Chapter 2

_Folk Lore in Hampshire._--In Hampshire the country people believe that a healing power exists in the alms collected at the administration of the sacrament, and many of them use the money as a charm to cure the diseases of the body. A short time ago a woman came to a clergyman, and brought with her half-a-crown, asking at the same time for five "sacrament sixpences" in exchange. She said that one of her relations was ill, and that she wished to use the money as a charm to drive away the disease. This superstition may have arisen from the once prevalent custom of distributing the alms in the church to those of the poor who were present at the sacrament.

I have heard that the negroes in Jamaica attach the same "gifts of healing" to the consecrated bread, and often, if they can escape notice, will carry it away with them. As no account of this superstition seems to be recorded in "N. & Q.," perhaps you would like to "make a note of it."

F. M. MIDDLETON.

_Propitiating the Fairies._--Having some years since, on a Sunday afternoon, had occasion to ride on horseback between two towns in the eastern part of Cornwall, I met a christening party, also on horseback, headed by the nurse with a baby in her arms. Making a halt as I approached her, she stopped me, and producing a _cake_, presented it to me, and insisted on my taking it. Several years after, when in the Isle of Man, I had the opportunity of hearing an elderly person relate several pieces of folk lore respecting the witches and fairies in that island. It had been customary, within his recollection, for a woman, when carrying a child to be christened, to take with her _a piece of bread and cheese_, to give to the first person she met, for the purpose of _saving the child from witchcraft or the fairies_. Another custom was that of the "Queeltah," or salt put under the churn _to keep off bad people_. Stale water was thrown on the plough "to keep it from the _little {618} folks_." A cross was tied in the tail of a cow "to keep her from _bad bodies_." On May morning it was deemed of the greatest importance to avoid going to a neighbour's house for fire; a turf was therefore kept burning all night at home. Flowers growing in a hedge, especially green or yellow ones, were good to keep off the fairies. And finally, the last cake was left "behind the turf-flag for the little people."

J. W. THOMAS.

Dewsbury.

_Cornish Folk Lore: King Arthur in the Form of a Raven._--In Jarvis's translation of _Don Quixote_, book II. chap. v., the following passage occurs:

"'Have you not read, sir,' answered Don Quixote, 'the annals and histories of England, wherein are recorded the famous exploits of King Arthur, whom in our Castilian tongue we always call King Artus; of whom there goes an old tradition, and a common one all over that kingdom of Great Britain, that this king did not die, but that by magic art he was turned into a raven; and that, in process of time, he shall reign again, and recover his kingdom and sceptre; for which reason it cannot be proved, that, from that time to this, any Englishman has killed a raven?'"

My reason for transcribing this passage is to record the curious fact that the legend of King Arthur's existence in the form of a raven was still repeated as a piece of folk lore in Cornwall about sixty years ago. My father, who died about two years since at the age of eighty, spent a few years of his youth in the neighbourhood of Penzance. One day, as he was walking along Marazion Green with his fowling-piece on his shoulder, he saw a raven at a distance and fired at it. An old man who was near immediately rebuked him, telling him that he ought on no account to have shot at a raven, for that King Arthur was still alive in the form of that bird. My father was much interested when I drew his attention to the passage which I have quoted above. Perhaps some of your Cornish or Welsh correspondents may be able to say whether the legend is still known among the people of Cornwall or Wales.

EDGAR MACCULLOCH.

Guernsey.

_St. Clement's Apple Feast in Staffordshire._--On the feast of St. Clement's (Nov. 23) the children go round to the various houses in the villages to which they belong singing the following doggerel:

"Clemany! Clemany! Clemany mine! A good red apple and a pint of wine, Some of your mutton and some of your veal, If it is good, pray give me a deal; If it is not, pray give some salt. Butler, butler, fill your bowl; If thou fillst it of the best, The Lord'll send your soul to rest; If thou fillst it of the small, Down goes butler, bowl and all. Pray, good mistress, send to me One for Peter, one for Paul, One for Him who made us all, Apple, pear, plum, or cherry, Any good thing to make us merry; A bouncing buck and a velvet chair, Clement comes but once a year; Off with the pot and on with the pan, A good red apple and I'll begone."

