Nov. 22. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



405 



is similar ; but it is not a psalm, it is a dirge. I 

 send you a copy of one in use at Lyntou, sent to 

 me by my sister. 



Farewell all, my parents* dear, 



And all my friends, farewell ! 

 I hope I'm going to that place 



Where Christ and saints do dwell. 



Oppress'd with grief long time I've been, 



5ly bones cleave to my skin, 

 My flesh is wasted quite away 



With pain that I was in, 



Till Christ his messenger did send. 



And took my life away, 

 To mingle with my mother earth, 



And sleep with fellow clay. 



Into thy hands I give my soul, 



Oh ! cast it not aside, 

 But favor me and hear my prayer. 



And be my rest and guide. 



Affliction hath me sore oppress'd, 



Brought me to death in time ; 

 Lord ! as thou hast promised. 



Let me to life return. 



For when that Christ to judgment comes, 



He unto us will say. 

 If we His laws observe and keep, 



"Ye blessed, come away." 



How blest is he who is prepar'd. 



He fears not at his death ; 

 Love fills his heart, and hope his breast. 



With joy he yields his breath. 



Vain world, farewell ! I must be gone, 



I cannot longer stay ; 

 My time is spent, my glass is run, 



God's will I must obey. 



Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of 

 the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral ; but 

 the rhyme is not so well kept. 



Wm. Dubeant Cooper. 



Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition. — There 

 is in this town a little girl, about thirteen years 

 old, in great request among the poor as a charmer 

 in cases of burns or scalds. Lnmediately on the 

 accident the girl is fetched from her work in the 

 mill ; on her arrival she kneels down by the side 

 of the sulFerer, mutters a few words, and touches 

 the individual, and the people believe and alBrm 

 that the sufferings immediately cease, as she has 

 charmed the fire out of the parts injured. The 

 surgeon's aid is then called in to heal the sores. 

 Tiie girl aflirms that she found it out herself by 

 reading her Bible, of which the wonder-working 

 charm is a verse. She will lake no reward, nor 

 may any of her relatives; if she or they were, her 



* Sister or brother, as the case may be. 



power would be at an end. She is an ordinary, 

 merry, playful girl ; as a surgeon I often come 

 across her in such accidents. 



I know some other such charmers in Cheshire, 

 but none so young. One, an old man, stops 

 bleedings of all kinds by a similar charm, viz. a 

 verse from the Bible. But he does not require to 

 be at the patient's side, his power being equally 

 eflicacious at the distance of one hundred miles, 

 as close by. E. W. L. 



Congleton. 



iHinar flatii. 



Talented. — Sterling, in a letter to Carlyle, ob- 

 jects to the use of this word by his biographer 

 in his Sartor Resartus, calling it a hustings and 

 newspaper word, brought in, as he had heard, by 

 O'Connell. J. O'G. 



Anagram. — Sir J. Stephen, in his essay on The 

 French Benedictines, gives an anagram of Father 

 Finavdis of the Latinized name of that great bib- 

 liophagist Magliabechi : — Antonius Magliabechius 

 — Is unus bibliotheca magna. 



In the same essay he says that Mabillon called 

 Magliabechi " IVIuseum inambulans, et viva qusedam 

 bibliotheca." Possibly this is the origin of our 

 expression " a walking dictionary." J. O'G. 



Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations. — I beg to 

 inform your correspondent who suggested such a 

 publication as a Dictionary of Hackneyed Quo- 

 tations, that I commenced such a work some time 

 ago, and hope before long to have it ready for the 

 press. 



Every common quotation or familiar proverb 

 from the poets will be ranged with the context 

 under its respective author, while an alphabetical 

 index will facilitate reference to any particular 

 passage. I doubt not the readers of your valuable 

 periodical will assist me whenever I am at fault as 

 to the authorship of any line or "household word ;" 

 and I should feel at the present time much obliged 

 if any one could tell me where 



" Though lost to sight, to memory dear," 

 may be found ? H. A. B. 



Trinity College, Cambridge. 



caucitfiS. 



MASTERS AND MARSHALS OF THE CEItEMONIES ? 



How are these offices now held ? By letters 

 patent of the crown, or by the lord chamberlain's 

 nomination ? 



Where can any list of these offices be found? 

 The office of Master of the Ceremonies, whose duty 

 it is to arrange the reception of all foreign minis- 

 ters, and their departures, was formerly an office 

 of considerable importance. In the reign of King 

 Charles I. it was held seemingly by grants ironi 



