144 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 14S. 



" Hue volucres pueri, ccelique affusa juventus 

 Ferte pedem . neterni largum date veris lionorcm : 

 Pallentem violam calathis diffundlto pleiiis, 

 Narcissique comas ac moerentes hyacinthos, 

 Et floruin iiimbo divinuin involuitc corpus." 



Cliristiados, lib. vi. 72. 



All lliis, however, was but "dallying with false 

 surmise," for the remains of Edward King had not 

 been discovered. The poet therefore implores 

 him, wheresoever his body might happen to be, to 

 grant it to the prayers of his afflicted friends; — 

 though now an angel himself, to " look homeward " 

 upon the scenes of his human life, and to " melt 

 into ruth," as far as such sympathy could exist in 

 an angelic mind to sympathise with his sorrowing 

 companions. The beautiful fiction of Arion, and 

 the amiable habits ascribed to Dolphins by Pliny, 

 Appian, Theophrastus, and Aulus Gellius {Nodes 

 Atticce, lib. vii. cap. 8.), will sufficiently account 

 for the pious office assigned by Milton to them : 



" And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth." 



Milton is supposed to have borrowed the name 

 Lycidas from some of the Idylls of Theocritus. 

 So is named one of the characters in the Eclogue 

 of Sannazai'ius, which I have already alluded to, 

 but it was Phyllis and not Lycidas who had met 

 with a fate similar to that of Milton's friend. 

 Warton appears to me to have created difficulties 

 where none had existed previously, as I think the 

 eubsequent lines of Milton prove : 



" Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more ; 

 Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 

 In thy large recompense, and slialt be good 

 To all that wander in that perilous flood." 



The " Fable of Belerus old " refers to the le- 

 gends connected with the Land's End of Cornwall, 

 and the promontory of Bellerium. I remember 

 that Cowley has the line 



" Belerii extremis a cornibus Orcadas usque." 

 Plantarum, lib. vi. p. 344. Londini, 1668, 8vo. 



Dr. Donne, in a poetical epistle to Sir H, Wot- 

 ton, speaks of St. Michael's Mount and the fables 

 for which it was celebrated. I quote from Alford's 

 edition : 

 " Here's no more news, than virtue ; I may as well 



Tell you Calais', or St. Michael's tale for news, as tell 



That vice doth here habitually dwell." 



Works, vol. vi. p. 459. Lond. 1839, 8vo. 



There is also an interesting account of the his- 

 torical changes which befel St. Michael's Mount in 

 Collins's Rambles beyond Railways^ cap. ix. Lond. 

 1851, 8vo. Rt. 



Warmington. 



FOLK LORE. 



The Spirit at Bolinghrohe Castle. — The follow- 

 ing may not be without interest to some of the 



readers of "N. & Q." I copied it from Hai-1. MS. 

 6829., which is a volume of notes on Lincolnshijfe 

 churches, containing much of great value : 



" BoLLlNGBROKE. 



" One thiiige is not to be passed by, affirmed as a 

 certain trueth by many of y" Inhabitants of the towne 

 upon their own knowledge, which is, that y° Castle is 

 Haunted by a certain spirit in the Likeness of a Hare, 

 which at y« meeting of y'= Auditors doeth usually runne 

 between their legs, and sometymes overthrows thena, 

 and so passes away. They have pursued it downe info 

 yo Castle yard, and scene it take in at a grate into a 

 low Cellar, and have followed it tbither with a light, 

 where notwithstanding that they did most narrowly 

 observe it [and that there was noe otlier passage out, 

 but by y* doore, or windowe, y° room being all above 

 framed of stones within, not having y" least Chinke or 

 Creuice], yet they could never find it. And at other 

 tymes it hath beene scene run in at the Iron- Grate* 

 below into other of y" Grottos [as thir be many af 

 them], and they have watched the place and sent for 

 Houndes and put in after it, but after a while they have 

 come crying out." — 162. 



Edward Peacock, Jun. 



Bottesford Moors, Kirton in Lindsey. 



Folk Lore in the Fifteenth Century. — In the 

 Account Roll of Cardinal Thomas Langley, Bishop 

 of Durham, the entry which I translate as follows 

 is contained : 



*' Paid to Thomas Egliston for marking sixteen of 

 my Lord's oxen with the mark of S'. Wilfrid, to the 

 intent that they may escape a certain infirmity called 

 the moryn (murrain), ix'^." [a.d. 1426-1427.] — Hist. 

 Dunelm, Script. Tres., p. ccccxl. 



Wm. Sidney Gibsos. 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Weather Prophecy (Vol. vi., p. 71.). — P. P. ha<» 

 favoured us with the exact words of the prophecy,, 

 but he has unfortunately cut before the point in 

 giving " the lie to the adage." 



I must for the sake of posterity vindicate both 

 the correctness of the observation and the credit 

 of the season. 



The oaks were certainly this year out before the 

 ashes, but instead of the present summer being 

 wet, as P. P. has prematurely asserted, it has been 

 on the whole, and (with the exception of partial 

 thunder showers) is at this moment one of the 

 driest within the recollection of a long life. 



The rivers and springs are smaller at this mo- 

 ment than they were almost ever known to be in 

 most places, and in many there is a difficulty in 

 getting water for the cattle; so that the truth of 

 the observation recorded in the proverb (which Is 

 no doubt the result of experience) was never more 

 apparent than at this moment. J. Ss. 



Aug. 2. 



Folk Lore from an old Newspaper (1759). — " The 

 dregs of superstition, it seems, are still remaining 



