294 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 285. 



" So the bird leans her bosom on the thorn, 

 And warbles sweetliest then when most her breast is 

 torn." — Henry Neale, Address to the Wild Harp. 



CUTHBEET BeDE, B.A. 



Nuns acting as Priests in the Mass (Vol. xi., 

 p. 47.). — J. H. T. must be under some misappre- 

 hension as to the correct meaning of the French 

 quotation which he has given from the Manuel du 

 Voyageur en Suisse et en Tyrol. He seems to 

 think that the anecdote relates to the present time ; 

 and that the nuns continue to this day to perform 

 the part of a priest in the mass. So, at least, I 

 infer from his Query : " Does it mean that one of 

 the nuns actually performs ?" &c. Whereas the 

 sense is, that the nuns did so at the time of the 

 Reformation ; but there is nothing in the passage 

 to show how long that practice was continued by 

 them. Your correspondent's error arises pro- 

 bably from his having mistaken " dirent" and 

 " choisirent" for the present tense. 



With reference to " the truth of the story," it 

 is difficult to offer anything but conjecture. It is 

 well known that, in revolutionary times, religious 

 houses, deprived of their clergymen, have had re- 

 course to all sorts of expedients in order to supply 

 the deficiency ; and there would be nothing sur- 

 prising in the fact of the nuns of St. Catherine, in 

 the circumstances stated, having assembled in 

 their chapel, and gone through the prayers for 

 the mass ; one of them officiating as reader, and 

 another as preacher. But that any body of nuns 

 ever seriously contemplated the celebration of the 

 mass, including the consecration of the Host, is 

 what is not easy to believe. Such a solemn 

 mockery would have been no better than the re- 

 presentation of one of the old mysteries or miracle 

 plays ; and, in point of fact, perhaps the nuns of 

 St. Catherine intended nothing more. 



Henaz H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



Pamphlet by Rev. Dr. Davy (Vol. viil., p. 652.). 

 — This pamphlet (Observations on Mr. Fox's 

 Letter to Mr. Grey, by the Rev. Dr. Davy, late 

 Master of Caius College, Cambridge) is referred 

 to by Me. Norris Deck as having been printed 

 for private circulation only, and consequently now 

 rarely met with. The pamphlet is embodied in 

 the Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of 

 Gower and Chaucer, by the Rev. H. J. Todd, 



1810. CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



Corpse passing makes a Right of Way (Vol. xi., 

 pp. 194. 254.). — Walter Bronescomb, Bishop of 

 Exeter, wished to bury his chaplain, but 



" Because the ways were foul, the parish church some- 

 what far off, and weather rainy, he commanded the 

 corpse to be carried to the parish church of Sowton, then 

 called Clist Fomeson, which is very near and bordereth 

 upon the bishop's lordship. At this time one Fomeson, 

 a gentleman, was lord and patron of Clist Fomeson, and 



he being advertised of such a burial towards in his parish, 

 and a leech-way to be made over his land, without his leave 

 or consent required thereto, calleth his tenants together, 

 goeth to the bridge over the lake, between the bishop's 

 land and his, there meeteth the bishop's men bringing 

 the said corpse, and forbiddeth them to come over the 

 water." 



The leech-way is evidently the lych-way, as Lych- 

 field and Lych-gate are the field and gate of the 

 dead. My extract is from Godwin's Catalogue of 

 Bishops, and the date about 1257. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



Nostoc (Vol. xi., p. 219.). — Your correspon- 

 dent Me. Macmillan, in his interesting com- 

 munication on the Nostoc, does not mention, 

 though probably he may be aware of, the English 

 superstition connected with that plant. 



Amongst not only the people of the commoner 

 sort, but even amongst those who ought to know 

 better, it is firmly believed to be the remains of a 

 " falling star." I have, as a boy, frequently had 

 it pointed out to me by gardeners and others, after 

 a wet stormy night, as such, and any expressed 

 doubt of mine silenced at once by the argument, 

 " It warn't there last evening ; we saw the stars 

 falling in the night, and in the morning we found 

 this here where they fell." I have no doubt but 

 that Me. Macmillan will soon receive plenty of 

 information on this subject from various parts of 

 England, possibly to his no small astonishment, 

 for I never heard this most absurd theory broached 

 in cannie Scotland. G. H. K. 



Arundel. 



The Stuart Papers (Vol. xi., p. 253.). — I am 

 as well acquainted as K. N. with Lord Mahon's 

 History, and much better, I expect, with the 

 Stuart papers, and will therefore "inform him 

 that all the really interesting and important letters 

 and papers have [iiof] been published by Lord 

 Mahon ; " no, not a tythe, nor a twentieth, nor a 

 hundredth part of what are of historical im- 

 portance ; and that such publication would require 

 more volumes than Lord Mahon has given of 

 pages. K. N.'s opinion circulated through " JST. & 

 Q." would tend to mislead the public, and to stop 

 that expression of feeling which has lately been 

 heard rumbling in the distance, at the astounding 

 fact that many years have passed since the publica- 

 tion of the first volume of the Atterbury Letters, 

 and yet the second has not appeared, nor is it 

 announced. C- ^• 



Good Wine (Vol. ix., p. 113.).— The custom of 

 hanging out a bush on fair days is very comnion 

 in Herefordshire; either under the impression 

 that upon those particular days anybody may 

 sell beer or cyder without, or a licence is granted 

 for those days only. Brompton Brian is the place 

 which I have in view. Anon. 



