Qn4.§, No 20, May 17. *56.) 
393 
Fairies. — The following passage occurs in 
Shaftesbury’s Characteristics, edition 1727, vol. i. 
p.6.: 
“ Were it needful I could put your lordship in mind of 
an eminent, learned, and truly Christian prelate you 
once knew, who could have given you a full account of 
his belief in fairies.” 
Who was the prelate here alluded to ? 
Cuaries WYuie. 
[The prelate was Dr. Edward Fowler, Bishop of Glou- 
cester. There is reprinted in Morgan’s Phenix Britan- 
nicus, p. 545. a curious tract on fairies, entitled, “ An 
Aecount of Anne Jefferies, now living in Cornwall, who 
was fed for six months by a small sort of airy people 
called Fairies; and of the strange and wonderful cures 
she performed with salves and medicines she received 
from them, for which she never took one penny of her 
patients: in a Letter from Moses Pitt to the Right Rev. 
Father in God Dr. Edward Fowler, Lord Bishop of Glou- 
cester: London, printed for Richard Cumberland, 1696.” 
Morgan tells us, that the copy from which he reprinted 
it, had at the bottom of its title-page this N.B. in manu- 
script: “Recommended by the Right Rey. to his friend 
Mrs. Eliz. Rye.” He means, no doubt, the Bishop of 
Gloucester, who, as an orthodox folk-lorist, not only 
tacked to his creed this article of belief in fairies, but as a 
sequence upon it that of ghosts. Upon this alarming 
topic Dr. Fowler had frequent altercations with Mr. Jus- 
tice Powell. ‘The bishop was a zealous defender of ghosts ; 
the justice somewhat sceptical and distrustful of their 
being. Ina visit the bishop one day made his friend the 
justice told him, that since their last disputation, he had 
had ocular demonstration to convince him of the exist- 
ence of ghosts. “How!” says the bishop, “ What! ocu- 
lar demonstration? I am glad, Mr. Justice, you are 
become a convert. I beseech you, let me know the 
whole story at large.” “ My lord,” answers the justice, 
“as I lay one night in my bed, about the hour of twelve, 
I was wak’d by an uncommon noise, and heard some~ 
thing coming up stairs, and stalking directly towards my 
room, I drew the curtain, and saw a faint glimmering 
light enter my chamber, [‘ Of a blue colour, no doubt,’ 
says the bishop!] of a pale blue, (answers the justice) ; 
the light was followed by a tall, meagre, and stern per- 
sonage, who seemed about seventy, in a long dangling 
rug gown, bound round with a broad leathern girdle; his 
beard thick and grizly; a large furr cap on his head, and 
a long staff in his hand; his face wrinkled, and of a dark 
sable hue. I was struck with the appearance, and felt 
some unusual shocks; for you know the old saying I made 
use of in court when part of.the lanthorn upon West- 
minster Hall fell down in the midst of our proceedings, 
to the no small terror of one or two of my brethren: 
*Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
Impavidum ferient ruine.’ 
But to go on—It drew near and stared me full in the 
face.” “And did not you speak to it (interrupted the 
bishop)? There was money hid, or murder committed, 
to be sure.” “ My lord, I did speak to it.” “ And what 
answer, Mr. Justice?” “My lord, the answer was, not 
without a thump of the staff, and a shake of the lanthorn, 
that he was the watchman of the night, and came to give 
me notice that he had found the street-door open, and 
that unless I rose and shut it, 1 might chance to be robbed 
before break of day.” The judge had no sooner ended, 
than the bishop Gaaiioaed 
Brabangons. — Why were the mercenary sol- 
diers and marauders in the twelfth century called 
a . 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Brabangons, and Routiers or Cotteraux? Whatis 
the meaning and derivation of these words ? 
W.A.H. 
{A Brabancgon means one from Brabant. The Braban- 
gons were troops of adventurers or bandits, who made a 
trade of war, and lent themselyes to those who paid 
them best; and who were so called because, for the most 
part, they were from Brabant. They were also called 
Routiers, because they were always on the route, from 
one place to another as they were commanded. Father 
Daniel says they were also called Cotereaux. “The king 
of England, irritated at the rising in Brittany, sent the 
Brabangons to ravage the lands of Raoul de Fougeres; 
but the people of Raoul, having cut in pieces those who 
were sent with provisions to the Brabancons, the rest 
were obliged to retire” (Lebineau). See further, the 
Dictionary of Trévoux. These foreign troops were paid 
out of the privy purse, and were really a set of freebooters 
of all nations, ready to embrace any side for hire, and 
were mostly enlisted by our kings in their disputes with 
the barons. ‘They were employed by William Rufus, 
Stephen, Henry II., and John. ‘See a short notice of 
ae Grose’s Military Antiquities, vol. i. p. 56., edit. 
786. 
Cornish Floral Fete.—In the course of this 
week the Flora-day Féte (May 8), will be held 
at Helstone, in Cornwall. We shall feel obliged if 
any of your correspondents, who may be ac- 
quainted with the antiquities of Cornwall, can tell 
us the origin of this peculiar custom. On this 
occasion the lower orders form parties, and, pre- 
ceded by a band of music, dance in couples into 
the country, where they partake of refreshments. 
As they are returning into the town, they are met 
by the “ Halantons,” singing a ballad beginning 
with : — 
“ Robin Hood and Little John, 
They both are gone to fair, O; 
And we will go to the merry green woods, 
To see what they do there, O.” 
At a later hour in the day, the higher classes 
dance through the streets. and houses, and the 
féte terminates with a ball in the evening. 
Tre, Pow anp Pen. 
{This festival is more popularly designated “The 
Furry,” respecting which much has been written in Pol- 
whele’s Cornwall, vol. i. pp. 41—44., edit. 1816; Brand’s 
Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 223. (Bohn’s edition) ; and 
Hone’s Every-Day Book, vol. ii. p. 648. It is evidently 
of Pagan origin. Polwhele says: “In the Furry of the 
Lizard, and in the Furry of Helston, we recognise the 
religious gratitude of our Pagan ancestors. The Furry 
has been, from time immemorial, celebrated at Helston 
on the 8th of May. That Furry is a corruption of Flora, 
is a vulgar error; though there is doubtless a correspon- 
dence, or rather a resemblance, between the festival of 
Flora and the Furry. I scruple not to deduce Furry 
from the old Cornish word fer, a fair or jubilee.” A few 
stanzas of the Furry song will be found in Polwhele as 
well as in Brand. ] 
“ Disronavit p finem belli.” —Will any of your 
readers kindly explain to me the meaning of these 
words? They occur in the Testa de Nevill, and 
explain the tenure by which certain lands were 
