Sept. 27. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



243 



pp. 466. 472. " Tale of a tub," like Conte de peau 

 d'ane, Conte de la Cigogne, Conte de la Mere Oie, 

 denotes a marvellous or cock and bull stoi-y — 

 Conte gras, Conte pour rire. There is no doubt that 

 Jean-Jaques' miniature French opera, LeToimelier, 

 was founded, though through certain strainers well 

 refined, on the wicked Milesian fiction of the 

 African jester : 



" Un tonnelier vieux et jaloux 

 Ainiait une jeune bergere : 

 II voiilait etre son opoiix, 



jMais il n'avait pas su lui plaire : 



TravalUez, travailluz, boii tonnelier ! 

 Kaccommodez votre cuvier !" 



George Metiviek. 



Wyle Cop (Vol. i\-., p. 116.).— May not Wyle 

 Cop be derived from the Anglo-Saxon wijlle, well 

 or fountain, and cop, head or top? Salopian can 

 perhaps judge whether '■'■ Fountain Hill" or " Well 

 Head" would be at all applicable to the Wyle Cop 

 in Shrewsbury. Thos. Lawrence. 



Ashby de la Zouch. 



Visiting Cards (Vol. iv., pp. 133. 195.).— 

 " Marriage a-la-Mode," Plate IV., supplies an 

 additional proof of playing cards having done duty 

 as Visiting Cards and Cards of Invitation during 

 the middle of the last century. There are several 

 lying on the floor, in the right-hand corner of the 

 picture. One is inscribed — " Count Easset begs 

 to no how Lade Squander sleapt last nite." 



C. Forbes. 



Temple. 



Absalom's Hair' (Vol. iv., p. 131.). — Your cor- 

 respondent P. P. remarks in the number of "Notes 

 AND Qderies" for August 23, that " Absalom's 

 long hair had nothing to do with his death ; his 

 head itself, and not the hair upon it, having been 

 caught in the boughs of the tree." Even allowing 

 the silence of Scri[)ture upon the matter, the 

 tradition has certainly the basis of respectable 

 antiquity to rest on. Bishop J. Taylor thus 

 writes in his Second Sermon upon St. Matthew, 

 xvi. 26. adfineni : — 



" The Doctors of the Jews report that when Absa- 

 lom hanged among the oaks by the hair of the hear!, he 

 seemed to see under him Hell gapin^^ wide ready to 

 receive him ; and he durst rtnt cut off the hnir that in- 

 tangled him, for fear be should fall into tlie liorrid Lake, 

 whose portion is flames and torment, but cliose to pro- 

 tract bis misi-rable life a few minutes in tbat ))ain of 

 posture, and to abide the stroke of bis pursuing ene- 

 mies. His condition was sad when bis arts of remedy 

 were so vain." 



IlT. 



Warmington, Sept. ."5. 1851. 



MS. Book of Sentencex (Vol. iv., p. 188.). — 

 The name of the Durham monk referred to by 



W. S. W. is more probably " Swallwell " than 

 " Wall well," because the former is the name of a 

 township or vill in Durham county. E. S. 



The Winchester Execution (Vol. iv., p. 191.). — 

 The narrative related from memory by M. W, B. 

 bears on its face strong indications of fiction : ac- 

 cording to that statement a sheepstealer was " some 

 years ago " condemned to death ; a " warrant" for 

 his execution was made out, but mislaid, by whom 

 does not appear. After the lapse of years, during 

 which the prisoner had been employed in " e.K- 

 ecuting commissions in distant places " for the 

 gaoler, and in obtaininj a hisrh character for his 

 amiable and moral conduct, the fatal warrant 

 arrives, and is " forwarded to the high sheriff, and 

 to the delinquent himself," who is forthwith hanged. 



Any one acquainted with the course of practice 

 at assizes at the period to which this anecdote 

 refers, must be aware that no " warrant," in the 

 sense in which the word is here used, was ever 

 made out in such cases. The prisoner is legally 

 in the custody of the sheriff when sentence is 

 passed in court, and he leaves the court in that 

 same custody. The judgment so pronounced is 

 itself the warrant, though a short memorandum or 

 note of it is oflicially made at the time ; unless the 

 judge reprieves or suspends the sentence, no 

 sheriff waits for any further authority, and as for 

 the unfortunate delinquent, no judge, sheriff, or 

 gaoler ever supposed that any copy of a warrant 

 was to be handed to the prisoner himself! During 

 the interval between sentence and e.xecution, if 

 there be no reprieve or release from imprisonment 

 by the authority of the executive, the prisoner is, 

 and always has been, kept by the sheriff in salvu 

 et arcid custodid in the county gaol. The idea of 

 an employment for years in rambling about the 

 country on the gaoler's errands, is a preposterous 

 figment, composed by some novelist who was un- 

 acquainted with the needful machinery for giving 

 an air of verisimilitude to his story. The legend 

 seems to be a version of the fate of Sir W. Raleigh 

 ada[)ted to low life ; as in his case the scene is laid 

 at Winchester, but the machinery and decorations 

 are not contrived with a due regard to probability. 



" Quodcunque ossendis mihl sic, incredulus odi." 



E.S. 



Loches MSS. (Vol. ill., p. 337.). — A good ac- 

 count of Locke's IVISS. is to be found in Bhikey's 

 History of Metaphysics. They were in the j)OS- 

 session of the Forster family, whose representative. 

 Dr. Forster, ]\LD., is now, or was very lately, re- 

 siding at Bruges. jEgrotus. 



Peal of Bells (Vol. i., p. 154.).— The definition 

 of a peal, viz., " a performance of above 5,000 

 changes," was recently confirmed to me by the two 

 folhiwing inscriptions, which I read in the belfry 

 of the curfew tower at Windsor : — 



