Feb. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



149 



human food. Can you tell me what it is, or where 

 it is to be found ? G. D. 



fflinav CEtumetf tot'tfi <Mn£tozvii. 



Breaks, or Gossips' Bridles. — Walton Church 

 -contains one of those strange instruments with 

 which our ancestors used to punish those dames who 

 were too free with the use of their tongues. They 

 were called hanks [branks], or gossips' bridles, 

 and were intended to inclose the head, being 

 fastened behind by a padlock, and having at- 

 tached to it a small piece of iron which literally 

 ■" held the tongue." Thus accoutred, the unhappy 

 culprit was marched through the village till she 

 gave unequivocal signs of repentance and humi- 

 liation. Can any one give some account of this 

 curious instrument ? George Hodges. 



Oxford. 



[Fosbroke says that " the brank is a sugar-loaf cap 

 made of iron hooping, with a cross at top, and a flat 

 piece projecting inwards to lie upon the tongue. It 

 was put upon the head of scolds, padlocked behind, 

 and a string annexed, by which a man led them 

 through the towns." (See also Brand's Popular An- 

 tiquities, vol. iii. p. 108., Bohn's edition.) Engravings 

 of them will be found in Plot's History of Staffordshire, 

 p. 389., and in Brand's History of Newcastle, vol. ii. 

 p. 192. In the Historical Description of the Tower of 

 London, p. 54., edit. 1774, occurs the following libel- 

 lous squib on the fair sex : " Among the curiosities of 

 the Tower is a collar of torment, which, say your con- 

 ductors, used formerly to be put about the women's 

 neck that cuckolded their husbands, or scolded them 

 when they came home late ; but that custom is left off 

 now-a-days, to prevent quarrelling for collars, there 

 not being smiths enough to make them, as most mar- 

 ried men are sure to want them at one time or an- 

 other." Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, 

 p. 80., thus notices this instrument of punishment : "I 

 know nothing in the Manx statutes or punishments in 

 particular but this, which is, that if any person be 

 convicted of uttering a scandalous report, and cannot 

 make good the assertion, instead of being fined or im- 

 prisoned, they are sentenced to stand in the market- 

 place, on a sort of scaffold erected for that purpose, 

 with their tongue in a noose made of leather, which 

 they call a bridle, and having been exposed to the view 

 of the people for some time, on the taking off this 

 machine, they are obliged to say three times, ' Tongue, 

 thou hast lyed.' "] 



Not caring a Fig for anything. — What is the 

 origin of this expression ? J. H. Chateau. 



Philadelphia. 



[Nares informs us that the real origin of this ex- 

 pression may be found in Stevens and Pineda's Dic- 

 tionaries under Higa ; and, in fact, the same phrase 

 and allusion pervaded all modern Europe : as, Far le 

 fiche, Ital. ; Faire la figue, Fr. ; Die Feigen weisen, 

 Germ.; De vyghe setten, Dutch. (See Du Cange, in 



Ficha.) Johnson says, " To fig, in Spanish, higas dar, 

 is to insult by putting the thumb between the fore and 

 middle finger. From this Spanish custom we yet say 

 in contempt, A fig for you." To this explanation Mr. 

 Douce has added the following note : " Dr. Johnson 

 has properly explained this phrase ; but it should be 

 added, that it is of Italian origin. When the Milanese 

 revolted against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, 

 they placed the Empress his wife upon a mule with 

 her head towards the tail, and i^nominiously expelled 

 her their city. Frederick afterwards besieged and 

 took the place, and compelled every one of his pri- 

 soners, on pain of death, to take with his teeth a fig 

 from the posteriors of a mule. The party was at the 

 same time obliged to repeat to the executioner the 

 words Ecco la fica. From this circumstance far lafica 

 became a term of derision, and was adopted by other 

 nations. The French say likewise, faire la figue."'] 



B. C. Y. — Can you give me any information 

 respecting the famous B. C. Y. row, as it was 

 called, which occurred about fifty years ago ? A 

 newspaper was started expressly to explain the 

 meaning of the letters, which said it was iS Beware 

 of the Catholic Yoke:" but it was wrong. 



H. Y. 



[These "No- Popery" hieroglyphics first appeared 

 in the reign of Charles II. during the debates on the 

 Exclusion Bill, and were chalked over all parts of 

 Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament. O B. C. Y. 

 was then the inscription, which meant, " O Beware of 

 Catholic York." On their re-appearance in 1809 the- 

 Y. was much taller than the B. C. ; but the use and 

 meaning at this time of these initials still remains a 

 query.] 



Earl Nugenfs Poems. — I would be much 

 obliged for any information relating to the poems 

 written by Robert, afterwards Earl Nugent, be- 

 tween the years 1720 and 1780. It is supposed 

 that they were first published in some periodical, 

 and afterwards appeared in a collected form. 



James F. Ferguson. 



Dublin. 



[A volume of bis poems was published anonymously 

 by Dodsley, and entitled Odes and Epistles ; containing 

 an Ode on his own Conversion from Popery : London, 

 1739, 8vo., 2nd edit. There are also other pieces by 

 him in Dodsley's Collection, and the New Foundling 

 Hospital for Wit. He also published Faith, a Poem ; 

 a strange attempt to overturn the Epicurean doctrine 

 by that of the Trinity ; and Verses to the Queen ; with 

 a New Year's Gift of Irish Manufacture, 1775, 4to.] 



Huntbach MSS. — Can you tell me where the 

 Huntbach MSS. now lie ? Shaw, in his History 

 of Staffordshire, drew largely from them. Ursus. 



[Dr. Wilkes's Collections, with those of Fielde, 

 Huntbach, Loxdale, and Shaw, as also the engraved 

 plates and drawings, published and unpublished, rela- 

 tive to the History of Staffordshire, were, in the year 

 1820, in the possession of William Hamper, F. S.A., 

 Deritend House, Birmingham.] 



