July 8. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



33 



God in the Golden Boots : if the exotic words be- 

 long to any language, it is not the Dutch, as I am 

 sure your friendly cotemporary De Navorscher 

 will tell you. J. K. 



" Green Man and Still. — In the sign of the ' Green 

 Man and Still,' we perceive a huntsman, in a green 

 coat, standing by the side of a still ; in allusion, as it 

 has been facetiously conjectured, to the partiality 

 shown by that description of gentry to a morning 

 dram. The genuine representation, however, should 

 be the green man (or man who deals in green herbs), 

 with a bundle of peppermint or penny-royal under 

 his arm, which he brings to be distilled." — Ritson's 

 Life of Robin Hood, notes and illustrations (N.) 5. 



Thompson Coopeb. 

 Cambridge. 



Mr. Thornburt derives "Pig and Whistle" 

 from " Peg and Wassail Bowl," which appears to 

 me equally unintelligible. May I suggest that it 

 is a corruption of " Pyx and Housel ? " I need 

 hardly mention that the Pyx is the small chest or 

 box, in which the Housel or Host is reserved by 

 the Roman Catholics. G. A. T. 



While stopping for refreshment, during a country 

 ramble the other day, at " The Maypole " — on the 

 confines of Hainault Forest — immortalised in 

 Barnaby Ridge, I observed the following lines over 

 the fire-place : 



" All you who stand 

 Before the fire, 

 I pray sit down ; 

 It 's my desire. 

 That other folks 



As well as you, 

 May see the fire 

 And feel it too !" 

 " N.B. — My liquors good, 



My measures j ust ; 

 Excuse me, sirs, 

 I cannot trust I " 



Over the stable-door were the following : 

 " Whoever smokes tobacco here, 



Shall forfeit sixpence to spend in beer ; 

 Your pipes lay by, when you come here. 

 Or fire to me may prove severe." 



Ttb. 

 At Wadsley Bridge, in the parish of Ecclesfield, 

 there is this motto to the sign of "The Gate :" 



" This Gate hangs well and hinders none: 

 Refresh, and pay, and travel on." 



Ai>FRED Gattt. 



The following lines occur beneath the sign of a 

 Lion in this State : 



" The lion roars, but do not fear ; 

 Cakes and beer sold here." 



Philadelphia. 



Uneda. 



LESLIE AND DR. MIDDLETON. 



(Vol. ix., pp. 324. 575.) 



The reference to Blackwood's Magazine, for 

 which I am obliged to J. O. B., enables me to 

 trace the imputation on Middleton to a distin- 

 guished writer. The article, entitled " Cicero," 

 IS reprinted in the second volume of the Boston 

 edition of Mr. De Quincey's Historical Essays. 



Some years ago I bought all books on "The 

 Miraculous Powers Controversy" that fell in my 

 way, and read many of them ; but neither among 

 the cotemporary adversaries of Middleton, nor in 

 his own writings, can 1 find any trace of its having 

 been said that " he sought for twenty years some 

 historical facts which might conform to Leslie's 

 four conditions, and yet evade Leslie's logic." 

 Mr. De Quincey cites no authority. There may 

 be some, and I shall gladly receive any farther 

 assistance on the question. 



Mr. De Quincey treats Middleton with great 

 severity. He begins with " Conyers Middleton is 

 a name that cannot be mentioned without dis- 

 gust;" and ascribes his partiality to Cicero to a 

 hatred of Christianity, which induced him to de- 

 pict a heathen with all virtues. He says : 



" He (Middleton) wished to have it believed that 

 he was worse than he seemed, and that he would be a 

 fort esprit of a high cast, but for the bigotry of his 

 church. It was a fine thing to have the credit of in- 

 fidelity without paying for a license to sport over those 

 manors without a qualification." 



Is there any foundation for this charge ? I 

 doubt whether the principal librarian of the 

 University of Cambridge would ever have thought 

 it desirable " to be believed worse than he was," 

 or "a fine thing" to be credited with a large 

 amount of infidelity. 



" Conyers Middleton held considerable preferment in 

 the Church of England. Long after he had become an 

 enemy to that church (not separately for itself, but as 

 a strong form of Christianity), he continued to receive 

 large quarterly cheques upon a bank in Lombard Street, 

 of which the original condition had been that he should 

 defend Christianity with all his soul and with all his 

 strength." 



As to the " large preferment," all I can find 

 about it is the following from the Penny Cyclo- 

 pedia, art. Middleton : 



«' He died at Hildersham on the 28th July, 1750. 

 He accepted, shortly before his death, a small living from 

 Sir John Frederick. His subscription to the Thirty- 

 Nine Articles was represented by his enemies, but 

 whether truly or not it is difficult to say, as hypo- 

 critical and insincere." 



Allowance may be made for inaccuracies which 

 escape a writer's attention in the hurry of com- 

 posing a brilliant magazine article, but they should 

 be set right in reprints. That this has not been 



