210 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 122. 



portion of the Gospels on the annual perambu- 

 lation of the bounds of the parish on Ascension 

 Day. That Gospel Oak and Wednesbury Oak 

 marked the boundary line of the parishes of Tipton 

 and Wednesbury is highly probable. Faber. 



West Brotnwicli. 



Your correspondent Bukiensis (Vol. v. p. 157.) 

 has supplied a quotation from Mr. HoUingsworth 

 to the effect, that these ancient trees were pro- 

 bably Druidical, under whose " leafy tabernacles " 

 the first Christian missionaries preached. This 

 view. of their origin is borne out by the ordinary 

 practice of Christian missionaries to the Heathen 

 of the present day, who are frequently driven to 

 the shelter of some umbrageous giant of the 

 forest, to deliver the Word of Life. In some cases 

 I imagine that it may be found that such trees 

 have been rendered sacred by the superstition of 

 the native inhabitants ; and it Is scarcely venturing 

 too much in supposing, that as the moral wilder- 

 ness becomes cultivated, that similar traditions 

 with our own may be handed down to future 

 generations, and especially if we look so far for- 

 ward as to the time when the sable inhabitants of 

 the centre of Africa may in their progress be 

 occupied by curious questions of a bygone age 

 in^AeiVN. & Q." Exon. 



I quite agree with your correspondent Bu- 

 BiENsis as to the origin of the title given to various 

 old oak trees In different parts of the country. 

 These trees were no doubt selected on account of 

 either their position, age, or size, as places of as- 

 sembly for the early Christians, and from them 

 the " Gospel" was, probably, first preached in 

 their respective neighbourhoods. 



That these trees were connected with religious 

 observances Is evident from the following lines in 

 the 502nd poem of Herrick's Hespei'ides. The 

 poem is addressed " To Antliea : " — 



— — — " Dearest, bury me 



Under that holy oak, or Gospel Tree ; 



Where, though thou see'st not, thou may'st thhik upon 



Me, when thou yearly go'st procession." 



P.T. 



Stoke Newington. 



" Asters loith Trains of Fire" Sfc. (Vol. v., p. 154.). 

 — Ma. Hickson's objections to this reading are 

 twofold — matter of opinion, and matter of fact : 

 of course, It Is only with the latter that I may 

 presume to interfere. 



I beg to refer him to the precepts of Polonlus 

 to his son, no further than the third scene of the 

 same play, amongst which he will find this line : 

 " Costly thy habit, as thy purse can buy." 



Although itj^does not prove that " the English 

 language admits of the formation of a perfect sen- 

 tence without a verb," yet it does show that the 

 verb need not always be expressed ; but may be 



left to the hearer, or reader, to supply, according 

 to the requirements of the context. 



The line just quoted is found amongst a number 

 of imperative precepts — the verb to be supplied is 

 therefore the imperative of " to be " — 

 " Costly (Jet) thy habit (be)," &c. 



■" Similarly, the line to which Mr. Hickson takes 

 exception is found amongst a number of described 

 appearances — the verb, therefore, must be in ac- 

 cordance : 



" Asters with trains of fire {appeared)," &c. 



Many better examples of this most common U~ 

 cense might doubtless be adduced ; but I always 

 like to take the nearest at hand. A. E. B. 



Leeds. 



P. S. — Mr. Hickson will find it diSicult to con- 

 fine the portents of Caesar's death to the night 

 time. All authorities mention the obscuration of 

 the sun — necessarily from spots, if the moon were 

 eclipsed, since sun and moon could not both be 

 eclipsed about the same time. 



Wifcgan, or Utiggan, an Oxford Student (Vol. v., 

 p.78.).- 



" Wigan (John) Chr. Ch., M.A., March 22, 172a 



B. and D.M., July 7, 1727."' 



appears in A Catalogue of All Graduates, &c.» 

 created in the University of Oxford, printed at 

 the Clarendon press in the year m.dcclxxij. 



W. Dn. will also find the following in the same 

 catalogue : — 



"Wigan (Geo.) Chr. Ch., M.A., March 28, 1718. 



D D., Dipl. by, Jan. 19, 



1749. 



« Wigan (Tho.) Trin. Coll, M.A., Oct. 23, 1767. 



"Wigan (Will.) Chr. Ch., M.A., Nov. 2^3. 1764." 



Faber Ferrabius. 



Dublin. 



Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds (Vol. v., p. 49.). — 

 I have a cutting from a newspaper of 1849 con- 

 firmative of the truth of this practice : — 



" Mendicant Fkeemasonry. — Persons indiscreet 

 enough to open their purses to the relief of the beggar 

 tribe would do well to take a readily-learned lesson as 

 to the folly of that misguided benevolence which en- 

 courages and perpetuates vagabondism. Every door 

 or passage is pregnant with instruction as to the error 

 committed by the patron of beggars, as the b.eggar- 

 marks show that a system of free-masonry is followed, 

 by which a beggar knows whether it will be worth his 

 while to call into a passage or knock at a door. Let 

 any one examine the entrances to the passages in any 

 town, and there he will find chalk marks, unintelligiblfe 

 to him, but significant enough to beggars. If a thou- 

 sand towns are examined, the same marks will be found 

 at every passage entrance. The passage mark is a 

 cypher with a twisted tail : in some cases the tail pro- 

 jects into the passage, in others outwardly ; thus seem- 

 ing to indicate whether the houses down the passage 



