2'><» S. X. Dec. 29. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



523 



hero-singer, prolific as thy Homeric sister ! nrjviv 

 &eiSe (&ea of our English Themis ! when shall we 

 possess the Musa? Furcifera;! curante Cathcart? 

 John Smith, however — he of Pennenden Heath 

 — was his own Laureate ; with a melancholy vari- 

 ance from the Saddler's exordium : — 



" I once was counted a roving blade, 

 But to my misfortune bad no trade." 



And so — idleness led him to women, and women 

 led him to the gallows ; — the causa cavsce, and 

 catisa causati, which but too faithfully stereotyped 

 the traditional elegy, for the octogenarian Othello 

 who cut his old wife's throat, and for the boy-bride- 

 groom who laid society under blackmail for his 

 young love's adornment. Thus at least he " con- 

 fessed "in a stanza which my memory has only 

 now recovered : — 



" At seventeen I took a wife. 

 And lov'd her dearly as I did my life ; 

 And to maintain her both fine and gaj', 

 Dukes, Lords, and Earls I made to pay." 



Alas ! hocfonte derivuta clades. 



OiA> Mem. 



Marchioness of Northampton (2*"^ S. x. 

 386.) — The lady spoken of by Guillim as the 

 daughter of the Lord de Wolfo of Swesia, is 

 described by Dugdale in his Baronage (vol. ii. 

 p. 382.) as " Helen, daughter of Wolfangus Sua- 

 venburgh, born in Sweden." She was the third 

 wife of William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, 

 who died without issue in 1571. After his death, 

 she was married to Sir Thomas Gorge, of Long- 

 ford, in com. Wilts, Knight, and having many 

 children by him, died in April, 1^35. P. S. C. 



Curious Remains in Norwich (2°^ S. x. 446.) 

 — Mr. D'Avenby does not seem aware that the 

 subject of these jars or urns was discussed in 

 previous numbers of " N. & Q." three years after 

 the discovery of them in the church of St. Peter's 

 Mancroft, which happened in November, 1851. 

 In " N. & Q." (P' S. X. 386.) appeared an in- 

 teresting communication from a frequent cor- 

 respondent, Mr. Edward Peacock, describing a 

 similar jar discovered under the now destroyed 

 choir screen of Fountains Abbey, which con- 

 tained a considerable quantity of what resembled 

 burnt wood. Mr. Peacock gave also an in- 

 teresting extract from the Illusti-ated News, stating 

 that such jars had been found imbedded in the 

 base of a screen in the nave of the same Abbey. 

 They were laid on their sides, with their mouths 

 ])rotruding from the wall, like the guns of a ship. 

 This led me to send a short account, which ap- 

 peared a fortnight after, at page 434. mentioning 

 the discovery at Norwich, describing one of the 

 jars in my possession, and giving my opinion, 

 grounded on the fixct, other such jars having been 

 found with human bones or ashes in them, that 

 these urns were intended to receive the ashes of 



the heart, or some other human remains. Other 

 communications followedf which will be found in 

 vol. X. p. 516., and in P' S. vol. xi. at pp. 75. 152. 

 233. 275. and 315., including two more from the 

 present writer. Perhaps when he has read all 

 these, Mr. D'Aveney may think that the ques- 

 tion has been pretty well discussed. If not settled. 

 I can only say that I have seen no reason since 

 to change my own opinion. F. C. H. 



Paraphernalia (2"'> S. x. 438. 482.) — Unless 

 there were some special precedent to the con- 

 trary, I should say that a woman's bed did not 

 strictly belong to the catalogue of her parapher- 

 nalia. Before she is married, and whilst she is 

 under her father's roof, the bed she sleeps in is 

 his, as being part of the furniture of his house ; 

 and when a man marries her, he takes her to his 

 bed. If ever the bed exclusively belonged to 

 her, it would have been in those remote times, 

 when it consisted of only a pallet, or mat, or 

 rug, which, on rising, she could fold up and carry 

 away with her. Since the historical period, beds 

 have not been made to fit particular individuals, 

 as suits of clothes are; but are of sufficiently 

 ample dimensions, wherein to allow the tallest to 

 sprawl, as well as the smallest. And when we 

 go and visit our friends, though we take with us 

 our portmanteau of wearing apparel, we do not 

 take our . beds. We make use of our friends' 

 beds for the time being, and when we leave, those 

 beds are at the service of other friends. When 

 an heiress marries, she may take her goods and 

 chattels to her husband ; amongst which may be 

 her bed ; but this would not bring It within the 

 strict meaning of the word paraphernalia, any 

 more than her piano-forte or her lap-dog. 



P. Hutchinson. 



HoppESTERES (2""* S. X. 227.) —The A.-S. dic- 

 tionaries give, "hoppestere, a female dancer," but I 

 confess that one cannot make out any meaning from 

 the line of Chaucer with this signification of the 

 word. Nor does the suggestion of hoppesteres sig- 

 nifying St. Elmo's fires, make it much clearer. But 

 what I chiefly want to know is, what is T. Q. C.'s 

 authority for the word composants f In Matter's 

 Remarkable Providences (J. Russell Smith's ed.-), 

 p. 63., they are called corptisants. " They beheld 

 three corpusants, as mariners call them, on the 

 yards." I have met with the word composants In 

 Taylor's work on New Zealand in the account of 

 the Will-o'-the- Wisps there. As T can find 

 neither word In anydictionary, I wish to know 

 which is right — corpu- or composants. The 

 former at least would have an obvious etymology. 



E. G. ii. 



Pitchers' Ears (2"'' S. x. 346.) —Mr. J. G. 

 'Nichols speaks of the Oxford mugs having " two 

 ears or spouts." Mr. P. S. Carey (2"^ S. x. 475.) 

 correctly says that " the ears of these mugs were 



