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 "Wil