Aug. 10. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



165 



Before the death of a person, a robin is believed, 

 in many instances, to tap thrice at the window of 

 the room in which he or she may be. The wren 

 is also a bird which superstition protects from in- 

 jury ; but it is by no means treated with such re- 

 verence as the robin. The praises of both are 

 sung in the old couplet : — 



" The robin and the wren, 

 Be God A'mighty's cock and hen." 



Pigeons. — Xo one, it is believed, can die on 

 pigeons' feathers. In the northern parts of the 

 county, the same thing is said of game feathers, — 

 a superstition also current in Kent. — Ingolsby 

 Legends., Third Series, p. 133. 



Wasps. — The first wasp seen in the season 

 should always be killed. By so doing you secure 

 to yourself good luck and freedom from enemies 

 throughout the year. 



Bees. — The superstitious ceremonies and ob- 

 servances attached to these animals appear to be 

 current throughout the kingdom, and by no means 

 suffer any diminution in this county. Among 

 otiiers of less common occurrence, we have the 

 belief that they will not thrive in a quarrelsome 

 family. 



The wild, or, as we term him, the humhle bee, is 

 not without a share of the superstitions which per- 

 tain to his more civilised brethren. The entrance 

 of one into a cottage is deemed a certain siwu of 

 death. 



Spiders. — The small spiders called " money 

 spinners" prognosticate good luck; in order to 

 propitiate which, they must be thrown over the 

 left shoulder. T. Y. 



iBinav ^atei. 



The Hon. A. Erskine. — In J. Reed's copy of 

 BoswelTs and Hon. A. Erskine^s Correspondence, 

 12ino. 1763, was the following note in Reed's 

 autograph : — 



" The Hon. A. Erskine was fourth son of the 

 fifth E irl of Kelley. Mr. Boswell toUl me the 30th of 

 May, 1794, that A. E., having spent all his property, 

 in a fit of despair threw liiniseif from a rock into the 

 sea last winter, and was drowned. His body was found 

 five days after, wlien it a])peared it was a deliberate act, 

 as he had filled his pockets with stones." 



Gloves.— T\\c question of F. E. (Vol. i., p. 306.), 

 " Why are gloves not worn bijfore royalty f"' hav- 

 ing hitherto received no answer, may ))robal)ly be 

 as di(ficult of solution as another custom in wliich 

 a glove figures as a token of defiance. Perhap.s, 

 however, covered hands, as well as a covcretl head, 

 may liave been considered discourteous. Indeed, 

 we learn from Cobarriivias, in his Tesoro, that it 

 was so considered in Spain : — 



" Enuuantaho. El (|iie eiitra col) Guantes adonde se 

 le ha de tener a descortesia. El que sirve no los ha de 



tener delante de su Senor : ni Vasallo, .sea quien fuere, 

 delante de su Rey." Fo. 453. b. ed. 161 1. 



The use of gloves must be of very high antiquity. 

 In the Middle Ages the priest who celebrated 

 mass alwaj's, I believe, wore them during that 

 ceremony ; hut it was just the contrary in courts 

 of justice, where the presiding judge, as well as 

 the criminal, was not allowed to cover his hands. 

 It was anciently a popular saying, that three king- 

 doms must contribute to the formation of a good 

 glove: — Spain to prepare the leather, France to 

 cut them out, and England to sow them. 



I think the etymology of the word glove is in far 

 from a satisfactory state. It is a good subject for 

 some of your learned philological correspondents, 

 to whom 1 beg leave to recommend its elucidation. 



S. W. Singer. 



Mickleham, July 26. 1850. 



Punishment of Death by Burning (Vol. ii., pp. 6, 

 50, 90.). — Your correspondent E.S.S.AV. gives an 

 account of a woman burnt for the murder of her 

 husband in 1783, and asks whether there is any 

 other instance of the kind in the latter part of the 

 last century. I cannot positively answer this 

 Query, but I will state a circumstance that oc- 

 curred to myself about the year 1788. Passing in 

 a hackney-coach up the Old Bailey to West Smith- 

 field, I saw the unquenched embers of a fire op- 

 posite Newgate ; on my alighting I asked the 

 coachman " What was that fire in the Old Bailey, 

 over which the wheel of your conch passed?" 

 " Oh. sir," he replied, " they have been burning a 

 woman for murdering her husband." Whether he 

 sj^oke the truth or not I do not know, but I re- 

 ceived it at the time as truth, and remember the 

 impression it made on me. 



It is, perhaps, as well to state that there were 

 some fifteen to twenty persons standing around 

 the smouldering embers at the time I passed. 



Senex. 



India Pubber is now so cheap and common, 

 that it seems worth while to make a note of the 

 following passage in the Monthly Review for Feb. 

 1772. It occurs at p. 71., in an article on "A fa- 

 miliar Introduction to the Theory and Practice of 

 Perspective, by Joseph Priestly, LL.D. F.R.S., 

 8vo. 5s,, boards. Johnson." 



" Our readers, perhaps, who employ themselves in 

 the art of drawing, will be pleased with a transcript of 

 the followinjr advertisement : — 'I have seen, says Dr. 

 Priesily, a suhslance, excellently adapted to the pur- 

 pose of wipinji from pa])er the marks of a black lead 

 pencil. It must, therefore, be of singular use to those 

 who practise drawing. It is sold by Mr. Nairne, ma- 

 thematical instrumeut-maker, opposite the Royal Ex- 

 change, lie sells a cubical ])iece, of about half an 

 inch, for three shillings ; and, he say.s, it will last 

 several years.' " 



N. B. 



