602 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 165. 



"with the small number of dead birds seen in the 

 fields, &c., in proportion to the thousands which 

 must be born yearly. Is there any folk-lore con- 

 cerning them ? M. J. B. 



Superstitions of the West Riding of Yorkshire. 

 — At a village in the West Riding a farmer had 

 lost many horses : a person wished to buy an old 

 horse ; the farmer refused, saying, that if he buried 

 the horse entire the disease would end. This ab- 

 surdity is fully believed. 



A person going to be married, on meeting a 

 male acquaintance he always begins rubbing his 

 elbow. Will any of your numerous readers give 

 an explanation ? 



When a new married couple first enter their 

 house, a person brings in a hen and makes it 

 cackle, to bring good luck to the new married 

 people. M. L. 



catiertP^. 



WASHINGTON. 



In the Second Part of a rare volume of Poems 

 on Affairs of State, mdcxcix, is a most eulogistic 

 *' Elegy, in Memory of Joseph Washington, Esq., 

 late of the Middle Temple, written by N. Tate, 

 Servant to their Majesties," in which the subject 

 of the Poet Laureate's verses is thus mentioned : 



" His genius rival'd Rome's and Athens' fame, 

 Breath'd Virgil's majesty, and Homer's flame ; 

 Touch'd the Horatian lyre with equal ease, 

 Sail'd with success on Tally's flowing seas. 

 In languages his knowledge was sublime, (!) 

 From modern to the speech of infant Time. 

 Thus from the sacred Oracles he drew 

 Those truths which scarce the Patriarchs better 

 knew." 



"No truth he ever took on trust," the poet, 

 somewhat illogically, says : he held as — 



" . . . sacred, Custom's doating dreams," 

 And — 



" Disdain'd to drink Tradition's muddy streams." 



Nahum Tate, the fit successor of so great a 

 poet as Shadwell, thus apologises for the boldness 

 of his Muse, in attempting to rescue from oblivion 

 the memory of her protege : 



" Can Washington from Britain's arms be torn, 

 And not one British Muse his hearse adorn? 

 Since abler bards his obsequies decline, 

 And they whom art inspires desert his shrine, 

 I'll trust my grief his fun'ral dirge to breath,e 

 I'll crown his tomb, tho' with a fading wreath. 

 Nor shall the boasting Fates have this to say. 

 That unobserv'd they stole such worth away." 



Though the Laureate in the latter part of his life 

 fell into discreditable habits, and died in the pre- 

 cincts of the Mint, in Southwark, at that time a 

 place where debtors were privileged from arrest ; 



and though the panegyric on Joseph Washington 

 may have been inspired as much by " a consider- 

 ation" as by unaffected admiration of a friend's 

 character ; yet there is enough of apparent truth- 

 fulness in the description to make one wish to trace 

 a connexion between the public-spmted advocate 

 of the Middle Temple and his immortalised name- 

 sake — clarum et venerabile nomen !— the founder 

 of the great empire, which the virtuous Bishop 

 Berkeley with prophetic eye foresaw would be- 

 come "Time's noblest progeny," as regards States. 



I invite, therefore, the assistance of your cor-, 

 respondents in discovering the relationship, if 

 any, between the personages in question. It may 

 assist the investigation to remind your readers,, 

 that the first of the Washington family who set- 

 tled in Virginia came from Northamptonshire, 

 thoujrh his ancestors are supposed to have sprung^ 

 previously from Lancashire. The General's father^ 

 Augustine, died in 1743. 



I indulge some hope that our American friends- 

 may enter into this inquiry. W. A u. 



Athenasum Club. 



Minax ^uttieg. 



Conundrums. — Some time ago (Vol. vi., p. 126.) 

 I inquired how I might "designate a species o€ 

 conundrum, or play on words, which consists in 

 dividing a word in some manner contrary to its 

 composition or syllabic formation, or in adding or 

 subtracting certain letters." I then subjoined a 

 specimen of the former description ; may I now be 

 allowed to repeat my inquiry, and to illustrate it 

 by a specimen of the latter kind ? 



Cold, sinful, sorrowful, unblest — 



Almost I blush to hear thy name, 

 And own that, nourish'd at thy breast, 



I, too, partake thy sin and shame. 



Can we not mend that name ? they say 

 Extremes oft help when things are worst — 



Let all the middle letters stay. 

 But take the last and place it first. 



Oh ! blessed change ! a genial tide 



Of life-blood gushes through each vein, 

 It lives, it loves, — a home provide 



For such a guest, with such a train. 

 And this it is not hard to do. 



The letter that was last restored 

 Yet kept at the beginning too. 



Gives it a home, beloved, adored. 



Bright faces glow, glad sounds are heard, 

 All earth, half-heaven, is in that word. 



RUFUS. 



Old Silver Ornament. — Having in my pos- 

 session a piece of antiquity, not from the old cu- 

 riosity shop, but dug up a few years since in the 



