8 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[,2nd g. No 79., July 4. '57. 



" sweeping " is metaphorically applied to the per- 

 secution of some individual or family by an evil 

 demon ? 2. 



Ballad of ''Puii' Mary Zee." — The ';ifted 

 authoress oif Shirley alludes to the above as bein^ 

 of uncertain origin, — " written," she says, " I 

 know not in what generation or by what hand." 

 Are these inferences correct, or is anything known 

 of the writer ? The burden of the song or lament 

 seems an imprecation of " Black Robin a Ree" 

 who, from the digest given of it in the work above 

 quoted, had worked woe and desolation in poor 

 Mary's lot ; one verse only is given as a specimen ; 



" Oh ance I lived happily bj' yon bonny burn, 

 The warld was ia love wi' me ; 

 But now I maun sit 'neath the cauld drift and mourn. 

 And curse Black Robiu a Ree." 



"She recalls every image of horror, the yellow w\'med 

 ask,' .... * the ghaist at e'en,' — ' the sour bullister,' 

 ' the milk on the taeds back,' as objects of intense hatred, 

 — but ' waur she hates Robin a Ree.' " 



I apprehend if the above had been of easy re- 

 ference, its origin would at least have been hinted 

 at. Perhaps some of the readers of " N. & Q." 

 may be able to supply the deficiency. Some ex- 

 planation also of the "images of horror," as given 

 above, and others to be found in the volume, 

 would be acceptable. Hbnby W. S. Taylob. 



Southampton. 



William Collins, Ord. Freed. — A book with the 

 following title is in the library of Trinity College, 

 Dublin : 



"Missa Triumphans, or, The Triumph of the Mass; 

 wherein all the sophistical and wily Arguments of Mr. 

 de Rodon ag.iinst that thrice Venerable Sacrifice, in his 

 funestuous Tract, by him called, ' The Funeral of the 

 Mass,' are fully, formally, and clearly Answered. To- 

 gether with an Appendix by way of Answer to the 

 Translator's Preface. By F. P. M. 0. P. Hib. Lovain, 

 1675. 8vo." 



In a dedicatory epistle "to the Queen's most 

 excellent Majesty," subscribed by "your Ma- 

 jestie's most Loyal and Devoted Beadsman, W. 

 C," the dedicator s|)eaks of the book as his own 

 production. All this, however, may be known to 

 any one who has access to a copy of the book. 

 But what renders this particular copy interesting 

 is the following passage, probably in the hand- 

 writing of the author, on a fly-leaf: 



" This is the very same booke which the author dedi- 

 cated to the Queene, and presented into her hands, which 

 being accidentally returned unto him, he sends as a me- 

 morial! to the convent of Bornhem, whereof he was for- 

 merly a son, fr. William Collins, Ord'" Prsed. S. T. Mgr." 



Can any of your readers giye me information 

 respecting this William Collins ? 'Axieis. 



Dublin. 



J. C. Frommann. — Any information that you 

 or any of your numerous correspondents could 



give me respecting the following work would 

 much oblige. R. C. 



Cork. 



" Tractatus de Fascinatione novus et singularis in quo 

 Fascinatio vulgaris profligatur, naturalis confirmatur, et 

 magica examinatur ; hoc est, nee visu, nee voce fieri posse 

 Fascinationem probatur, etc. Auctore, Johanne Christiano 

 Frommann, D., Medico Provinciali Saxo Coburgico et 

 PP. Norimbergas. Sumptibus Wolfgangi Mauritii Endteri 

 et Johannis Andrese Endteri Hseredum, 1675." 



Early Harvests. — As this promises to be an 

 early year, perhaps some of your correspondents 

 residing in different parts of England can say the 

 date of the month and year in which they recollect 

 the earliest wheat rick to have been put up. A 

 neighbour of mine, who farms 2000 acres, informs 

 me that in 1828 he had a wheat rick set up on July 

 18, and finished harvest, with the exception of beans, 

 on the 28th of the same month. Tiie yield was not 

 heavy, but it was of excellent quality. H. T. 



Essex. 



Quotation wanted : " Second thoughts not always 

 bestJ'^ — Can any correspondent refer me to a pas- 

 sage — I think, somewhere in Bishop Butler's 

 works, — to the effect that, in moral questions, a 

 man's Jirst and third thoughts (which usually 

 aaree together) are more to be deiiended on for 

 his guidance than his second thoughts ? Ache. 



FickersgilVs " Three Brothers." — A literary 

 friend of mine in the country, who is a perfect 

 helluo librorum, but who really digests his mental 

 food with the power of a hippopotamus, in spite 

 of its quantity, asks me if 1 remember a strange 

 romance called The Three Brother.^, which he 

 thinks " I must have read when a boy" (I have a 

 glimmering recollection of the book), "and which 

 Lord Byron studied. The author was a lad, 

 Joshua Pickersgill, Jun.,"" if I remember right, 

 much under age. I thought this was a fictitious 

 name, but it was a real one ; and the author en- 

 tered the East India Company's service, was 

 Adjut.-Gen. in Gen. Ochterlony's army in the 

 Nepaul war, and died soon after. 



" I want to know something more about him, 

 and if he ever wrote anything else ? The book 

 itself is full of faults and deformities, but showed 

 much talent and great imagination in so young a 

 man. Lord Byron's Deformed Transformed is 

 founded on the story." 



Was the author of the family of Pickersgill the 

 distinguished portrait painter ? 



G. HUNTLY GORDOK. 



John Lake, Bishop of Chichester. — I should 

 feel obliged to any of your correspondents who 

 could afford me information respecting the family 

 connexions of Bishop Lake, one of the seven pro- 



* I find in Watt's Bib. Br., " The Three Brothers, by 

 Joshua Pickersgill, Esq., 4 vols. 12mo., 1803." 



