578 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 242. 



be the proper plaister for the cramp of laziness, yet 

 some pity is due to impotent persons. In a word, 

 seeing there is the Lazar's-bath in this city, I doubt 

 not but many a good Lazarus, the true object of 

 charity, may beg therein." 



J.'Eastwood, M.A. 



R. R. inquires the origin of the above saying, 

 but has forgotten the context, viz. " and get your 

 head shaved." I have often heard it explained as 

 an allusion to the fact, that, in former days, per- 

 sons who showed symptoms of insanity were sent 

 to Bath to drink the medicinal waters ; the pro- 

 cess of shaving the head being previously resorted 

 to. The saying is applied to those who either 

 relate " crack-brained" stories, or propose under- 

 takings that raise a doubt as to their sanity. 



K. L. T. 



Ridings and Chaffings (Vol. ix., p. 370.). — 

 Though unable to give Mr. Thomas Russell 

 Potter any information respecting the " Ridings 

 and Chaffings" of Nottinghamshire and Leicester- 

 shire, I send the following note of a somewhat 

 similar custom prevalent in Oxfordshire (I never 

 heard of it elsewhere), thinking it may perhaps 

 interest him and others of your correspondents. 



I remember once, about three years ago, I was 

 walking in Blenheim Park, with a friend then 

 resident at Woodstock, when suddenly the still- 

 ness of a summer evening was broken by strange 

 and inharmonious sounds, coming to us across the 

 water from the old town. The sounds grew louder 

 and louder, and in great surprise I appealed to my 

 friend for an explanation ; when I learned that it 

 was a custom in that part of the country, when- 

 ever it was discovered that a man had been 

 beating his wife, for the neighbours to provide 

 themselves with all sorts of instruments, fire-irons, 

 kettles, and pots, in fine, anything capable of 

 making a noise, and proceed en masse to the house 

 of the offender, before whose door they performed 

 in concert, till their indignation subsided or their 

 arms grew weary ; and that the noise we then 

 heard was the distant sound of such music. 



I do not know if my friend gave any name to 

 this practice ; if he did, I have since forgotten it. 

 Doubtless, some of your Oxford readers can assist 

 me. R. V. T. 



Mincing Lane. 



At Marchington, in Staffordshire, the custom 

 exists of having what is called a " Rantipole Rid- 

 ing" for every man who beats his wife. The 

 ceremony is performed with great" care and so- 

 lemnity. A committee is formed to examine into 

 the case. Then the village poet is employed to 

 give a history of the occurrence in verse. The 

 procession goes round in the evening with a cart, 

 which serves as a stage on which the scene is acted 

 and from which the verses are recited. The cus- 



tom has been there observed, with so much judg- 

 ment and discretion, that it has been productive 

 of much good, and has now almost entirely put a 

 stop to this disgraceful practice. I can remember 

 several " ridings" in my younger days. H. B. 



Mr. Potter will find, upon referring to Vol. i., 

 p. 245., that this custom prevails in Gloucester- 

 shire, with the substitution of straw for chaff. I 

 have seen the Gloucestershire version both in 

 Kent and Sussex, and have received an expla- 

 nation of it similar to Mr. Potter's own suppo- 

 sition. G. William Seyring. 



Somerset House. 



Faithful Commin (Vol. ix., p. 155.). — Your 

 correspondent W. H. Gunner will find a detailed 

 account of Faithful Commin in Foxes and Fire- 

 brands, a tract of which mention has been made in 

 various Numbers of " N. & Q." It is there said to 

 be extracted from the Memorials of Cecil Lord 

 Burleigh, from whose papers it was transmitted to 

 Archbishop Ussher. " The papers of the Lord 

 Primate coming to the hands of Sir James Ware, 

 his son, Robert Ware, Esq., has obliged the public 

 by the communication of them." 'AAievs. 



Dublin. 



Heraldic Anomaly (Vol. ix., p. 430.). — Tee 

 Bee's description of the arms on St. John's Gate 

 is somewhat defective. They are engraved, and 

 more completely described, in Cromwell's History 

 of Clerkenwell [1828], p. 128. W. P. Storer. 



Olney, Bucks. 



Odd Fellows (Vol. ix., p. 327.). — C. F. A. W. 

 will find some of the Odd Fellows' secrets disclosed 

 in a small volume entitled A Ritual and Illustra- 

 tions of Free Masonry, Sfc, by a Traveller in the 

 United States (third thousand) : published by 

 James Gilbert, 49. Paternoster Row, 1844. The 

 Odd Fellows date from Adam, who was the odd 

 and solitary representative of the human race be- 

 fore the creation of Eve. Kennedy M'Nab. 



" Branks" (Vol. ix., p. 336.). — The word branks 

 does occur in Burns, and signifies " wooden curb," 

 but it is not in that sense it is used by Wodrow. 

 The branks of the Covenanters was an iron collar 

 and chain firmly fixed to a tree, or post, or pillar, 

 about three feet from the ground. This was 

 locked round the neck of the luckless offender, 

 who was thus obliged to remain in a most in- 

 convenient and painful crouching posture, being 

 neither able to stand nor lie. Many of these are 

 still to be seen in the neighbourhood of the resi- 

 dences of old Highland families who, ere Lord 

 Hardwicke's Jurisdiction Act, exercised the powers 

 of pit and gallows. There is one at the entrance 

 to Culloden House, near Inverness. 



Kennedy M'Nab. 



