2nd S. V. 120., April 17. '58.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



317 



Minat ^ueviti tot'tft <^niiaeTi. 



Peers answer on Protestations upon their Honour 

 only, — Is this practice of any ancient date, sanc- 

 tioned by any other law than usage, or is it 

 authorised by any order of the House of Lords 

 or enactment of Parliament ? L. J. 



[By a Standing Order of the House of Lords passed on 

 the 6th of May, 1028, in consequence of a Report from a 

 Committee for Privileges, it is " Ordered that the Nobilitj' 

 of this Kingdom, and Lords of the Upper House of Par- 

 liament, whether they be Plaintiffs or Defendants, are of 

 ancient Eight to answer or be examined in all Courts 

 upon Protestation of Honour only, and not upon the com- 

 mon Oath." The subject had been discussed in the pre- 

 vious reign.] 



Mother Carey's Chickens. — Who is meant by 

 Mother Carey f and why are the petrels called 

 her chickens ? Cas gan Longwe. 



[This Query has already been noticed in our 1^* S. v. 

 428. ; but our correspondents were unable to identify 

 " Mother Carey." The petrels appear to have been called 

 chickens from their diminutive size. The largest sort 

 (" giant petrel," Procellaria gigantea) is " Mother Carey's 

 goose." Its length is forty inches, and it expands seven 

 feet. The common kind are of about the size of a swal- 

 low, and weigh something over an ounce ; length six 

 inches, expansion thirteen inches. These are the " Mo- 

 ther Carey's chichens." (Latham, Gen. Hist, of Birds.") 

 It should be borne in mind that our language does not 

 restrict the term chickens to j'oung birds of the gallina- 

 ceous class. 



Mother Carey is " Mother dear " (^Mater cara). Like 

 Mater amabilis, Mater amata, &c.. Mater cara is a name 

 appropriate to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The application 

 of the name "Mother Carey's chickens" to the stormy 

 petrel (Sturmvogel, Procellaria pelagica) is probably due 

 to similar names of the " alcyon " or " martin-pecheur " 

 of the Mediterranean, which is called oiseau de Notre- 

 Dame, avis Sanctce Marice, and in Sardinia uccello pesca- 

 tore Santa Maria. As ornithologists have occasionally 

 applied the term petrel to the alcyon, it is no marvel if 

 the two classes have been confounded in our nautical 

 nomenclature. Sonnini on Buffon relates how, as he was 

 sailing between the islands of Corsica and Monte Cristo, 

 the ship was visited by a flight of " petrels." And though 

 at the moment of their arrival the weather was fine, within 

 four hours it changed to a violent gale. This, adds Son- 

 nini, was a kind of petrel called alcyon by sailors, though 

 different from the alcj'on of the ancients. Our own sailors, 

 it may be supposed, have borrowed from the alcyon or 

 martin-pecheur a name for the stormy petrel. Hence the 

 term " Mother Carey's chickens." There can be no diffi- 

 culty in perceiving why birds of this class, giving friendly 

 warning of storms at sea, should be called aves Sanctm 

 Maria, if we bear in mind the great power over the sea 

 attributed by Roman Catholics to the Mother of our Lord, 

 who is with them the " Stella maris," and whom, when 

 foul weather impends, their mariners invoke as the sailors' 

 Patroness : — 



" Salve, splendor firmamenti I 



Tu caliginosae menti 



Placa mare, maris Stella, 



Ne involvat nos procella 



Et tempestas obvia."] 



Peter Berault. — Who was Peter Berault ? He 

 wrote two books, The Church of Rome proved 



Heretick, 1681, and The Church of England evi- 

 dently proved the Holy Catholick Church. The 

 latter was published in 1682, and is dedicated to 

 Prince Rupert. Between the preface and the 

 body of the work occurs the following curious 

 " Advertisement. 

 " If any Gentleman or Gentlewoman hath a mind to 

 learn French or Latin, the Author of this Treatise will 

 wait upon them ; he liveth in Thames-street, over against 

 Baynard's-Castle." 



Hubert Bower. 



[All that is known of the author of these works is what 

 he says of himself in the title-page of the first, namely, 

 "that he abjured Popery in London in 1671 ;" and in the 

 concluding chapter of the same work, where he more 

 fully states his reasons for joining the Anglican Church. 

 The Church of Rome evidently proved Heretick was re- 

 printed in 1830, with a Preface and Notes, but without 

 any biography of the author.] 



Locusts and Honey. — 



" There is a physiological reason why locusts and honey 

 should be eaten together." — Dr. Livingstone's Travels, 

 p. 42. 



Query, what is it ? T. E. N. 



[As honey is found to be laxative, and affects some 

 constitutions in a very peculiar manner, it may have been 

 the intention of Dr. Livingstone to intimate that locusts 

 and honey, taken together, prove mutual correctives. 

 The context, however, conveys an impression that the 

 excellent author intended a different meaning. The pas- 

 sage runs thus : " The locusts are strongly vegetable in 

 taste, the flavour varying with the plants on which they 

 feed. There is a physiological reason," &c. Now a vari- 

 ation of the same kind is observable in honey. Honey 

 also varies with the plants from whose flowers it is derived. 

 (Conf. Pereira, Elements of Mat. Med.) To the same fact 

 we have the testimony of the Die. des Sciences Medicates 

 at greater length : " Le miel conserve souvent le saveur 

 et I'odeur des plantes d'oii il provient." Several instances 

 are given. May it not then have been the Doctor's in- 

 tention to intimate, alluding to Matt. iii. 4. and Mark i. 

 6., that there was something of a propriety or analogy in 

 a diet combining these two articles, locusts and honey, 

 each in a measure subject to the same physiological 

 law?] 



Burton-Joyce. — Whence did Burton, a town in 

 the county of Nottingham, derive the affix of 

 Joyce ? M. I. J. 



[The family of Jorz were its ancient landowners, which 

 gave the town the distinction of Burton Jorce, or Jorz, 

 now called Burton -Joyce.] 



St. Paul's Cross. — When was the last sermon 

 preached here, and by whom ? Libta. 



[Howes, the Continuator of Stow's Annals, speaks of 

 Charles I. having attended the service at St. Paul's on 

 May 30, 1630, and heard the sermon at the Cross, and 

 this was probably nearly the last delivered in the open 

 air. In April, 1633, while the cathedral was undergoing 

 repairs, and the churchyard was occupied with masons 

 and building materials, the sermons were delivered in 

 the choir ; and it does not appear ihslt the old pulpit out 

 of doors was ever again occupied. Dugdale {Hist, of St. 

 Paul's Cathedral, p. 109., edit. 1818) informs us, that " in 

 1643, Isaac Pennington being Lord Mayor, the famous 



