84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2nd s. VI. 135., July si. '68. 



Where reason must enlightened souls confute, 

 To common earth 'tis still forbidden fruit ; 

 For all in torrents his inventions flow, 

 And drown the little vales that lie below. 

 And yet so sweet, malice would silenced die ; 

 So perfect they could prejudice defy. 

 Daphnis! whose modestj' might justlj^ boast, 

 His errours least, his excellencies most : 

 Well might we blush at every sacred line, 

 To see a soul so humble, so divine." 



A slight allusion is made to his bliuduess — 



" (Like Tages) born a poet from the womb, 

 And sung himself from 's cradle to his tomb ! 

 Inspired with melody with his first breath, 

 Improving art and learning till his death. 



But when his age and fruit together ripe 

 (Of which blind Homer only was the type), 

 Tiresias-like he mounted up on high, 

 And scorned the filth of dull mortality. 

 Conversed with Gods, and graced their royal line, 

 All ecstasy, all rapture, all divine." 



The concluding stanzas run thus — 



Corydon. "Even tombs of stone in time will wear 

 away. 

 Brass pyramids are subject to decay ; 

 But lo ! the poet's fame shall shine 

 In each succeeding age. 

 Laughing at the baflled rage 

 Of envious enemies and destructive time. 



T/tj/rsis. " Rest, Phoenix! in thy Paradise above, 

 Thy" works enjoy a Paradise of love; 

 Tho' some with a rank emulous poison swell. 

 Others admire and praise, but none excell ; 

 May our poor rustic muse add ciphers to thy fame ; 

 Thy works are everlasting monument's to thy name." 



The author styles himself a late scholar of Eton, 



and his presumed name was Go 1. Is there 



any clue to the writer ? Cl. Hoppek. 



[The author of these lines was Charles Goodall, who 

 died at the early age of eighteen. Wood (Athente, iv. 

 256.) has the following notice of him : " Charles Goodall, 

 a most Jn>renious young man of his age, son of Dr. Charles 

 Goodall, fellow of the College of Physicians at London, 

 was born at St. Edmund Bury in Suflblk, educated at 

 Eton College, became a student at Oxford in Lent term, 

 1688, aged seventeen years, and soon after one of the 

 postmasters of Merton College, but soon cut oft" to the 

 great reluctancy of his tender parent, and of all those 

 who were acquainted with his pregnant parts. There are 

 extant of his compositions. Poems and Translations wn't- 

 ten ujmn Several Occasions, and to Several Persons. Lond. 

 1689 {Anon.^ He died much lamented on May 11, 1689, 

 and was buried in the south aisle of Merton College 

 church."]i 



KNOCKIN-STANE. 



It is well to preserve every relic of our ances- 

 tors — to note down the memorials of the past — 

 to keep in memory the customs of by-gone times, 

 many of which are fast fading away from the 

 minds of the present generation : among these may 

 be noted the method of preparing pot-barley in 



Scotland. 



four generations 



In all country families, some three or 

 back, before the invention of 

 barley-mills, they possessed a large mortar or 

 " knockin-stane," in which they shelled or decor- 

 ticated, or unhusked the grain, with a sti'ong 

 knochin-mell or wooden pestle. These mortars 

 were generally formed out of a close-grained or firm 

 sandstone, and were often placed in the butt of the 

 cottage, or at the dour-cheek, to be ready on all 

 occasions when barley was required for the ordi- 

 nary broth or kail of the peasantry — a standing 

 dish in Scotland, and very savoury and palatable, 

 if properly cooked, and compounded of a piece or 

 tiley of beef, mutton, or pork, a good strow of 

 shred kale or colewort, turnip, carrot, a handful of 

 oaten-meal for a W/ung-, and half a pound oi knocked 

 bear or barley ; or in quantity proportioned to the 

 size of the pot, or the number of the family. These 

 Scotch kail, or barley-broth, served up in plates of 

 earthenware, or in the " timmer trenchers," or 

 " pouther plates" of auld lang syne, and eaten or 

 supped with a dodgel of pease-and-barley meal 

 bannock, or oaten-meal cake, formed a very de- 

 licious ^ess — that is to say, if the cook is at all 

 up to her vocation, as before said : and the " kail- 

 suppers o' Fife," or of the Merse, never think they 

 get a dinner, where the kail is absent from the 

 board, however substantial may be other viands 

 placed there. To dyspeptics, our Scotch broth is 

 said to be deleterious, but we aver that a Scotch- 

 man will rather suffer the pains and penalties of 

 indigestion than forego his favourite kail. 



In our popular poetry, many allusions are made 

 to the kiiockin-stanes, as in that famous schoolboy 

 lilt : — 



" Davy Doits, the king o' loits. 



Fell owre the mortar stane, 

 Wlien a' the rest got butter-and-bread, 



Davy Doits got nane." 



Or, in the old song : — 



" My lairdships can yield me 

 As meikle a year, 

 As had us in pottage, 

 And good knockit heir." 



Many of those stones still remain about villages 

 and old farm places — some lying about among 

 rubbish — some turned bottom up by the doors of 

 cottages as a rustic seat — some built into cottage 

 walls or garden walls — some used as pig-troughs, 

 &c., &c. The other day we counted half a dozen 

 of those old mortars, in various situations, in our 

 village, and which there still serve to keep up the 

 remembrance of old patriarchal times. Is there 

 not one in the British Museum ? Menxanthes. 



Chirnside. 



BASE COIN IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



The following letters are extracted from the 



public records of Wells, and may prove of suffi- 



