NOTES AND QUEEIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOB 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



*• "Wtaen found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 165.] 



Saturday, December 25. 1852. 



{Price Fourpence. 

 Stamped Edition, Qd. 



CONTENTS. 

 Norns : — Page 



Robin Hood fiO? 



Shakspeare and Lucian Buonaparte - . - 598 



Dr. Walker and tlie Duke of Wellington, by James 



Cornish WO 



Robiu Hood's Hill 599 



Tolk I-ore:— Stone Coffin and tlie Goblins— Cure for 

 Scarlet Fever — Bayard's Leap — Wassailin? in Sussex 



— Cliildren crying at Baptism — Night Rains — Nor- 

 folk and Suffolk Spells — Nursery Rhymes — Cornish 

 Miners' Superstition — Teeth wide apart a Sign of Good 

 Luck — Confirmation Superstition — Cure for Cramp 



— Dead Birds — Superstitions of the West Riding of 

 Yorkshire 600 



Queries : — 



Washington .-«---- 602 



Minor Queries : — Conundrums — Old Silver Ornament 

 — Jewish Sabbatical Year, &c Samuel Daniel — Con- 

 secrated Rings used for the Cure of Epilepsy — Epi- 

 gram on the Popes — Chaucer — John de Castro and 

 his Brother Bat — Kinderley — Dr. Henniker — 

 Writing Ink for unsized Paper — Statue of St. Peter 

 at Rome — Plum-pudding — Tophams of Craven — 

 Charade— Chemical Query — Suppressed Irish Peerage 

 —The Budget — Goldsmiths' Year-marks - - G02 



Minor Queries with Answers : — John Murray — 

 Tyning — Judas-coloured Hair - . - . G05 



Eeplie«: — 



Irish Rhyme— English Criticism, by Cuthbert Bede, &c. Cn.5 



Eikon Basilike, by Rev. E. S. Taylor - - - 607 



Alteration in Prayer-Books, by William J. Thorns - 607 

 Destruction of Sepulchral Monuments, by Edward 



Peacock - 608 



" Bombastes Furioso," by John Miland . - . 609 



Bells versus Storms, by Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, &c. - 009 



Rufus's Stirrup, by W. J. Bernhard Smith - - 61 1 



Queries on Popular Phrases, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault - Gil 



Photographic Correspondence: — Collodion I'rocess — 

 Pyrogallic Acid— Photography applied to the Micro- 

 scope — Saline Solution — Wax-paper Process — Mr. 

 Crookes' Wax-paper Process .... 612 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Death-place of Spinoza — 

 Mitigation of Capital Punishment to a Forger — Watch 

 Oaks — " Betwixt the Stirrup and the Ground " — St. 

 I/uke — Inscription at Dewsbury — Miles Coverdale — 

 Deodorising Peat—" My Mind to me a Kingdom is " — 

 Ball the Priest and Jack Straw — Richard III Gene- 

 alogy of Sir Francis Drake — Berkeley's Sublime 

 Sys em — Highlands and Lowlands — The Erse spoken 

 in America — Biting the Thumb— Sermons against 

 Inoculation — Vegetable Ivory — Misprint in Prayer- 

 Books — The Fern Osmunda - _ . . G14 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. ... - - 617 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - - - 618 



Notices to Correspondents - - - - 618 



Advertisements - - - - - -618 



Voj-VL — No. 165. 



KOBIN HOOD. 



Great and long has been the discussion about 

 the nature of Robin Hood — whether he was a 

 myth or a real personage. 



There are two strong (in our opinion, decisive) 

 reasons for holding that Robin Hood was a widely- 

 spread myth, and no mere English outlaw, whose 

 sphere of action was some English forest. 



1. Robin Hood was well known in Scotland. 

 His former great celebrity In that country is 

 vouched for by the unimpeachable authority of an 

 act of parliament, passed in the reign of Queen 

 Mary, prohibiting " the pleys and personages of 

 Robin Hood, Little John," &c. There Is no ground 

 for supposing that these "pleys and personages" 

 were borrowed from the English ; on the con- 

 trary, it must be admitted that in those days, and 

 long before, the Scotch were not In any mood to 

 borrow customs from the English, whom they 

 viewed and named, with reason, as their " aulde 

 enemies." The legitimate Inference, then, Is, that 

 the name and fame of Robin were originally com- 

 mon to both countries. 



With special reference to the next reason, 

 though It has a decided bearing on the preceding 

 one also, it may be here stated, that Ave concur in 

 the opinion that Robin was the ideal embodiment 

 of outlaws dwelling in the green wood, the well- 

 known resort of freebooters when they flourished 

 In former ages ; and that his name, Robin Hood, 

 was a contraction of Robin O'Wood. The next 

 reason, then, for holding that Robin was no mere 

 English outlaw, is, 



2. That we found, somewhat to our surprise, on 

 glancing through a novel of Eugene Sue's some 

 time ago, that he there Introduces a Robin de Sots 

 as a well-known mythical character, whose name 

 is employed by French mothers to frighten their 

 children. The original names, in English and 

 French, are thus the same in meaning, and the 

 French custom is in perfect accordance with 

 Robin's position, as the ideal representative of 

 lawless men, v/hatever his merits might have been 

 in other respects. The difference In name, and 

 its popular use, clearly tend to show that the tra- 



