Kitabı oku: «Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851», sayfa 2

Various

Yazı tipi:

FOLK LORE

Lammer Beads—Lammer, or Lama beads are so called from an order of priests of that name among the western Tartars. The Lamas are extremely superstitious, and pretend to magic. Amber was in high repute as a charm during the plague of London, and was worn by prelates of the Church. John Baptist Van Helmont (Ternary of Paradoxes, London, 1650) says, that

"A translucid piece of amber rubbed on the jugular artery, on the hand wrists, near the instep, and on the throne of the heart, and then hung about the neck,"

was a most certain preventative of (if not a cure for) the plague; the profound success of which Van Helmont attributes to its magnetic or sympathetic virtue.

Blowen.

Engraved Warming-pans.—Allow me to add another illustration to the list furnished by H. G. T., p. 84. One which I purchased a few years ago of a cottager at Shotover, in Oxfordshire, has the royal arms surmounted by C. R., and surrounded by

"FEARE GOD HONNOR Y^E KING, 1662."

The lid and pan are of brass, the handle of iron.

E. B. Price.

Queen Elizabeth's Christening Cloth.—The mention (in the first No. of your 3rd Vol.) of some damasked linen which belonged to James II. reminds me of a relic which I possess, and the description of which may interest some of your readers.

It is the half of Queen Elizabeth's christening cloth, which came into my possession through a Mrs. Goodwin. A scrap of paper which accompanies it gives the following account of it:

"It was given by an old lady to Mrs. Goodwin; she obtained it from one of the Strafford family, who was an attendant upon the Queen. The other half Mrs. Goodwin has seen at High Fernby, in Yorkshire, a place belonging to the family of the Rooks, in high preservation. In its original state, it was lined with a rose-coloured lutestring, with a flounce of the same about a quarter deep. The old lady being very notable, found some use for the silk, and used to cover the china which stood in the best parlour with this remains of antiquity."

The christening cloth is of a thread net, worked in with blue and yellow silk, and gold cord. It must have been once very handsome, but is now somewhat the worse for wear and time. It is about 2½ feet wide and 3½ feet in length, so that the entire length must have been about 7 feet.

Can any one inform me whether the remaining half of this interesting relic STILL exists; as the notice attached to it, and mentioning its locality, must now be fifty years old at least?

H. A. B.

Minor Notes

The Breeches Bible.—The able and interesting article on the Breeches Bible which appeared in a late number of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. iii., p. 17.) is calculated to remove the deep-rooted popular error which affixes great pecuniary value to every edition of the Bible in which the words "made themselves breeches" are to be found, by showing that such Bibles are generally only worth about as many shillings as they are supposed to be worth pounds. It is worth noting, with reference to this translation, that in the valuable early English version, known as Wickliffe's Bible, just published by the university of Oxford, the passage in Genesis (cap. iii. v. 7.) is translated "thei soweden togidre leeues of a fige tree and maden hem brechis."

Effessa.

Origin of the present Race of English.—In Southey's Letters of Espriella (Letter xxiv., p. 274., 3rd edit.), there is a remark, that the dark hair of the English people, as compared with the Northern Germans, seems to indicate a considerable admixture of southern blood. Now, in all modern ethnological works, this fact of present complexion seems to be entirely overlooked. But it is a fact, and deserves attention. Either it is the effect of climate, in which case the moral as well as the physical man must have altered from the original stock, or it arises from there being more "ungerman" blood flowing in English veins than is acknowledged. May I hazard a few conjectures?

1. Are we not apt to underrate the number of Romanised Celts remaining in England after the Saxon Conquest? The victors would surely enslave a vast multitude, and marry many Celtic women; while those who fled at the first danger would gradually return to their old haunts. Under such circumstances, that the language should have been changed is no wonder.

2. Long before the Norman Conquest there was a great intercourse between England and France, and many settlers from the latter country came over here. This, by the way, may account for that gradual change of the Anglo-Saxon language mentioned as observable prior to the Conquest.

