Fes. 16. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
245 
symbol of the Cosmos, the prolific or generative 
powers of nature. G. J. 
Gloucestershire Custom.—It is a custom in. 
Gloucestershire, and may be so in other counties, 
to place loose straw before the door of any man 
who beats his wife. Is this a general custom ? — 
and if so, what is its origin and meaning ? B. 
Curious Custom.— The custom spoken of by 
“Pweca” (No. 11. p. 173.) was also commonly 
practised in one or two places in Lancashire some 
ten or twelve years back, but is now, I believe, 
obsolete. The horse was played in a similar way, 
but the performer was then called “ Old Balls.” 
It is no doubt a vestige of the old “ hobby-horse,” 
—as the Norwich “ Snap,” who kept his place in 
the procession of the mayor of that good city till 
the days of municipal reform, was the last repre- 
sentative of his companion the dragon. J.T. 
[Nathan also informs us “ that it is very common in 
the West Riding of Yorkshire, where a ram’s head often 
takes the place of the horse's skull. Has it not an ob- 
vious connection with the “ hobby-horse” of the middle 
ages, and such mock pageants as the one described in 
Scott’s Abbot, vol. i. chap. 14; the whole being a rem- 
nant of the Saturnalia of the ancients ?””] 
QUERIES. 
WHITE HART INN, SCOLE. 
In Songs and other Poems, by Alex. Brome, 
Gent. Lond. 12mo. 1661, there is (at p. 123.) 
a ballad upon a sign-post set up by one Mr. Pecke 
at Skoale in Norfolk. It appears from this ballad 
that the sign in question had figures of Bacchus, 
Diana, Justice, and Prudence, “a fellow that’s 
small, with a quadrant discerning the wind,” 
Temperance, Fortitude, Time, Charon and Cer- 
berus. This sign is noticed in the Journal of 
Mr. E. Browne (Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, ed. 
Wilkin, i. 53). Under date of 4th March, 1663- 
64, he says: —“ About three mile further I eame to 
Scoale, where is very handsome inne, and the | 
noblest sighne post in England, about and upon 
which are carved a great many stories, as of 
Charon and Cerberus, of Actzon and Diana, and 
many other; the sighne it self is the white harte, 
which hangs downe carved in a stately wreath.” 
Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk (8vo edit. 
i. 130.), speaking of Osmundestone or Scole, has 
the following passage : — 
* Here are two very good inns for the entertainment 
of travellers; the White Hart is much noted in these 
parts, being called, by way of distinction, Scole Inn; 
the house is a large brick building, adorned with 
imagery and carved work in several places, as big as 
the life. It was built in 1655, by John Pech, Esq., 
whose arms, impaling his wife’s, are over the porch 
door, ‘The sign is very large, beautified all over with a 
great number of images of large stature carved in 
wood, and was the work of one Fairchild; the arms 
about it are those of the chief towns and gentlemen in 
the county, viz. Norwich, Yarmouth, Duke of Norfolk, 
Earl of Yarmouth, Bacon of Garboldisham, Hobart, 
Cornwaleis, impaling Bukton, Teye, Thurston, Custle- 
ton, and many others; Peck’s arms are arg. on a 
chevron ingrailed, gul. three croslets pattee of the field; 
his wife’s are arg., a fess between two crescents in 
chief, a lion rampant in base gul., which coat I think is 
borne by the name of Jetheston. Here was lately a 
very round large bed, big enough to hold fifteen or 
twenty couple, in imitation (I suppose) of the remark- 
able great bed at Ware. The house was in all things 
accommodated, at first, for large business; but the 
road not supporting it, it is in much decay at present ; 
though there is a good bowling-green and a pretty 
large garden, with land sufficient for passengers’ horses. 
The business of these two inns is much supported by 
the annual cock-matches that are here fought.” 
In Cruttwell’s Tour through the whole Island of 
Great Britain (Lond. 12mo. 1801), vol. v. 208., is 
the following : — 
“ Osmondeston, or Schole. The inn here was once 
remarkable for a pompous sign, with ridiculous orna- 
ments, and is said to have cost a thousand pounds; 
long since decayed.” ’ 
I shall be glad to be referred to any other 
notices of this sign, and am desirous of knowing if 
any drawing or engraving of if be extant. 
Cambridge, 21st Jan. 1850. C. H. Coorer. 
PASSAGES FROM POPE. 
In addition to the query of “P.C.S. 8.” (No. 
13. p.201.), in which I take great interest, I would 
beg leave to ask what evidence there is that 
Quarles had a pension? He had, indeed, a small 
place in the household of James the First's queen, 
Anne; and if he had a pension on her death, it 
would have been from James, not from Charles. 
I would also, in reference to Pope, beg leave to 
propound another query. 
In the “Imitation of the 2nd Sat., Book I. of | 
Horace,” only to be found in modern editions, 
but attributed, I fear, too justly to Pope, there is 
an allusion to “poor E s,” who suffered by 
“the fatal steel,” for an intrigue with a royal 
mistress. E s is no doubt John Ellis, and the 
royal mistress the Duchess of Cleveland. (See 
Lord Dover's. Introduction to the “ Ellis Corre- 
spondence,” and “ Anecdotes of the Ellis Family,” 
Gent. Mag. 1769. p. 328.) But I cannot discover 
any trace of the circumstances alluded to by Pope. 
Yet Ellis was a considerable man in his day;— 
he had been Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of 
Treland in the reign of Charles IL., and was Under- 
Secretary of State under William IIL.; he is said 
to have afterwards sunk into the humbler character 
Oo 
