2-"i S. VI. 139., Aug. 7. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



119 



the same time, and might have contributed it. His 

 hatred to the great statesman is well known, and 

 his atrocious apologue of " Fire, Famine, and 

 Slaughter, a War Eclogue," which appeared in a 

 newspaper of the day. Famine says : 



"Sisters! Sisters! who sent you here ? " 

 Slaughter replies to Fire : 



" I will -whisper it in her ear." 



Fire answers : 



" No ! no ! no ! 

 Spirits hear what spirits tell, 

 'Twill make a holiday in Hell." 



Famine adds, after much similar dialogue : 



" Letters four do form his name ; 

 He let me loose and cried, ' Halloo ! ' 

 To him alone the praise is due." 



The whole is terrific ; but it was written in 

 1796, when the author was young, a republican, 

 and a most imaginative poet. 



In a more genial mood, Coleridge speaks of the 

 bibacity of the great statesman, and of the extra- 

 vagant gaming of his distinguished rival. Fox. He 

 concludes his didactic poem on " Imitation," by 

 saying : 



" On Folly every fool his talent tries ; 

 It asks some toil to imitate the wise ; 

 Though few like Fox can speak— like Pitt can think — 

 Yet all like Fox can game — like Pitt can duink." 



James Elmes. 



Coathupe's Writing Fluid (2"^ S. vi. 47.) — I 

 have tried to make ink according to the above re- 

 ceipt given in " N. & Q.," and have not succeeded. 

 Can your correspondent say where I have failed ? 

 I proceeded as follows: — To one pint and two 

 wine-glasses of soft water, I added 1 oz. borax 

 (powdered), and 2 oz. bruised shellac. These I 

 boiled in a tin vessel covered with a plate, until 

 all was dissolved. When mixture had cooled, 

 three or four hours afterwards, I strained it 

 through a piece of fine muslin (not having filter- 

 ing paper at hand), and added an ounce of dis- 

 solved gum. Then placed it on the fire as before ; 

 and as it became hot, added about 1 oz. of lamp- 

 black, stirring the mixture till it boiled. I then 

 removed it from the fire ; but findino- that it was ! 

 only a brownish black, I added about another | 

 ounce of lamp-black, and boiled it again ; then i 

 poured it into a pitcher, and left it till the following 

 morning. The result was then found to be a 

 blackish-brown liquid, with a heavy sediment of , 

 lamp-black, &c. The lamp-black had, in fact, 

 only mixed mechanically from the boiling and 

 stirring, and not combined chemically as the co- 

 louring matter of ink should do. V. S. D. 



The Blue Blaahel (•2"" S. vi. G5.)— Fennecuick's 

 Ilisloricul Account of the Blue Blanket, or, Crafts- 

 men's Baiiucr (17'22), was reprinted at Edinburgh 

 in 182G, with plates repiesculing the arms of the 



incorporated trades and the celebrated " Blue 

 Blanket," or " Pennon of the Crafts of Edinburgh." 



T. G. S. 



Edinburgh. 



Medical Men at Funerals (2°* S. v. 477.) — 

 Such was the custom in this city until the close 

 of the last century, when the following circum- 

 stance caused it to be discontinued. Dr. Long- 

 field, then an eminent physician here, was as 

 usual attending the funeral of one of his patients, 

 going to be interred at Christ Church. As the 

 mournful cortege passed by the Exchange, a witty 

 cobbler named Bounce, whose habitat was in this 

 locality, suddenly popped his head out of his stall, 

 and thus addressed the doctor : " Fine morning, 

 Doctor ; I perceive you are carrying home your 

 work." Since which time medical men have not 

 attended funerals here. It is, however, usual in 

 some of the towns in the county for the apothe- 

 caries as well as the doctors to attend, wearing 

 scarves and hatbands of white linen tied with 

 black or white lutestring, according as the de- 

 ceased may have been married or not. R. C. 



Cork. 



" Dance the hays " (2""* S. vi. 90.) — H. inquires 

 the meaning of "to dance the hays," and suggests 

 "haze" as an amendment. "To dance the hay or 

 hays," a term well known to the dancing-masters 

 in the dancing days of George HI., and the old 

 quadrilles of the last century, is to dance in a ring, 

 like dancing round hay-cocks. Shakspeare says : 



" 1 will plaj' on the table to these worthies, 

 And let them dance the hay ;" 



and Michael Drayton has it : — 



" This maids think on the hearth they see. 

 When fires well nigh consumed be, 

 There dancing hays by two and three." 



James Elmes. 



Dean Swift (2°'^ S. vi. 77.) — In reply to H. W. 

 I beg to say that it was not I, but the Rev. J. F. 

 Ennis, Curate of St. Catharine's in Dublin, who 

 acted as " interrogator " on the occasion alluded 

 to. He informed me in 1848 of his conversation 

 with the old woman anent Dean Swift, and he 

 probably mentioned some other points which have 

 since passed from my memory. I admit that it 

 was not, strictly speaking, correct to say that the 

 old woman " lately died." Your readers, however, 

 may remember that my communication referred 

 to men and incidents of the last century ; and 

 when, in a postscript, I used the word " lately " 

 in connexion with the death of one who remem- 

 bered Swift in 1740, I meant comparaticehj lately. 

 I am not certain as to the precise age of the old 

 woman. The conversation took place probably 

 about the year 1835. 



William John Fitz-Pateick. 