How the above came to be conglomerated I know not, as there seem to be at least three separate compositions pressed into St. Clement's service.

I shall be glad to know if any of your contributors can furnish farther illustrations of St. Clement's apple feast. I believe, in Worcestershire, St. Catherine and St. Clement unite in becoming the patrons on these occasions.

G. E. T. S. R. N.

_New Year's Eve and New Year's Day._--Another German custom prevalent in Philadelphia is the custom of celebrating the departure of the old year and the arrival of the new by discharges of fire-arms. As soon as the sun sets the firing commences, and it is kept up all night with every description of musket, fowling-piece, and pistol. It is called "firing out the old year" and "firing in the new year."

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Carlist Calembourg._--The original of the French _jeu d'esprit_ in Vol. viii., p. 242., was a Carlist calembourg circulated in the _salons_ about the middle of 1831:

"La nation n'aime pas Louis-Philippe mais en rit (Henri)."

There was another also very popular:

"In travelling to Bordeaux you must go to Orleans."

V. T. STERNBERG.

_Jewish Custom._--In a recently published music-novel of some merit, called _Charles Auchester_, occurs the following:

"'I shall treat him as my son, because he will indeed be my music-child, and no more indebted to me than I am to music, or than we all are to Jehovah.' _'Sir, you are certainly a Jew, if you say Jehovah_; I was quite sure of it before, and I am so pleased.'"

There is a great error as to custom here, for the Jews never attempt to pronounce the "four-lettered" Name, and in reading and speaking always use instead Adonai or Elohim. And even converted Jews retain for the most part the same habit. The writer of _Charles Auchester_ can only defend himself by the example of the writer of {619} _Ivanhoe_, who has made the same oversight; and a still more glaring one besides in making Isaac the Jew wish his daughter had been called Benoni, _i.e._ the _son_ of sorrow. The vowel letters of Jehovah are merely those of Adonai, inserted by the Massorites; but this is another subject.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Lachlan Macleane._--This individual, whose claim to the authorship of Junius has been lately revived, was in Philadelphia ninety-five years ago, and his name figures there in the accounts of the overseers of the poor, under date of November 9, 1758:

"By cash received of James Coultass, late sheriff, being a fine paid by Laughlane McClain for kissing of Osborn's wife (after his commissions and writing bond were deducted)

£24 : 5 : 0"

This was in Pennsylvania currency; but it was an expensive kiss even in that, being (besides the commissions and sheriff's charge for writing the bond) equivalent to sixty-four dollars and fifty cents of our present currency.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

_German Tree._--The following extract concerning this accessory to Christmas, which is now so popular, may perhaps be interesting at the present season. It is taken from the _Loseley Manuscripts_, edited by A. J. Kempe, F.S.A., 1836, p. 75. note.

"We remember a German of the household of the late Queen Caroline, making what he termed a _Christmas tree_ for a juvenile party at that festive season. The tree was a branch of some evergreen fastened on a board. Its boughs bent under the weight of gilt oranges, almonds, &c.; and under it was a neat model of a farm-house, surrounded by figures of animals, &c., and all due accompaniments. The forming Christmas trees is, we believe, a common custom in Germany: evidently a remain of the pageants constructed at that season in ancient days."

Is this the first notice of a German tree in England? The adjunct of the farm-house seems now to be dispensed with in this country.

ZEUS.

_The late Duke._--The following curious coincidence, which lately appeared in the _Meath Herald_, deserves transplanting to the literary museum of "N. & Q.":

"From the fact of the Mornington family having been so connected by property, &c. with the parish of Trim, in which town the late Duke spent so many of his early days, and commenced his career in life by being elected, when scarcely twenty-one years of age, to represent the old borough of Trim, the following coincidence is worth relating. On the news of the death of the Duke reaching Trim, the Very Rev. Dean Butler caused the chime of bells to be rung in respect to his memory; and the large bell, which was considered one of the finest and sweetest in Ireland, hardly had tolled a second time for the occasion when it suddenly broke, became mute, and ceased to send forth its notes. Whether this was to be attributed to neglect of the ringer, or regret for the great man of the age, it is hard to say; but, very odd as it may appear to be, on examining the bell, it was found to be cast by Edmund Blood, 1769, the very year the Duke was born. Thus this fine bell commenced its career with the birth of the Duke, and ceased to sound at his death. The parish of Trim is now getting the bell recast, and the old metal is to be seen at Mr. Hodges, Abbey Street, Dublin."

