NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 

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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** "Wlien found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttlk. 



1^0. 181.] 



Saturday, April 16. 1853. 



f Price Fourpence. 



i Stamped Edition, Sd^ 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes : — Page 



" The Shepherd of Banbury's Weather-Rules," by 

 W. B. Rye 



Notes on several misunderstood Words, by the Rev. W. 



K. Arrowsmith .-.-.- 

 Lord Coke -----.. 

 Shakspeare Correspondence, by C. Manstieli Ingleby, 



&c. - - - 



373 



377 



- 380 



Minor Notes: — Alleged Cure for Hydrophobia — Epi- 

 taph at Mickleton — Charade attributed to Sheridan — 

 Suggested Reprint of Hearne — Suggestions of Books 

 worthy of being reprinted— Epigram all the Way from 

 Belgium — Derivation of" Canada" — Railway Signal* 



— A Centenarian Trading Vessel ... 



Queries : — . 



Bishop Ken - - - « • 



Minor Queries : — Canute's Reproof to his Courtiers 

 — The Sign of the Cross in the Greek Church — Rev. 



Richard Midgley, Vicar of Rochdale, temp. Eliz 



Huet's Navigations of Solomon — Sheriff of Worcester- 

 shire in 1781 — Tree of the Thousand Images — De 



Burgh Family— Witchcraft Sermons at Huntingdon 



Consort— Creole — Shearman P'amily — Traitors' Ford 



— " Your most obedient humble Servant " — Version 

 ofaProverb— Ellis Walker— " The Northerne Castle" 

 — Prayer-Book in French — " NavitaErythraeum," &c. 



— Edmund Burke— Plan of London— Minchin • 380 



Minor Queries with Answers : — Leapor's " Un- 

 happy Father"— Meaning of " The Litten " or " Lit- 

 ton"— St. James' Market House , - - . 382 



Replies : — . 



Grub Street Journal, by James Crossley . • - 333 



Stone Pillar Worship . . . - . 333 



Autographs in Books ..... 334 



Grindle --.---. 384 



Roger Outlawe, by' Dr. J. H. Todd, &c. - - . 385 



Prospectus to Cibber's " Lives of the Poets," by James 



Crossley ....... 386 



Pic-nic, by John Anthony, M.D., and Henry H. Breen - 387 



Peter Sterry and Jeremiah White, by James Crossley - 388 



Photographic Notes and Queries: — Colouring Col- 

 lodion Portraits — On some Points in the Collodion 

 Process— Economical Iodizing Process - . 388 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Bishop Juxon's Account 

 of Vendible Books in England — Dutensiana — Vicars- 

 Apostolic— Tombstone in Churchyard—" Her face is 

 like," &c — Annuellarius— Ship's Painter— True Blue 



— " Quod fuit esse " — Subterranean Bells — Sponta- 

 neous Combustion — Muffs worn by Gentlemen — 

 Crescent— The Author of " The Family Journal " — 

 Parochial Libraries — Sidney as a Christian Name — 

 " Rather"— Lady High Sheriff— Nugget — Epigrams 



— Editions of tlie Prayer-Book — Portrait of Pope — 

 Passage in Coleridge— Lowbell—Burn at Croydon - 390 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. - . - . . 394 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted .... 3<j4 



Notices to Correspondents .... ;<94 



Advertisements ...... 395 



Vol. VII. — No. 181. 



" THE SHEPHERD OF BANRURy's WEATHER-RTJLEs!** 



The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of 

 the Changes of the Weather, first printed in 1670, 

 was long a favourite book with the country gentle- 

 man, the farmer, and the peasant. They were 

 accustomed to regard it with the consideration and 

 confidence which were due to the authority of so 

 experienced a master of the art of prognostication, 

 and dismissing every sceptical thought, received 

 his maxims with the same implicit faith as led 

 them to believe that if their cat chanced to wash 

 her face, rainy weather would be the certain and 

 inevitable result. Moreover, this valuable little 

 manual instructed them how to keep their horses, 

 sheep, and oxen sound, and prescribed cures for 

 them when distempered. No wonder, then, if it 

 has passed through many editions. Yet it has 

 been invariably stated that The Banbury Shepherd 

 in fact had no existence; was purely an imaginary 

 creation ; and that the work whicli passes under 

 his name, "John Claridge," was written by Dr.. 

 John Campbell, the Scottish historian, who died in- 

 1775. The statements made in connexion with- 

 this book are curious enough ; and it is with a 

 view of placing the matter in a clear and correct 

 light that I now trouble you with a Note, which, 

 will, I hope, tend to restore to this poor weather-< 

 wise old shepherd his long-lost rank and station 

 among the rural authors of England. 



I believe that the source of the error Is to be 

 traced to the second edition of the Biographia 

 Britannica, in a memoir of Dr. Campbell by Kippis, 

 in which, when enumerating the works of the 

 learned Doctor, Kippis says, " He was also the 

 author of The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules, — a 

 favourite pamphlet with the common people.'* 

 We next find the book down to Campbell as the 

 " author " in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, which 

 is copied both by Chalmers and Lowndes. And 

 so the error has been perpetuated, even iip to the 

 time of the publication of a meritorious Histof'y of 

 Banbu7-y, by the late Mr. Alfred Beesley, in 1841. 

 This writer thus speaks of the work : 



" The far-famed shepherd of Banbury is only an 

 apocryphal personage. In 1744 there was published 



