May 18. 1850. ] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
473 
feel curious about the characters of the wearers of 
these several skins, they must inquire of Lavater 
and his disciples. Dives: 
Home, April 1. 1850. 
BALLAD OF DICK AND THE DEVIL. 
Looking over some of your back numbers, I 
find (No. 11. p. 172.) an inquiry concerning a 
ballad with this title. Ihave never met with it 
in print, but remember some lines picked up in 
nursery days from an old nurse who was a native 
of “the dales.” These I think have probably 
formed a part of this composition. ‘he woman’s 
name was curiously enough Martha Kendal; and, 
in all probability, her forebears had migrated 
from that place into Yorkshire :— 
« Robin a devil he sware a vow, 
He swore by the sticks* in hell — 
By the yelding that crackles to mak the low f, 
That warms his namsack } weel. 
“ He leaped on his beast, and he rode with heaste, 
To mak his black oath good ; 
*T was the Lord’s Day, and the folk did pray, 
And the priest in cancel stood. 
“ The door was wide, and in does he ride, 
In his clanking gear so gay; 
A long keen brand he held in his hand, 
Our Dickon for to slay. 
«“ But Dickon goodhap he was not there, 
And Robin he rode in vain, 
And the men got up that were kneeling in prayer, 
‘To take him by might and main. 
“ Rob swung his sword, his steed he spurred, 
He plunged right through the thrang, 
But the stout smith Jock, with his old mother’s 
crutch§, 
He gave him a woundy bang. 
«“ So hard he smote the iron pot, 
It came down plume and all ; 
Then with bare head away Robin sped, 
And himself was fit to fall. 
« Robin a devil he way'd|| him home, 
And if for his foes he seek, 
I think that again he will not come 
To late them in Kendal kirk.” ** Vea. 
* The unlettered bard has probably confused “ styx ” 
with the kindling, “ yelding,” of hell-tire. 
¢ Flame. 
¢ I have often wondered what namsac (so _pro- 
nounced) could be, but since I have seen the story as 
told by “H. J. M.” it is evidently “ namesake.” 
§ Probably crook in the original, to rhyme with 
Jock. 
|| “I way’d me” is yet used in parts of Yorkshire for 
«* J went.” 
“ To late” is “to seck ;” from /ateo, as if by a con- 
fusion of hiding and seeking. 
** « Kirk” is not a very good rhyme to “ seek ;” per- 
haps it should be “search” and “ church ” 
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES, 
Cavell.—In the time of Charles I., a large tract 
of land lying south-eastward of Doncaster, called 
Hatfield Chace, was undertaken to be drained 
and made fit for tillage and pasture by one Sir 
Cornelius Vermuyden, a celebrated Flemish en- 
gineer of that day, and his partners, or “ partici- 
pants,” in the scheme, all or most of them Dutch- 
men. The lands drained were said to be “cavelled 
and allotted” to so and so, and the pieces of land 
were called “ cavells.” They were “scottled,” 
or made subject to a tax or assessment for drain- 
age purposes. Two eminent topographical writers 
of the present day are inclined to be of opinion 
that this word cavell is connected with the Saxon 
gafol, gavel-tributum — money paid — which we 
have in gavel-hind and gavelage. One of them, 
however, suggests that the word may be only a 
term used in Holland as applicable to land, and 
then introduced by the Dutch at the time of the 
drainage in question. I shall be obliged if any of 
your readers can inform me if the word “ cavell” 
is so used in Holland, or elsewhere, either as 
denoting any particular quantity of land, or land 
Jaid under any tax, or tributum, or otherwise. 
J. 
{Our correspondent will find, on referring to Kilian’s 
Dictionarium Teutonico- Latino- Gallicum, that the word 
Kavel is used for sors, “ sors in divisione bonorum ;” 
and among other definitions of the verb Kavelen, “sorte 
dividere terram,” which corresponds exactly with his 
cavelled and allotted. 
Gootet (No 25. p.397.).—Is not this word a 
corruption of good-tide, i.e. holiday or festival ? 
In Halliwell’s Archeological Dictionary I find, — 
“ Good-day, a holiday ; Staff. 
“ Gooddit, shrovetide; North. 
called Goodies ‘Tuesday. 
“ Good-time, a festival ; Jonson.” 
Shrove Tuesday is 
CW G. 
Salt ad Montem (No. 24. p. 384.) as meaning 
Money.— Salt is an old metaphor for money, cash, 
pay ; derived, says Arbuthnot, from salt’s being 
part of the pay of the Roman soldiers: hence 
salarium, salary, and the levying contributions at 
Salt Hill. Your Querist will find several explana- 
tions of the Eton Montem in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine ; and a special account of the ceremony, 
its origin and circumstances, in Lyson’s Mag. 
Brit. i. 557. 
Pamphlets respecting Ireland (No. 24. p. 884.)— 
I would refer “I.” to No. 6161. in the Catalogue 
of Stowe Library, sold by Leigh Sotheby and 
Co., in January 1849. That lot consisted of two 
vols. of twenty-six tracts, 4to. Amongst them is 
“ Gookin, the Author and Case of Transplanting 
the Irish in Connaught Vindicated, from Col. R. 
Lawrence, 1655.” Messrs. Leigh Sotheby will 
