310 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 205. 



not perceive any were so successful as the landlord of 

 the Bowman Tavern in Drury Lane, who had a mantle 

 tree so extremely prompt and loud in its responses, 

 that the sagacious observers were nearly unanimous in 

 pronouncing it part of the same trunk which had 

 afforded the original plank." 



The following paragraph is also given by Mal- 

 colm from the Loyal London Mercury, Oct. 4, 

 1682 : 



" Some persons being this week drinking at the 

 Queen's Arms Tavern, in St. Martin's-le- Grand, in the 

 kitchen, and having laid the fire-fork in the fire to light 

 their pipes, accidentally fell a discoursing of the groan- 

 ing'hoard, and what might be the cause of it. One in 

 the company, having the fork in his hand to light his 

 pipe, would needs make trial of a long dresser that 

 stood there, which, upon the first touch, made a great 

 noise and groaning, more than ever the board that was 

 showed did ; and then they touched it three or four 

 times, and found it far beyond the other. They all 

 having seen it, the house is almost filled with specta- 

 tors day and night, and any company calling for a glass 

 of wine may see it ; which, in the judgment of all, is 

 far louder, and makes a longer groan than the other ; 

 which to report, unless seen, would seem incredible." 



Among the Bagford Ballads in the Museum 

 (three vols., under the press-mark 643. m.) is pre- 

 served the following singular broadside upon the 

 subject, which is now reprinted for the first time : 



"a new song, on the strange and wonderful 

 groaning-boart). 



" What fate inspir'd thee with groans, 

 To fill phanatick brains? 

 What is't thou sadly thus bemoans, 

 In thy prophetick strains ? 

 " Art thou the ghost of William Pryn, 



Or some old politician? 

 Who, long tormented for his sin, 



Laments his sad condition? 

 " Or must we now believe in thee, 

 The old cheat transmigration ? 

 And that thou now art come to be 

 A call to reformation ? 

 " The giddy vulgar to thee run, 

 Amaz'd with fear and wonder ; 

 Some dare affirm, that hear thee groan. 

 Thy noise is petty thunder. 

 " One says and swears, you do foretell 

 A change in Church and State ; 

 Another says, you like not well 

 Your master Stephen's fate.* 

 " Some say you groan much like a whigg. 

 Or rather like a ranter ; 

 Some say as loud, and full as big, 

 As Conventicle Canter. 



* This was Stepheri College, a joiner by trade, but a 

 man of an active and violent spirit, who, making him- 

 self conspicvious by his opposition to the Court, ob- 

 tained the name of the Protestant joiner. His fate is 

 well known. 



" Some say you do petition, 

 And think you represent 

 The woe and sad condition 

 Of Old Rump Parliament. 

 " The wisest say you are a cheat ; 

 Another politician 

 Says, 'tis a misery as great 



And true as Hatfield's vision.* 



" Some say, 'tis a new evidence, 

 Or witness of the plot ; 

 And can discover many things. 

 Which are the Lord knows what. 



" And lest you should the plot disgrace, 

 For wanting of a name, 

 Narrative Board henceforth we'll place 

 In registers of fame. 

 " London : Printed for T, P. in the year 1682." 



The extraordinary and long-lived popularity 

 of the " groaning-board " is fully evinced by the 

 number of cotemporary allusions : a few will 

 suffice. 



Mrs. Mary Astell, in her Essay in Defence of 

 the Female Sex, 1 696, speaking of the character of 

 a " coifee-house politician," observes : 



'•' He is a mighty listener after prodigies : and never 

 hears of a whale or a comet, but he apprehends some 

 sudden revolution in the state, and looks upon a 

 groaning-board, or a speaking-head, as forerunners of 

 the day of judgment." 



Swift, in his Tale of a Tub, written in the fol- 

 lowing year (1697), says of Jack : 



" He wore a large plaister of artificiall causticks 

 on his stomach, with the fervor of which he would set 

 himself a groaning like the famous hoard upon appli- 

 cation of a red-hot iron." 



Steele, in the 44th number of the Tatler, speak- 

 ing of Powell, the " puppet showman," says : 



" He has not brains enough to make even wood 

 speak as it ought to do : and I, that have heard the 

 groaning-board, can despise all that his puppets shall be 

 able to speak as long as they live." 



So much for the " story" of the groaning-board. 

 As to "how it was done," we leave the matter 

 open to the reader's sagacity. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD " AWKWAKD." 



Most persons who have given their attention to 

 the formation of words, and have employed their 

 leisure in endeavouring to trace them to their 

 source, must have remarked that there are many 

 words in the English language which show on the 



* Martha Hatfield, a child twelve years old in Sept. 

 1 652, who pretended to have visions " concerning Christ, 

 faith, and other subjects." She was a second edition of 

 the " holy maid of Kent." 



