Meaning of "eign."—What is the meaning of the word "eign" in Presteign, also the name of a street and a brook? Is it connected with the Anglo-Saxon thegen or theign?
H. C. K.
Hereford.
The Bonny Cravat.—Can any of your readers give a probable explanation of the meaning of the sign of an inn at Woodchurch, in Kent, which is "The Bonny Cravat," now symbolised as a huge white neckcloth, with a "waterfall" tie?
E. H. Y.
What was the Day of the Accession of Richard III.?—Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Chronology of History (2nd edition, p. 326.) decides for June 26, 1433, giving strong reasons for such opinion. But his primary reason, founded on a fac-simile extract from the Memoranda Rolls in the office of the King's Remembrancer in the Exchequer of
Ireland, printed, with fac-simile, in the second Report of the Commissioners on Irish Records, 1812, p. 160., gives rise to a doubt; for, as Sir Harris Colas states,
"It is remarkable that the printed copy should differ from the fac-simile in the identical point which caused the letter to be published, for in the former the 'xxvijth of June' occurs, whereas in the fac-simile it is the 'xxvjth of June.' The latter is doubtless correct; for an engraver, who copies precisely what is before him, is less likely to err than a transcriber or editor."
This is most probably the case; but perhaps some of your correspondents in Ireland will settle the point accurately.
J. E.