[If our correspondent will refer to the title-page of the Bishop's celebrated work, The English, Scotch, and Irish Historical Libraries, as well as to his correspondence with Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, he will find his name spelt Nicolson, without the letter h. This deserves to be noted, as there was another Dr. William Nicholson, consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, A.D. 1660.]
Six Abeiles.—In Mrs. Barrett Browning's beautiful poem, Rhyme of the Duchess May, the following lines occur:
"Six abeiles i' the kirkyard grow,
On the northside in a row."
Will you or some of your readers kindly inform me what abeiles are. From the context, they would seem to be some kind of tree, but what tree I cannot discover.
M. A. H.
Monkstown, co. Cork, Feb. 18. 1851.
[Bailey, in his Dictionary, says, "An abele-tree is a fine kind of white poplar." See also Chambers' Cyclopædia.]
Southey.—There is a jeu d'esprit attributed to Southey, on the expedition of Napoleon into Russia, beginning,—
"Buonaparte must needs set out