326 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. Ko 43., Oct. 25, '56. 



me to pay her an early visit on New Year's Day ; 

 in short, to be her first caller, and " let the new 

 year in." I have done this for years, excepting 

 on one occasion. When I, who am of a fair com- 

 plexion, have been her first visitor, she has en- 

 joyed happy and prosperous years; but on the 

 occasion I missed, some dark-complexioned, black- 

 haired gentleman called— and sickness and trouble, 

 and commercial disasters, were the result. Can 

 any of your readers tell me if this preference for 

 fair-visaged folks is general ? Pbestoniensis. 



Remarkable Cure for the Ague. — In a MS. 

 Psalter of the fourteenth century, the following 

 extraordinary recipe is written, in a hand difficult 

 to decypher, on a blank leaf: — 



" This medecyn ys good for the ague. 



" Take an halfe peny worth of peper, and an halfe peny- 

 ■worth of Safron, and make powther of hem, and medil 

 bem together, and separte it on thre partyes, evy parte 

 lyke moche ; and then gathyr iij rede nettyl croppys, and 

 stampe hem and take the Juce of hem, and putt it in to a 

 drawth of small ale and 1 parte of peper and Safron, and 

 yf he be coold that shall drynke it, warme your ale ; and 

 if he be booth, warme nat your ale. Also, at the geder- 

 yng of this nettels, say 6 ave maria, and whan ye have 

 made the medecyn say 6 pat. nr' and 6 ave and 6 crede ; 

 the ij tyme, take G rede nettyl croppys, and serve hem 

 lyke wyse, the thirde tyme take ix nettyl croppys and 

 serve hem lyke wyse with prayers, and all this medecyn 

 may nat be taken but on the day that ye sekenes corny th." 



F. C. H. 



TIME AND HIS PEN OE PLOUGHSHARE. 



Byron, in his magnificent apostrophe to the 

 ocean at the close of the fourth canto of Childe 

 Harold, concludes one of the stanzas with the fine 

 lines : 



" Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow — 

 Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now." 



For this idea he was probably indebted to Ma- 

 dame de Stael, from whose works and conversa- 

 tion he had. largely profited. He had doubtless 

 read : 



" Si lea vaisseaux sillonnent un moment les ondes, les 

 vagues viennent effacer aussitot cette legbre marque de 

 servitude, et la mer reparait telle qu'elle fut au premier 

 jour de la creation." — Corinne. 



Or had the poet In his mind the quaint prettiness 

 of Shakspeare's deprecation ? 



" Oh ! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow. 

 Nor write no lines there with thine antique pen." 



Sonnet, xix. 



Shakspeare had previously made use of the same 

 figure : 



" When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, 

 And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field." 



Son7iet, ii. 



And again : 



" The careful hours with Time's deforming hand, 

 Have written strange defeatures in thy face." 



Much Ado about Nothing. 



The Latin poets were fond of likening the action 

 of Time upon the front of man to that of a. plough- 

 share upon the earth's surface : 



" . . . posuitque ad tenipora canos, 

 Sulcavitque cutem rug is." 



Ov. Met, lib. iii. 



" . . . in vultus sese transformat aniles, 

 Et frontem obscoenam rugis arat." 



Virg. ^11., lib. vii. 



" Cum sit tibi dens ater, et rugis vetus 

 Frontem senectus exaret." 



Horat. Epod., viii. 



I do not recollect a classical passage in which 

 the pen of Time is spoken of. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



The Word " Jolly." — If the origin of the word 

 i jolly is considered of sufficient importance to de- 

 j mand a line among the Notes in your wonderful 

 i Common-place Book, you may write against it 

 j "vide Bp. Stillingfleet," who, in his Origines 

 : BritanniccB, p. 352., edit. 1837, speaking of Feasts, 

 &c., remarks : 



" At which time, among the northern nations, the feast 

 of the new year was observed with more than ordinary 

 jollity ; thence, as Olaus Wormius and SchefFer observe, 

 they reckoned their age by so many lolas ; and Snorro 

 Sturleson describes this new year's feast just as Buchanan 

 sets out the British Saturnalia, by 'feasting and sending 

 presents or new j-ear's gifts to one another.' Thence 

 some think the name of this feast was taken from lola, 

 which in the Gothic language signifies ' to make merry.' " 



Jasper. 



The Sound of a Christian Bell. — 



" We have," says a letter from Widdin, under date of 

 the 27th August, 1856, " heard a sound this morning, 

 which the people of Bulgaria have not heard for ages, the 

 sound of a Cliristian bell, to summon us to church, in 

 order that we might thank God for the Sultan's kindness 

 in restoring to us our liberty of worship." 



w. w. 



Malta. 



IJint to Lord Palmerston. — In Frederick von 

 Raumer's England in 1835 (vol. iii. p. 47.), I find 

 the following, which I think worthy of being noted 

 in''N. & Q.:" — 



" There is no article of exportation in which the En- 

 glish are so far behind the French as in that of j'oung 

 women, sedate governesses, and old bonnes. The English 

 might answer, this is a proof of our prosperity, of our 

 contentment at home, of attachment to our country; 

 whereas poverty, ennui, and vanity, drive the French 

 women over the frontiers. I can onlj' half concede the 

 correctness of this conclusion : an easy and agreeable life 

 certainly keeps the English women at home, and it is 



