NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOB 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



•* 'Wlien fouad, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 207.] 



Saturday, October 15. 1853. 



C Price Fourpence. 



i Stamped Edition, gd-. 



CONTENTS. 



^OTEs : — Page 



Notes on Midland County Minstrelsy, by C. Clifton 



Barry _..-... 357 



Comet Superstitions in ISSS _ _ . . 3o8 



The Old Englisli Word " Belike " - - - 3-^8 



Druses, by T. J. Buckton - . _ . _ 3G0 



Folk Lore: — Legends of the County Clare - - 360 



Shakspeare Correspondence, by Thomas Keightley, &c. 301 



T>eath on the Fingers . . - - . 3G2 



Minor Notes: — On a "Custom of ye Englyshe " — 

 Epitaph at Crayford — The Font at islip — " As good 



as a Play " ...... 363 



'Queries : — 



Lovett of Astwell - 



Oaths 



The Electric Telegraph 



IVIlSCEU-iNEOUS : — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements 



- 363 



- 364 



- 364 



Minor Qoehies : — Queries relating to the Porter 

 Family— Lord Ball of Baashot — Marcarnes — The 

 Claymore — Sir William Chester, Kt. — Canning on 

 the Treaty of 1824 between the Netherlands and 

 Great Britain — Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant — 

 Memorial Lines by Thomas Aquinas — " Johnson's 

 turgid style " — Meaning of " Lane," &c. — Theobald 

 le Botiller — William, fifth Lord Harrington — Sin. 

 gular Discovery of a Cannon-ball — Scottish Castles — 

 Sneezing — Spenser's " Fairy Queen " — Poema del 

 Cid — The Brazen Head 3G4 



Minor Queries with Answers: — " The Basilics " — 

 Fire at Honitou — Michaelmas Goose . - - 367 



.Replies: — 



Portraits of Hobbes and Letters of Hollar, by S. W . 



Singer ..-.--- 308 



Parochial Libraries, by the Rev. Thos. Corser - - 369 



Battle of Villers en Couche, by H. L. Mansel, B.D.,&c. 370 

 Attainment of Majority, by Russell Gole and Professor 



De Morgan ...... 371 



-Similarity of Idea in St. Luke and Juvenal - - 372 



Photographic Correspondence : — Mr. Sisson's de- 

 f; veloping Fluid — Dr. Diamond's Process for Albu- 



menized Paper — Mr. Lyte's New Process - - 373 



"Replies to Minor Queries: — Derivation of the Word 

 " Island " — " Pa;tus and .■irria "— " That Swinney " 



— The Six Gates of Troy — Milton's Widow — Boom 



" Nugget " not an American Term — Soke Mill — 



"Uinometrical Verse — Watch-paper Inscription — 



Dotinchem — Reversible Names and Words — De- 

 tached Church Towers — Bishop Ferrar — "They 

 shot him by the nine stone rig " — Punning Devices — 

 jAshman's Park — "Crowns have their compass," &c. 



— Ampers and — Throwing Old Shoes for Luck — 

 Ennui --....- 374 



- 377 



- 377 



. 378 



ToL. Ylir. — No.20r. 



NOTES ON MIDLAND COUNTY MINSTRELST. 



It has often occurred to me that the old coun- 

 try folk-songs are as worthy of a niche in your 

 mausoleum as the more prosy lore to which you 

 allot a separate division. Why does not some 

 one write a Minstrelsy of the Midland Counties ? 

 There is ample material to work upon, and not 

 yet spoiled by dry-as-dust-ism. It would be vain, 

 perhaps, to emulate the achievements of the 

 Scottish antiquary; but surely something might 

 be done better than the county Garlands, which, 

 with a few honorable exceptions, are sad abortions, 

 mere channels for rhyme- struck editors. There is 

 one peculiarity of the midland songs and ballads 

 which I do not remember to have seen noticed, 

 viz. their singular affinity to those of Scotland, as 

 exhibited in the collections of Scott and Mother- 

 well. I have repeatedly noticed this, even so far 

 south as Gloucestershire. Of the old Staffordshire 

 ballad which appeared in your columns some 

 months ago, I remember to have heard tAvo dis- 

 tinct versions in Warwickshire, all approaching 

 more or less to the Scottish type : 



" Harae came our gude man at e'en." 



Now whence this curious similarity in the ver- 

 nacular ideology of districts so remote ? Are all 

 the versions from one original, distributed by the 

 wandering minstrels, and in course of time 

 adapted to new localities and dialects ? and, if so, 

 whence came the original, from England or Scot- 

 land ? Here is a nut for Db. Rimbault, or some 

 of your other correspondents learned in popular 

 poetry. Another instance also occurs to me. 

 Most of your readers are doubtless familiar with 

 the pretty little ballad of " Lady Anne " in the 

 Border Minsti-elsy , which relates so plaintively the 

 murder of the two innocent babes, and the ghostly 

 retribution to the guilty mother. Other versions 

 are given by Kinloch in his Ancient Scottish 

 Ballads, and by Buchan in the Songs of the Norths 

 the former laying the scene in London : 



« There lived a ladye in London, 

 All alone and alonie, 

 She's gane wi' bairn to the clerk's son, 



Down by the green-wood side sae bonny." 



