256 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. X Sept. 29, '60. 



press, his name is given right all through his long 

 life ; and that he should only say with Cicero : 

 " Cujusvis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis per- 

 severare in errore." I trust that with this ex- 

 planation, it will be evident that the misnomer 

 was a mere slip, and most probably the printer's. 



F. C. H, 



Havard Family (2"'^ S. ix. 124. 354.) —There 

 is still a family of this name at Sheerness. James 

 Havard is the proprietor of the Ship Commercial 

 Hotel. His brother George (the head of this 

 family) resides in New Town, Sydney. 



Alfred J. Dunkin. 



Execution of Lords Kilmarnock and Bal- 

 MERiNO (2"'* S. X. 211.) — It is not very likely 

 that any record has been kept of the distinguished 

 persons who may have witnessed this or any other 

 execution. George Selwyn, who rarely missed an 

 occasion of the kind, was there of course, and on 

 being reproached by some ladies of his acquaint- 

 ance for his hardheartedness, replied that he had 

 done all in his power to make amends by going 

 afterwards to see the heads sewn on again. 



S. H. M. 



Three Sunday Changes of the Moon (2"'' 

 S. _x. 184.): The Oak and the Ash. — The 

 saying in Norfolk with regard to Sunday's moon 

 runs remarkably counter to the notion enter- 

 tained in Notts. The farmers in Norfolk dread 

 a full moon on a Sunday, and quote the following 

 old saw : — 



" Saturdaj''s change, and Sunday's full 

 Never brought good, and never ivool ! " 



With reference to the saying about the oak and 

 the ash, it is very obscurely worded in the lines 

 quoted by Senescens, but he has in his comment 

 completely reversed its received meaning. In all 

 the previous communications to "N. & Q." in P' 

 S. v. vi., though the proverb is differently worded, 

 the sense is always in favour of the oak, when 

 first out, portending a dry summer. One cor- 

 respondent (P' S. vi. 6.) writes that he has h^ard 

 the same in Sweden, where it is said never to 

 fail." Another correspondent, P. P. (P' S. vi. 70.) 

 gives the proverb thus : — 



" If the oak's before the ash, 

 Then you'll only get a splash ; 

 If the ash precedes the oak, 

 Then you may expect a soak." 



This comes near enough to the lines quoted by 

 Senescens to indicate the meaning of the word 

 " choke." The saying was thrown into the fol- 

 lowing lines by the undersigned, to help some 

 young people to remember its application : — 

 j" When the ash comes out before the oak, 

 A wet summer, and no joke: 

 When the oak comes out before the ash, 

 A dry summer, and no splash." 



I have been long in the habit of observing these 

 trees in^ the spring. They generally come into 



leaf so nearly together, as to afford but little scope 

 for prophecy ; but this year the ash was decidedly 

 out first, and this year at least the saying has 

 proved too true. F. C. H. 



It is a superstition in the neighbourhood of 

 London that two new moons in one month will 

 be followed by bad weather. In the north of 

 Hampshire the peasants say that 



" Tuesday's moon 

 Comes once in seven years and then it comes too soon." 



I give the rhyme as I have heard it, but I con- 

 ceive that " seven years " must originally have 

 been " seven'months." W. C. 



Bracton, a Judge of the Common Pleas (2"'^ 

 S. X. 208.) — The doubt expressed by the author 

 of the article in the Penny Cyclopcedia, whether 

 Bracton was a Judge of the Common Pleas or 

 Chief Justice of England, does not seem to me 

 to be removed by the chartulary quoted by .your 

 correspondent Y. S. 



In it Bracton is designated Justiciarius only, 

 which is not decisive ; — it is made " before the 

 king himself," which is the term used /or the Court 

 of King's Bench rather than for the Court of Com- 

 mon Pleas ; — and there are other persons men- 

 tioned in it besides the three Justices, whicli 

 proves that it was made in the Curia Regis, be- 

 fore the final division of that court into three 

 separate courts was effected. That division (non 

 obstante Sir Edward Coke's assertion) did not 

 take place before the latter part of the reign of 

 Henry III., as appears most clearly by the proofs 

 adduced by Mr. Foss in the second volume of his 

 Judges of England, pp. 160-183., and in his Me- 

 moir of Bracton (p. 249.) in the same volume. 



Though some late authorities describe hiiri as 

 Chief Justice in the reign of Henry III., Mr. Foss 

 remarks that " there does not appear a single 

 proof that he ever attained that elevation. There 

 is an interval, however," he continues, " after the 

 death of Hugh le Despencer in 1265, during which 

 he might possibly have held the ofiice ; and it 

 may be remarked as giving some weight to the 

 suggestion, that the appointment of Robert de 

 Brus as Chief Justice did not occur till March, 

 1268, a few months after the supposed conclusion 

 of Bracton's career." In the quoted chartulary 

 he clearly was not Chief Justice. One, &c. 



Fire-places in Church Towers (2°'' S. x. 

 186.) — When we call to mind the various pur- 

 poses for which fire was needed in the services 

 of the ancient Church, our wonder will only be 

 that so few remains of fire-places are now dis- 

 cernible. Candles were wanted daily, palms were 

 to be burnt to supply ashes for the service of 

 Ash Wednesday, and incense was frequently used, 

 for which a charcoal fire was requisite. It is 

 most probable, howevei*, that fires for these pur- 



