242 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 229. 



soon be obliged to take the whole fleet into the 

 Straits. I have twenty-three sail with me, and 

 should they come out, I shall immediately bring 

 them to battle ; but although I should not doubt 

 of spoiling any voyage they may attempt, yet I 

 hope for the arrival of the ships from England, 

 that, as an enemy's fleet, they may be annihilated. 

 Your Lordship may rely upon every exertion from 

 Your very faithful and obedient servant, 

 Nelson and Bronte. 



I find the Guerrier is reduced to the command 

 of a Lieutenant ; I hope your Lordship will allow 

 me to seek Sir William Bolton, and to place him 

 in the first vacant frigate ; he will be acting in a 

 ship when the Captains go home with Sir Robert 

 Caider. This will much oblige me. 



If any valuable autographs come into my pos- 

 session hereafter, you may expect to receive some 

 account of them. Eustace W. Jacob. 



Crawley, Winchester. 



FOLK LORE. 



Herefordshire Folk Lore. — Pray make an im- 

 perishable Note of the following concentration of 

 Herefordshire folk lore, extracted from the " Re- 

 port of the Secretary of the Diocesan Board of 

 Education," as published in The Times of Jan. 28, 

 1854: 



" The observation of unlucky days and seasons is by 

 no means unusual. The phases of the moon are re- 

 garded with great respect : in one medicine may be 

 taken ; in another it is advisable to kill a pig ; over 

 the doors of many houses may be found twigs placed 

 crosswise, and never suffered to lose their cruciform 

 position ; and the horse-shoe preserves its old station 

 on many a stable-door. Charms are devoutly believed 

 in. A ring made from a shilling offered at the Com- 

 munion is an undoubted cure for fits ; hair plucked 

 from the crop of an ass's shoulder, and woven into a 

 chain, to be put round a child's neck, is powerful for 

 the same purpose ; and the hand of a corpse applied to 

 a neck is believed to disperse a wen. Not long 

 since, a boy was met running hastily to a neighbour's 

 for some holy water, as the only hope of preserving a 

 sick pig. The 'evil eye,' so long dreaded in unedu- 

 cated countries, has its terrors amongst us ; and if a 

 person of ill life be suddenly called away, there are 

 generally some who hear his ' tokens,' or see his ghost. 

 There exists, besides, the custom of communicating 

 deaths to hives of bees, in the belief that they invari- 

 ably abandon their owners if the intelligence be with- 

 held." 



May not any one exclaim : 



" O miseras hominum mentes ! O pectora casca I 

 Qualibus in tenebris vita*, quantisque periclis 

 Degitur hoc ajvi, quodcunque est 1" 



S. G. C. 



Greenock Fair. — A very curious custom existed 

 in this town, and in the neighbouring town of 

 Port-Glasgow, within forty years ; it has now en- 

 tirely disappeared. I cannot but look upon it as 

 a last remnant of the troublous times when arms 

 were in all hands, and property liable to be openly 

 and forcibly seized by bands of armed men. This 

 custom was, that the whole trades of the town, in 

 the dresses of their guilds, with flags and music, 

 each man armed, made a grand rendezvous at the 

 place where the fair was to be held, and with 

 drawn swords and array of guns and pistols, sur- 

 rounded the booths, and greeted the baillie's an- 

 nouncement by tuck of drum, " that Greenock 

 fair was open," by a tremendous shout, and a 

 straggling fire from every serviceable barrel in 

 the crowd, and retired, bands playing and flags 

 flying, &c, home. Does any such wappenschau 

 occur in England on such occasions now ? 



C. D. Lamont. 



Greenock. 



Dragons' Blood. — A peculiar custom exists 

 amongst a class, with whom unfortunately the 

 schoolmaster has not yet come very much in con- J 

 tact, when supposed to be deserted or slighted 

 by a lover, of procuring dragons' blood ; which 

 being carefully wrapped in paper, is thrown on 

 the fire, and the following lines said : 



" May he no pleasure or profit see, 

 Till he comes back again to me." 



R. J. S. 



Charm for the Ague. — 



" Cut a few hairs from the cross marked on a don- 

 key's shoulders. Enclose these hairs in a small bag, 

 and wear it on your breast, next to the skin. If you 

 keep your purpose secret, a speedy cure will be the 

 result." 



The foregoing charm was told to me a short 

 time since by the agent of a large landed pro- 

 prietor in a fen county. My informant gravely 

 added, that he had known numerous instances of 

 this charm being practised, and that in every case 

 a cure had been effected. From my own know- 

 ledge, I can speak of another charm for the ague, 

 in which the fen people put great faith, viz. a 

 spider, covered with dough, and taken as a pill. 



CuTHBERT BEDE, B.A. 



PSALMS FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN — HEBREW 

 MUSIC. 



The words nwm n¥3E6 at the head of Psalms 

 iv., liv., lv., lxvii., and lxxvi., are rendered in the 

 Septuagint and Vulgate tts rb reAos, infnem, as if 



they had read H^)?, omitting the D formative. 

 The Syriac and Arabic versions omit this su- 

 perscription altogether, from ignorance of the 



