Cato.
Martin Family (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—If your correspondent Clericus will refer to Morant's History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 188., he will find some account of the family of Martin. There do not appear to be any families of the name of Cockerell or Hopkins in the same neighbourhood.
J.A.D.
"Ge-ho," Meaning of.—I am a little girl, only two years and five months old, and my kind aunt Noo teaches me to spell. Now I hear the men, when driving their horses, say "Ge-ho;" and I think they say so because G, O, spells "Go." Is it so, can anybody say?
I am, your youngest correspondent,
Katie.
[Better etymologists than Katie have made far worse guesses than our youngest correspondent. But in Brand's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, vol. i. p. 294. ed. 1841 (the passage is not in the last edition), is the following curious illustration of the phrase Ge-ho.
"A learned friend, whose communications I have frequently had occasion to acknowledge in the course of this work, says, the exclamation 'Geho, Geho,' which carmen use to their horses, is probably of great antiquity. It is not peculiar to this country, as I have heard it used in France. In the story of the Milkmaid, who kicked down her pail, and with it all her hopes of getting rich, as related in a very ancient collection of apologues, entitled Dialogus Creaturarum, printed at Gonda in 1480, is the following passage: 'Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum quantâ gloriâ duceretur ad illum virum super equum dicendo gio gio, cepit percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus.'"
Brand's learned correspondent was, doubtless, the late Mr. Douce, from whom the writer of this Note has often heard the same illustration.]
Lady Norton (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—An account of lady Norton may be seen in Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages arts and sciences. By George Ballard. Oxford, 1752. 4º. She is said to have written two books, viz.: The applause of virtue. In four parts. etc. London, 1705. 4º. pp. 262; and Memento mori: or meditations on death. London 1705. 4º. pp. 108. She was living in advanced years, about 1720.
The same biographical repertory contains an account of her daughter, lady Gethin—of whom some particulars were given by myself in a small volume of essays printed for private circulation, under the title of Curiosities of literature illustrated, in 1837. On that occasion I ventured to express my belief that lady Gethin did not compose one sentence of the remains ascribed to her; but I hope the claims of lady Norton to patristic learning may more successfully bear the test of critical examination.