^ib 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



No. 125. 



Root out these Carrots, O thou, whose name* 

 Is backwards and forwards always the same ! 

 And keep close to thee always that name f 

 Wliich backwards or forwards is almost the same. 

 And, Englond, would'st thou be happy still. 

 Bury those Carrots under a Hill." \ 



T). Jabdine. 



FOLK LORE. 



The pages of " N. & Q." have given the most 

 varied and valuable contributions to the " folk 

 lore" of Britain ; your contributors have unques- 

 tionably saved many a scrap from oblivion, illus- 

 trated many an obscure allusion, recorded many 

 an old custom, and generally, by the interesting 

 nature of their notes (throwing, as they do, the 

 newest and strongest light on the darkest and 

 most out-of-the-way nooks and corners of the 

 house and field life, and general turn of thought 

 of the great mass of the people), paved the 

 •way for a higher estimate being formed by 

 literary men, and the general reading public, of 

 the real worth and present available use of this 

 hitherto despised branch of inquiry ; and stimu- 

 lating to some extended and systematic garner- 

 ing-up of those precious fragments that still exist 

 in unguessed abundance (sown broad-cast, as they 

 are, from Land's End to John o'Groat's), though 

 fast perishing. I am confident that there is no 

 county or district in Great Britain that would not 

 yield, to a careful, diligent, and qualified seeker, a 

 rich and valuable harvest ; and where quaint me- 

 morials of the people might not be unearthed, to 

 be gathered together and stored up, ready to the 

 moulding hand of some coming Macaulay, who 

 may tliere find illustrations to make clear, and 

 clues to guide the searcher in the darkest and 

 most entangled mazes of history. 



Pardon, sir, for this most prosy and long-winded 

 preface. 1 have been induced to address you by 

 observing what is being done in other countries, 

 by a desire to point out an example, and stimulate 

 to its emulation that able and tried body of in- 

 quirers in this country, who, for love of the sub- 

 ject, have already collected such valuable stores. 



In the Morning Chronicle of Monday, the 23rd 

 of February, 1852 (No. 26,571. p. 6.), under the 

 heading Denmark, is the following : — 



" Two young Finnish students are wandering through 

 the districts round Tammerfors, for the purpose of 

 collecting and preserving old Finnish folk-talcs, legends, 

 songs, runes, riddles, and proverbs, &c. Their names 

 are B. Paldani and O. Palander. They are not assisted 

 by the Finnish Literary Society, whose funds at this 

 moment are not in a condition to bear any extra ex- 

 penses, but by two divisions of the students at Helsing- 

 fors, namely, the West Finnish and the Wiborg students, 



* Anna Regina. f Lady Masham. 



J Lady Masham's maiden name. 



each of which has subscribed Jifty silver rubles for this 

 purpose. The two literary pilgrims have already col- 

 lected rich treasures of Finnish folk-lore. Why do we 

 not follow their example 9 When will some of our ac- 

 complished young scholars wander over the hills and dales, 

 of merrij England, rescuing from ohlivion our rich tra- 

 ditions, before they pass for ever from among us ? Surely 

 the Society of Antiquaries might arrange similiar visits 

 for a similar purpose. There is no want of men able and 

 toilling to undertake the task, oidy the abranging hand is- 

 wanting. In the meantime let every man do what he can 

 in his own neighbourhood." 



In hopes that the " arranging hand " may, 

 through the medium of " N. & Q," start out of 

 chaos ready for its work, and the " men able and 

 ivilling" not be wanting, I beg to state that (being 

 unable to aid the cause otherwise) I will gladly 

 contribute in the way of money, as far as my 

 abilities go, should any systematic plan be ar- 

 ranged. C. D. Lamont.. 



Greenock. 



LONDON STREET CHAKACTERS. 



Mr. Dickens's graphic description of the Court 

 of Chancery, in his new work, Bleak House, con- . 

 tains the following sketch : 



" Standing on a seat at the side of the hall, ... is a 

 little mad old woman in a squeezed bonnet, who is-' 

 always in court . . . expecting some incomprehensible 

 judgment to be given in her favour. Some say she 

 really is, or was, a party to a suit ; but no one knows- 

 for certain, because no one cares. She carries some 

 small litter in a reticule which she calls her docu- 

 ments : principally consisting of paper matches and dry 

 lavender," 



There is a diminutive creature, somewhat an- 

 swering to this description, Avho limps on a stick 

 and one leg that is shorter than the other, all the 

 early morning in the still courts of the Temple; 

 and seems to be waiting the result of some con- 

 sultation, before she reappears, as is her wont, in 

 Westminster Hall. Whether this person suggested 

 the victim of Bleak House, is a question of no 

 moment. The story commonly told of her is a 

 very similar one, namely, that she was ruined and 

 crazed, like Peter Peebles, by the slow torture of 

 a law-suit. Is anything known of her real history ? 



What were the fortunes and fate of a poor- 

 female lunatic, who was called Rouge et noir, from 

 her crape sables and painted cheeks ; and who 

 used to loiter every day about the Koyal Ex- 

 change at four o'clock ; and seemed to dejjcnd for 

 subsistence upon the stray bounty of the " money- 

 changers?" It was said that she had a brother 

 who was hanged for forgery, and that this drove 

 her mad. 



About thirty years ago, there might be heard 

 any morning in the smaller streets of " the city," ; 

 a cry of " dolls' bedsteads," from a lean lame man 



