NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 

 roE 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



*' "Wlien found, make a note of." — Caftaik Cuttle. 



No. 191.] 



Saturday, June 25. 1853. 



C Price Fourpence. 



( Stamped Edition, gd. 



CONTENTS. 



TES: — 



Witchcraft in Somersetshire - - - 



" Emblemata Horatiana," by Weld Taylor 

 Shakspeare Criticism, by Thomas Keightley 

 L'ed Hair a Reproach, by T. Hughes 

 Extracts from Newspapers, 1714, by E. G. Ballard 



Page 



- 613 



- C14 

 . 615 



- 6;6 



- 616 



Minor Notes : — Last Suicide buried at a Cross Road 



— Andrew's Edition of Freund's Latin Lexicon — 

 Slang Expressions — "Quern Deus vult perdere " — 

 White Roses - . - - - - 617 



QnERiEs : — 



" Merk Lands " and " Ures : " Norwegian Antiquities 618 

 The Leigh Peerage, and Stoneley Estates, Warwick- 

 shire - . - - - - - 619 



Minor Qdeuies: — Phillips Family— Engine-k-verge^ 

 Garrick's Funeral Epigram — The Rosicrucians — 

 Passage in Schiller — Sir John Vanbrugh — Historical 

 Engriiving — Hall-close, Sll-erstone, Northampton- 

 shire — Junius's Letters to Wilkes — The Reformer's 

 Elm— How to take Paint off old Oak - - - 619 



Minor Queries with Answers :— Cadenus and Vanessa 



— Boom — " A Letter to a Member of Parliament " 



— Ancient Chessmen — Guthryisms . - _ 620 



Replies : — 



Correspondence of Cranmer and Calvin, by Henry 

 Walter ...... 



" PopuUis vult decipi," by Robert Gibbings, &c. 

 Latin: Latiner -..-.- 



Jack 



Passage in St. James, by T. J. Buckton, &c. 



Faithful! Teate ...... 



Parvi.se ....... 



The Co?nacuIum of Lionardo da Vinci . . - 



Font Inscriptions, by F. B. Relton, &c. - - - 



Burn at Croydon -•-.-. 

 Christian Names, by William Bates, &c. 

 Weather Rules --..-. 

 Rococo, by Henry H. Breen .... 



Descendants of John of Gaunt, by J. S. Warden 



The Order of St. John of Jerusalem . - . 



Replies to Minor Queries: — Anticipatory Worship 



of the Cross — Ennui — " Qui facit per alium, facit per 



se," &c — Vincent Family — Judge Smith — " Dimi- 



. diation " in Impalements — Worth — " Elementa sex," 



&c " A Diasii ' Salve,' " &c Meaning of " Claret " 



— " The Temple of Truth " _ Wellborne Family 

 — .Devonianisms — Humbug — George Miller, CD. 



— "A Letter to a Convocation Man " — Sheriffs 

 of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire — Ferdi- 

 nand Meiidez Pinto — " Other-some " and " Un- 

 neath "—Willow Pattern— Cross and Pile— Old Fogie 



— Another odd Mistake — Spontaneous Combustion 

 — Erroneous Forms of Speech — Ecclesia Anglicana — 

 Gloves at Fairs — The Sparrows at Lindholme, &c. - 



Miscellaneous : — 



Books and Odd V^olumes wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements 



621 

 6-21 

 622 

 622 

 623 

 624 

 624 

 624 

 625 

 626 

 626 

 627 

 627 

 628 

 628 



- 634 

 . 634 



- 634 



Voi,.VII. — No. 191. 



"WITCHCRAFT IN SOMEHSETSHIRE. 



Perhaps the following account of superstitions 

 now entertained in some parts of Somersetshire, 

 will be interesting to the Inquirers Into the history 

 of witchcraft. I was lately informed by a member 

 of my congregation that two children living near 

 his house were bewitched. I made inquiries into 

 the matter, and found that witchcraft is by far 

 less uncommon than I had imagined. I can hardly 

 adduce the two children as an authenticated case, 

 because the medical gentleman who attended them 

 pronounced their illness to be a kind of ague : 

 but I leave the two following cases on record in 

 " N. & Q." as memorable instances of witchcraft 

 In the nineteenth century. 



A cottager, who does not live five minutes' walk 

 from my house, found his pig seized with a strange 

 and unaccountable disorder. He, being a sensible 

 man, instead of asking the advice of a veterinary 

 surgeon, Immediately went to the white witch 

 (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade In 

 this neighbourhood). He received his directions, 

 and went home and Implicitly followed them. In 

 perfect silence, he went to the pigsty ; and lancinof 

 each foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the 

 blood to run Into a piece of common dowlas. 

 Then taking two large pins, he pierced the dowlas 

 in opposite directions; and still keeping silence, 

 entered his cottage, locked the door, placed the 

 bloody rag upon the fire, heaped up some turf 

 over It, and reading a few verses of the Bible, 

 waited till the dowlas was burned. As soon as 

 this was done, he returned to the pigsty ; found 

 his pig perfectly restored to health, and, mirahile 

 dicta! as the white witch had predicted, the old 

 woman, who it was supposed had bewitched the 

 pig, came to Inquire after the pig's health. The 

 animal never suffered a day's illness afterwards. 

 My informant was the owner of the pig himself. 



Perhaps, when I heard this story, there may 

 have been a lurking expression of doubt upon my 

 face, so that my friend thought It necessary to give 

 me farther proof. Some time ago a lane in this 

 town began to be looked upon with a mysterious 

 awe, for every evening a strange white rabbit 



