122 
were so, it might be from its black, 
funereal colow, and not from its 
poison. Itis true there is the greater 
similarity of the name, but poets are 
fond of sounding words, if they vary 
not too much from the correct mode 
of spelling. Horace allows that 
poets have the right to use nova ficta- 
que verba parce detorta, and Milton’s 
“Euphrasy’”’ is an anglified term, 
though so near the original that it 
could not be mistaken. Mr. P. need 
not have sneered at what he calls 
“My. Britten’s profoundly scientific 
remark ’’ about the different effects 
of Henbane upon different persons ; 
it was a fair answer to his objection 
about the symptoms enumerated by 
the poet; and certainly the effects 
of Henbane seem most diverse— 
blindness-delirium-—madness—death. 
Shakespeare might well add leprosy 
without any material increase of the 
catalogue. One great point in de- 
termining the matter is ‘‘ Did Shake- 
speare wish to use such language as 
would fall in with the pre-conceived 
notions of his audience, and was 
Ebony or Henbane more likely to do 
this?’ My own opinion is in favour 
of the latter. 
Rey. R. Woop. 
Westward, Cumberland. 
Tur Goop Oxp Times.—About 
the year 1809 I was introduced to a 
residence amidst the beech timber 
and underwood and commons which 
abounded on the Chiltern Hills of 
Buckinghamshire. At this time 
very many animals and reptiles were 
denounced as common enemies, and, 
as such, a price was set upon their 
heads, decided upon by the vestry 
and paid by the churchwardens, as 
shown by the following items as 
charged in the churchwardens’ ac- 
counts of the period :— ‘‘ A viper, 
a slow or blind worm, 6d. each.”’ 
These were supposed to sting the 
sheep while at feed. The tongue of 
the former was supposed to be its 
sting, and the latter effected its injury 
by some other process; and many 
ailments amongst the domestic farm 
animals were attributed to the above 
causes. The general specific was 
an ointment made by frying the body 
of either viper, or slow-worm, in 
lard; and many a good housewife 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
would pay the stipulated reward, 
thus to become a kind of Lady 
Bountiful, by a gift she bestowed of 
the grand specific to anyone requir- 
ing it in the neighbourhood. Six- 
pence was also the price set on the 
poor hedgehog. He was charged 
with sucking the milch cows as they 
lay down during the night, thus pro- 
ducing a disease called “ the gargut,”’ 
—being no other than an inflam- 
mation of the udder, generally then, 
as now, produced by cold. The 
grand specific for this was an oint- 
ment of hedgehog fat. Another 
charge was for the destruction of 
sparrows. In the spring of the year, 
the price, regulated by the annual 
March vestry, was, for sparrows’ 
eggs, ahalfpenny adozen, young spar- 
rows, a farthing each, hen sparrows, 
a penny each, cock birds a halfpenny 
each. Thus, without taking into con- 
sideration the good arising from the 
destruction by them of innumerable 
insects, pests of garden and field, they 
were denounced for injury done to 
wheat just on the edge of harvest. I 
am not aware of any kind of parochial 
reward for foxes, as the slayer of a 
fox considered himself amply re- 
warded by carrying it to all the 
farmers in rotation, a shilling being 
the expected reward; but a good 
poultry wife would often make an 
addition of a bit of victuals and a 
pint of beer. After haying done duty 
in the neighbourhood of its death, 
it would be sold by its cunning 
possessor to some mate in another 
district, who would pass it off as 
fresh killed till decomposition would 
render it past endurance, and the 
trick was “smelt out.’? Things are 
now changed: vipers, whose bite is 
venomous, and who would rather glide 
away than attack, are almost extinct. 
The slow or blind worm neither bites 
or stings; and the hedgehog, whose 
small mouth renders it incapable of 
sucking the mammal of a cow, and 
whose prickles would soon render 
its company disagreeable even to a 
sleeping cow, is now petted by the 
London bakers for the purpose of 
devouring the beetles which infest 
their bakehouses ; and is equally use- 
ful for the same purpose against those 
| that infest the gardens. G. 
— 
oo 
