374 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 289. 



" summer oysters," worthy, from delicacy of fla- 

 vour, to be lapped from the briny board, as 

 Christopher North has it, by the lambent tongue 

 of Neptune himself. 



So much for oysters ; the lovers of which, 

 though mostly disciples of Raleigh, are perhaps 

 not aware that the converse of the rule with which 

 they are so familiar has been held to apply to the 

 taking of tobacco. I transcribe the following 

 passage from the curious chapter " Of Salivation, 

 or Tobacco-taking," in a volume entitled Direc- 

 tions for Health, Naturalland Artificially Sj-c, 4to., 

 London, 1633: 



" Good tobacco leafe, somewhat biting ia the taste, of a 

 tawny colour, or somewhat yellow, being taking fasting, 

 in a raw or rainy morning, after the manner of physicke, 

 in a purified pipe during those months which in spelling 

 want the letter r, it is a most singular and sudden remedy 

 against the megrim, the toothache, the fits of the mother, 

 the falling-sickness, the dropsie, the gout, and against all 

 such diseases as are caused of wintry, cold, or waterish 

 humours." — P. 79. 



The reason of this injunction is not so obvious as 

 that of the one previously spoken of. Perhaps an 

 explanation can be given. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



Passage in St. Augustine (Vol. xi., pp. Ko. 251. 

 316.). — I have hitherto been as sure as F. C. H. 

 that the passage in question is from St. Augustine ; 

 and the Bishop of Tasmania, in his Lectures on 

 the Church Catechism (Lect. xix. p. 223 , 3rd 

 edition), is of the same opinion. His words are : 



"'One instance only,' says S. Augustine, *of the ac- 

 ceptance of a dying repentance is recorded : one that 

 none might despair : and only one, that none might 

 presume.' " 



In the margin he refers to S. Aug. Symbol, ad 

 Catech, i. 6., but I have been unable to verify it 

 there ; and after examining every passage in St. 

 Augustine's works, where, according to the Bene- 

 dictine editor's index, the two thieves are men- 

 tioned, I am equally unsuccessful. Can it be 

 from St. Gregory the Great ? G. A. T. 



Withyham. 



Call-duck (Vol. xi., p. 282.). — This bird does 

 not appear to belong to any of the wild species. 

 Pennant making no mention of it ; but since the 

 poultry mania has become so fashionable, and 

 consequently called forth works on the art of 

 rearing poultry, we find it, in such books as Nolan's 

 and Richardson's Domestic Fowl, &c., mentioned 

 as a variety of the domestic species, and as such 

 they are exhibited at poultry shows. They ai-e 

 used, as your correspondent T. J. Scott mentions, 

 as decoys for alluring the wild ducks into the net, 

 and are most generally white, or marked with 

 white, which, as Nolan says, 



" The fowlers prefer as being better able to distinguish 

 them from their wild companions, a circumstance of much 



consequence, as well-trained call-ducks are most valuable 

 to the decoy-man. They are frequently kept by persons 

 who have collections of water fowl, to prevent their birds 

 from straving, and if astray to call them back." 



H.J. 



Handsworth. 



Times prohibiting Marriage (Vol. xi., p. 301.). 

 — Not long ago I met with the following memo- 

 randum in the register in the parish of Hornby, 

 near Catterick, in Yorkshire. It is not dated, 

 but appears to have been written early in the 

 seventeenth century. 



" Times excepted from Marriage. 



" From Advent Sunday untill eight dayes after Epi- 

 phany. From Septuagesima untill eight dayes after 

 Easter. From Eogatioii Sunday untill seaven dayes after 

 Whitsontide; and in all these the latter term is taken 

 inclusively." 



Patoncb. 



It is probable that there never has been a law 

 forbidding members of the Established Church of 

 England to marry during times of solemn fasting 

 or feasting. The Catholic Church forbids mar- 

 riage from the first Sunday in Advent until after 

 the twelfth day, and from the beginning of Lent 

 until Low Sunday. The rule in England before 

 the Reformation was similar, if not precisely the 

 same, as among Catholics at present. A feeling 

 against celebrating marriage during prohibited 

 seasons long remained prevalent, and is even yet 

 not quite extinct among the common people. 



K. P. D. E. 



Monteith (Vol. ix., pp. 452. 599.). — As the 

 Query inserted at the former of these references 

 has only been imperfectly answered, allow me to 

 add my mite of information. At p. 37. of Dr. 

 King's Art of Cookery in Imitation of Horace's 

 Art of Poetry, Dedicated to the Beef- steak Club, 

 of which the second edition printed for Bernard 

 Lintot is now before me, we have the following 

 allusion to its inventor : 



" New things produce new words, and thus Monteth 

 Has by one vessel sav'd his name from Death." 



And in one of the introductory letters prefixed to 

 it (p. 12.) he says: 



"Lest Monteth, Vinegar, Thaliessen and Bossu should 

 be taken for dishes of rarities, it may be known that 

 Monteth was a gentleman with a scallop'd coat ; that 

 Vinegar keeps the ring at Lincoln's Inn Fields," &c. 



M. N. S. 



Was the Host ever buried in a Pyx ? (Vol. x., 

 pp. 184. 333.). — Absence from home and a press 

 of duty prevented my referring before to this 

 Query, and to thank F. C. H. and Mr. Wm. 

 Fraser for their just conclusions. I had an op- 

 portunity some time since of examining the frag- 

 ments of the sacred vessel, and had no difficulty 

 in reconciling the parts, which clearly proved 

 what those gentlemen had stated, viz. that it was 



