260 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Oct. 6. 1855. 



of our necks, and then separately placed between 

 two slices of bread and butter. She says she 

 watched anxiously for a strange dog to pass (no 

 other being efficacious). She then gave him the 

 bread and butter, and as he ate it without loath- 

 ing, she was sure we should be cured. He then 

 went away, and of course never came again, for 

 he died of the measles — miserably, no doubt, 

 poor fellow, having travelled off with the disease 

 of three affected children ! Avon Lea. 



Cwe for Rickets. — The last time in London^ 

 saw the " operation " for rickets performed by 

 passing a child over'the back and under the body 

 of a donkey, was in Hoxton market-place, in 

 May, 1845. The operation was thus performed. 

 The mother of the child took the patient in her 

 arms, and began with the odd number 1, whilst 

 the proprietor of the donkey repeated the even 

 number ; and thus the poor creature was passed 

 over and under, no other word except the 

 numbers being spoken by either individual. I 

 saw about twenty or thirty passes, and then grew 

 tired ; but I took care to be well informed re- 

 specting the method of cure, which was kindly 

 tendered by a spectacled spectator ; and for the 

 benefit of the readers of " N. & Q.," I register it. 

 The passings required are 9 times 9 = 81. No 

 other word must be spoken, and the passing of 

 the child once more or less annuls the efficacy of 

 the operation. Avon Lea. 



Harvestman. — A large kind of daddy longlegs, 

 called the harvestman, is under superstitious pro- 

 tection at this season, as it is considered unlucky 

 to kill him. Htde Clarke. 



Seventh Son of Seventh Son. — We had an 

 Irish boy in our office who went of errands, &c. 

 He occasionally came late, for which he varied 

 his excuses. At last its frequency occasioned me 

 to speak very sharply, when he replied, " I 

 ■wouldn't help it sir, I'm sure I wouldn't; I've only 

 bin on an act o' mercy." " What act of mercy ? " 

 " Ye see, sir, I'm a seventh of a seventh, an' I 

 touches for sickness, an' I've bin to two childer 

 this morn, sir, a long way." What I gathered 

 from him was this : it was necessary that he 

 should touch fasting; that his hand should be 

 crossed with silver (generally a shilling), though 

 from the very poor a fourpence would suffice, and 

 from the rich half-a-crown was necessary ; and 

 that his charge should not be questioned. The 

 boy was very ignorant ; he looked upon me as 

 ■worse than a heretic for smiling, and admitted 

 that his " practice " yielded him more than his 

 situation at our office. He was from Connaught ; 

 ■was a posthumous child, which he considered made 

 his touch the more efficacious. He seemed to 

 imply that some saint blesses the posthumous ; but 

 on this point he was not communicative, as our 



No. 310.] 



creeds differed. Can any of your readers inform 

 me of the name of this saint? Avon Lea. 



Weather Proverb. — If the accompanying wea- 

 ther proverb is not generally known, perhaps it 

 may find a niche in " N. & Q." 



" A pear year, 

 A dear year." 



E. S. W. 



THE EARLS OF ANTRIM. 



There is something so Interesting in the follow- 

 ing extract, which I have cut out of a Dublin 

 newspaper of July 30, giving an account of the 

 funeral of the late Earl of Antrim, that I think It 

 worthy of being recorded in "N. & Q. :" 



« At two o'clock the family vault of the MacDonnells 

 in Bunnamairge, unclosed its gloomy portals, after an in- 

 terval of sixty-three years, for the reception of the late 

 Lord Antrim's remains. We have always been disposed 

 to render due credit to Somhairle Buidhe (Sorley Boy) 

 for the taste displayed in the selection of this locality as 

 his last resting place. What more appropriate grave for 

 the chiefs of his house than this hoary ruin, originally 

 founded by his great rival MacQuillin, and occupying a 

 position so singularly picturesque at the foot of that glen 

 which their fierce struggles have rendered for ever his- 

 torical ! The wild and romantic beauty of this district is 

 proverbial. The quiet fields, waving with luxuriant crops, 

 surround the old cemetery, and contrast strongly with 

 the sun- burnt and sheep-nibbled grass on the graves 

 ■within. On the one side, the Mairge, Mixture (so called 

 from its uniting the waters of two mountain streams), 

 'murmurs at its own sweet will' onward to the sea; 

 whilst on the other, the green slopes, known as the War- 

 ren, and presenting at this season a rich verdant carpet, 

 decked with the glowing wild-thyme, stretch away in 

 the direction of Fairhead. 



" On entering the vault, we observed that it already 

 contained six coffins ; among which were those of Sorley 

 Boy, his son Randal the first Earl, and his grandson 

 Kandal the second Earl and first Marquis of Antrim. 

 ' After life's fitful fever they sleep well.' The first was 

 the conqueror of the Route and Glynns, who expelled the 

 MacQuillins, and was a match for the bravest of Queen 

 Elizabeth's generals. The second was the friend and cor- 

 respondent of Archbishop Ussher, enlightened for his 

 times, and impressed with the importance of peace by 

 witnessing so many of the ruinous effects of war. He 

 received a plenary grant from James I. of the lands which 

 his father had conquered, and immediately devoted him- 

 self to the improvement of his estates. The third played 

 a distinguished but deceitful game in the great political 

 arena of his day. No party could trust in him, and yet 

 his ashes here repose under very eulogistic epitaphs, 

 written in no fewer than three languages. 



" It occurred to us as somewhat remarkable that these 

 former Lords of Antrim sleep their long sleep in Bunna- 

 mairge, unattended by their ladies. The three above- 

 mentioned had wives from the princely house of O'Neill. 

 Sorley Boy was married to Mary, the sister of Hugh Mac, 

 a Baron O'Neill, of Dungannon. She was a woman of 

 distinguished piety; and her death is recorded by the 

 Four Masters in very complimentary terms. She was 

 honoured with a grave in Armagh — that odorous region, 

 so attractive to Irish saints, whether dead or alive. The 

 first Earl's wife was the beautiful Alice O'Neill, a stately 



