54 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 21. 1855. 



climb upon the gallows, and contend for that part of the 

 rope which remained, and which they wished to preserve 

 for some lucky purpose or other." 



" A halter, wherewith any one has been hanged (says 

 Grose, in the Antiquarian Repertory/'), if tied about the 

 head, will cure the head-ache." 



For farther information on this and similar delu- 

 sions, consult Brande's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. 

 p. 276., edit. 1849. Charles Hook. 



The Word "■Sabbath" used for Sunday (Vol. 

 xii., p. 10.). — The only words used in English 

 for the first day of the week, before the existence 

 of Puritanism, were Sunday and LorcHs Day. ^ 



The former of these expressions we retained 

 from our Saxon ancestors, with all other Teutonic 

 nations. The latter we adapted from the Chris- 

 tian form of Southern Europe. 



Saturday, in Italian, still retains the Hebrew 

 name of Sabbato ; so it is, with the slight literal 

 variations which distinguish the several lan- 

 guages, in Spanish and Portuguese. The French 

 Samedi is properly explained by Menage as 

 merely an abridgment of Sabbati-di ; just as 

 Mardi is of Marti-di, and Vendredi of Veneri-di. 



When Dr. Nott, of Winchester, published his 

 very elegant Italian Translation of the Book of 

 Common Prayer, he used for " Sabbath," in the 

 fourth commandment, the words " il giorno di 

 riposo," recollecting the equivoque which would 

 result from the use of Sabbato to an Italian ear. 

 I remember serious objections being raised to thisi 

 translation by some critics of the Calvinistic sec- 

 tion in our Church, as well as to other translations 

 of his in the same volume, and in which Dr. Nott 

 had shown that he understood both languages 

 rather better than those who found fault with him. 



The rabbinical, rather than the Christian ob- 

 servation of one day in seven, which was incul- 

 cated by the early Calvinists, may account for 

 their preference of a word which seemed more 

 closely to assimilate Sunday, in their minds, to the 

 day when the disciples were reproved by the 

 Pharisees for "plucking the ears of corn;" and 

 when they were in their turn reproved by a higher 

 and holier authority. 



The word for Sunday, in Russian, means resur- 

 rection ; identifying the day, as the southern 

 nations do, though more significantly, with the 

 great triumph of the Christian faith. E. C. H. 



DTsraeli, in his Commentaries on the Life of 

 Charles I., fixes the reign of Elizabeth and the 

 year 1554 as the period when Sunday was first 

 called Saturday (dies Sabbati). He says : 



" It was in the reign of Elizabeth, during the unsettled 

 state of the national religion, that a sect arose among 

 those reformers of the reformed who were known by the 

 name of Sabbatarians." 

 Also that — 



« John Knox, the great Reformer of Scotland, was the 



No. 299.] 



true father of this new doctrine in England, although 

 Knox was the bosom friend of Calvin." — Vol. ii. c. 16. 

 p. 353. 



Calvin was opposed, as were indeed Luther and 

 the other great reformers of that day, to Knox's 

 views of Sunday ; Knox himself was behind some 

 of the present-day professors, if a tradition at 

 Geneva is true, — 



" That when John Knox visited Calvin on a Sunday, 

 he found his austere coadjutor bowling on a green. At 

 this day and in that place," continues D'Israeli, a "Cal- 

 vinist preacher after his Sunday sermon will take his 

 seat at the card-table." 



This question is so much involved with the death 

 of Charles I. and the rise of the Commonwealth, 

 that DTsraeli has treated it very largely in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of his second 

 volume, and with great erudition, judgment, and 

 taste. T. J. BucKTON. 



Lichfield. 



Pollards (Vol. xii., p. 9.). — Before the days of 

 King Coal, it is said these trees were annually 

 lopped for fire-wood. They had therefore their 

 peculiar value as a source of revenue, and the 

 landlord in consequence retained a particular 

 power over them. Blount refers to Plowden, 

 fol. 469 b., and says : 



" We call those trees pollards, or pollingers, which have 

 been usually cropped, and therefore distinguished from 

 timber trees." — Law Lex. 

 In my country they call them dotterels. B. H. C. 



Most of the largest and noblest oaks now in 

 existence throughout England, to both of which 

 epithets those in the park at Ampthill are entitled, 

 appear to have been pollarded for many years. 

 They were kept in that state till mineral coal came 

 into general use, being living stores of fuel for the 

 manor-house. H. Walter. 



The great proportion of pollards are willow- 

 trees, the branches of which are regularly cut 

 while young to make baskets of. This appears 

 to me to be the cause of their existence, and also 

 the reason why they are still allowed to disfigure 

 the landscape in many parts of England, particu- 

 larly in marshy ground, and on the banks of 

 rivers. «*• Ss. 



Sir Cloudesley Shovel (Vol. xi., p. 514.). — 

 With reference to the early history of this per- 

 sonan^e, I may mention that it is stated in the 

 Diary of the Rev. Abraham De La Pryme (de 

 quo vide Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 179.), 

 under date of 1697, that— 



" Sir Cloudesley Shovel was a poor lad, born in York- 

 shire. He was first ostler at an Inn at Retford; after 

 that, being weary of his place, he went to Stockwith, 

 where he turned tarpaulin, and from thence getting ac- 

 quainted with the sea he grew up to what he now is." 



C. J. 



