Fes. 9. 1850. ] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
229 
Short’s Gardens, Drury Lane. — Dudley Short, 
Esq., had a mansion here, with fine garden 
attached, in the reign of Charles the Second. 
Parker Street, Drury Lane. — Phillip Parker, 
Esq., had a mansion on this site in 1623. 
Bainbridge and Buckridge Streets, St. Giles’s. 
— The two streets, now no more, but once cele- 
brated in the “annals of low life,” were built 
prior to 1672, and derived their names from their 
owners, eminent parishioners in the reign of 
Charles the Second. 
Dyot Street, St. Giles’s.— This street was in- 
habited, as late as 1803, by Philip Dyot, Esq., a 
descendant of the gentleman from whom it takes 
its name. In 1710 there was a certain “ Mendi- 
cant’s Convivial Club” held at the ‘ Welch’s 
Head” in this street. The origin of this club 
dated as far back as 1660, when its meetings were 
held at the Three Crowns in the Poultry. 
Denmark. Street, St. Giles’s. — Originally built 
in 1689. Zoffany, the celebrated painter, lived at 
No.9. in this street. The same house is also the 
scene of Bunbury’s caricature, “ The Sunday 
Evening Concert :” — 
“ July 27.1771. — Sir John Murray, late Secretary 
to the Pretender, was on Thursday night carried off by 
a party of strange men, from a house in Denmark 
Street, near St. Giles’s church, where he had lived some 
time.” — MS. Diary quoted in Collet’s Relics of Litera- 
ture, p. 306. 
Epwarp F. Rimpavtr. 
QUERIES. 
FOLK LORE. 
Metrical Charms. In the enumeration of the 
various branches of that interesting subject, the 
“Fork Lore or EnGLanp,” on which commu- 
nications are invited in the last number of “‘ Nores 
AND Querizs,” there is an omission which I beg 
to point out, as it refers to a subject which, I be- 
lieve, deserves especial investigation, and would 
amply repay any trouble or attention that might 
be bestowed upon it. I allude to Metrical 
Charms, many of which are still preserved, and 
in spite of the corruptions they have undergone 
in the course of centuries, would furnish curious 
and yaluable illustrations: of the Mythological. 
System on which they are founded, 
“ Spirits of the flood and spirits of the hills found a 
place in the mythology of Saxon England,” 
says an able reviewer of Mr. Kemble’s Saxons in 
England, in The Atheneum (13th Jan. 1849) ; and 
he continues, 
“The spells by which they were invoked, and the 
forms by which their aid was compelled, linger, how- 
ever, still amongst us, although their names and 
powers have passed into oblivion. In one of the 
Saxon spells which Mr. Kemble has inserted in the 
Appendix, we at once recognised a rhyme which we 
had heard an old woman in our childhood use, — and 
in which many Saxon words unintelligible to her were 
probably retained.” 
Who would not gladly recover this “old 
rhyme;”—TI can say for myself, that if these 
lines should ever meet the eye of the writer of 
the passage I have quoted, I trust he will be 
induced to communicate, in however fragmentary 
a shape, this curious addition to our present 
scanty stores of mythological information. 
While on the subject of Charms and Spells, 1 
would ask those who are more familiar than 
myself with the Manuscript treasures of the 
British Museum, and of our University Libraries, 
whether they have ever met with (except in 
MSS. of Chaucer) the remarkable “Night Spell” 
which the Father of English Poetry has preserved 
in the following passage of his Miller's Tale. 
I quote from Mr. Wright’s edition, printed for the 
Percy Society : — 
“¢ What Nicholas, what how man, loke adoun: 
Awake and think on Cristes passioun 
I crowche the from Elves and from Wightes.’ 
There with the night-spel seyde he anon rightes 
On the foure halves of the hous aboute 
And on the threissh-fold of the dore withoute. 
“Lord Jhesu Crist and seynte Benedight, 
Blesse this hous from every wikkede wight 
Fro nightes verray, the white Paternoster 
When wonestow now, seynte Petres soster.’” 
This charm has long occupied my attention, 
and as I hope shortly to submit to the Fellows of 
the Society of Antiquaries. am attempt to illus- 
trate some parts of it which are at present cer- 
tainly involved in very great obscurity, I shall be 
glad to be informed whether any other early 
version of it. is to be found in MS., and if so, 
where; and also whether any other version, cor- 
rupted or not, is still preserved, if not in use, at 
least in memory. I should also be especially glad 
of references to any other allusion to the “ white 
Paternoster” or “seynte Petres soster,” or for 
any information as to sources for ascertaining the 
history, whether authentic or legendary, of the 
personage supposed to be alluded to in the closing 
words of this remarkable spell. 
WirrraM J. Toms. 
ALLUSIONS IN THE HOMILIES. 
“A Good Wife,” &c., and “ God speed the 
Plough!” —I should hold myself deeply indebted 
to any of your correspondents who would inform 
me where the two following quotations are to be 
found. 
I have been anxiously looking for them for 
some years. I have taken some pains myself — 
