local names in Cleveland are of old Danish origin, (and I believe I shall eventually prove that nine out of ten, perhaps nineteen out of twenty, are such) then there are five chances to one that Middlesbrough, as an imported name, is imported from Scandinavia, and not from some other country. Indeed, were there no other argument beside the following against the Dutch origin, it would go far with most competent enquirers, in the absence of positive evidence on the other side: Middlesbrough, as an imported name of Dutch origin, would be the one town with a Dutch name of the same date in the entire district it is seated in." is clearly imported, and is, we think, of Dutch origin, from Middleburgh in Holland." The Rev. J. C. ATKINSON, who has made the etymology of our Cleveland names his special study, remarks:"Middlesbrough seems to have originally been called Mydelburghe, subsequently Midlesburg, the latter part of which is the same as the burg or borg in the old names Ghigesburg (Guisborough), Scarthoborg (Scarborough), and means a place of defence or safety, a tower, fortress, castle. The former part is due to the Old Norse methal, in a latter and Germanised form middel, equivalent to our English middle, in the midst between two, and is a very common prefix in Scandinavian local names. This name must have originated in one It is possible that a church may have been erected. of two ways. It may have been imposed here as early as the seventh century; and, as it arbitrarily, like Boston, York, Chester, Chelmsford, would merely be composed of timber, or wicker-names of places in England-upon newly-formed work, or perhaps partly of mud, thatched with settlements in America; or it was given as ex- straw, reeds, or rushes, (as shown in the accompressive of some peculiarity or characteristic,-as panying engraving) that it might have been burnt descriptive, in short. In other words, Mydelburghe in some of the frequent wastings of the district may have been some place of defence or security, with fire and sword, and not replaced until after half way between other two places present to the the Norman Conquest. "If I may hazard a conmind of him (or them) who gave the name: or it jecture on the subject," writes DR. YOUNG, § "I may have been transplanted ready-made from the should suppose that Middleburgh was the place other side of the North Sea, as Upsal, Arusum, where Cuthbert dedicated a church for Elfleda; (now Airsome) certainly were. In the latter case, or at least, that it was some place on the Cleveland as there is so little in the way of evidence to connect side of Streoneshalh, not far from the borders of it with Middleburg in Holland, and as the inference, the bishop's own diocese. It is obvious that he did derivable from the exceedingly numerous names of not go forward to Elfleda's principal monastery, places all through Cleveland, (and not less so in and that the new church which he consecrated was the Middlesbrough vicinity) which are of unques- a considerable way off from it; as the messenger tionable Old Danish origin, that it also originates dispatched thither could not return the same day." in like manner, is so strong, I have myself no This, however, is mere supposition, though rendered doubt of its coming from some part of Scandinavia, extremely probably by what I have next to relate. probably from Jutland, where, at this day, a Medelby (To be Continued.) and an Aarhaus are near neighbours, just as is the case with Middlesbrough and Airsome." And again: "Assuming what I have proved in the Introduction to my Glossary-that five out of six of the old Statistical Survey of the Vicinity to the distance of Twenty-five § The History of Whitby, and Streoneshalh Abbey; with a miles, 1817. BROS. TWEDDELL CLEVELAND AND SONS, PRINTING AND PUBLISHING OFFICES, MIDDLESBROUGH, Fraternally inform their "Brothers of the Mystic Tie," that they have been appointed Agents for the Sale of every description of Masonic Clothing, Jewels, Banners, Lodge Furniture, etc., which they are prepared to receive Orders for at the smallest rumunerative profits. Agents for the Freemasons' Magazine, The Freemason, The American Freemason, and all Masonic Books and other Publications. The New Masonic Mate Paper and Envelopes, For Craft, Mark, Royal Arch, Red Cross of Rome and Constantine, Rose Croix, Knights Templar, and 30 Degree, IN BOXES THREE SHILLINGS. Honour to thee, "Gem of the North," Cleveland, Cleveland! Land whose praises well were sung, Cleveland, Cleveland! He died, but link'd his name with thee, Cleveland, Cleveland! CLEVELAND.-Travellers, tourists of all descriptions, antiquarian, geologistic, scientific, poetic, and artistic, have cordially united in celebrating that romantic portion of the north riding of the county of York called CLEVELAND. 1ts immense ranges of majestic hills; its far-extending moors, interspersed with fruitful valleys and picturesque dales; its embowering groves of beech and pine, and wide-spreading forests of oak; its calm and peaceful rivers, clear and musical with the rush of innumerable mountain streams; the beauty or sublimity of the ocean, girding its romantic shores; the enormous chain of towering sea-cliffs, against which in calm the billows leap with playful sportiveness, or in tempest fiercely hurl their thunders,-all these combined, present a majesty and loveliness in Nature, unsurpassed, we may venture to affirm, within the circuit of the British isles.