April 15. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



market towns in the north of Devon, is related by an 

 eye-witness : — A young woman, living in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Holsworthy, having for some time past 

 been subject to periodical fits of illness, endeavoured to 

 effect a cure by attendance at the afternoon service at 

 the parish church, accompanied by thirty young men, 

 her near neighbours. Service over, she sat in the 

 porch of the church, and each of the young men, as 

 they passed out in succession, dropped a penny into 

 her lap ; but the last, instead of a penny, gave her half- 

 a-crown, taking from her the twenty-nine pennies which 

 she had already received. With this half-crown in her 

 band, she walked three times round the communion- 

 table, and afterwards had it made into a ring, by the 

 wearing of which she believes she will recover her 

 health." 



Haughmond St. Clair. 



Quacks. — In the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks, 

 Kent, a little girl was bitten by a mad dog lately. 

 Instead of sending for the doctor, her father posted 

 off to an old woman famous for her treatment of 

 hydrophobia. The old woman sent a quart bottle 

 of some dark liquid, which the patient is to take 

 twice or thrice daily : and for this the father, 

 though but a poor labourer, had to pay one pound. 

 The liquid is said by the "country sort" to be 

 infallible. It is made of herbs plucked by the 

 old woman, and mixed with milk. Its preparation 

 is of course a grand secret. As yet, the child 

 keeps well. 



Near Whitechapel, London, is another old 

 woman, equally famous ; but her peculiar talent 

 is not for hydrophobia, but for scalds. Whenever 

 any of the Germans employed in the numerous 

 sugar-refineries in that neighbourhood scald them- 

 selves, they beg, instead of being sent to the hos- 

 pital, to be taken to the old woman. For a few 

 sovereigns, she will take them in, nurse, and cure 

 them; and I was informed by a proprietor of a 

 large sugar-house there, that often in a week she 

 will heal a scald as thoroughly as the hospital will 

 in a month, and send the men back hearty and fit 

 for work to boot. She uses a good deal of linseed- 

 oil, I am told ; but her great secret, they say, is, 

 that she gives the whole of her time and attention 

 to the patient. P. M. M. 



Temple. 



Burning a Tooth with Salt. — Can any one tell 

 us whence originates the custom, very scrupu- 

 lously observed by many amongst the common 

 people, when a tooth has been taken out, of burn- 

 ing it — generally with salt ? Two Sorgeons. 



Half Moon Street. 



PARALLEL PASSAGES. 



" The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 

 Is left this vault to brag of." 



Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 8. 

 " These spells are spent, and, spent with these, 

 The wine of life is on the lees." 



Marmion, introd. to canto i. 



" The old and true saying, that a man is generally 

 more inclined to feel kindly towards one on whom he 

 has conferred favours than towards one from whom he 

 has received them." — Macaulay, Essay on Bacon, p. 367. 

 (1-vol. edit.) — Query, whose saying ? 



" On s'attache par les services qu'on rend, bien plus 

 qu'on n'est attache par les services qu'on recoit. C'est 

 qu'il y a, dans le cceur de l'homme, bien plus d'orgueil 

 que de reconnaissance." — Alex. Dumas, La Comtesse 

 de Charny, n. ch. iii. 



" But earthlier happy is the rose distilled 

 Than that, which, withering on thrvirgin thorn, 

 Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." 



Midsum, Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. 1. 



" Maria. Responde tu mihi vicissim : — utrum spec- 

 taculum amoenius : rosa nitens et lactea in suo frutice, 

 an decerpta digitis ac paulatim marcescens ? 



" Pamphilus. Ego rosam existimo feliciorem qua? 

 marcescit in hominis manu, delectans interim et oculos 

 et nares, quam qua? senescit in frutice." — Erasmus, 

 Procus et Puella. 



" And spires whose silent finger points to heaven." (?) 



" And the white spire that points a world of rest." 

 Mrs. Sigourney, Connecticut River. 



" She walks the waters like a thing of life." — Byron. 



" The master bold, 

 The high-soul'd and the brave, 

 "Who ruled her like a thing of life 

 Amid the crested wave." 



Mrs. Sigourney, Bell of the Wreck. 



" Thy heroes, tho' the general doom 

 Have swept the column from the tomb, 

 A mightier monument command, — 

 The mountains of their native land !" — Byron. 



" Your mountains build their monument, 

 Tho' ye destroy their dust." 



Mrs. Sigourney, Indian Names. 



" Else had I heard the steps, tho' low 

 And light they fell, as when earth receives, 

 In morn of frost, the wither'd leaves 

 That drop when no winds blow." 



Scott, Triermain, i. 5. 



" Dropp'd, like shed blossoms, silent to the grass.' ; 



Hood, Mids. Fairies, viii. 



" There is sweet music here that softer falls 

 Than petals from blown roses on the grass." 



Tennyson, Lotos-eaters. 



