212 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 99. 



this saying in Montaigne's Works, I hope he will 

 I be kind enough to send an " Eureka ! " to " Notes 

 AND Queries," as by referring to pp. 278. 451. of 

 your second volume he will see that 1 am interested 

 in the question. 



I am still inclined to think that the metaphor, 

 in its p7-esent concise form at all events, does not 

 belong to Montaigne, though it may owe its origin 

 to some passage iu the Essays. See, for example, 

 one in book i. cliap. 24. ; another in book ii. 

 chap 10., in Ilazlitt's second edition, 1845, 

 pp. 54. 186. 



But I have not forgotten Montaigne's motto, 

 " Que scjais-je ? " The chances are that I am 

 ■wrong. 1 should certainly like to see his right to 

 the saying satisfoctorily proved by reference to 

 book, chapter, and page. C. Forbes. 



Temple. 



At the conclusion of the preface to the thick 

 8vo. edition of the Elegant Extracts, Verse, pub- 

 lished by C. Dilly, 1796, you will find these 

 words : — 



" I will conclude my preface with the ideas of Mun- 

 tatgne. ' I liave here only made a nosegay of culled 

 flowers, and liave brought nothing of my own hut tlie 

 thread that ties them.' " 



R. S. S. 

 56. Fenchurch Street. 



Table Book (Vol. i., p. 215.).— See Transactions 

 of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxi., Antiq. pp. 

 3 — 15, and some specimens in the museum of the 

 Academy, (Proceedings, vol. iii. p. 74.) R. II. 



BriwingaUe (Vol. iv., p. 22.). — I cannot find 

 this word in any authority to which I have access. 

 I derive it from Sax. b)ii])an, to brew, and 

 Gape], a tax ; and think it the same as tolsester, 

 a duty payable to the lord of the manor by ale- 

 brewers, mentioned in Charta 55 Hen. III.: "Tol- 

 sester cerevisie, hec est pro quolibet braccino per 

 annum unam lagenam cerevisie." F. J. 



Simnels (Vol. iii., pp.390. 506.). — T. very sen- 

 sibly suggests that Lambert Simnel is a nickname 

 derived from a kind of cake still common in (he 

 north of England, and eaten in Lent. I have 

 never met with Simnel as a surname, and have 

 actually been told, as a child, that the Simnels were 

 called after Lambert ; which is so far worthy of 

 note as that it connects the two together in tradi- 

 tion, though, no doubt, as T. suggests, it is Lan.- 

 bert who was called after the Simnels. As a child 

 I took the liberty to infer, in consequence, that 

 Parkins (gingerbread of oatmeal instead of flour, 

 and also common in the north of England) were 

 called after Perkin Warbeck. I am aware of the 

 superior claim of Peterkin now ; but the coin- 

 cidence may perhaps amuse your correspondents. 



A Ships Berth (Vol. iv., p. 83.).— I would sug- 

 gest to your correspondent S. S. S. (2) another 

 derivation lor our word be7-th. 



The present French herceau, a cradle, was in 

 the Norman age written her'^, as appears in a 

 ]\1SS. Life of Is;. Nicholas in the Bodleian Li- 

 brary. This Life has been printed at Bonn by 

 Dr. Nicolaus Delius, 1850; but in the print the 

 character 5 has been represented by the ordinary 

 z. This is a pity, because, as all know who are 

 familiar with our MSS. of the twelfth and thir- 

 teenth centuries, this figure 5 took not unfre- 

 quently the place of -g (th) ; and on this account 

 it is a character which ought to be scrupulously 

 preserved in editing. Ber'^ then was probably 

 pronounced berth, or possibly with a little more of 

 the sibilant than is now found in the latter. How 

 easily the sibilant and the th run into one another 

 may be seen by the third person singular of our 

 present Indicative : 



saith . . . says, 

 doth . • . does, 

 hopeth . . . hopes. 



J.E. 



Oxford, August 2. 1851. 



Suicides buried in Cross-roads (Vol. iv., p. 116.). 

 — P. ]\I. IM. makes inquiry respecting a prac- 

 tice formerly observed of burying murdere7-s in 

 cross-roads. I have often heard that suicides 

 were formerly interred in such places, and that a 

 stake used to be di-iven through the body. I 

 know of two places in the neighbourhood of Boston 

 in Lincolnshire, where such burials are stated to 

 have taken place. One of these is about a mile 

 and a half .south of Boston, on what is called 

 the low road to Freislon ; a very ancient haio- 

 thorn tree marks the spot, and the tree itself is 

 said to have sprung i'rom the stake which was 

 driven through the body of the self-murderer. 

 The tradition was told me sixty years since, and 

 the interment was then said to have occurred a 

 hmid/^ed years ago ; the suicide's name was at that 

 time traditionally remembered, and was told to 

 me, but I cannot recall it. The tree exhibits 

 marks of great age, and is preserved with care ; 

 it still bears " may," as the flower of the white- 

 thorn is called, and haics in their season. 



The second grave (as it is reported) of this 

 kind is on the high road from Boston to Wain- 

 fleet, at the intersection of a road leading to But- 

 terwick, at a place called SjAltcd Hill; near the 

 site of the ancient hospital or infirmary, wdiich was 

 attached to the Priory of St. James at Freiston. 

 This sp«t is f.nnous in the traditions of the neigh- 

 bourhood as the scene of the appearance of a 

 sprite or hobgoblin, called the " Spittal Hill Tux ;" 

 which takes, in the language of the district, the 

 .shape of a shag foal, and is said to be connected 

 with the history of the suicide buried there. 



