450 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 132. 



'■'■ Please the Pigs'" (Vol. v., p. 13.). — I am in- 

 clined to think that this phrase has more to do 

 with the animate than the inanimate. It is a com- 

 mon saying in Devonshire " please the pixies" or 

 fairies, and this reference is much more likely ; as 

 our ancestors were most particular in their super- 

 stitious attentions to the requirements of this 

 most mischievous fraternity. C. R. 



The Word Shunt (Vol. v., p. 352.) is quite 

 common in the North of England ; in Lancashire 

 it is perhaps especially so. It signifies to shift, to 

 move, to give way : as, speaking of a thing, a wall 

 or foundation, which has moved from its position, 

 we should say, " it has shunted ;" or of a thing 

 which requires moving, " Shunt it a little that 

 way," " Shunt it at the other end." Shunt, to 

 move, to slip, to give way ; shuntu, they move ; 

 shuntut, they moved. — See Bamford's Lancashire 

 Dialect : Smith, Soho Square. 



The word grin, in the same county, signifies a 

 noose to catch hares or other game, as well as the 

 act of grinning with the teeth. The word gin is 

 seldom used, except to express a horse gin-wheel, 

 or the blue-ruin of the Pandemoniums. P. D. 



Plato's Lines in '■'■ Antho. Palate (Vol. v., p. 

 317.).— 



^" Star of my soul ! thine ardent eyes are bent 

 On the bright orbs that gem the firmament : 

 Would that I were the heaven, that I might be 

 All full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee." 



" You look upoa the stars, my star! would I might be 

 Yon heaven, to look with many eyes on thee." 



V. 



Abigail (Vol, iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94.).— 

 As your correspondents have not thrown much 

 light upon this subject, I will here mention that 

 the use of this name in the sense alluded to has 

 probably originated from a " waiting gentlewoman" 

 who figures in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of 

 The Scornful Lady. As this play appears from 

 Pepys's Diary to have been a great favourite after 

 the Restoration, it was then most probably that 

 the term came into use. J. S. Warden. 



Nuremberg Token, or Counter (Vol. v., pp.201. 

 260.). — G. H. K. appears to consider the object 

 of H. C. K.'s Query a tradesman's token. This is 

 by no means the case. It is a jetton, or counter, 

 such as was formerly much in use for casting ac- 

 counts, on a principle very similar to that of the 

 abacus. They are found in vast numbers in Eng- 

 land, but were principally manufactured at Nu- 

 remberg, where a large trade in them must have 

 been carried on. The greatest manufacturers of 

 the "Rechenpfennige" were the members of the 

 families of Schultz, Laufer, and Krauwinckel. 

 Of the three Krauwinckels, the productions of 

 Hans are most numerous. Many of them have 

 legends of a moral or religious character, as 



" Gottes Segen macht reich," God's blessing 

 maketh rich ; " Gott allein die Ehre sey," To 

 God alone be the glory ; " Heut rodt, Morgeu 

 todt," To-day red, to-morrow dead, &c. The 

 date 1601 occurs on several of those of Hans K., 

 with mythological devices. — See Snelling's Treatise 

 on Jettons, or Counters. J, E. 



The legend on the counter described signifies 

 "John Kravwinckel in Nuremberg." 

 R " God's kingdom remains always." 



I know not the signification of the solitary e. 

 Snelling (^Treatise on Abbey Pieces, ^t.) has en- 

 graved and described many of these counters, and 

 to him I must refer H. C. K. Hans means John, 

 and has no reference to the Hanseatic League. 



\f. II. S. 

 Edinburgh. 



Meaning of Lode (Vol. v., p. 345.), — Lode and 

 load, in Cornwall, is the name given to the vein 

 that leads in the mine ; or, the leading vein. The 

 word lode is also in common use in Cambridge- 

 shire, having similar reference to the watercourses 

 by which the fens are drained. 



Lodestar. The pole-star; the leading star, by 

 which mariners are guided. The magnet is load^ 

 stone, that is, leading or guiding stone, (Nares* 

 Glossary.') 



" O, happy fair ! 



Your eyes are Zoc/e-stars ." 



Midsummer Night's Dream. 



Wm. Yarrell. 

 Rider Street. 



Lode (Vol, v., p, 345,), — Lode seems to have 

 been anciently used as signifying merely a ditch to 

 carry ofi" water. (See "Inquisition, 21 Henry 

 VIII." in Wells's Hist, of Bedford I^evel, vol, ii. 

 pp, 8 — 17,) Lode means to carry. {Promptorium 

 Pa?-vulorum, ed. Way, p, 310,) The term lode is 

 now used to signify a navigable ditch. In Cam- 

 bridgeshire we have Soham Lode, Burwell Lode, 

 Reach Lode, Swaffham Lode, and Bottisham Lode. 



C. H, Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Mother Damnable (Vol, v., p. 151.). — Your cor- 

 respondent S. WiswouLD will find some slight in- 

 formation respecting this worthy in Daniel's Merrie 

 England in the Olden Time (Bentley, 1842), vol. i. 

 p. 217, 



It appears that Mr, Bindley had an unique 

 engraving of her, and that a well-known alehouse 

 at Holloway (of which a token is extant, with the 

 date 1667) was sacred to her memory as Mother 

 Redcap, as well as that in the Ilampstead Road. 



John Evans. 



Monuments of De la Beclie Family (Vol, v., p, 

 341,), — The monuments referred to by iEoROTDS 

 are in the church of Aldworth : the effigies are cer- 