- JOHN WALKER ORD. MARY DUFF'S LAST HALF-CROWN. Hugh Miller, the geologist, journalist, and man of genius, was sitting in his newspaper office late one dreary winter night. The clerks had all left, and he was preparing to go, when a quick rap came to the door. He said, "Come in," and looking towards the entrance, he saw a little ragged child all wet with sleet. "Are ye Hugh Miller?" "Yes." "Mary Duff wants ye." "What does she want?" "She's deein." Some misty recollection of the name made him once set out, and, with his well-known plaid and stick, he was soon striding after the child, who trotted through at the now deserted High Street into the Canongate. By the time he got to the Old Playhouse Close, Hugh had re vived his memory of Mary Duff-a lively girl who had been bred up beside him at Cromarty. The last time he had seen her was at a brother mason's marriage, where Mary was "best maid," and he "best man." He seemed still to see her bright young careless face, her tidy shortgown, and her dark eyes, and to hear her bantering, merry tongue. Down the close went the ragged little woman, and up an outside stair, Hugh keeping near her with difficulty. In the passage she held out her hand and touched him; taking it in his great palm, he felt that she wanted a thumb. Finding her way like a cat through the darkness, she opened a door, and saying, "That's her!" vanished. By the light of a dying fire he saw, lying in the corner of the large empty room, something like a woman's clothes; and, on drawing nearer, became aware of a thin pale face and two dark eyes looking keenly, but helplessly, up at him. The eyes were plainly Mary Duff's, though he could recognise no other feature. She wept silently, gazing steadily at him. "Are you Mary Duff?" "It's a' that's o' me, Hugh.' She then tried to speak to him, something plainly of greater emergency, but she could n't, and seeing that she was very ill, and making herself worse, he put half-a-crown into her feverish hand, and said he would call again in the morning. He could get no information about her from the neighbours-they were surly or asleep. When he returned next morning, the little girl met him at the stair-head, and said, "She's deid." He went in, and found it was true: there she lay, the fire out, her face placid, and the likeness to her maiden self restored. Hugh thought he would have known her now, even with those bright black eyes closed as they were in æternum. Seeking out a neighbour, he said he would like to bury Mary Duff, and arranged for the funeral with an undertaker in the close. Little seemed to be known of the poor outcast, except that she was a "lich," or, as Solomon would have said, a 'strange woman. "Did she drink?" "Whiles." On the day of the funeral, one or two residents in the close accompanied him to the Canongate Churchyard. He observed a decent-looking little old woman watching them, and following at a distance, though the day was wet and bitter. After the grave was filled, and he had taken off his hat, as the men finished their business by putting on and slapping the sod, he saw this old woman remaining. She came up, and, courtesying, said, "Ye wad keen that lass, sir?" Yes, I knew her when she was young.' "" The woman then burst into tears, and told Hugh that she "keepit a bit shop at the closemouth, and Mary dealt wi' me, and aye paid reg'lar, and I was feared she was deid, for she had been a month awin' me half-a-crown;" and then with a look and voice of awe, she told him how, on the night he was sent for, and immediately after he had left, she had been awakened by some one in her room; and by the bright fire-for she was a bein, well-to-do-bodyshe had seen the wasted dying creature, who came forward and said, "Was n't it half-a-crown?" "Yes." "There it is," and, putting it under the bolster, vanished! Alas for Mary Duff her career had been a sad one since the day when she stood side by side with Hugh at the wedding of their friends. Her father died not long after, and her mother supplanted her in the affections of the man to whom she had given her heart. The shock was overwhelming, and made home intolerable. Mary fled from it blighted and embittered, and, after a life 66 66 of shame and sorrow, crept into the corner of her wretched garret, to die deserted and alone, giving evidence in her latest act that honesty had survived amid the wreck of nearly every other virtue. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."-DR. BROWN. 66 WHAT'S GOING ON?-A very prosy gentleman, who was in himself in the way, said, "Well, Jerrold, what is going on tothe habit of waylaying Jerrold, met his victim, and, planting day?"-Jerrold, said, darting past the inquirer, “I am !" pius, "if women were admitted to Paradise, their tongues would QUID PRO QUO.-" Madame," said a snarling son of Esculamake it a purgatory.' "And some physicians, if allowed to practice there," retorted the lady, "would soon make it a desert." NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS, NOTES ORD'S Rural Sketches.-A correspondent in Billiter Square, London, wishes us to supply him with a copy of this work. We are unable to do so at present, as the book has been long out of print. Should any of our readers have a decent second-hand copy for Sale, perhaps they will be good enough to inform us. MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.-We are happy to inform our Westminster correspondent, that we have, for many years past, given such aid as was in our power to the Marriage Law Reform Association, in their commendable object of promoting the passing of an act to render lawful marriage with a deceased wife's sister; and we intend to do so until the present disgraceful law is removed from the statute book. Seeing that the bill has been repeatedly carried in the House of Commons, and within four in the House of Lords, we trust common sense and common justice will prevail over ignorance and wrong even during the present sessions. JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE.