310 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 77. 



tion to the received opinions respecting the Py- 

 thian priestess. See the Notes to Creech's Lucre- 

 tius, book V. ; Jones's (of Nayhmd) Phijsiolog. 

 Disquis. p. 290. Tlie deception practised by the 

 Witch ofEndor, and by the damsel mentioned in 

 Acts xvi. 16., was of this description. See'Wierus 

 de Preestig. Dcemon. p. 203. ; and Reginald Soot's 

 Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 148. 



The serpent, which with heathen mythologists 

 had various acceptations (see Vossius, Theologia 

 Gent, et Physiologia Christ.), was also understood 

 as a natural symbol or hieroglyphic of the air. 

 Can any of your learned correspondents furnish 

 materials illustrative of this figurative relation 

 between the serpent and the elements ? T. J. 



Cleaning of Peep (Vol. ii., p. 118.).— You have 

 already told us the meaning of the word peep in 

 the phrase "Wizards that peep atid that mutter;" 

 in confirmation I may add that the noise made by 

 the queen bee in the hive previous to swarming is 

 in Devonshire called peeping. J. M. (4.) 



Vermeil or Venville (Vol. iii., p. 38.). — VeU' 

 well or Ve7iville appears to me to be a corruption 

 of the word/e«§;^e^f/,- and the meaning of it seems 

 to be, that custom of delivering possession of land 

 to a purchaser by cutting a piece of turf from the 

 field bought, and delivering it into his hands. 



I weirremember, when a boy, accompanying 

 ray father to receive possession of an outlying field, 

 distant from the main estate which he had bought J 

 the seller's agent, I think, came with us and cut a 

 small piece of turf from the ground, and delivered 

 it into my father's hands, saying (if I recollect 

 right), "By this turf I deliver this field into your 

 possession." By this means my father "fenged" 

 (took) the '•'■field" into his own hands, and became 

 the legal proprietor of it. P. 



Venville. — The peat or black earth of Dart- 

 moor is still called ven or fen. Is it not more 

 probable that the adjoining p.arishes (or parts of 

 them) are said to be in Venville or fengfield, from 

 their being within the peat district, than that an 

 abbreviation of a legal term, fines villanun —fin. 

 vil., should become naturalised among the pea- 

 santry, as is the case with the word Venville ? 



The second part of the word seems akin to the 

 Scottish fail, " a turf, or flat clod covered with 

 grass cut olT from the rest of the sward." (Jamie- 

 son.) "■• 



Hand-bells at Funerals (Vol. ii., p. 478.). — In 

 the Testamenta Ehorucensia, p. 163., Johannes 

 Esten de Scardeburgh, le Ankersymth, bequeaths 

 2rf.— 



" Clerico ecclesia; pro pulsacione campanarum, et 

 le belmaii portand' canipauam per v'lllam excitandum 

 populum ad orandum." 



A hand-bell (as I am informed by a Roman 

 Catholic gentleman) often precedes the Host, when 



carried in procession to the sick, &c., in erder to 

 clear the way, and remind passengers of the usual 

 reverence paid at such times. B. 



Lincoln. 



Shillings and Sixpences of George III. (Vol. iii., 

 p. 275.).. — R.W. C. has fallen into a misconception 

 in supposing that these coins present an erroneous 

 spelling of the Latinized style of the monarch, 

 whilst the contemporary crowns and half-ci'OWns 

 have the correct orthography. The spelling of 

 the legend oh the sixpences and shillings was in- 

 tentional, and with a meaning, being inscribed in 

 an abridged form — gDor: hi. d : g : britt : rex 

 f: d: — the reduplication of the x was designed, 

 after classical precedent, to represent the plural 

 Britanniarum, i.e., Great Britain and Ireland. N. 



Odour from the Rainhow (Vol. iii,, p. 224.). — 

 I hope that I have found Jabltzbeku's note in 

 the following lines : 



" Like to that smell which oft our sensa descries 

 Within a field which long unploughiid lies, 

 Somewhat before the setting of the sun ; 

 And where the rainbow in the horizon 

 Doth pitch her tips ; or as when in the prime, 

 Tlie earth being troubled with a drought long time, 

 The hand of heaven his spongy clouds doth strain, 

 And throws into her lap a shower of rain j 

 She sondeth up (conceived from the sun) 

 A sweet perfume and exhalation." 



Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, Book i. Song 2. 

 [Clarke's Cabinet Series, 1845, p. 70.] 



C. Forbes. 



Odour from the Eainhow. — The following stanzas 

 are from a poem, called " The Blind Girl," in a 

 publicatioii by Pickering, 1845, oi Memorials of a 

 Tour, and Miscellaneous Poems, by Robert Snow, 

 Esq. Lond., 1845 :— 



" Once in our porch whilst I was resting, 

 To hear the rain-drops in their mirth. 

 You said you saw the rainbow cresting 

 The heavens with colour, based on earth : 



And I believe it fills the showers 

 With music ; and wht'U sweeter air 



Than common breathes from briar-rose bowers, 

 Methinks the Rainbow hath touched there." 



[We have reason to believe that the idea was sug- 

 gested to Mr. Snow neither from Bacon's Sj/lva, nor 

 from any of our English poets, but from a Greek 

 writer after the Christian era, referred to by Coleridge 

 in his Table Talk] 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



Mr. Hepworth Dixon, who is already favoiirably 

 known as the author of a Life nf Howard, has just pub- 

 lished IfiUiiim Penn, an Historical Blorjrapliy. It is 

 unquestionably a book of considerable talent; and even 

 those who may be most inclined to dissent from the 



