R.R., of Glasgow, inquires the etymology of these names (Vol. i., p. 441.). The etymology of the first word possesses some interest, perhaps, at the present time, owing to the name of the site of the intended Exhibition from all Nations in Hyde Park. I sent to the publishers of Glasgow Delineated, which was printed at the University press in 1826, a contradiction of the usual origin of the name adopted in that city, showing the impossibility of the expression bearing any reference to the dissoluteness or immorality of the former residents, and also contradicting its having any thing to do with "rats," or "rattons," Scotticè; although, in 1458, the "Vicus Rattonum" is the term actually used in the Archbishop of Glasgow's chartulary. My observations, which were published in a note, concluded as follows: