242 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Ansicei: 

 " My spurs they shine as bright as snow. 

 And fit for any king to show. 

 So fare thee well, my lady gay, 

 I'll call again another day." 



'Answer. 

 " Turn hacli, turn back, you ugly wight. 

 And choose the fairest one you like." 



Answer. 

 " The fairest one that I can see 

 Is you, dear \iiaming one], so come with me." 



As National Schools are fast sweeping away all 

 cliarms, fairies, folk lore, and old village sports 

 and pastimes, perhaps the above may be suffi- 

 cientlj interesting to be rescued from oblivion by 

 insertion in your pages. I believe it is a game 

 common to many parts of England. The children 

 join hands, whilst the mother' and the " daughter 

 Jane" stand opposite. They chant the words to a 

 pleasing old melody, as they advance and retire in 

 succession. Metaouo. 



Spur Snnday. — The following custom prevails 

 in most villages throughout Huntingdonshire and 

 Lincolnshire. On the evening of the Sunday 

 when the banns of marriage are published for the 

 lirst time, the intending " champions of the ring " 

 are^ honoured with a peal from the church bells. 

 This peal is called the " Sj)ur Peal," and the 

 Sunday "Spur Sunday." Whence the term 

 " Spur ? " CuTHBEKT Bede, B . A. 



[No. 150. 



TIMOTHY EGLINGTON AND ROBERT DONALD. 



Possessing in a few old books a better resource 

 for a "rainy day" than that supplied by the late 

 Mr. J. T. Smith, I have devoted one such to a 

 kind of roll-call of my silent companions, which has 

 resulted in the selection of a couple of modest- 

 looking volumes for arraignment in your columns 

 upon the heavy charge against their authors of 

 daring familiarity with the Deity. 



The first of these is the author of a few finatical 

 tracts, published about the middle of the last cen- 

 tury, one of which is a rambling discourse upon 

 the text, " Make your calling and election sure," 

 wherein the author thus announces himself: 



^ " Timothy in Christ, that is my name, 

 But the world joins Eglington. 



ne. J 



Christ in me ! that is my glory ; 

 Timothy Eglinojton is my name, 

 And in the flesh I am to blame, 

 But in Christ I am not the same. 



Having thus made his debut, this self-assured 

 saint proceeds as follows : 



" May 8, in the year of my Lord 1 750, about four 

 o'clock ill the morning, these words followed me as a 



still voice being impressed upon my mind, what I 

 must do or make, which are these — 'Make your calling 

 and election sure.' Now J well knew it was not for me 

 to make mine sure, for I knew mine was sure : and 



then the same still voice said, 'O man write' 



making a full stop, and then said Timothy, which is 

 my^ name. I lay a-bed some minutes after that, in 

 which time the Lord showed me many glorious .hinccs 

 concerning man's salvation, for Christ "took of things of 

 his, and showed them unto me, and then be said, 

 ' Won't you obey the call ?' I then answered the Lord 

 with a vocal voice, ' Yes, Lord,' and then could lay no 

 longer. I then directly got up, and took mv paper 

 and pen, and then waited on the teachings of my 

 Lord." 



The inspired Timothy appeals to the " Searcher 

 of all hearts" to witness to the truth of this state- 

 ment, and then goes on with his subject; winding 

 up a coarse, ultra- Calvinistic sermon in the follov,-- 

 ing blasphemous style : 



" I alone the writer am, 



By the Lords appointment; 

 God he the Inditer is, 

 Christ is God's anointed. 



God the Author is of this, 



He has mov'd me to it ; 

 Whatsoever good done is, 



He alone has done it." 



The companion to this will be found in a more 

 modern production, entitled The Psalms of DavW 

 on Christian Experience, by Robert Donald, 

 Woking, Surrey: Guildford, i2mo. 1816. 



Donald was apparently a Scot, and must have 

 been well known as the poetical nurseryman of 

 Woking some thirty-five years ago. Besides the 

 piece for which we are to call him to account, he 

 was ^the author of A Panorama Peep at Surrey ,- 

 A New System of Agricidture ; and other trifles, all 

 in verse. With respect to his Psalms, whether the 

 book ever attracted critical notice I know not; but 

 Donald took high ground for his performance, 

 asserting that when a Dissenting magazine sug- 

 gested some years before a new version upon 

 Christian experience, upon the plan of Cowpcr 

 and Newton, he received an unmlstakeable Divine 

 call to the work! "Thou art the man!" rung 

 three times distinctly in the ears of the embryo 

 poet ; and after a struggle, In which he was out- 

 aro;ued by the Deity, upon the honest plea of in- 

 ability, poor crazy Donald set to his task, fully 

 believing himself the chosen vessel for this work, 

 and, as might have been expected from a man 

 having none of the requisites for the undertaking, 

 produced a book which wili, at all events, rank 

 among the " curiosities of literature." 



Having in the case of Eglington given a speci- 

 men of the intercommuning between him and the 

 Deity, I may add an example of the same kind 

 from the inspired gardener's preface. Donald 



