128 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 171. 



Not that imparted knowledge doth 

 Diminish learning's store ; 



But books, 1 find, if often lent, 

 Return to me no more. 



" Give your attention as you read, 

 And frequent pauses take ; 

 Think seriously ; and take good heed 

 That you no doff's-ears make. 



" Don't wet the fingers, as you turn 

 The pages, one by one. 

 Never touch prints, observe : and learn 

 Each idle gait to shun." 



On the fly-leaf of a Bible I find the following, 

 which, however, is taken from The Weekly Pacquet 

 of Advice from Rome, vol. ii. p. 198. No. 15., dated 

 Friday, Dec. 26, 1679 : 



" Sancte Liber I venerande Liber ! Liber optime, salve ! 

 O Animae nostra, Biblia dimidium!" 



A very common formula, in works of a devo- 

 tional nature, is as follows : 



" This is Giles Wilkinson his l)ook. 

 God give him grace therein to look." 



We now come to some of a menacing descrip- 

 tion : 



" Si quis hunc furto rapiet libellum, 

 Reddat : — aut coUo dabitur capistrum, 

 Carnifex ejus tunicas habebit, 

 Terra cadaver. " 

 And again : 



" Si quis hunc librum raplat scelestus, 

 Atque furtivis manibus prehendat, 

 Pergat ad tetras Acherontis undas 

 Non rediturus." 



These last partake somewhat of the character 

 of the dirse and anathemas which are sometimes 

 found at the end of old MSS., and were prompted, 

 doubtless, by the great scarcity and consequent 

 value of books before the invention of printing. 



Balliolensis. 



rOLK LORE. 



Baptismal Custom. — In many country parishes 

 the child is invariably called by the name of the 

 saint on whose day he happens to have been born. 



I know one called Valentine, because he appeared 

 in the world upon the 14th of February ; and 

 lately baptized a child myself by the name of 

 Benjamin Simon Jude. Subsequently, on express- 

 ing some surprise at the strange conjunction, I 

 was informed that he was born on the festival of 

 SS. Simon and Jude, and that it was always very 

 unlucky to take the day from a child. Rt. 



Warmington. 



Subterranean Bells. — Hone, in his Year-Booh, 

 gives a letter from a correspondent in relation to a 



tradition in Raleigh, Nottinghamshire, which states 

 that many centuries since the church and a whole 

 village were swallowed up by an earthquake. 

 Many villages and towns have certainly shared a 

 similar fate, and we have never heard of them 

 more. 



" The times have been 



When the brains were out the man would die, 



That there an end." 



But at Raleigh, they say, the old church-bells' 

 still ring at Christmas time, deep, deep in earth ; 

 and that it was a Christmas-morning custom for 

 the people to go out into the valley, and put their 

 ears to the ground to listen to the mysterious 

 chimes of the subterranean temple. Is this a tra- 

 dition peculiar to this locality? I fancy not, and 

 seem to have a faint remembrance of a similar 

 belief in other parts. Can any of your correspon- 

 dents favour " N. & Q." with information hereon ? 



J. J. S. 



Leicestershire Custom. — A custom exists in the 

 town of Leicester, of rather a singular nature. 

 The first time a new-born child pays a visit, it is 

 presented with an egg, a pound of salt, and a 

 bundle of matches. Can any of your correspon- 

 dents explain this custom ? W. A. 



Hooping Cough : Hedera Helix. — In addition 

 to my former communicatious on this subject, I 

 beg to forward the following : — 



Drinking-cups made from the wood of the com- 

 mon i\j, and used by children affected with this 

 complaint, for taking therefrom all they require to 

 drink, is current in the county of Salop as an in- 

 fallible remedy ; and I once knew an old gentleman 

 (now no more) who being fond of turning as ait 

 amusement, was accustomed to supply his neigh- 

 bours with tliem, and whose brother always sup- 

 plied him Avith the wood, cut from his own plant- 

 ations. It is necessary, in order to be effective, 

 that the ivy from which the cups are made should 

 be cut at some particular change of the moon, or 

 hour of the night, &c., which I am now unable to 

 ascertain : but perhaps some of your readers could 

 give you the exact period. J, B. Whitborxe.. 



The Aught and Forty Daugh. — The lordship of 

 Strathbogie, now the property of his Grace the 

 Duke of Richmond, was anciently known by this 

 name. It is one of the toasts ahvays drunk at the 

 meetings of agricultural associations, the anni- 

 versary of his Grace's birthday, &c., in the district.. 

 The meaning has often puzzled newspaper readers 

 at a distance. It was the original estate of tlie 

 powerful family of Gordon in the north of Scot- 

 land. A daugh, or davach, contains 32 oxgates 

 of 13 acres each, or 416 acres of arable land. At 



