328 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 179. 



The incident, however, is one too familiar in 

 schoolboy life to make the repetition of the story 

 a matter of surprise. The property in an apple 

 growing within the reach of a boy's hand has 

 from time immemorial been in peril, and the law 

 itself has not always regarded it as an object of 

 scrupulous protection. The old laws of the 

 Rheingau, and (if I mistake not) of some other 

 states, warranted a wayfaring man in picking 

 apples from any tree, provided he did not exceed 

 the number of three. E. Smirke. 



FOLK LOBE. 



Subterranean Bells (Vol. vii., pp. 128. 200.).— In 

 answer to J. J. S.'s inquiry, I beg to state, that 

 at Crosmere, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, where 

 there is one of a number of pretty lakes scattered 

 throughout that district, there is a tradition of a 

 chapel having formerly stood on the banks of the 

 lake. And it is said that the belief once was, that 

 whenever the waters were ruffled by wind, the 

 chapel bells might be heard as singing beneath 

 the surface. This, though bearing on the subject 

 of "submarine" or "subaqueous," rather than 

 " subterranean" bells, illustrates, I think, the tra- 

 dition to which J. J. S. refers. J. W. M. 



Hordley, Ellesmere. 



Welsh Legend of the Redbreast. — According to 

 my old nurse (a Carmarthenshire woman), the red- 

 breast, like Prometheus, is the victim <pi\avdp6irov 

 rpSirov. Not only the babes in the wood, but 

 mankind at large, are indebted to these deserving 

 favourites. How could any child help regarding 

 with grateful veneration the little bird with bosom 

 red, when assured — 



" That far, far, far away is a land of woe, darkness, 

 spirits of evil, and Jire. Day by day does the little 

 bird bear in his bill a drop of water to quench the 

 flame. So near to the burning stream does he fly, tliat 

 his dear little feathers are scorched : and hence he is 

 named Bron-rhuddyn* To serve little children, the 

 robin dares approach the Infernal Pit. No good child 

 will hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The robin 

 returns from the land of Jire, and therefore he feels the 

 cold of winter far more than his brother birds. He 

 shivers in the brumal blast ; hungry, he chirps before 

 your door. Oh ! ray child, then, in gratitude throw a 

 few crumbs to poor red-breast." 



Why, a Pythagorean would have eaten a pea- 

 cock sooner than one of us would have injured a 

 robin. R. P. 



* Bron-rhuddyn = 

 scorehed." 



breast -burnt," or " breast- 



JOHNSONIANA. 



I inclose you a transcript of a letter of Boswell's 

 which I think worthy of being permanently re- 

 corded,^ and am not aware of its having been 

 before in print. 



Edinburgh, 11th April, 1774. 

 Dear Sir, 

 When Mr. Johnson and I arrived at Inveraray 

 after our expedition to the Hebrides, and there 

 for the first time after many days renewed our en- 

 joyment of the luxuries of civilised life, one of 

 the most elegant that I could wish to find was 

 l^ing for me, a letter from Mr. Garrick. It was a 

 pineapple of the finest flavour, which had a high 

 zest indeed amongst the heath-covered mountains 

 of Scotia. That I have not thanked you for it 

 long ere now is one of those strange facts for 

 which it ip so difficult to account, that I shall not 

 attempt it. The Idler has strongly expressed 

 many of the wonderful effects of the vis inertia of 

 the human mind. But it is hardly credible that 

 a man should have the warmest regard for his 

 friend, a constant desire to show it, and a keen 

 ambition for a frequent epistolary intercourse with 

 him, and yet should let months roll on without 

 having resolution, or activity, or power, or what- 

 ever it be, to write a few lines. A man in such 

 a situation is somewhat like Tantalus reversed. 

 He recedes, he knows not how, from what he loves, 

 which is full as provoking as when what he loves 

 recedes from him. That my complaint is not a 

 peculiar fancy, but deep in human nature, I appeal 

 to the authority of St. Paul, who though he had 

 not been exalted to the dignity of an apostle, 

 would have stood high in fame as a philosopher 

 and orator, " What I would that do I not." You 

 need be under no concern as to your debt to me 

 for the book which I purchased for you. It was 

 long ago discharged ; for believe me, I intended 

 the book as a present. Or if you rather chuse 

 that it should be held as an exchange with the 

 epitaphs which you sent me, I have no objection. 

 Dr. Goldsmith's death would affect all the club 

 much. I have not been so much affected with 

 any event that has happened of a long time. I 

 wish you would give me, who am at a distance, 

 and who cannot get to London this spring, some 

 particulars with regard to his last appearances. 

 Dr. Young has a fine thought to this pui'pose, that 

 every friend who goes before us to the other side 

 of the river of death, makes the passage to us the 

 easier. Were our club all removed to a future 

 world but one or two, they, one should think, 

 would incline to follow. By all means let me be 

 on your list of subscribers to Mr. Morrell's Pro- 

 metheus. You have enlivened the town, I see, with 

 a musical piece. The prologue is admirably 

 fancied arripere populum tributim ; though, to be 

 sure, Foote's remark applies to it, that your pro- 



