Philadelphia.
_"Land of Green Ginger"_ (Vol. viii., p. 227.).--The authority which I am
able to afford MR. RICHARDSON is simply the tradition of the place, which I
had so frequently heard that I could scarcely doubt the truth of it; this I
intended to be deduced, when I said I did not recollect that the local
histories gave any derivation, and that it was the one "generally received
by the inhabitants."
To any mind the solution brought forward by MR. BUCKTON (Vol. viii., p.
303.) carries the greatest amount of probability with it of any yet
proposed; and should any of your correspondents have the opportunity of
looking through the unpublished history of Hull by the Rev. De la Pryme,
"collected out of all the records, charters, deeds, mayors' letters, &c. of
the said town," and now placed amongst the Lansdowne MSS. in the British
Museum, I am inclined to think it is very likely it would be substantiated.
In Mr. Frost's valuable work on the town, which by the way proves it to
have been "a place of opulence and note at a period long anterior to the
date assigned to its existence by historians," he differs materially from
MR. RICHARDSON, in considering that Hollar's plate was "engraved about the
year 1630," not in 1640 as he states. There is also another which appeared
between the time of Hollar and Gent, in Meisner's _Libellus novus politicus
emblematicus Civitatum_, published in 1638, which though not "remarkable
for accuracy of design," is well worthy of notice. It bears the title "Hull
in Engellandt," and also the following curious inscriptions, which I copy
for the interest of your readers:
"Carcer nonnunquam firmum propugnaculum. Noctua clausa manet in carcere
firmo; Insidias volucrum vetat enim cavea."
"Wann die Eull eingesperret ist,
Schadet ihr nicht der Feinde list,
Der Kefig ist ihr nicht unnütz,
Sondern gibt wieder ihr Feind schütz."
These lines refer to a curious engraving on the left side of the plan,
representing an owl imprisoned in a cage with a quantity of birds about,
endeavouring to assail it.