522 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2»* s. vi. i56., dkc. 25. '68. 



contrast to the scene in the stable, in which the Saviour 

 was received in entering on His earthly existence, and to 

 show that the being condemned here below to perish, the 

 victim of vice or misery, is saved by the birth of Him 

 who was sent on earth to inculcate charity among men." 



Mercatoe, a. B. 



Commemoration of the Destruction of the Spanish 

 Armada. — I should feel obliged if any of your 

 readers could inform me whether any annual 

 commemoration of the destruction of the Spanish 

 Armada was held during the reign of Elizabeth, 

 some of the observances of which might after- 

 wards have become mixed up with the Gunpowder 

 Plot, for I have heard the following verse shouted 

 by the "juvenile zealots" in the neighbourhood 

 of Maidstone ; and when we remember that many 

 of the spoils of the Armada were cast on the 

 Kentish coast, it might especially have been kept 

 up in that county : — 



" Popy, Popy, Spanish Popy, 

 Just come up to town; 

 With his ragged jacket on. 

 And his crippled triple crown." 



It would be interesting if any more verses 

 could be added to the above. M. G. 



St. Barnabe's Day (2°* S. vi. 473.) — In some 

 parts of the country the children call the lady- 

 bird Barnaby Bright, and address it thus : — 



" Barnaby Bright, Barnaby Bright, 

 The longest day, and the shortest night." 



Poor People's Notions of Angels. — 



M. G. 



" I have often tried to make out the exact ideas the 

 poor people have of angels, for they talk a great deal 

 about them. The best that I can make of it is, that they 

 are children, or children's heads and shoulders winged, as 

 represented in church paintings, and in plaster of Paris on 

 ceilings ; we have a goodly row of them all the length of 

 our ceiling, and it cost the parish, or rather the then minis- 

 ter, who indulged in them, no trifle to have the eyes black- 

 ened, and a touch of light red put in the cheeks. It is 

 notorious and scriptural, they think, that the body dies, 

 but nothing being said about the head and shoulders, 

 they have a sort of belief that they are preserved to an- 

 gels, which are no other than dead young children. A 

 medical man told me that he was called upon to visit a 

 woman who had been confined, and all whose children 

 had died. As he reached the door, a neighbour came out 

 to him, lifting up her hands and ej'es, and -saying, ' O 

 she's ^ blessed 'oman — a blessed 'oman.' 'A blessed 

 'oraan,' said he, ■ what do you mean ? She isn't dead, is 

 she? ' ' Oh no, but this on's a angel too. She's a blessed 

 'oman, for she breeds angels for the Lord!'" — From 

 Essays by the Rev. John Eagles, M. A. 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Dust from a Grave. — When a boy I was told, 

 and I heard it with a strange sensation of dread, 

 that if an individual took up a handful of dust 

 thrown from a newly- opened grave, he might 

 know whether a good or a wicked person had been 

 formerly buried there ; for, said my informant, if 

 the dust stirs in your band, you may be sure that it 



had once formed a portion of the body of a wicked 

 man or woman ; for "the wicked cannot rest" any- 

 where, not even in the grave ! My curiosity 

 never led me so far as to try the experiment, and 

 I dare say that it would afford very little satisfac- 

 tion to any one to try it. Menyanthes. 



Superstition in Bute. — Near Blain chapel, Bute, 

 rises a solitary fir-tree, towering above coppice 

 and underwood, and surrounded by a circular 

 stone well ; capable, perhaps, of holding two dozen 

 people. This ruin is called the " penance chapel," 

 and the belief is that here the nuns wore away 

 the weary hours of punishment for minor short- 

 comings. 



A belief attaches itself to the bark of the tree, 

 that it is a sure conjurer of prophetic dreams if a 

 portion be placed under the sleeper's pillow at 

 night. And so strongly has this superstition taken 

 hold on the islanders, that not a fragment of bark 

 is left for coming generations who may wish to 

 share in the lucky dreams of their forefathers. 



T. H. P. 



Remedy against Fits. — The following disgusting 

 case of superstition is chronicled by the Stamford 

 Mercury of yesterday. It ought to be perpetuated 

 in the pages of " N. & Q." : — 



" A collier's wife recentlj' applied to the sexton of 

 Ruabon church for ever so small a piece of a ' human 

 skull ' for the purpose of grating it similar to ginger, to be 

 afterwards added to some mixture which she intended 

 giving to her daughter as a remedy against fits, to which 

 she was subject." 



K. P. D. E. 



October 9, 1858. 



Dorsetshire Nosology. — The following conver-- 

 sation, which took place in a Dorsetshire village a 

 few days ago, somewhat curiously illustrates the 

 nosology and therapeutics of that county : — 

 " Well, Betty (said a lady), how are you ? " 

 " Pure, thank you, Ma'am ; but I has been 

 rather poorlyish." 



" What has been the matter with you?" 

 " Why, Ma'am, I was a-troubled with the rising 

 of the lights ; but I tooked a dose of shot, and that 

 have a-keeped them down ! " C. W. B. 



Weather Proverb. — The following lines were 

 heard in the neighbourhood of Newborough Park, 

 Yorkshire, where a herd of deer is kept : — 



" If dry be the bucks' horn on Holyrood morn, 

 'Tis worth a kist of gold ; 

 But if wet it be seen ere Holyrood e'en. 

 Bad harvest is foretold." 



H. OZMOND. 



Superstition relating to the Swallow. — One day 

 in my childhood while playing with a bow and 

 arrows, I was going to shoot at a swallow that was 

 sitting on a paling. An old woman who was near 

 me exclaimed, "Oli ! Sir, don't shoot a swallow ; if 

 you do the cows will milk blood.^' Mughsib. 



