500 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 134. 



Rhymes on Places (Vol. v., pp.293. 374.). — A 

 complete collection of local rhymes would certainly 

 be both curious and interesting. Those cited by 

 Chambers in his amusing work are exclusively 

 Scotch ; for a collection relating to English towns, 

 I would refer your Querist Mr. Fraseb to Grose's 

 Provincial Glossary, where, interspersed among 

 the " Local Proverbs," he will find an extensive 

 gathering of characteristic rhymes. I conclude 

 with appending a few not to be found in either of 

 these works : 



" RICHMOND. 



<' Nomen habes mundi, nee erit sine jure, secundi, 

 Namque situs titulum comprobat ipse tuura. 

 From thy rich mound thy appellation came, 

 And thy rich seat proves it a proper name." 



Drunktn Barnaby^s Journal. 



" Anglia, mons, fons, pons, ecclesia, foemina, lana. 

 England amongst all nations is most full, 

 Of hills, wells, bridges, churches, women, wool." 



Ibid. 



" Cornwall swab-pie, and Devon white-pot brings, 

 And Leicester beans, and bacon fit for kings." 

 Dr. King's Art of Cookery. See Spectator. 



In Belgium I am perhaps beyotid bounds, but 

 may cite in conclusion : 



" Nobilibus Bruxella viris, Antverpia nummis, 

 Gandavum laqueis, formosis Burga puellis, 

 Lovanium doctis, gaudet Mechlinia stultis." 



William Bates. 



You may perhaps think the accompanying 

 "Rhymes on Places" worthy of insertion, on the 

 districts of tlie county of Ayr, viz. : 

 " Carrick for a man, 

 Kyle for a ecu, 



Cunninghame for butter and cheese, 

 And Galloway for woo." 



F. J. H. 



" We three'' (Vol. v., p. 338.).— It may interest 

 your correspondent to learn that a public-house 

 exists in London with the sign he mentions. It 

 is situate in Virginia Row, Bethnal Green, is 

 styled " The Three Loggerheads," and has a sign- 

 board ornamented with a couple of busts : one of 

 somewhat Caesarian aspect, laureated ; the other 

 a formidable-looking personage with something on 

 his head, probably intended for the dog-skin hel- 

 met of the ancient Greeks, — but as the style of 

 art strongly reminds one of that adopted for the 

 figure-heads of ships, I confess my doubts on the 

 subject. Under each bust appears the distich : 



"WE THREE 

 LOGGERHEADS BE." 



The sign appears a "notability" in the neigh- 

 bourhood, as 1 have more than once in passing 

 seen some apparent new comer set to guess its 



meaning ; and when he confessed his inability, in- 

 formed, in language more forcible than elegant, 

 that he made the third Loggerhead. W. E. F. 



Burning Fern brings Rain (Vol, v., p. 242.). — 

 In some parts of America, but more particularly 

 in the New England States, there was a popular 

 belief, in former times, that immediately after 

 a large fire in a town, or of wood in a forest, there 

 would be a " fall of rain." Whether this opinion 

 exists among the people at present, or whether it 

 was entertained by John Winthrop, the first go- 

 vernor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the 

 Pilgrim Fathers, on their landing at Plymouth, as 

 they most unfortunately did, their superstitious 

 belief in witchcraft, and some other "strange 

 notions," may be a subject of future inquiry. 



La Valetta, Malta. 



Plague Stones (Vol. v., pp. 226. 374.).— I have 

 often seen the stone which G. J. R. G. mentions as 

 " to be seen close to Gresford, in Denbighshire, 

 about a quarter of a mile from the town, on the 

 road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, 

 on an open space, where three roads meet." It is, 

 I conjecture, the base of a cross. This stone may 

 be the remnant of the last of a succession of crosses, 

 the first of which may have given its Welsh name, 

 Croes ffordd, the way of the cross, to the village. 

 There is no tradition of any visitation of the plague 

 at Gresford ; but there is reason to suppose that it 

 once prevailed at Wrexham, which is about three 

 miles distant. Near that town, and on the side of 

 a hill near the footpath leading from Wrexham 

 vechan to Marchwiel Hall, there is a field called 

 Bryn y cabanau, the brow of the cabins ; the tra- 

 dition respecting which is, that, during the preva- 

 lence of the plague in Wrexham, the inhabitants 

 constructed wooden huts in this place for their 

 temporary residences. 



A Quondam Gbesfobdite. 



I do not think the " Plague Stone " a mile or 

 two out of Hereford has been mentioned in the 

 Notes on that subject. If my memory is correct, 

 there is a good deal of ornament, and it is sur- 

 rounded by a short flight of stone steps. F. J. H. 



Sneezing (Vol. v., p. 364.). — Having occasion 

 to look at the first edition of the Oolden Legend, 

 printed by Caxton, I met with the following pas- 

 sage, which may perhaps prove interesting to your 

 correspondent, as showing that the custom of 

 blessing persons when they sneeze " endured " in 

 the fifteenth century. The institution of the 

 " Litany the more and the lasse," we are told, was 

 justified, — 



" For a right grete and grevous maladye : for as the 

 Romayns had in the lenton lyued sobrely and in con- 

 tynence, and after at Ester had receyud theyr Sauyour; 

 after they disordered them in etyng, in drynkyng, in 

 playes, and in lecherye. And therfore our Lord was 



