516 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 61. 



(Hartsliorne's Ancient Metrical Tales) been ex- 

 plained ? The shepheril's instructions (pp. 48, 49.) 

 seem more zlmIous than luminous ; but it has 

 occurred to me ih^i perhaps "i)assiiloilion," "])assi- 

 lodyon," or " passilodion" may have souie refer- 

 ence to the ancient custom of drinking from a 

 ;)eg--tankard, since ■rrd<ra-n\os means a peg, and 

 irdacraAaSia would be a leijitimate p6<lantic render- 

 ing of peg-soiig, or peg-stave, and might be used to 

 denote an exclamation on having reached the peg. 



H. G. T. 



Inscription on an Alms-dish. — In Bardsea 

 Church, Island of Furness, is an alms-dish (?) of a 

 large size, apparently very old, gilt, and bearing 

 the following inscription : — 



" WYLT : GHY : LANGHELEVEN : SOO : ERT : GODT : 

 ENDE : HOOVT ; ZVN : GEBAT : VORWAR." 



Bardsea Church is recently erected in a district 

 taken out of Urswick parish. 



Can any of your readers give an explanation of 

 the inscription ? F. B. Kelton. 



[This is another specimen of the alms-dishes, of 

 which several have been described in our First Volume. 

 The legend may be rendered. If thou wilt lire long, 

 honour God, and above nil keep His commandments.^ 



The Use of the French Wo7-d "■savez." — About 

 fifty years ago the use of the French word savez, 

 from the verb savoir, " to know," was in general use 

 (and probably is so at the present time) among the 

 negroes in the island ofBarbadoes, — "il/e no savez, 

 Massa" for, " I do not know. Master (or Sir)." It 

 occurred to the writer at that time as a very sin- 

 gular fact, because the French had never occu- 

 pied that island; nor is he awai-e of any French 

 negi-oes having been introduced there. He had 

 also been informed of its use in other places, but 

 made no note of it. In the Moj-ning Herald of the 

 7th instant there is a statement that the Chinese 

 at Canton, speaking a little English, make use of 

 the same word. Can any of your readers give an 

 explanation of this ? J. F. 



JoUs Luck. — I send you another version of Job's 

 luck, in addition to those that have lately ap- 

 peared in "Notes and Queries:" 

 " The devil engaged with Job's patience to battle, 

 Tooth and nail strove to worry him out of his life ; 

 He robb'd him of chihlren, slaves, houses, and cattle, 

 Hut, mark me, he ne'er thought of taking his wife. 

 " But heaven at length Job's forbearance rewards, 

 At length double wealth, double honour arrives, 

 He doubles liis children, slaves, houses, and herds, 

 But we don't hear a word of a couple of wives." 



A.M. 



The Assassination of Mountfort in Norfolk- street. 

 Strand. — The murder of Mounttbrt is related with 

 great particularity in Gait's Lives of the Players, 

 and is also detailed in, if I recollect aright, Mr. 

 Jesse's London and its Celebrities ; but in neither 

 account is the following anecdote mentioned, the 



purport of which adds, if possible, to the blackness 

 of Mohun's cliaracter : — 



" Mr. Shorter, Horace Walpole's mother's father, 

 was walking down Norfolk Street in the Strand, to his 

 house there, just before poor Mountfort the player 

 was killed in that street by assassins hired by Lord 

 Mohun. This nobleman lying in wait for his prey, 

 came up and embraced Mr. Shorter by mistake, saying 

 ' Dear Mountfort.' It was fortunate that he was in- 

 stantly undeceived, for Mr. Shorter had hardly reached 

 bis house before the murder took place." — Walpoliana, 

 vol ii. p. 97., 2nd ed. 



J. B. C. 



The Oldenhurgh Horn (Vol. ii., p. 417.) is pre- 

 served amongst the antiquities in the Gallery of 

 the King of Denmark at Cojienhagen. It is of 

 silver gilt, and ornamented in paste with enamel. 

 It is considered by the Danish antiquaries to be 

 of the time of Christian I., in the latter half of the 

 fifteenth century. There are engraved on it coats 

 of arms and inscriptions, which show that it was 

 made for King Christian I., in hoiumr of the three 

 kings, or wise men, on whose festival he used it, 

 at Cologne. 



W. C. Trevelyan. 



Wallington, Dec. 19. 1850. 



[We avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by 

 Sir Walter Trevelyan's communication to add from 

 Vulpius {Handworterbuch der Mytliologie) the following 

 additional references to representations and descriptions 

 of this celebrated Horn — which is there said (p. 184.) 

 to have been found in 1639: — Schneider, Saxon, Vetust. 

 p. 314. ; Winkelmimn's Oldenburyische Chronik. s. 59.; 

 S Meyer, Fom Oldenburgischen ll'undcrhorne, Bremen, 

 1757.] 



Curious Custom. — In 1833 the late Record 

 Commissioners issued Circular Questions to the 

 Municipal Corporations of England and 'Whales, 

 re({uesting various information; among such ques- 

 tions was the following : — " Do any remarkable 

 customs prevail, or have any remarkable customs 

 prevailed within memory, in relation to the cere- 

 monies accompanying the choice of corporate 

 officers, annual processions, feasts, &c., not noticed 

 in the printed histories or accounts of your 

 borough .'' Describe them, if there be such." 



To this question the borough of Chippenham, 

 Wilts, replied as follows : — " The corporation dine 

 together twice a-year, and pay for it themselves!" 

 {Report of Record Commissioners, 1837, p. 442.) 



J. E. 



Kite (French, '■'■ Cerf -volant"). — Some years 

 ago, wlien reading Dr. Paris' popular work called 

 Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, 5th 

 edition, London, J. Murray, 1842, 1 observed that 

 the author could not explain the meaning of the 

 French term " cerf-volant," applied to the toy so 

 well known among boys in England as a " kite," 

 and in Scotland as a " dragon." The following 

 passages will solve this mystery : 



