Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850 | Page 3

the Peerage_,
vol. ii. p. 370.), a letter of Sir Ralph Winwood, dated 1610, is quoted,
in which he states, that she is "not altogether free from suspicion of
being collapsed." On this Mr. Craik observes, "It is difficult to
conjecture what can be here meant by _collapsed_, unless it be fallen
off to Romanism." Now it is not a little curious, and it proves Mr.
Craik's capability for the task of illustrating family history from the
obscure allusions in letters and documents, that there exists
cotemporary authority for fixing the meaning Mr. Craik has
conjectured to be the true one, to the word collapsed. A pamphlet, with
the title _A Letter to Mr. T.H., late Minister, now Fugitive_, was
published in 1609, with a dedication to all Romish collapsed "ladies of
Great Britain;" which bears internal evidence of being addressed to
those who were converts from the Church of England to Romanism.
{395}
Theophilus Higgons, whom the above initials represent, was himself a
convert to the Church of Rome.
It may be worth while making a further note, that the copy of the
pamphlet before me belonged to Camden, and is described in his
autograph, _Guil. Camdenj. Ex. dono Authoris_. It forms one of a large
collection of tracts and pamphlets, originally the property of Camden,
which are now in the library of the dean and chapter here.
It is curious that another document quoted by Mr. Craik in the same
volume (p. 286 _note_), seems to fix the meaning of a word or
expression, of obscure signification, in the authorised translation of the
Bible. In Judges, ix. 53., we read, "A certain woman cast a piece of a
millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all tobrake his skull." I have
heard some one, in despair at the grammatical construction of the latter
clause, suggest that it might be an error for "also brake his skull;" and I
have been told, that some printer or editor solved the difficulty by
turning it into "and all to break his skull." But in the Lieutenant of the
Tower's marginal notes on an inventory of the Countess of Hertford's
(Lady Katherine Grey) furniture, quoted by Mr. Craik from Lands. MS.
5. art. 41., he described the sparrer for the bed as "_all to-broken_, not
worth ten pence." There seems, therefore, to have been a compound,
"to-breck, to-brake, to-broken" (_perfrango_), of which the word in the
"Book of Judges" is the preterite. I may be exposing my ignorance,

when I say, that the quotation in the Romance of the Peerage is the
only other instance of its use I ever met with.
WILLIAM H. COPE. Cloisters, Westminster
[The word "to-break," is not to be found in Nares.--Mr. Halliwell, in his
_Archaic Dictionary_, has TO-BROKE, broken in pieces:
"The gates that Neptunus made A thousand wynter theretofore, They
have anon _to-broke_ and tore." From the Gower MS. Soc. Ant. 134, f.
46.
The word occurs also in Chaucer (p. 549. ed. Urry):--
"To-broken ben the Statutes hie in heven;"
and also in the Vision of Piers Ploughman (p. 156. ed. Wright):
"The bagges and the bigirdles He hath to-broke them all."
And Mr. Wright very properly remarks, that "_to_- prefixed in
composition to verbs of Anglo-Saxon origin, has the same force as the
German _zu_, giving to the word the idea of destruction or
deterioration."]
* * * * *
NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON.
_Lambeth Wells._--A place of public entertainment, first opened in
1697. It was celebrated for its mineral water, which was sold at one
penny per quart. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was
provided with a band of music, which played at intervals during the day,
and the price of admission was threepence. A monthly concert, under
the direction of Starling Goodwin, organist of St. Saviour's church,
Southwark, was held here in 1727.
_Hickford's Rooms, Panton Street, Haymarket._--These rooms, under
the name of "Hickford's Dancing Rooms," were in existence as early as
1710. In 1738, they were opened as the "Musick-room." A
contemporary account says:--
"The band was selected from the Opera House; but the singularity most
attractive consisted of an organ combined with a harpsichord, played by
clock-work, which exhibited the movements of an orrery and air-pump,
besides solving astronomical and geographical problems on two globes,
and showing the moon's age, with the Copernican system in motion."
In 1740, Mr. Galliard's benefit is announced to take place "at Mr.
Hickford's Great Room in Brewer Street, Golden Square."--See the
Daily Post of March 31. The "Great Room" is now known as "Willis's

Dancing Academy."
_The Music Room in Dean Street, Soho._--The Oratorio of Judas
Maccabeus was performed here in great splendour in 1760. It was
afterwards the auction room of the elder Christie; and is now
"Caldwell's Dancing Academy." George