2nd S. No 103., Dec. 19. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



497 



the old "equestrian" game of Hippas ('linros). 

 Two men mounted on the shoulders of two others ; 

 and the rider who pulled^ his opponent from his 

 seat was the victor (Strutt, p. 66. ; and see bottom 

 of plate 6.) ; to say nothing of the old rough romp 

 of " puUy-hawly ; " and the "pulling- time" on 

 the evening of a fair-day, which involved con- 

 siderable rudeness in handling the fairer and bet- 

 ter half of our race. Pvll, n. s., is a contest or 

 trial of strength ; but still, according to the ex- 

 ample cited in Todd's Johnson, with some refer- 

 ence to actual pulling : " This lorestling pull 

 between Corineus and Gogmagog is reported to 

 have befallen at Dover." (Carew.) 



" Pulling prime," which we find in Donne, ap- 

 pears to be an abbreviated form of the phrase 

 " pulling for prime." Thus, instead of " drawing 

 for King and Queen," we say, " drawing King 

 and Queen ; " and, instead of " cut for partners," 

 one sometimes hears " cut partners : " so, " pull- 

 ing prime." Such is the genius of our spoken 

 language, which delights in throwing out any 

 word or syllable that can by possibility be dis- 

 pensed with. Yet the French also abbreviate. 

 Thus, " tirer le gS.teau des Rois " is shortened con- 

 ventionally into " tirer les Rois," to draw Kings. 



Did Donne write " maids pulling prime," or 

 "mew pulling prime?" All the editions which I 

 have consulted (1633, 1635, 1639, 1650) read 

 " men." To this latter reading I incline ; but it 

 may have been both ; that is, maids, as well as 

 men, may have pulled for prime. It was an an- 

 nual custom in Hampshire that the women stopped 

 the way with ropes, and pulled the passengers to 

 them, demanding payment for the liberation of 

 the captives. (Strutt.) 



However that question may be decided, let us 

 take a parting view of the couplet from Donne, 

 which suggests two observations : 

 *' Piece-meal he gets lands, and spends as much time 



Wringing each acre, as men [_or maids] pulling prime." 



1 . If we suppose " pulling prime " to be a game 

 in which the two parties pull for the superiority at 

 the two ends of a rope, each trying, as in "French 

 and English," to draw the other across a line 

 chalked on the ground, this must be a game of 

 some duration, and therefore satisfies the conditions 

 of the above couplet from Donne. The two 

 parties pull till one Individual is drawn across. 

 He or she is captured, and becomes a prisoner. 

 So ends " fyt the first." They then recommence; 

 another is drawn across and captured, which is 

 "fyt the second." This goes on till all on one 

 side or the other are taken prisoners, which ends 

 the game. Hence will appear the force of the 

 poet's simile. The extortioner, " wringing acres," 

 " spends as much time " as persons engaged in this 

 game. The game is, of necessity, a long one. 



But, 2. Dr. Donne is particularly happy in his 

 comparisons ; and the present comparison, if duly 



perpended, will be found remarkably appropriate. 

 This limb of the law, says the Doctor, gets lands 

 " piece-meal." He spends his time in " wringing 

 each acre ; " that is, in extortionately acquiring 

 one acre after another. There lies the point of the 

 comparison. For, in the game of pulling " French 

 and English," the prisoners are taken one by one. 



The extract from Herbert, also, has a peculiar 

 import, appointing, with the context, to the con- 

 nexion of " pulling for prime " with the vernal 

 season, and specially with May- day. But it is 

 time to conclude. . Thomas Boys. 



P. S. In Pope's version, Donne's idea of acquir- 

 ing one acre after another, by gradual spoliation, is 

 brought out with great clearness : 



" Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that, 

 Glean on, and gather up the whole estate." 



FAIBT RINGS. 



(2'"» S. iv. 414.) 



According to the theory of their formation now 

 generally accepted, the rings noticed by your 

 correspondent R. M. in the Kinning Park Cricket- 

 ground must be of several years' growth. Dr. 

 Wollaston was the first to dispel the mystery iu 

 which the subject had been previously involved, 

 by proposing the elucidation which has been 

 adopted by Professor Wray and other naturalists. 

 Sir Humphry Davy alludes to it in his Agricul- 

 tural Chemistry, and acknowledges himself in- 

 debted to Dr. Wollaston for the hint. In the 

 London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. xvii. 

 p. 197., the theory is,clearly stated thus : — 



" Every fungus exhausts the ground on which it grows, 

 so that no other can exist on the same spot ; it sheds its 

 seeds around, and on the second j'ear, instead of a single 

 fungus as a centre, a number arise in an exterior ring 

 around the spot where the individual stood ; these ex- 

 haust the ground on which they have come to perfection ; 

 and on the succeeding year the ring becomes larger 

 from the same principle of divergency." 



These curious phenomena, which the author of 

 The Journal of a Naturalist still designated as an 

 " odium physiologicum," were fully discussed in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine, \o\.lx\. 1791; and there, 

 under the signature of " a Southern Faunist," I 

 fancy I recognise the pen of the philosophic Wol- 

 laston, with the humility that characterises genius, 

 giving to the world his explanation of a fact which 

 had baffled the learned before him, and given rise 

 to the most fanciful conjectures. The mysterious 

 influence of electricity, often assumed even now 

 as a veil for ignorance, had until then found the 

 greatest favour with philosophers in accounting 

 for these singular appearances. Dr. Plot was 

 perhaps the originator of this hypothesis, which 

 he illustrates with some curious observations in 

 his History of Staffordshire, (1686) p. 9. et seq., 



