Besides the host of hob-goblins, hob-thrush, hob-with-the-lantern, and the Yorkshire Dobbies, we have those two mysterious wights Robin Hood and Robin Goodfellow, and "superstitious favourite" the Robin Redbreast. It is a term also frequently applied to idiotcy (invariably among our lower orders linked with the idea of super-naturalism). Hobbil in the northern and Dobbin in the midland districts of England are terms used to denote a heavy, torpid fellow. The French Robin was formerly used in the same sense.
SAXONICUS.
210. Meaning of "Art'rizde."
—In Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary, p. 821. col. 2., there is a quotation from Middleton's Epigrams and Satyres, 1608. Will you, or any of your readers, be kind enough to inform me what is the meaning of the word "Art'rizde which occurs in the quotation, and also give some information as to the book from which it is quoted? Dyce professes to publish all of Middleton's known works, but in his edition (1840) there are no epigrams to be found.
QUÆSO.
211. Sir William Griffith of North Wales.
—Elizabeth, daughter of William Fiennes, Constable of Dover Castle, who was slain at the battle of Barnet, 10 Edw. IV., married, according to the pedigrees of Fiennes, "Sir William Griffith, of North Wales, Knt." It appears there were several persons of this name, and one styled Chamberlain of North Wales, but no such wife is given to him. Can any of your Welsh genealogists identify the Sir William Griffith by reference to any evidence or authorities, manuscript or otherwise, which state the marriage, and show whether Elizabeth Fiennes had any issue?
212. The Residence of William Penn.
—I have been informed that Chatham House, opposite the barracks at Knightsbridge, was the residence of Penn. This house was built in 1688; it had formerly large garden grounds attached both in front and behind. Another account informed me that a house, now known as the "Rising Sun," was the honoured spot. This house has only of late years been turned into a public-house; it is of neat appearance, and the date of 1611 is, or was till lately, to be seen at the two extremes of the copings. Query, Can either of these houses be pointed out with certainty as having been the residence of the great Quaker, and, if so, which? Why was the first-mentioned house called Chatham House?