Jan. 17. 1852.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



5& 



CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS. 



The miseries and disappointments of the literary 

 life are proverbial : 



" Toil, envy, want, the patron and the gaol." 



To these " calamities of authors," I wish to add 

 a new, and as yet unrecorded trial, incidental to 

 this age of cheap postage and extravagant puffs. 

 I am myself a small author, and have written on 

 theology and antiquarianism ; and my publisher's 

 shelves know the weight of my labours. Conceive 

 then my delight, a few weeks ago, at receiving a 

 " confidential" letter from B. D., requesting the 

 imraedijite transmission of my theological tomes to 

 a country address ; on the representation that, 

 although B. D. well knew that my writings had 

 been favourably received, he j udged that "striking 

 recommendations at this moment in influential 

 journals to which he had reviewing access during 

 the parliamentary recess, would prove of essential 

 service." I wrote to my publisher, who coolly 

 answered that it was "no go;" and I even stood 

 the tempting shock of a second application from 

 B. D., remonstratively hinting that, but for the 

 non-arrival of the volumes, a notice would have 

 appeared that very week in an " important quar- 

 ter." The hopeful mind has difficulty in settling 

 down into a belief that men deceive. 



Not a month had elapsed before I received 

 another letter, sealed with such a signet as in size 

 would rival the jewel sometimes seen pendent 

 from the waistcoat pocket of a Jew broker on 

 Saturday, and engraven witli evidence of illus- 

 trious lineage, if quarterings be only half true. I 

 did not break this magnificent seal, but I tore 

 open the envelope, and I found that my antiqua- 

 rian researches had been most flatteringly esti- 

 mated by a gentleman with a double surname, 

 which happened to be familiar to me. The com- 

 munication was, of course, "private;" and it 

 expressed the writer's knowledge, from hearsay, of 

 the " value, merit, and ability " of my book, and 

 the satisfaction it would afford my correspondent, 

 to give it a " handsome and elaborate review in 

 both the widely circulating and reviewing publi- 

 cations with which he had the honour of being 

 connected." A copy of my work was to be sent 

 to his own address, or to that of his bookseller : 

 or, even a third course was obligingly opened to 

 me — "he would send his man-servant to my 

 publisher for the volume!" I sent the book, 

 and the same day communicated with the head 

 of the family who legally bore the very hand- 

 some name used by my correspondent, and he 

 told me that he had just received 51. worth of 

 books from a great house in " the Row," which 

 were obviously designed to be the response to an 

 application from the gentleman with a large seal, 

 who was " an impostor." This may be so ; but I 

 have received an acknowledgment for the receipt 



of my little work, so kind and courtly in its tone, 

 that I do not even yet quite despair of one day 

 reading the promised " handsome and elaborate 

 review." A Small Author. 



FOLK LORE. 



Valentine's Day — Superstition in Devonshire. — 

 The peasants and others believe that if they go to 

 the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past 

 twelve o'clock on the eve of St. Valentine's day, 

 with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the 

 time above-named then proceed homewards, scat- 

 tering the seed on either side, repeating these 

 lines — 



" Hempseed I sow, hempseed I mow. 

 She (or he) that will my true love be. 

 Come rake this hempseed after me ; " — 



his or her true love will be seen behind, raking 

 up the seed just sown, in a winding-slieet. Do 

 any of your readers know the origin of this super- 

 stitious custom ? J. S. A. 

 Old Broad Street. 



Fairies. — An Irisli servant of mine, a native of 

 Galway, gave me the following relations : — Her 

 father was a blacksmith, and for his many acts of 

 benevolence to benighted travellers became a great 

 favourite with the fairies, who paid him many 

 visits. It was customary for the fairies to visit 

 his forge at night, after the family had retired to 

 rest, and here go to work in such right good ear- 

 nest, as to complete, on all occasions, the work which 

 had been left, overnight unfinished. The family 

 were on these occasions awoke from their slumber 

 by the vigorous puffing of bellows, and hammering 

 on anvil, consequent upon these industrious habits 

 of the fairies, and it was an invariable rule for the 

 fairies to replace all the tools they had used during 

 the night ; and, moreover, if the smithy had been 

 left in confusion the previous evening, the "good 

 people " always arranged it, swept the floor, and 

 restored everything to order before the morning. 

 I never could glean from her any detailed instances 

 of the labour accomplished in this way, or indeed 

 anything which might aid in the formation of an 

 estimate of the relative skill of the fairies in manual 

 labour ; and I must confess that on these subjects 

 I never question too closely, — the reader will know 

 why. 



On one occasion, one of the family happening to 

 be unwell, the father went back to the smithy at 

 midnight for some medicine which had been left 

 there on the shelf, and put the " good people " to 

 flight, just as they had begun their industrial 

 orgies. To disturb the fairies is at any time a 

 perilous thing ; and so it proved to him : for a fat 

 pig died the following day, little Tike had the 

 measles, too, after, and no end of misfortunes fol- 

 lowed. In addition to this occult revenge, the 

 inmates of the house were kept awake for several 



