THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY NATURALIST. 



contribution to the object named, however small, will 

 be of assistance, and may be sent, marked " Quarr 

 Abbe3' Excavation Fund," either to the office of this 

 paper, which has kindly allowed me to use its 

 columns for the purpose, or to 



PERCY G. STONE, 



16, Great Marlboro'-street, W. 



A CHRISTMAS EVE CUSTOM. 



" In the New Forest it is customary on Christmas 

 Eve for the inhabitants to assemble under the trees 

 and drink ale together, singing the following 

 rhyme : 



Apples and pears with right good corn 



Come in plenty to everyone. 



Eat and drink pood cak? and hot ale, 



Give earth to drink and she'll not fail." 



Chambers' $ Book of Days. 



This custom appears to resemble that of wassailing, 

 a very old custom prevailing in Devonshire and else- 

 where, and appears to be a relic of an old pagan 

 custom and belief that fruit trees were rendered more 

 fruitful by this invocation, as shown by the following 

 old rhyme : 



" Wassail the trees, that thev may bear 

 You many a plum and many a pear, 

 For more or less fruit they will bring 

 As you do them wassailing." 



Tho words " give earth to drink " in the New Forest 

 rhyme show that it was customary to pour ale on the 

 ground as a libation to the earth, while in the Devon- 

 shire "wassailing" a cup of cider is thrown at the 

 trees. Can any reader say whether this custom still 

 prevails in any part of the New Forest or elsewhere 

 in Hampshire ? 



J. H. KING. 



BUCKLER'S HARD. BURMAN'S HOUSE. 



I thank you for inserting and replying to my 

 queries. Your opinion as to the name Buckler being 

 derived from an early proprietor of the Hard exactly 

 coincides with my own, though I scarcely think this 

 person (if there ever was such a person) could have 

 been a shipbuilder, as according to tradition an 

 Adams was the first, and an Adams the last, to build 

 ships here, this family having the yard for at least 

 half a century. 



You are correct in supposing that I have seen the 

 passing notice of Burman's House in Wise's " New 

 Forest," but I had heard of the family before that as 

 wealthy brewers or bankers, and relatives or connec- 

 tions of the Adamses, one of the shipbuilders, 

 Balthazar (" Baity ") Adams, having, with others of 

 his family, been named after a Burman. I have an 

 idea that the Burmans were of the celebrated Dutch 

 family of that name, and the fact of one of them being 



called Balthazar (a Christian name seldom met with 

 in England, though not uncommon in Holland and 

 the adjacent countries) in a manner supports my 

 supposition. Perhaps these remarks, together with 

 the following copy of an inscription on a tablet in 

 Beaulieu Church, taken by myself on a recent visit, 

 will assist someone in preparing a short account of 

 the family, and also be deemed worthy of a place 

 under " Notes and Queries :" 



Underneath Lieth Intomb'd Anne, 

 the Wile of Thomas Burman, Esqre., 



who departed thU life 



June the 24th, 1730, aged 43 years. 



Also Susanna, Wife of the Revd. 



Thomas Burman, Rector of Dibden, 



who died April the 6th, 1772, 



aged [60 ?] years. 



Aso the Revd. Thomas Burman 



aforesaid, Eldest Son of the 



above Thomas and Anne, 



who died January the 24th, 1784, 



aged 76 years. 



Also Balthazer Burman, Esqr., 



Third Son ol the above Thomas 



and Anne, who died July the 3rd, 1785, 



aged 62 years. 



Also Edward Burman, Esqr., 

 Second Son of the above Thomas 



and Anne, 



of Edwardstone House, 



in the County of Suffolk, 



who died Febry. the ist, 1805, 



aged 91 years. 



The local pronunciation of the name is '' Borman," 

 and so it is written in the will of one of the Adamses, 

 dated 1789, showing that a hundred years ago the 

 pronunciation was the same. 



BEAULIEU. 



ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE 

 ISLE OF WIGHT. 



Mr. Percy G. Stone, F.R.I. B.A., is preparing for 

 publication a descriptive account of " The Archi- 

 tectural Antiquities of the Isle of Wight, from the nth 

 to the i8th Centuries," illustrated by over 100 full 

 page measured drawings and details of the most 

 interesting buildings. Mr. Stone has been intimately 

 associated with the Island for upwards of twenty 

 years, and has taken a keen interest in all that con- 

 cerns its history and topography, and the work will 

 be the result of considerable study and research. It 

 will be published in four parts, of small 410 size, and 

 a concisely written historical " prefatory chapter," 

 distributed as a specimen, will give a good idea of 

 what the book will be like. The following extract 

 will show the scope of the work : 



In issuing my work I have taken the Medina River as 

 the natural division, subdividing each Medine into 

 ecclesiastical and domestic periods, my scheme of arrange- 

 mei I being alphabetical, treating the East and the West 



