Oct. 29. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



421 



herefellarius, the dirty raggamuffin with tattered 

 clothes, be good monkish Latin for hare-fell (i.e. 

 hare-shiii), or rather hare-fellow? the most natural 

 metamorphosis imaginable. Here is the old or- 

 thoepy oi' bare; and every one knows that in Lon- 

 don (east) a fellow naturally becomes a fellar. 



P.S. — Excuse my French-English. 



Philaeete Chasi.Es, Mazarinteus. 



Paris, Palais de I'lnstitut. 



** To know ourselves diseased" SfC. (Vol. vili., 

 p. 219.).— 



" To know ourselves diseased is half our cure." 



This line is from Young's Night Thoiiglds, Night 

 9tb, line 38. J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



Gloves at Fairs (Vol. viii., p. 136.). — As an 

 emblem of power and an acknowledgment of 

 goodness, " Saul set up a hand " after his victory 

 over the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 12., (Taylor's 

 Hehreio Concordance,, in voce HT"-)) ^ Sam. xviii. 

 18., Isaiah Ivi. 5. The Phoenician monuments 

 are said to have had sculptured on them an arm 

 and hand held up, with an inscription graven 

 thereon. (See Gesenius and Lee.) If, as stated 

 by your correspondents in the article referred to, 

 the glove at fairs " denotes protection," and in- 

 dicates " that parties frequenting the fair are 

 exempt from arrest," it is at least a remarkable 

 coincidence. The Phoenicians were the earliest 

 merchants to the west of England that we have 

 any account of: can any connexion be traced 

 historically between the Phoenician traffic and the 

 modern practice of setting up a hand, or glove, at 

 fairs ? I well remember the feelings of awe and 

 ■wonder with which I gazed when taken in child- 

 hood to see " the glove brought in " and placed 

 over the guildhall of my native city (Exeter) at 

 the commencement of "Lammas Fair." Has the 

 glove been associated with this fair from its com- 

 mencement ? and if not, how far back can its use 

 be traced ? The history of the fair is briefly this : 

 it_existed before the Norman Conquest, and was 

 a great mart of business ; the tolls had belonged 

 to the corporation, but King John took one-half, 

 and gave them to the priory of St. Nicholas. 

 Henry VIII. sold the fair with the priory ; and 

 anno second and third of Philip and Mary it was 

 Taade over to the corporation, who have ever since 

 been lords of the fair. (Jz^GkQ's Memorials, p. 19.; 

 Oliver's History of Exeter, pp. 83. 158., &c.) 



J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



I may add that at Barnstaple, North Devon, 

 the evening previous to the proclamation of the 

 fair, a large glove, decked with dahlias, is pro- 

 truded on a pole from a window of the Quay Hall, 

 the most ancient building in the town, which 



remains during the fair, and is removed at Its 

 termination. May not the outstretched glove 

 signify the consent of the authcfrities to the com- 

 mencement and continuance of the festivities, &c., 

 and its withdrawal a hint for their cessation ? 



I may add also that on the morning of pro- 

 claiming the fair, the mayor and corporation 

 meet their friends In the council chamber, and 

 partake of spiced toast and ale. Dkofssiag. 



''An" before "?<" long (Vol. viii., p. 244.).— 

 The custom of writing an before u long must have 

 arisen and become established when u had Its 

 primitive and vowel sound, nearly resembling that 

 of our 00, a sound which it still has in several 

 languages, but seems to have lost in ours. The 

 use of an before u long was then proper ; habit and 

 precedent will account for its retention by many, 

 after the reason for it has ceased, and when its 

 use has become improper. But although the 

 custom is thus accounted for, there exists no 

 satisfactory reason for its continuance ; and I am 

 sorry to learn from your correspondent that It is 

 " increasingly prevailing." J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



''The Good Old Cause" (Vol. viii, p. 44.). — 

 D'Israeli, in Quarrels of Aidhors, under the head 

 of " Martin Mar-Prelate," has the following re- 

 marks on the origin and use of the expression, 

 " The Good Old Cause : " 



" It is remarkable that Udall repeatedly employed 

 that expression, which Algernon Sidney left as his last 

 legacy to the people, when he told them he was about 

 to die for ' that Old Cause, in which I was from my 

 youth engaged.' Udall perpetually insisted on ' The 

 Cause.' This was a term which served at least for a 

 watch -word : it rallied the scattered members of the 

 republican party. The precision of the expression 

 might have been difficult to ascertain ; and, perhaps, 

 like every popular expedient, varied with 'existing 

 circumstances.' I did not, however, know it had so 

 remote an origin as in the reign of Elizabeth ; and 

 suspect it may still be freshened up and varnished over 

 for any present occasion." 



Henet H. Breen. 



St. Lucia, 



The following curious paragraph In the Post 

 Boy, June 3-5, 1714, seems to have been con- 

 nected with the Jacobites : 



" There are lately arrived here the Dublin Plenipo's. 

 All persons that have any business concerning ihe Good 

 Old Cause, let 'em repair to Jenny Man's Coffee 

 House at Charing Cross, where they may meet with 

 the said Plenipo's every day of the week except 

 Sundays, and every evening of those days they are to 

 be spoke with at the Kit- Cat Club." 



E. G. Ballakd. 



Jeroboam of Claret, Sfc. (Vol. vii., p. 528.). — 

 Is a magnum anything more than a bottle larger 



