412 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 131. 



Mart. And mine, I promise you : wer 't not for 

 shame, 

 Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile. 



[_M.AKTivs falls into the pit."] " 



It is unnecessary to give in detail the horrors 

 that ensue. X. Z. 



CDEIOUS BILL OF FARE, AND STORM, IN 1739. 



I send you two morsels, copied from a small 

 MS. volume of a very miscellaneous character, 

 consisting of poetical extracts, epigrams, receipts, 

 and family memoranda of the ancestors of the 

 gentleman who has kindly permitted me to send 

 you the inclosed. 



"A Bill of ffare at the Christning of Mr. Constable's 



Child, Rector of Cocldey Cky in Norfolk, Jan. 2, 



1682. 



" 1. A whole hog's head, souc'd, with carrotts in the 



mouth and pendants in the ears, with guilded 



oranges thick sett. 



2. 2 ox.'» cheekes stewed, with 6 marrow bones. 



3. A leg of veal larded, with 6 pullets. 



4. A leg of mutton, with 6 rabbits. 



5. A chine of bief, chine of venison, chine of mut- 



ton, chine of veal, chine of pork, supported by 

 4 men. 



6. A venison pasty. 



7. A great minced pye, with 1 2 small ones about it. 



8. A gelt fat turkey, with 6 capons. 



9. A bustard, with 6 pluver. 



10. A pheasant, with 6 woodcocks. 



11. A great dish of tarts made all of sweetmeats. 



12. A Westphalia hamm, with 6 tongues. 



13. A jowle of sturgeon, 



14. A great charg"" of all sorts of sweetmeats, with 



wine and all sorts of liquors answerable. 



" The child, a girle; godfather, Mr. Green, a clergy- 

 man ; godmothers. Mis Beddingfield of Sherson, and a 

 sister-in-law of Mr. Constable's. 



" The guests, Mr. Green, Mr. Bagg and his daugh- 

 ter, and the godmothers. 



" The parish" entertained at another house with rost 

 and boil'd bief, geese, and turkeys. Soon after the child 

 dy'd, and the funerall expcnces came to 6d." 



"1739. Dec. 28, Friday, began a frost. Satterday 

 and Sunday with the most severe sharp wind that ever 

 was known. Monday and Tuesday fell a great deal of 

 snow, w""" continued upon the ground, with the most 

 severe frost ever known, without intermission till Fri- 

 day, Feb. 1", then thaw'd in the day. Sharp frost at 

 night. Thaw'd Satterday and Sunday, with rain and 

 sleet of snow, cold air with frost, and continued till 

 Sunday y' 10, when it thaw'd very fast with smal rain 

 and wind : continued till Monday, when it changed 

 into severe frost and a fall of snow, w'^'' held till Sun- 

 day, then thaw'd, wind west, in the most gentle manner, 

 insensibly wasting, no flood : extream dry, cold wea- 

 ther till y" 21 of April : y' day a little rain, and on the 

 22 fell a great deal of snow with a severe north and 

 north-east wind ; a little wet and cold wind continued 

 till the 5"" of May, when there was hail and snow a foot 



thick in many places. Continued cold till y* 9^K 

 Wheat 6s. 6d. a strike ; barley Ss. 6d. ; mutton, in 

 London, 5^. and 6d. pi, beife 5d. ; 3^d. mutton in the 

 country, beife 3d, 



" No rain from the 21 April till the ?"■ of June, birt 

 continued cold east and north-east wind, with a frost. 

 June 3"*, bread cost at London, y^ first sort at lis. 8d. 

 a strick, a little while. On the T"" of June, wind south- 

 south-west, a charming rain fell every where, w'''' 

 lowered y" exesive prises : after y', a drought succeed- 

 ing, corn kept a high price, wheat 6s., barley 4, till 

 near harvest, and exportation stoped : grass burnt up 

 all summer : very little hay : butter and cheese very 

 dear : everything continued so. Y" 7 of Nov, fell a 

 great snow and rain w""" made a flood : y« 10 begun a 

 hard frost, <v"='' continued with great severity, the ground 

 covered with snow till y« 22 : the 21 fell a great deal 

 of snow, w"^^ went away with some rain, and was a very 

 great flood. During this frost the Thames was frose, 

 and great calamitys feared from the want of hay and 

 straw, w"'' the happy thaw prevented." 



Edw. Hawkins. 



PECULIAR ATTRIBUTES OF THE SEVENTH SON. 



Allow me to offer a Note on that part of Mb. 

 Cooper's communication (Vol. iii., pp. 148, 149.) 

 which relates to the alleged power of the " seventh 

 son" to cure the "king's evil." This superstitioa 

 is still extant in this part of Cornwall. I have 

 recently been told of three seventh sons, and of 

 one 7iinth son, who has been in the habit of touch- 

 ing (or, as it is here called, " striking," which seems 

 to mean nothing more than stroking) persons suf- 

 fering from the disease above referred to. 



The striker thrice gently strokes the part affected 

 by the disorder, and thrice blows on it, using some 

 form of words. One of my informants, who had 

 been so "struck" when a child, has a charm, or 

 rather an amulet, which has just, for the first time^ 

 been opened at my instigation. It is a small bag 

 of black silk, and is found to contain an old worn 

 shilling of William III., bored and stitched through 

 in a piece of canvas. This was presented to the 

 patient at the time of the operation, and was to 

 be kept carefully as a preservative against the 

 malady. 



In Bristol, about forty years ago, there lived a 

 respectable tradesman who was habitually known 



as Dr. Peter P , with no better title to his 



degree than that he was the seventh son of a 

 seventh son. 



Those who have read Mr. Carleton's tragic tale. 

 The Black Prophet, will remember that, in Ire- 

 land, the seventh son of the seventh son is supposed 

 to be — 



" Endued 

 With gifts and knowledge, per'lous shrewd ! " 



And in Keightley's Fairy Mythology (p. 411. note^ 

 ed. 1850) are given some traditions of that gifted 



