B.N.

Miry-Land Town.  In the Athenaeum, in an article on the tradition respecting Sir Hugh of Lincoln, the Bishop of Dromore’s version of the affair is thus given:—­

  “The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,
    Sae dois it doune the Pa’;
  Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune. 
    Quhan they play at the Ba’.”

In explanation of part of this stanza, Dr. Percy is stated to have considered “Mirry-land toune” to be “probably a corruption of Milan (called by the Dutch Meylandt) town,” and that the Pa’ was “evidently the River Po, though the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan;” and it is observed that it could not have occasioned Dr. Jamieson much trouble to conjecture as he did that “Mirry-land toune” was a corruption of “Merry Lincolne,” and that, in fact, in 1783, Pinkerton commenced his version of the ballad thus—­

  “The bonnie boys o’ merry Lincoln;”

and it is added, very truly, that with all his haste and petulance, Pinkerton’s critical acumen was far from inconsiderable.  Now, there appears to me to have been a very simple solution of the above words, so simple that perhaps it was beneath the critical acumen of the said commentators.  My note on the subject is, that Mirry-land toune means nothing more than Miry-, Muddy-land Town, a designation that its situation certainly entitles it to; and Pa’ is certainly not the Po, but an abbreviated form of Pall, i.e. a place to play Ba’ or ball in, of which we have a well-known instance in Pall Mall.

Since writing the above, I recollect that Romsey, in Hampshire, has been designated “Romsey-in-the-Mud.”

J.R.F.

Richard Greene of Lichfield.—­H.T.E. is informed that there is a medal or token (not difficult to obtain) of this zealous antiquary.  Obv. his bust, in the costume of the period; legend, “Richard Greene, collector of the Lichfield Museum, died June 4, 1793, aged 77.”  Rev. a Gothic window, apparently; legend, “West Porch of Lichfield Cathedral, 1800.”

B.N.

The Lobster in the Medal of the Pretender.—­The “Notes” by your correspondents, Mr. Edward Hawkins and Mr. J.B.  Yates, relative to this medal, are very curious and interesting, and render it probable that the device of the Lobster has a religious rather than a political allusion.  But it strikes us that the double introduction of this remarkable emblem has a more important signification than the mere insidious and creeping characteristics of Jesuitism.  The lines beneath the curious print in Brandt’s Stultifera Nuvis throw no light on the meaning of the Lobster.  We think the difficulty yet remains unsolved.

B.N.