-The passage is in the second scene of the third act of SHAKSPERE'S King Henry the Sixth, Part Second :— "What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.” The great dramatist has put this noble sentiment into the mouth of the king; and well would it have been for humanity if kings had always been actuated by such just principles. The two royal scoundrels of France and Prussia are a living proof how little of such is to be found in the hearts of kings. FEACE AND PROSPERITY. Everybody should read the admirable Peace Tract, written by an eminent Physician, and now reprinted by TWEDDELL and SONS, entitled "FACTS FOR FROFESSING CHRISTIANS." In order to afford the friends of Peace and Liberty an opportunity of distributing this excellent Treatise throughout the country in a form in which it is likely to be preserved, it is offered on the following low terms :-Single Copies, One Halfpenny each; or free by Book-post, a Penny. Fifty copies, One One Hundred Shilling; or free by Book-post, Fifteenpence. Copies, Two Shillings; or free by Book-post, Two Shillings and Sixpence; and so on, in proportion. One Thousand Copies or upwards, Fifteen Shillings a Thousand, the purchaser to pay carriage. TWEDDELL AND SONS, CLEVELAND PRINTING & PUBLISHING OFFICES, STOKESLEY AND MIDDLESBROUGH. THE NAME OF OUR BOROUGH. [A Correspondent of ours at Carron Wharf, Port Dundas, Glasgow, thus concludes one of his long, friendly, and everwelcome Letters.] "Although the reading of this will doubtless take up too much of your time, yet I cannot help expressing the hope that you will one day turn your attention to the composition of a tract on the etymology of the name of your town-Middlesbrough; or, as I prefer it, Middlesborough. the "useful" arts,-whatever is necessary to be taught mankind for their individual or collective happinessmust all be simplified. We know that nothing can be accomplished without labour,-nor ought it; but that is no reason why we should put stumbling-blocks in the way.—Ed. M. M.] COUNTY COURTS FOR 1871. YORK CIRCUIT. Courts are appointed to be held at the following places and times : Court Town. Thirsk Knaresbro' Easingwold "Some of your north-country papers, I have often observed, apparently take a delight in corrupting (pardon the use of the word) borough into bro',-thus, I humbly submit, affecting the pronunciation of the word. (Mercantile men, I am aware, not unfrequently write Tadcaster boro' for abbreviation; but the pronunciation is not Helmsley affected thereby.) The south-country papers are more particular in this matter. If they use abbreviated forms of expression, it is based on some intelligible principle. For example, Scarbro' (as many of your papers have it) becomes rightly Scarboro'. "Some years ago I saw a History of Middlesbrough (a reprint from the Newcastle Chronicle), in which the writer (I speak at this distance of time from memory) attempted to account for the present mode of spelling the name; but I thought then that Mr. Peacock (from whose authority others adopted it) had no grounds of analogy to support the usage. At any rate, most of the London papers that I see, invariably spell the name Middlesborough." N. B. If the Plaintiff do not appear in person or by any Attorney, at the hour named in the summons, the case will be struck out; and if the Defendant do not appear in person or by an Attorney at the hour named, or has not previously informed the Registrar that the case is to be defended, it will be disposed of in his absence. MADAME HECK WORTHY, PROFESSOR PUPIL OF SIGNOR ANOJOTEI, OF [As the writer of the above (which, we must premise, was not written for publication) proves his good taste by buying and taking an interest in our publications, we have a considerable amount of respect for his opinions! The mode of spelling the name, how-In Brilliant and Classical Music, from the Works of Beethoven, ever, is a matter on which we have no feeling whatever, but wish to see uniformity, and are prepared to SINGING AND PIANO-FORTE INSTRUCTION, Mozart, Handel, &c. ONE GUINEA PER QUARTER. SINGING, ONE GUINEA AND A HALF PER QUARTER. MADAME HECKWORTHY IS OPEN TO ENGAGEMENTS FOR 85, MARTON ROAD, MIDDLESBROUGH. ALEXANDER SANDERSON, TEN YEARS WATH MESSRS BROADWOOD AND SONS, write borough, boro', burgh, burg, brough, or bro', ALSO ITALIAN OPERATIC AND ENGLISH BALLAD as may be generally adopted. For ourselves, we consider the shortest way of spelling any word is the best, and wish to see a radical reform in spelling as well as in other matters. Perhaps our good friend will be more horrified still, when we inform him that the vulgar pronunciation of the name of our borough, for many miles round here, is none of those referred to, but-Millsbro ! Such is the natural tendency to shorten long names, that we have abbreviated cabriolet into cab, omnibus into bus, and railway into rail. We write Hull for Kingston-upon-Hull; Evesham is pronounced Eesham; Alne is softened into Aun; Alcester into Auster; and Almondsbury into Aumondry. Scientific men, we think, never show more real ignorance than when they choose those abominable"learned" technicalities which few can either spell or pronounce; and which, they may take our word for it, the world will never adopt. Reading, writing, mathematics, history, geography, geology, astronomy, botany, natural history, politics, social and all other science, religion, literature, the "fine" and |