288 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 152. 



was his own nom-de-guerre at school, and no one 

 who was not in the secret would ever hit upon its 

 etymology ; while Artaxorainous seems intended for 

 an intimate school friend, whose life terminated 

 very early, and, I fear, under circumstances of so 

 distressing a nature, that in reply to inquiries 

 Mr. Barham would say nothing. 



If this be true, Bomhastes was the work of a 

 schoolboy ; and wonderful as such a thing might 

 be, it was not surprising for one who possessed so 

 extraordinary a facility of composition as Mr. 

 Barham. If my recollection does not deceive me, 

 he avowed himself to be the author in the course 

 of his first journey with me to the University ; but 

 having little to do with London or theatrical 

 affairs, I had never heard of the piece, and paid 

 little attention to the avowal, though circumstances 

 have since recalled it to my recollection. Why he 

 should not claim it for his own, I do not know, 

 unless he thought such a piece of authorship would 

 be clerically against him. That he covld write 

 anonymously the lagoldsby Legends may prove. 



In saying thus much, it is not unknown to me 

 that the authorship of Bombastes Farioso has been 

 ascribed to others. Those gentlemen will forgive 

 me if their names have slipped out of my recollec- 

 tion ; more especially as I am not aware that any 

 one of the number has personally ventured to 

 claim it for himself; which seems wonderful, con- 

 sidering the popularity of the composition. I give 

 you, Mr. Editor, what seems to me to be sufficient 

 reasons for thinking I have named the true author, 

 and of these the public may judge. Nemo. 



Athenaeum Club. 



FOLK LOBE. 



Bees ; Noise made during Swarming (Vol. v., 

 p. 498.). — The answer your correspondent would 

 have received had he inquh-ed the meaning of the 

 clamour, would probably have been that " it makes 

 the bees settle." Any one who has seen a swarm 

 of bees searching for their queen under every 

 bush and on every twig, after she has been caught 

 by the apiarian desirous of returning the swarm, 

 will at once be convinced of the absurdity of the 

 clamour. The noise is not made until the bees 

 show a disposition to wander, and then the real 

 use of it is to inform the neighbours that a swarm 

 is in the air, and to serve as a notice to watch the 

 place of its settling. It also serves as a notice 

 that the owner has seen the swarm issue from his 

 stock, and that he intends to claim it if it settles 

 in the territories of a neighbour, and is in some 

 measure a source of identity. The articles used 

 in this neighbourhood are a key and warming-pan. 



Bee Superstitions ; some Explanation of the 

 Custom of informing Bees of Death. — In almost 

 every place where bees are kept, it will be found 



that some one, or at most two, of the family, pay 

 attention to the bees, and when that attention fails 

 by the death of such party, the poor bees dwindle 

 and die, not because they were uninformed of the 

 death of their master, but because their master's 

 death deprived them of the proper amount of care 

 and attention necessary for their preservation. 

 A few of such instances in a neighbourhood would 

 soon give rise to the superstition, and every case 

 where the bees died would be noticed and add to 

 the superstition ; whilst the more numerous cases, 

 where the bees lived in consequence of the care 

 and attention bestowed by a successor to the party 

 dying, would add nothing to the superstition, but 

 pass unnoticed. When once the custom was es- 

 tablished, the extension of it so far as to inform 

 bees of the death of any member of the family, 

 can easily be imagined. The custom of informing 

 bees of death is prevalent here. 



J. G. Desborough:.- 

 Stamford, Lincolnshire. 



German Superstition. — In Longfellow's Golden 

 Legend, Ursula, lamenting the supposed loss of her 

 daughter, says : 



" Death never takes one alone, but two S 

 Whenever he enters in at a door, 

 Under roof of gold or roof of thatch, 

 He always leaves it upon the latch. 

 And comes again ere the year is o'er. 

 Never one of a household only !" 



Is there not a similar superstition prevalent ire 

 some parts of England ? Can any of your cor- 

 respondents assist me as to the locality, and other 

 particulars ? H. J. C. 



Worcestershire Legend in Stone (Vol. vi., 

 p. 216.). — Your correspondent Mr. Cuthbert 

 Bede gives two versions of the legend of John 

 of Horsehill, as carved on the tympanum of 

 Ribbesford Church; but the poetical version is, 

 I believe, no true version at all, being nothing 

 more than a fanciful adaptation, or rather the 

 invention of a local writer (Mr. Griffiths) some 

 five or six years ago. With regard to the non- 

 descript thing through which the arrow passes, it 

 may serve for a salmon, a beaver, a seal, a whale^ 

 or indeed anything else ; but the most likely sup- 

 position is, that as Ribbesford in those days be- 

 longed to the monastery of Worcester, the villeins 

 of the manor being bound to furnish nets, hunting 

 implements, and other sporting auxiliaries, to the 

 jolly ecclesiastics, who periodically enjoyed their 

 battues at Ribbesford, the sculpture is merely an 

 embodiment of this leading feature of the locality 

 where an abundance of game was to be procured. 

 The Normans were in the habit of perpetuating in 

 stone these local peculiarities, and at a much later 

 date the bosses of many of our Gothic churches 

 are found to represent the botanical productions 



