68 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. VIII. July 23. '59. 



though you would rub a pound sterling worth of 

 it upon your daughter. 



O. W. Dear me, Doctor, do ye think there's 

 nae sic a thing as Skaith saw ? 



D. I have no doubt of there having been a 

 thing called by that name, but I believe it pos- 

 sessed no better qualities than our common oint- 

 ment. 



O. W. O, Sir Doctor, na, na, ye need na tell 

 me that, for whan Willie's bairn was ill, tho' it's a 

 gey while sin now, he gaed to Glasco to Droggie 

 Wrichts * an gat thripence worth o't, an rowet it 

 in ane o the bairn's mutches whan he cam hame, 

 but tellt nabody whar he had been, nor what he 

 had dune, an after that he rubbet the bairn wi't 

 frae head to fit, an in the mornin it was as swamp 

 an supple as e'er it was a' its days. 



D. What was the child's complaint ? 



O. W. Nae doubt witched Sir, for it was a' that 

 stiff ye micht a taen't by the feet an held it out 

 like a pin. 



D. But are ye a believer in witchcraft ? 



O. W. Deed, Sir, let me tell ye, that frae what 

 I hae seen an heard, I canna get it vera weel de- 

 nied. Just let me gie ye twa or three instances : 

 there was in the days o my grandfather whan 

 ane o his kye twint ill ae nicht an diet i the 

 mornin • 



Here the doctor was interrupted, and the con- 

 versation broke off. 



From rustic maidens with backward swains 

 applications were sometimes made for " tippence 

 worth Stan to " (stand to), which was given out 

 in the harmless form of bread pills, with the ad- 

 vice, that when she happened to be in the pre- 

 sence of the much-loved object of her affections, 

 to swallow a pill herself, and at the same time to 

 endeavour to put one into his mouth. This was 

 an ingenious stratagem of the nature of a charm 

 to bring the parties into a more friendly and closer 

 communication. It was frequently attended with 

 matrimonial consequences, and not unusually re- 

 warded afterwards to the son of Galen by a couple 

 of fat hens or some produce of the dairy. G. N. 



Minax ^atsi. 



Dr. Johnson's Chair. — Some letters have re- 

 cently appeared in the papers regarding the cele- 

 brated easy chair of Dr. Johnson. Now it is a 

 well-ascertained and acknowledged fact that the 

 original favourite easy chair of our immortal author 

 and moralist was, upon his death, removed from 

 the chambers in Inner Temple Lane once occu- 



* A Highland-born apothecar}-, famous in the city 

 about forty-five years ago, who, in dealing out his medi- 

 cines, accompanied them with the advice — "If they will 

 do j-ou no harm, they -will do j'ou no good," reversing 

 what he intended to express. 



pied by him, to those now occupied by myself, at 

 No. 2. Churchyard Court, second floor, where it 

 has remained ever since, passing as a sort of heir- 

 loom from one occupant of the chambers to ano- 

 ther, and where it at this moment remains. It 

 is a large, old-fashioned, horsehair chair, brass 

 bound, and somewhat the worse for wear, but 

 nevertheless still strong and serviceable, and has 

 with it the identical crimson velvet cushion upon 

 which he delighted to sit, and which is said to be 

 the identical crimson cushion upon which Mary 

 Queen of Scots knelt at her execution. At any 

 rate the marks of three drops of blood (undoubt- 

 edly human blood) are still clearly discernible 

 upon it. 



In consequence of the approaching demolition 

 of the chambers, it is much to be feared that this 

 celebrated chair may be obliged to pass into un- 

 worthy hands. However, while it remains there, 

 and in my possession, I shall be happy to show it 

 to the curious in these matters of antiquity. 



Rich. Paternoster. 



A long disputed Point settled. — I query if a note 

 is worth making of the following cutting from a 

 local newspaper : — 



" The long disputed question of the authorship of the 

 Letters of Junius, was a short time ago settled by an auc- 

 tioneer residing within fifty miles of Bishop Auckland. 

 Among the miscellaneous lots of books which came under 

 his hammer, a copy of the ' Letters of Junius ' happened 

 to turn up, in announcing which the auctioneer said, 

 ' This, gentlemen, is a copy of the Letters of Junius, one of 

 the old Roman icriters.' " 



W. J. Stannard. 



Our Navy Two hmdred Years ago. — The fol- 

 lowing may be deemed worthy of a corner in 

 "N. &Q.:" — 



" In the year 1641, the navy of England consisted of 

 forty-two ships, the aggregate tonnage of which was 

 22,411 tons. In 1858, Scott Russell launched one vessel 

 — the Great Eastern — of 22,500 tons, or of greater bur- 

 then by 89 tons than the whole British fleet two hundred 

 years ago." 



Abhba. 



ITie ** Minerva" Library, — The improvements 

 now going on in various parts of London, and 

 especially within the bounds of the City, are fast 

 depriving us of all examples of our ancient do- 

 mestic architecture. To the genuine antiquary, 

 perhaps, this may occasion little regret, as he will 

 argue that edifices dating only from the Fire of 

 London present none of those striking peculiari- 

 ties on which it would be his pleasure to ruminate. 

 To some portions of these modern antiques, how- 

 ever, cer.tain associations connect themselves ; and 

 as one fact towards our literary history, you may 

 perhaps not disdain to record in the pages of 

 " N. & Q." that the above-named library (or 

 rather the premises once occupied by the well- 

 known A. K. Newman, the Maecenas of many of 

 our inferior novelists of the last and present cen- 



