2'"i S. X. Dkc. 15. 'GO. J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



461 



LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15. 18G0. 



N», 259.— CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — Christmas in 1603, 461 — A Devonshire Song, 462 

 — Folk-Lore : Legend of Howth Castle — Oak v. Ash — 

 Charm for Toothache — The Moon and Mushrooms — 

 "Walking round a Church — Dildrum, King of the Cats — 

 St. Cattern's Day — The Yule-baby, 462 — Christmas at 

 Exeter in 1737, 464— Great Tom of Oxford, 465 — Mum- 

 mers, 466 — The Kingdom of Gold, 467. 



MiNOE Notes: — Sir Roger Twysden's Mince Pies — A 

 Christmas Ditty of the Fifteenth Century — Black Currant 

 Hob — Seven Children within the Year — Stare per Anti- 

 quas Vias, 470. 



QUERIES : — Christmas Poem — Heraldic Queries — Lesley 

 Grove — Goose Offering to the King of Hungary — Dutch 

 Tragedy on Barneveldt — Registers of Clifford's Inn — Col. 

 Adrian Quyney — Witchcraft — Calkewell Hill — Laval- 

 Ue's " Military Topography of Continental Europe " — The 

 "Gloria Patn" Versified- Hodgkins, Suffragan of Bed- 

 ford — " Inula " — Herb — John Rogers the Martyr — 

 "The Cowragious Castle Combat" — A Relic of Old 

 Times, 471. 



QuEEiES WITH Ais^swEES: —Morning Conversation: Miss 

 Sophia Howe — " The Green Room Scuffle " — " Running " 

 Wool— Pope's Shakspeare, 473. 



REPLIES : — Maudlen Cups, 474 — Harvest Bell : Gleaners* 

 Bell, 476 — Wife-beaters : Rough Music, lb. — Ghost in the 

 Tower, 477 — Scarlett Family — Brawn — Foreign Names of 

 Playing Cards — Early MS. discovered at Cambridge — 

 Singular Cure for Sore Eyes: Animal Remedies — Lord 

 Pembroke's Port Wine — Knights of Malta — Sir Clement 

 Cotterell — The Bridge at Montreal — Peculiar Names on 

 Monuments, &c., in Jamaica and Barbadoes — Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence, Bart. — Lewis and Kotska, &c., 478. 



Notes on Books. 



CHRISTMAS IN 1603. 



Arabella Stuart was the only child of Charles 

 Stuart, Duke of Lennox, younger brother of 

 Henry, Lord Darnley, the father of James I. 

 James and she therefore were full cousins. Her 

 mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William 

 Cavendish, father of the first Earl of Devonshire. 

 Her tragic history has been well told by Mr. 

 D'Tsraeli's paper on " The Loves of the Lady 

 Arabella," in his Curiosities of Literature, edit. 

 1838, pp. 357-363. 



A few extracts from letters of this eminent lady, 

 before her troubles had commenced, will serve to 

 show the manners of the time and the diver- 

 sions of the court. I am curious to know If there 

 is any account of these so-called childish pas- 

 times : — 



" From Arabella Stuart to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated 

 8th Dec. 1603. 

 " While I was at Winchester there were certeine child 

 playes remembred by the fayre ladies, viz. ' / prat/ you 

 give me a course in your park,' ' Rise pig and go,' * one peny 

 folow me,' §•£., and Avhen I cam to court they wer as 

 highly in request as ever cracking of nuts was ; so I was by 

 the mistress of the revells compelled to play at I knew 

 not what (for till that day I never knew of a play called 

 fier), but even persuaded by the princel}' example I saw 

 to play the childe againe. This exercise is most used 

 from 10 of the clock at night till 2 or 3 in the morning; 

 but that day I made one it began at twilight and ended 



at supper lime. There was an interlude but not so ridi- 

 culous (ridiculous as it was) as my letter, which here 1 

 conclude*, &c." 



Another letter from the same to the Countess 

 of Shrewsbury, same date, alludes to a prepara- 

 tion of new year's gifts. Speaking of a certain 

 gentlewoman she says : — 



" I asked her advice for a new year's gift for the Queen 

 both for myself, who am altogether unprovided, and a 

 great ladj', a friend of mine, who was in my case for that 

 matter, and her answer was ' the Queen regardeth not the 

 valewe but the devise.' The gentlewoman neither liked 

 gown nor petticoat so well as som little bunch of rubies 

 to hang in her ear, or som such daff to}'. I meane to 

 give her Majesty two paire of silke stockinges lined with 

 plush, and two paire of gloves lined, if London afford me 

 not more daff toy I like better, whereof I cannot bethinck 

 me. If I knew the valew you would bestow, I think it 

 wer no hard matter to get her or Mrs. Hartshide to un-. 

 derstand the Queen's mind without knowing who asked 

 it. The time is short, and therefore you need lose none 

 of it. I am making the King a purse, and for all the 

 world else I am unprovided. This time will manifest my 

 poverty more than all the rest of the yeare ; but why 

 should I be ashamed of it when it is other's fault and not 

 mine? If my quarter's allowance will not defray this 

 one charge, I beleeve Sir W. Stuart continueth his chari- 

 table desire, but he cannot persuade me to loose my 

 labour, how little soever he esteeme his owne, to so good 

 an end, which I wish, but thinck not fesible, at least by 

 me," &c. 



Another, under date of Dec. 18th of the same 

 year, addressed to the Earl of Shrewsbury : — 



" The invitation is very colde, if the Christmas guests 

 you write of accept it not, for they knew theyr welcome 

 and entertainment in a worse place, and yet were so bold 

 to invite themselves thither. I humbly thank you for 

 my sake ; they shall be the welcomer to you, who in re- 

 gard to their nearency of blood to yourself and my aunt, 

 must needs be so very wellcome "that (if j'ou had not 

 written it) I should not have thought they could have 

 binne more wellcome to you in respect than that. Your 

 venison shall be right wellcome to Hampton Court, and 

 merrily eaten. I dare not write unto you how I do, for if 

 I should say well, 1 weare greatly to blame. If ill, I 

 trust you would not beleeve me, I am so merrj\ It is 

 enough to change Heraclitus into Democritus in this most 

 ridiculous world, and enough to change Democritus into 

 Heraclitus to live in this most wicked world. If you 

 will not allow reading of riddles for a Christmas sport, 1 

 know not whether you will take this philosophicall folly 

 of mine in good part this good time. 



•' The Queen intendeth to make a mask thisChristmass, 

 to which end my lady of Suffolk and my lady Walsing- 

 ham have warrants to take of the late Queen's aj)- 

 parell out of the Tower at their discretion. Certain 

 gentlemen, whom I may not yet name, because some of 

 them have made me of thej'r counsel!, intend another. 



* This letter of the Lady Arabella confirms the ac- 

 counts given of the gross and vulgar amusements of the 

 court of James I. Vide Nugas Antlquce, where is de- . 

 scribed a play of Solomon and Queen Sheba, contrived l)y 

 Robert, Earl of Salisbury, for the amusement of Christian 

 IV. King of Denmark, in which it appears that all the 

 actors, including Sheba and the Danish Solomon, were so 

 drunk as to make it necessary to convey them to bed. 



