2»* S. VII. Atiul 2. '59.] 



J^rOTES AND QUEEIES. 



271 



dicta villa de K. ad dictam domum Sancti Johannis 

 spectantein. Quequidem messuag' jacent in latitudine 

 inter terrain Henrici Power ex parte boreali et terram 

 Thome JNIartell ex parte australi in long' se extendit a 

 strata regia ex parte occidentali usque ad domum dicti 

 K. ex parte orientali habend' &c. predicto R. liere- 

 dibus &e. ad termiuum quadraginta novem annoruni. 

 Ifeddend' annuatim octodenarios argentiet capit'dominis 

 feodi &e., datum apud Civ' Dublinie decimo die mensis 

 aprilis anno regni regis Edwardi quarti decimo septimo." 



R. C. 

 Cork. 



Fat Beasts. — In these time?, wlien beasts are 

 prized for their obesity, the following citations 

 may be interesting, as showing how the sheep and 

 hogs of antiquity surpassed our own in fatness. 

 Gluttons are said to be 



"Like the fatned sheepe whereof Johannes Leo relates, 

 which he see in Egypt, some of whose tailes weighed 80 

 pound, and some 150 pound, by which waight their 

 bodies were unmoveable, unlesse their tailes, like traines, 

 were caried up in wheel-barrowes: or like the fiitned 

 hogs Scalllger mentions, that could not move for fat, and 

 were so senselesse that mise made nests in their buttocks, 

 they not once feeling them." — The Glasse of Humors, 

 by T. W. 1607, folio 6. 



C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Snap-dragon. — In course of conversation a 

 short time since the game of snap-dragon was 

 mentioned, when a friend asking its etymology, 

 I suggested a derivation from the German «c/i?i«/>/)5, 

 s'pirit, and drache., dragon, and that it was equi- 

 valent to spirit-fire. Upon turning afterwards to 

 the dictionaries no such derivation, nor a very satis- 

 factory one, was given. 



Seeing that the game hns been called Jlap and 

 slap-dragon at different times, I would on this 

 note found a Query. Is the game of home origin ? 

 If not, whence, and when introduced? 



Shakspeare, in the Second Part of Henry IV., 

 Act II. Sc. 4, makes FalstafF answer — 



•'And drinks off candles' ends iov flap-dragons." 

 And in Loves Labour s Lost, Act V., Sc. 1. — 

 " Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon." 



In the Winters Tale (Act III. Se. 3.) he makes 

 a verb of 



" But to make an end of the ship : to see how the sea 

 flap-dragoned it." 



An account of the game -is to be found in No. 

 85. of The Tatler. T. W. Wonfob. 



Brighton. 



The Coan, an Object of Worship. — In the be- 

 ginning of the seventeenth century 'a Highland 

 chieftain was charged before the Scotish Privy 

 Council with being " a worshipper of the Coan," 

 which object of idolatry was brought to Edin- 

 burgh, and solemnly burned at the Cross. What 

 was the Coan ? In Gregory's History of the 

 Western Highlands and Isle of Scotland (Edin- 



burgh, 1836), the Coan is described as " an ima^e 

 used in witchcraft;" but this is by "no means ex- 

 plicit, and curiously enough the explanation oc- 

 curs, not in the body of the work, but incidentally 

 in the index ! Perhaps some correspondent versed 

 in Gaelic lore may bo able to throw light upon a 

 subject which seems not a little interesting-. 



II. S. F. 



Forth. 



A Life of Coincidences. — In the jRotterdammer 

 Courant oi' 4 Xovember, 1777, is to be found a 

 curious article, of which my grandfather made a 

 note. The translation is : — 



"The 18 October, 1777, died in Lanark, Scotland, Wil- 

 liam Douglas and his wife (name not given). They were 

 born on the same day, within the same hour, aided by 

 the same midwife, and were baptized together in the 

 same church. 'At the age of 19 years they married 

 together in the church of their baptism. They were 

 never ill till the day before their death, and the day of 

 their death completed their hundredth year. They died 

 on the same bed, and were buried together in the church 

 near to the place where, about a hundred years before, 

 they were baptized." [No children mentioned.] 



Is this a proved fact ? Spok, 



Dutch Courage. — 



"Do you ask what is Dutch courage? 



ask the Thames, and ask the fleet. 

 That, in London's fire and plague years, 



with de Kuyter yards would mete: 

 Ask Prince Robert and d'Estrees, 



ask 3'our Solebay and the Boyne, 

 Ask the Duke, whose iron valour 



with our chivalry did join. 

 Ask your Wellington, oh ask him, 



of our Prince of Orange bold, 

 And a tale of nobler spirit 



will to wond'ring ears be told ; 

 And if ever foul invaders 



threaten your King William's throne, 

 If dark Papacy be mining, 



or if Chartists want your own, 

 Or whatever may betide you, 



that needs rid of foreign will, 

 Only ask of your Dutch neighbours, 



and 3'ou'll see Dutch courage still." 



J. H. VAN Lennep. 

 Zeyst. 



CHATTERTON. 



About two years ago I intimated, through a 

 local journal, what I am now desirous of making 

 as extensively known as possible amongst anti- 

 quaries through the columns of " N. & Q.," 

 namely, that there is in existence a large folio 

 manuscript volume relating to Chatterton, the 

 contents of which I believe have never yet been 

 seen but by its successive custodians. It origi- 

 nally belonged to the poet's friend, Mr. George 

 CatcottjWho presented it to the late Lord Charle- 

 mont, at the same time prohibiting, in his own 

 handwriting at the commencement of the book. 



