2'"« S. VI. 149., Nov. 6. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



371 



seem 



considers that, although his compositions 

 to us coarse," yet he " suspects they contain much 

 idiomatic expression." James £lmes. 



20. Burney Street, Greenwich. 



Minor iJoterf. 



Mermaids in Scotland, 1688. — Upon looking 

 over a copy of the Aberdeen Almanack, or New 

 Prognostication for the Year 1688, which has re- 

 cently fallen into my hands, I found at the end 

 thereof the following singular intimation, which 

 I have thought may interest some of the readers 

 of " N. & Q.," viz. : — 



« To conclude for this year, 1688. Near the place where 

 the famous Dee payeth "his Tribut to the German Ocean, 

 if curious Observers of ivonderfull things in Nature, will be 

 pleased thither to resort, the 1, 13, and 29 of May ; and 

 on diverse other days in the ensuing Summer ; as also in 

 the Harvest tyme, to the 7 and 14 October, they will un- 

 doubtedly see a pretty Company of Mar-Maids, creatures 

 of adinirnhle beauty, and likewise hear their charming 

 sweet Melodious Voices 



" In well tun'd measures and harmonious Lay's 

 Extoll their Maker, and his Bounty Praise; 

 That Godly, Honest Men, in every thing. 

 In quiet peace niav live, God Save the King. 

 F1I6N8I8 S quod Forbes." 



T. G. S. 

 Edinburgh. 



Chaiwer's " Balade of Gode Coiinsaile." — Look- 

 ing over Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer 

 lately, I was attracted to the foregoing (p. 131.). 

 And an interpretation of a line in this excellent 

 little poem has suggested itself, which I would be 

 glad to submit to the correction of some of your 

 critical readers. The first stanza runs thus : — 



" Flee from the prees, and dwell with sooth fastnesse 

 Suffice unto thy good, tho' it be small. 

 For hord hath hale, and Clymbing tykelnesse, 

 Prees hath envye, and wele blundeth o'er all. 

 Savour no more than thee byhove shall. 

 Rede well thy self, that other folk canst rede. 

 And trouthe thee shall deliver, it is no drede." 



My suggestion refers to the fourth line of the 

 above ; and especially the first clause of it, " Prees 

 hath envye," wherein, I think, the meaning of the 

 first word as spelled is quite different from the 

 meaning of the same word in the first line. Look- 

 ing into the Glossary attached to this volume, I 

 find but one meaning given for prees, viz. " press 

 or crowd :" and this may well be the meaning of 

 the word in the first line : " Flee from the crowd 

 or turmoil of life." But in the fourth line, I 

 would be disposed to take "prees" (if the spelling 

 be correct) to stand for a different word alto- 

 gether, and to be .synonymous with " pre-ess," pre- 

 eminence : rjuasi prtcesse, " to be bci'oro," or "go 

 before others." 1 submit that the sense and con- 

 text rather sustain my view : the clitniix would 

 seem to run thus : " hoarding is hateful, climbing, 



or ambition, a ticklesome thing ; and pre-emin- 

 ence when attained brings with it envy." Whereas 

 to say that jostling in a crowd brings envy, seems 

 an interpretation lacking the concise point of the 

 rest of the dicta of this quaint poem. I shall feel 

 obliged if any of your readers, out of the hybrid 

 language which England had in use in the days of 

 Chaucer, could furnish me with any other ex- 

 ample of such a sense for the word '■'■ prees" — if, 

 indeed, it should not be read "pre-esse:" thus, 

 " Pre-esse hath envy," &c. ; reading presse as a 

 dissyllable. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



The Feast of Feasts : Modern Policies. — I 

 send you a note from a work out of the library of 

 the late Dr. Bliss. It may be useful to some stu- 

 dent in biography. The work is 



" The Feast of Feasts ; or, the Celebration of the Sacred 

 Nativity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

 Grounded upon the Scriptures, and confirmed by the 

 Practice of the Christian Church in all Ages." Oxford, 

 printed by Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the Vniversity, 

 1644. 



Dr. Bliss in a note states : — 



" Fisher, ' Edward,' Bodleian Catalogue, 1843, vol. ii., p. 

 50., ascribed to Fisher by Bp. Barlow in a MS. note to his 

 copy. 



"Edward Fisher, a Royalist and a Gentleman, was the 

 eldest son of Sir Edward Fisher of Mickleton in Gloces- 

 tershire, descended from an ancient family of that name 

 of Fisherwyke in Staffordshire ; became a Gentleman 

 Commoner of Brasenose Coll., 25 August, 1627, Bachelor 

 of Arts. 



" His family being in embarrassed circumstances were 

 compelled to remove him from Oxford, and he himself 

 being in debt retired, first to Carmarthen in Wale.s, and 

 latterly into Ireland, where he gained a scanty livelihood 

 by ke"ping a school. When he died or exactly where is 

 not known, but it is supposed in Ireland. He was married, 

 and, as the Vicar of Mickleton told Anth. Wood, was 

 buried near his wife, who died before him, in London." 



The above is in the neat autograph of Dr. Bliss : 

 and in a work entitled — 



" Modern Policies, taken from Machiavel, Borgia, and 

 other choice Authors, by an Eye-Witnesse, 4th edition. 

 London, printed for Tho. Dring, at the signe of the George 

 in Fleet Street, near Clifford's Inne, 1653," — 



he has made the following note : — 



" This is one of the very few publications of that great 

 and good man, Archbishop Sancroft. It was first printed, 

 I believe, in 1G52 (' 1651 '), and there is an edition among 

 Selden's books in the Bodleian, dated 1657." 



Belater Adime. 



SingularWill. — An inhabitant of Montgaillard, 

 who died in 1822, left the following testament : — 



" It is my will that any one of my relations who shall 

 presume to shed tears at my funeral shall be disinherited; 

 lie, on the otiior hand, who laughs tho most heartily, 

 shall be .sole heir. I order that neither tho church nor 

 my house shall bo hung with black cloth ; but that on 

 the (lay of my burial the house and church .shall bo dc- 

 corati'il with llower.s and green bougli.s. Instead of tho 

 tolling of bells, 1 will have drums, fiddles, and lifcs. All 



