424 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 157. 



direction is very curved, Roman ways being usually 

 straight ; and, finally, it has many British .remains 

 near it, as the Cromlech, called Wayland Smith's 

 Cave, and several barrows : perhaps some of the 

 camps near it are British. It is called by the 

 country people the Kidgeway; but there is a 

 Koman road about a mile and a half north of it 

 (at the White Horse) called the Portway : the 

 latter runs in the valley through Wantage to 

 Wallingford, while the Ridgeway follows the curve 

 of the summit of the chalk hills to Streatley. I 

 doubt much if it have any connexion with Grymes 

 Dyke or Grimsditch. E. G. R. 



Phonetic Spelling (Vol. vi., p. 357.). — I hardly 

 know whether Me. S. Simpson will consider it as 

 any answer to his question to be reminded that in 

 the year 1701 a work on Practical Phonography 

 was published by a Dr. Jones. An amusing ac- 

 count of it is to be found in Beloe's Anecdotes, 

 vol. vi. p. 360. 



A few words with an improved method of 

 spelling — or, as the author has it, "speZ/no-" — are 

 cited : 



" Aaron 

 bought 

 Mayor 

 Dictionary 

 Worcester - 



Aron 

 baut 

 mair 

 Dixnary 



Wooster. 



Have the modern phonographists ever owned 

 their debt of gratitude to their predecessors in the 

 phonetic art ? Heemes. 



Ancient Popular Stories (Vol. vi., p. 189.). — In 

 the Gesta Romanorum is a tale about the Em- 

 peror Domitian very similar to the Cornish story 

 told by Me. King. The three maxims there'given 

 are, 1. " Never begin aught until you have cal- 

 culated the end thereof:" 2. " Never leave a high- 

 way for a by-way:" 3. " Never sleep in the 

 house where the master is old and the wife young," 

 The translation and moral of the story may be 

 found in Evenings with the old Story Tellers, pub- 

 lished by Burns in 1845, in which work it is said 

 to resemble the Turkish tale of " The King, the 

 Sofi, and the Surgeon ; " so that its origin is pro- 

 bably eastern. J. R. M,, M.A. 



The Bride's Seat in Church (Vol. vi., p. 246.). 

 — In Surtees' Histo7-y of Durham, vol. ii. p. 144., 

 are extracts of a very curious kind from the parish 

 books of Chester-le-Street. The following quota- 

 tion, with Surtees' remarks, will answer K.'s Query : 



*'16]2, 27 May. The churchwardens meeting 

 together for seekeing for workmen to mak a 

 fitt seete in a convennent place for hrydgrumes, 

 hryds, and sike wyves to sit in - - lis." 



Surtees' Note. — " It is plain that at this period the 

 privilege of a separate pew was confined to persons of 

 the first rank. The rest sat promiscuously on forms in 



the body of the church : and the privilege is here ex- 

 tended only to sick wives, &c., who sat to hear the 

 preacher deliver ' The Bride's Bush' or the 'Wedding 

 Garment beautified.' " 



May I venture the Query : To what sermons do 

 " the Bride's Bush " and " The Wedding Garment 

 beautified " refer ? and where may they be met 

 with ? J. R. M., M.A. 



3Ian in the Moon (Vol. vi., p. 182.). — I extract 

 the following note from a work on Northern Tra- 

 ditions and Folk Lore, published by Lumley of 

 Holborn, in which a great variety of interesting 

 matter on Scandinavian, German, and Low Country 

 superstitions is collected : 



" The Swedes see (in the moon) children carrying 

 water in a bucket ; others a man with a dog ; some a 

 man with a bundle of brushwood, for having stolen 

 which on a Sunday, he was condemned to figure in the 

 moon." 



The Man in the Moon is alluded to by Chaucer 

 and Shakspeare : 



" Her (lady Sinthia's) gite was gray and full of spottes 

 blake, 

 And on her brest a chorl painted full even, 

 Bearing a bushe of thornes on his bake, 

 Which for his theft raigt clime no ner y= heven." 

 Chaucer, Test, of Cresseide, 260. 



And also in Troilus, book i. stanza 147. : 

 " Quoth Pandarus, thou hast a full great care 

 Lest the chorle may fall out of the moone ! " 



Whence it seems to have been used in Chaucer's 

 time as a proverb. 



" Steph. I was the Man in the Moon, when time 

 was. 



Cat. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; 

 My mistress showed me thee, thy dog, and bush." 



Shaks. Tempest, Act II. Sc. 2. 

 And Q,uince : 



" One must come in with a bush of thorns and a 

 lantern, and say, he comes to disfigure, or to present, 

 the person of Moonshine." — 3Iidsummer Night's Dream, 

 Act III. Sc. 1. 



In Ritson's Ancient Songs (ed. 1829, vol. i. 

 p. 68.) there is one on the Man in the Moon, in the 

 introduction to which he quotes the Book of Num- 

 bers XV. 32. et seq. as the origin of the tradition. 

 For oriental and other traditions, see Grimm, D. M.y 

 p. 679. J- R- M., M.A. 



Lady Day and Feasts of the Blessed Virgin 

 Mary (Vol. vi., p. 350.). — Your correspondent 

 P. A. F. is surely wrong in saying that the Visit- 

 ation, Nativity, and Conception of the Blessed 

 Virgin Mary are yearly celebrated in the Pro- 

 testant (English) Church. These days, indeed, 

 are marked in the Calendar for the reasons given 

 by Wheatly, On the Common Prayer, p. 54., 

 Oxford edit. 1839. No day is appointed by the 



