2nd s. N" 77., June 20. '57.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



497 



Draught (2""^ S. ii. 388.) — In Scotland they 

 lead corn into the stackyard, and they carry 

 corn to market. They cart their own coals, and 

 they drive coals for others, and they pay for the 

 driving of coals, and ships carry coals to ports. 

 Horses draw a load of anything in carts, and they 

 carry persons on their backs. Henby Stephens. 



Nearsightedness (2"^ S. ii. 397.) — On a large 

 farm in Berwickshire there were three women out 

 of sixteen, and one ploughman out of six, near- 

 sighted, and it was thought nothing extraordinary. 

 The nearsighted women could neither single tur- 

 nips nor riddle corn so well as the others ; nor 

 could the ploughman plough as well. The affec- 

 tion is constitutional and hereditary. 



Henet Stephens. 



Arms of Simonet Family (2"'^ S. iii. 408.) — If 

 A will refer to the great work on Italian heraldry 



— Famiglie Celebri d' Italia, da Pomp. Litta, 

 Milan, fol. 1819, &c., he will find that the arms of 

 the family of Siraonetti de Calabria are, Az. a lion 

 ramp., crowned, or, holding a cross fitchee, gu. 



E. S. Taylok. 



Sebastianists (2°^ S. iii. 344.) —The belief in the 

 return of Don Sebastian may well be called a 

 curious superstition ; but I doubt whether the 

 believers in it can justly be considered as consti- 

 tuting a sect. The Brazilian believers alluded to 

 by E. H. A. receive their faith from Portugal, 

 where I have known many among the lower 

 classes who await the reappearance of Don Se- 

 bastiao. This superstition has been the cause of 

 several false Sebastians, and of some popular com- 

 motions in Portugal. 



It may be interesting for curious inquirers to 

 give a list of those princes, who, like Don Rode- 

 ric, King Arthur, King James of Scotland, and 

 many others, are believed to have survived dis- 

 aster, and whose mysterious reappearance has been 

 the subject of legend and romance. 



Hyde CiiAEKB. 



The Metamorphosis of Tobacco (2""^ S. iii. 364.) 



— This poem is ascribed to John Beaumont on 

 the authority of a MS. note, written in a contem- 

 porary hand, on the title-page of the late George 

 Chalmers' copy. See Dyce's Beaumont and 

 Fletcher, Introduction, p. xxiii. note. 



Edward P. Rimbault. 



" A sorrow's crown of sorrow " (2""^ S. iii. 369.) 



— The original thought was long before Boetius 

 expressed it. Two lines, 1121, 1122, in Eurip. 

 Ipiiig. In Tauris, are translated by Anstice : 



" But woe to him, who left to moan, 

 Reviews the hours of brightness gone." 



The following anecdote of Coleridge gives reality 

 to this thought. Coleridge enlisted in the 15th, 

 Elliott's, Light Dragoons. It seems that Captain 

 Ogle's attention was drawn to the young recruit 



in consequence of discovering the following sen- 

 tence in the stables, written in pencil : 



" Eheu ! quam infortunii miserrimum est fuisse feli- 

 cem." See Gillman's Life of Coleridge, i. 61. 



J. W. Fabeer. 



Belet Family (2°* S.ili. 413.) — *. in his notices 

 of the Belet family, has omitted to mention that 

 Michael Belet, the son of Michael, founded 

 Wroxton Priory (commonly called Wroxton 

 Abbey), near Banbury, in Oxfordshire ; which is 

 supposed, in the absence of precise dates, to have 

 been done in the reign of Henry III. (See the 

 new Dugdale, vi. 485.) The names of several 

 members of the family are given in the carta fun- 

 dacionis there printed, and it has been suggested 

 that the name of the adjoining village of Balscote, 

 which formed part of the endowment of the mo- 

 nastery, denotes simply Belet's cote. Ovtis. 



Cursing by Bell, Booh, and Candle (2°'^ S. iii. 

 370.) — The London Encyclopadia, s. v. " Bell," 

 quoting from Staveley on Churches, gives a full 

 description of this ceremony : 



" It was solenmly thundered out once in every Quarter : 

 the Fyrst Sonday of Advent, at comyng of our Lord 

 Jhesu"Cr3'st ; the fyrst Sonday of Lenteen ; the Sonday 

 in the Feste of the Tryn^'te; and Sonday within the 

 Utas (Octaves) of the blessed Vyrgin our Lady St. Mary." 



Then follows a description of the solemn cere- 

 mony, of the persons cursed, and finally the curse 

 itself, ending : . 



"Fiat: fiat. Doe to the boke: quench the candles: 

 ring the bell : Amen, Amen." 



J. B. Wilkinson. 



Child's Caul (2"'J S. iii. 329. 397.) — A great 

 deal of curious and interesting information on 

 this subject, extracted from numerous works, is 

 in the 3rd volume of Sir Henry Ellis's edition of 

 Brands Popular Antiquities, pp. 59 — 62. One of 

 my children was born with a caul, which is now 

 in my possession. W. H. W. T. 



Somerset House. 



NOTES ON recent BOOK SALES. 



The following MS. Diary was sold at Sothkby & Wil- 

 kinson's, on June 10, 1857 : 



198. Diary (Manuscript). The Private Diary of Sir 

 Humphrey Mildmay of Uanbury, extending from the 

 year 1633 to the year 1652, one of the most eventful 

 periods in English History, very neatly and closely 

 written, pp. 488, entirel}" unpublished. 5/. 15s. 



This is a transcript, made at great labour, of the most 

 interesting early unpublished diary known to exist. 

 It is full of the most valuable notices of events, 

 families, and personages of the times, and records 

 numerous minute particulars nowhere else to be met 

 with. The writer pens down everything without the 

 slightest reserve, and includes special notices of his 



