'504 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



C2«'-i S. VIII. Dec. 17. '6P. 



enemies, or from lawless freebooters, high towers 

 were erected, in which watchmen were stationed 

 to give notice of an enemy's approach ; and on 

 these occasions the large bell or bells suspended 

 in the tower pealed forth their notes of alarm to 

 the inhabitants of the district, and enabled them 

 to prepare for their unwelcome visitors. The re- 

 mains of one of these interesting towers still 

 stands near my native town, Berwick-on-Tweed, 

 and the last time I saw it, four or five years ago, 

 its walls were in a pretty good state of preser- 

 vation. Its walls are about twenty feet high, but 

 being built on an eminence outside of the ram- 

 parts of the town, it commands a good view of the 

 surrounding country. It is there called the Bell 

 Tower, but in other of the Border districts the 

 name may have been changed to Peal. 



Henry Melrose. 

 Guardian Office, Brighton. 



The word Peel, variously written Pile, Pille, 

 Piil, Pele, Peyll, Peill, Paile, is derived from the 

 Ancient Brit, and Gaul, pill, a stronghold, for- 

 tress, secure place. There is the Pile of Foudray 

 in Furness, Peel Castle, Isle of Man ; Pill, in 

 Devon, &c. R. S. Charnock. 



In the Glossary at the end of vol. v. of the 

 Waverley Novels, published by Robert Cadell, 

 Edinburgh, 1847, I find : — 



" Peel, a place of strength, or fortification, in general. 

 In particular it signifies a stronghold, the defences of 

 which are of earth mixed with timber, strengthened with 

 palisades. 



" Peel, Peel-house, in the Border Counties, is a small 

 square tower, built of stone and lime." 



S.L. 



Ringing Bells hachcards : the Tocsin (2"'" S. 

 viii. 18.) — It has always been a puzzle to under- 

 stand what there could be so terrible about ring- 

 ing bells the contrary way to that which is usual. 

 In general they are rung commencing with the 

 highest note, and going downwards. If your 

 readers will open a pianoforte, and run down an 

 octave, c, b, a, g, f, &c., and afterwards do the 

 same the contrary way, c, d, e, f, &c., they will 

 find nothing inharmonious nor terrible in it. Per- 

 haps some light might be thrown on the expres- 

 sion if some of your readers could inform us as to 

 the manner in which the tocsin, that dreadful 

 signal of tumult and slaughter, was rung in 

 France ? Was it on one or more bells ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Jest Books (2'^'^ S. vi. 333.; yii. 95,)— It is a 

 striking instance of the differences of the opinions 

 men may form concerning books, that whilst your 

 correspondent G. N. places Scotch Preslyterian 

 Eloquence Displayed among Jest Books, the com- 

 piler of the " Supplement to the Catalogue of 

 the Library of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Literary 

 and Philosophical Society," places the work at 



the head of "Class 1. Theology!" of a dona- 

 tion of bonks presented by the family of a 

 quondam alderman of that borouffh. The entry 

 is as follows, p. 184.: "Curate's (Jacob)* Scotch 

 Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, or the Folly 

 of their Teaching discover'd, 8vo. 1789 ;" with no 

 hint that poor Jacob is other than a real person- 

 age. Y. B. N. J. 



Bishop Sprafs Betort (2°'' S. vii. 373.) — Your 

 correspondents would save your readers infinite 

 trouble if they would be a little more precise in their 

 references. Mr. Trench quotes simply "Note to 

 Burnet's History." I have searched the six vols., 

 Oxford edition (1823) of Burnet's History of his 

 own Time, and the index thereto attached fails to 

 help me to any such note. From what edition 

 does Mr. Trench cite it ? I should have been 

 content to enjoy the story without inquiry, had 

 not the jpke been so manifestly the same as that 

 in Goldsmith's Epigram : — 



" John Trot was desired by two witty Peers 

 To tell them the reason why asses had ears. 

 ' An't please you,' quoth John, ' I'm not given to let- 

 ters, 

 Nor dare I pretend to know more than my betters ; 

 Howe'er, from this time, I shall ne'er see your graces. 

 As I hope to be saved, without thinking on asses ! ' " 



H. L. Temple. 

 Ploughs (2"^ S. viii. 431.) — In Dorsetshire a 

 waggon itself, or a waggon and team of horses, 

 are still generally called & plough. Mr. Barnes, in 

 the Glossary appended to his beautiful " Poems in 

 the Dorset Dialect" (which, by the way, I rejoice 

 to see, are beginning to attain some of the reputa- 

 tion they deserve), says : — 



" A waggon is mostly called a plough or plow in the vale 

 of Blackraore, where the English plough, aratrum, is a 

 zull, the Anglo-Saxon syl." 



And he adds the following illustration : — 



" These are in his M*"" name to require you forthwith, 

 on sight hereof, to press men and plowes." — Colonel Kirk's 

 order to the parish of Chedzoy in the Monmouth rebel- 

 lion. 



Halliwell gives this explanation : — 



" 1. Used for oxen kept to draw the plough, not for 

 horses ; 2. A wheel-carriage drawn by oxen and horses." 



I know not whence he obtained his first mean- 

 ing ; but it is strongly corroborated by a letter 

 from an ancestor of my own, dated 1661, and pub- 

 lished in the Right Hon. G. Bankes's Story of 

 Corfe Castle, p. 259. : — 



"... had not the horse-plague swept away my horses 

 I would have sent these to you; beside j*' disease have 

 carried away most plowes hereabouts, by which plowes or 

 horses were never in my days soe hard to be got as now." 



C. W. Bingham. 



Witchcraft in Churning, SfC. (2"^ S. viii. 67.) — 

 The et cetera enables me to notice some supersti- 



[ * Pseud, Robert Calder ? — Ed. ] 



