190 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 98. 



tbe Gospel. No rubric now appears to recognise 

 it? 



7. At what period did the practice of playing 

 "a voluntary" upon the organ during the col- 

 lection of the alms originate? And what is the 

 earliest record of the alms being collected after the 

 communion service and before the sermon, and not 

 after the prayer for the Church Militant ? 



S. P. II. T. 



[The Editor will be happy to insert a reply pointing 

 out sources of information. It is obvious tbat this is 

 all which the limits of tlie work and the claims of other 

 correspondents and readers will allow, when questions 

 arc proposed which contain many, and some of them 

 difficult and disputed, points.] 



SIR WALTEE RALETGH liN VIRGINIA. 



I remember having read, some time ago, a 

 statement in the public prints, to the effect that 

 the popular belief, as to Sir Walter Raleigh having 

 visited Virginia, was iinfijunded : tlie fact being, 

 that he had projected such a voyage, and that the 

 vessels equipped by him for that purpose had 

 actually reached that country ; but that the illus- 

 trious voyager himself was prevented by some 

 circumstance from conducting the expedition. 

 This statement seemed to have been elicited by 

 one of the subjects proposed for tlie decorations 

 of the new Houses of Parliament, namely, " Sir 

 Walter Raleigh landing in Virginia," and the idea 

 was exploded with so much assurance that I had 

 ceased to give it any credence. I find, however, 

 in riallam's Lileratia-e of Europe, 2nd edition, 

 vol. iii. p. 179., that the fact of Sir AV^ilter's 

 having been in Virginia is relied upon by that 

 historian, in the following passage : 



" Harriott, the companion of Sir Walter Raleiph in 

 Virginia, and the friend of the Earl of Northumberland, 

 in whose house he spent the latter part of his life, was 

 destined to make the last great discovery in the pure 

 science of algebra. " 



Are there any data to support Mr. Ilallam's 

 opinion ? Such is his general accuracy, that i'cw 

 would be disposed to question any statement de- 

 liberately put forward by him. In this instance, 

 however, he may have adopted, without inquiry, 

 the traditi(m which has been current for the last 

 two hundred and fifty years. Henky II. Beeen. 



St. Lucia, July, 1851. 



134. Wfe of St. Patrick. — WAX some one of 

 your Irish contributors inform me when the 18th 

 of March began to be celebrated in honour of S. 

 Sheelagh, and the ground on wliich it is asserted 

 that she was the wife of St. Patrick? I cannot 



find that St. Patrick was married ; I am aware, 

 however, that the silence of the usual authorities 

 goes but a little way to disprove the jiopular tra- 

 dition, as in days when women were but beginning 

 to assume their present equable station, the mention 

 of a wife at any time would be only casual. 



W. Dn. 



135. Meaning of Mop. — In the midland 

 counties, servants are hired by the year in the fol- 

 lowing manner. On the several Tuesdays about Mi- 

 chael mas, all who wish for engagements collect to- 

 gether at the different towns and villages, whither 

 the mastei's resort for the purpose of hiring them. 

 Those meetings which occur previous to ISIichael- 

 mas day are called statute-fairs, while those which 

 take place after that day are termed mops. 

 Query, What is the derivation of this word ? I 

 have been told that the later assemblies are so 

 called because they consist of the inferior servants 

 who were not engaged before, — such as use a mop 

 instead of sweeping clean and scouring. A friend 

 conjectures that the name implies "an indiscrimi- 

 nate mopping-up of all sorts, the greater number 

 of servants having gone before, and there being 

 only a few left." I have no book to which I can 

 refer tijr information on this subject. J. H. C. 



Adelaide, South Australia. 



136. William Lovel of Tarerd Rawson. — In 

 Ilutchins's Dorset, vol. i. p. 91., is a pedigree of 

 Lovel of Tarrant Rawson carried back to the later 

 years of Hen. VII. In that genealogy the first 

 person is described as William Lovel of Tarent 

 Rawson, alias ^^ Antiocheston." Under what circum- 

 stances did he come by this cognomen ? Was 

 he connected with any branch of the house of 

 Yvery, and in what manner? 



The arms are Barry nebule of six O. and G., 

 quartering 2. Arg. a cheveron G. between three 

 ermines ; 3. Erni. a cheveron sab. ; 4. Erin, on a 

 chief indented G. three ducks A. 



Crest : a fox az. bezante collared with a coronet 

 O. Aalanuensis. 



137. Cagots. — Can any of your readers give 

 me any information about the Cagots in the south 

 of France, whose history has been written by 

 Mons. Michel, in a work entitled Sur les Baces 

 Maudits ? There seems to be great doubt about 

 their origin ; are they remnants either of the Sa- 

 racens or the Paulicians ? They still, I am told, 

 exist in the deep Pyrenean vallies, and are a most 

 degraded race. Is there any analogy between 

 them and the Cretins of the Alps, with the dif- 

 ference, that in the Alps Cretinism is regarded 

 with kindness, in the Pyrenees with scorn ? If so, 

 does this point to the existence of a Celtic and 

 non-Celtic element in the races inhabiting the 

 respective mountain chains? idiotcy being reve- 

 renced especially among the Celtic races. Then, 