3. The army of the Conqueror was recruited from all parts of France, and was not simply Norman. When the men who composed it came into possession of this country, they clearly must have sent home for their wives and families; and many who took no part in the invasion no doubt came to share the spoils. Taking this into account, we shall find the Norman part of the population to have borne no small proportion to the then inhabitants of England. It is important to bear in mind the probable increase of population since 1066 A.D.

Terra Martis.

True Blue.—I find the following account of this phrase in my note-book, but I cannot at present say whence I obtained it:—

"The first assumption of the phrase 'true blue' was by the Covenanters in opposition to the scarlet badge of Charles I., and hence it was taken by the troops of Leslie in 1639. The adoption of the colour was one of those religious pedantries in which the Covenanters affected a Pharisaical observance of the scriptural letter and the usages of the Hebrews; and thus, as they named their children Habakkuk and Zerubbabel, and their chapels Zion and Ebenezer, they decorated their persons with blue ribbons because the following sumptuary precept was given in the law of Moses:—
"'Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make to themselves fringes on the borders of their garments, putting in them ribbons of blue.'"—Numb. xv. 38.
E. L. N.

"By Hook or by Crook."—The destruction caused by the Fire of London, A.D. 1666, during which some 13,200 houses, &c., were burnt down, in very many cases obliterated all the boundary-marks requisite to determine the extent of land, and even the very sites occupied by buildings, previously to this terrible visitation. When the rubbish was removed, and the land cleared, the disputes and entangled claims of those whose houses had been destroyed, both as to the position and extent of their property, promised not only interminable occupation to the courts of law, but made the far more serious evil of delaying the rebuilding of the city, until these disputes were settled, inevitable. Impelled by the necessity of coming to a more speedy settlement of their respective claims than could be hoped for from legal process, it was determined that the claims and interests of all persons concerned should be referred to the judgment and decision of two of the most experienced land-surveyors of that day,—men who had been thoroughly acquainted with London previously to the fire; and in order to escape from the numerous and vast evils which mere delay must occasion, that the decision of these two arbitrators should be final and binding. The surveyors appointed to determine the rights of the various claimants were Mr. Hook and Mr. Crook, who by the justice of their decisions gave general satisfaction to the interested parties, and by their speedy determination of the different claims, permitted the rebuilding of the city to proceed without the least delay. Hence arose the saying above quoted, usually applied to the extrication of persons or things from a difficulty. The above anecdote was told the other evening by an old citizen upwards of eighty, by no means of an imaginative temperament.

J. D. S.

Putney, Feb. 1. 1851.

[We insert the above, as one of the many explanations which have been given of this very popular phrase—although we believe the correct origin to be the right of taking fire-bote by hook or by crook. See Notes and Queries, Vol. i., pp. 281. and 405.]

Record of Existing Monuments.—I have some time since read your remarks in Vol. iii., p. 14. of "Notes and Queries," on the Rev. J. Hewett's Monumentarum of Exeter Cathedral, and intend in a short time to follow the advice you have there given to "superabundant brass-rubbers," of copying the inscriptions in the churches and churchyards of the hundred of Manley. The plan I intend to pursue is, to copy in full every inscription of an earlier date than 1750; also, all more modern ones which are in any way remarkable as relating to distinguished persons, or containing any peculiarity worthy of note. The rest I shall reduce into a tabular form.

The inscriptions of each church I shall arrange chronologically, and form an alphabetical index to each inscription in the hundred.

By this means I flatter myself a great mass of valuable matter may be accumulated, a transcript of which may not be entirely unworthy of a place on the shelves of the British Museum.

I have taken the liberty of informing you of my intention, and beg that if you can suggest to me any plan which is better calculated for the purpose than the one I have described, you will do so.

Would it not be possible, if a few persons in each county were to begin to copy the inscriptions on the plan that I have described, that in process of time a copy of every inscription in every church in England might be ready for reference in our national library?

Perhaps you will have the goodness, if you know of any one who like myself is about to undertake the task of copying inscriptions in his own neighbourhood, to inform me, that I may communicate with him, so that, if possible, our plans may be in unison.