Nov. 15. 1851, 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



381 



It secures their cattle, they say, frfwn an evil eye, 

 from being elf-shot by fairies, &c. &c. 



Aberdoniensis. 



Sowling. — On the 2ncl of November, All Souls' 

 Day, it is in Sbropshire the custom for the village 

 children to go round to all their neighbours soiding, 

 as they call it, collecting small contributions, and 

 singing the following verses, which I took down 

 from two of the children themselves : — 



Soul ! soul ! fir a soul-cake ; 



Pray, good mistress, for a soul- cake. 



One for Peter, two for Paul, 



Tliree for Them wlw made us alL 



Soul ! soul ! for an apple or two ; 



If you've got no apples, pears will do. 



Up with your kettle, and down with your pan ; 



Give me a good big one, and I'll be gone. 



Soul ! soul 1 for a soul-cake ; 



Pray, good misti'ess, a soul-cake, &c. 



An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry, 

 Is a very good thing to make us merry. 



Soul ! soul ! &c. 

 The soul-cake referred to in the verses is a sort 

 of bun, which until lately it was an almost general 

 custom for persons to make, and to give to one 

 another on the 2nd of Noveml>er. Perhaps some 

 of your readers can state whether this custom 

 prevails in other counties in England. It seems 

 to be a remnant of the practice of collecting alms, 

 to be applied to the benefit of the souls of the 

 tleparted, for which especial masses and services 

 were formei'ly sung on All Souls' Day. 



W. Frasek. 



Pasquinade. — To the "Pasquinades" adduced 

 in Vol. iv., p. 292., I may add one of a different 

 character, though of older date, on a former Car- 

 dinal. On the decease of Pope Clement IX. in 1G69, 

 Cardinal Uona was named amongst those worthy of 

 the tiara, when a French Jesuit (Pore Dangieres), 

 in reply to a line inscribed, as usual upon those oc- 

 casions, on the statue of Pas(juin, " Papa Bona 

 sarebbe un solecisma," made the following epigi-am: 



" GramtnaticEe le^es plerumque Ecclesia spernit : 

 Forte erit lit liceat dice-re Papa Bona. 



. Vana solcecismi hl- te coiiturbat imago : 

 Esset Papa bonus si Bona P.ipa crit." 



The successful candidate, however, was Cardinal 

 Emilio Altieri, who assumed the name of Cle- 

 ment X., in April, 1C70 : Bona (Giov.) died in 

 October, 1G74. J. li. (Cork.) 



Monk and Cromwell Families. — It is a singular 

 fact, that an estate granted to George MonJi, 

 Duke of Albemarle, for restoring the inon/irchy, 

 wiis by intermarriage eventually vested in Oliver 

 Cromwell, Esq., of Cheshunt, who died in 1821 ; 



being then the last male descendant of the Pro- ' 

 tector. A SuESCttiBER. 



jy Israeli and Byron. — Lord Byron not only 

 "deeply underscored," in admiration, M. D'Israeli's- 

 sentence, as quoted Vol. iv., p. 99., but he also 

 reprofluced the same idea in his Monody on 

 Sheridan : 



" And Folly loves- the martyrdom of Fame." 



Alpred Gattt. 



iSucn'r^. 



ROMAN FUNERAL PILE. 



Did the Romans throw corn, pulse, or beans on 

 the flames of the funeral pile {rogits), or deposit 

 them with the bones and ashes of the deceased in 

 their sepulchres ? The Query is suggested by a 

 quantity of, to all appearance, calcined small field 

 beans having recently been found by me, in small 

 heaps, among a deposit of ashes embedded in sand, 

 in the perpendicular cutting of a sand-pit at Comb 

 Wood, near Kingston. The deposit is black,, 

 reduced to a fine powder, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the beans, homogeneous : it was perfectly- 

 distinct from the surrounding sand, and was about 

 two feet under the surface of the soil. For cen- 

 turies past Roman remains have been from time 

 to time discovered at Comb AA'ood, and it is knowa 

 to have been a Roman station. The Ibcality in 

 which I found the deposit is said to have been the 

 sepulchre of the station ; and from an- intelligent 

 person, engaged in excavating the sarrd, I learned; 

 that he occasionally came upon deposits similar to 

 that in question, containing baked, but unglazed,. 

 clay vessels ; some, of an oval form, about a 

 yard in circumference and nearly a foot in depth,. 

 and others of the size and somewhat of the form 

 of a fk)wer-pot. These vessels fall to piece* 

 after two or three days, through exposure to 

 the air. He had also found pieces of copper or 

 brass about an inch square, and of the thickness 

 of a penny, as also coins. 



Authorities (Virg. yEn. vr. 22.5. ; Stat. Theb. vi. 

 126. ; Lucan, ix. 175.) may be cited, showing that 

 perfumes, cups of oil, ornaments, clothes, dishes of 

 food, and other things supposed to be agreeable to 

 the deceased, were thrown upon the flames ; but I 

 do lujt find corn or beans specifically mentioned 

 as having been used ou these occasions. 



I may a<ld, that the field containing the sand- 

 pit (which is the projierty of His Royal Highness- 

 the Duke of Cambridge) is close to the road 

 leading by Putney Heath to Kingston, and n'A the 

 brow of the declivity of Comb Hill, overlooking 

 that ancient Saxon seat of royalty which is stated 

 to have been built out of the remains of the ad- 

 joining Roman station. 



John ap William ap John. 



Inner Temple, Nov. 1. 1851. 