J. YEOWELL.

* * * * *

Queries.

THE STORY OF CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS.

_A Recitation for the 25th of October, and other Convivial Meetings of Shoemakers._

"The CRISPIN trade! What better trade can be? Ancient and famous, independent, free! No other trade a brighter claim can find; No other trade display more share of mind! No other calling prouder names can boast,-- In arms, in arts,--themselves a perfect host! All honour, zeal, and patriotic pride; To dare heroic, and in suffering tried! But first and chief--and as such claims inspire-- Our Patron Brothers, who doth not admire? CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS! they who sought Safety with us, and at the calling wrought: Martyrs to Truth, who in old times were cast Lorn outcasts forth to labour at the _last_! Mould the stout sole, sew with the woven thread, Make the _good fit_, and win their daily bread. This was their strait and doing--this their doom; They sought our shelter, and they found a home! Helpless and hapless, wandering to and fro, Weary they came and hid them from the foe; Two high-born youths, to holy things impell'd, Hunted from place to place, though still they held Their sacred faith, and died for it, and threw The glory of that death on all who made the Shoe!

"Such is the story--so behaved our trade; And then the Church its zealous homage paid, And made their death-day holy, as we see Still in the Calendar, and still to be! And long the Shoemaker has felt the claim, And proved him joyful at such lofty fame; For theirs it was by more than blood allied, Alike they worshipp'd, and alike they died! Nor minded how the Pagan nipp'd their youth-- They are not dead who suffer for the Truth! The skies receive them, and the earth's warm heart In grateful duty ever plays its part, Embalms their memory to all future time, And thus, in love, still punishes the crime; Sees, though the corse be trampled to the dust, The murder'd dead have retribution just!

{620} "Where are they now who wrought this fiendish wrong? We hate the actors, and have hated long. And where are they, the victims? Always here; We feel their glory, and we hold it dear! Oh yes, 'tis ours! that glory still is ours, And, lo! how breaks it on these festive hours; Each heart is warm, each eye lit up with pride, 'Tis sanction'd in our loves and sanctified! Far o'er the earth--the Christianised--where'er The Saviour's name is hymn'd in daily prayer, The winds of heaven their memories tender waft, Commix'd with all the sorceries of the _craft_. The little leather artizan--the boy To whom the shoe is yet but as a toy, A thing to smile and look at, ere the day Severer task will make it one of _pay_ (A constant duty and a livelihood),-- He, the young Crispin, emulous and good, Is told of the Prince Martyrs--sometimes Royal! (The trade, in its devotion, being so loyal, It fain would stretch the fact or trifle still, Eager, as 'twere, to get on highest hill.) Through the fair France, through Germany, and Spain, The blue-skied Italy, the Russias twain, And farther still, across the Western Main. There is the story known, engraft, 'tis true, With things, as often is, of weight undue; Yet still's enough, when sifted to the most, To make the trade rejoice, and as a toast, Now, as is wont, and ever to be given, Hail to the memory of our friends in heaven! CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS--they, the two, Who, like ourselves, have made the Boot and Shoe!"

The story as told in these verses is not exactly the same as the one current among the makers of the boot and shoe in our own island, an account in an old book called _The History of the Gentle Craft_ (the production, no doubt, of the well-known Thomas Delony) being the basis of the tradition as received now by the British shoemaker. In the _Golden Legende_, one of the earliest of our printed books, and in Alban Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, as compiled from the Roman Martyrologies, as also in the inscriptions of some pieces of ancient tapestry formerly belonging to the shoemakers' chapel in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, but, when I saw them, in one of the galleries of the Louvre, is the like version as the one here given. The authority, too, of the Church Calendar of England, even as it still remains after the loppings of the Reformation, is another corroboration that CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS, brothers, were early martyrs to the Christian faith, and through that chiefly honoured, and not because the one became a redoubted general and the other a successful suitor to the daughter of some all-potent emperor. In the Delony version--itself, in every probability, a borrowing from the popular mind of the Elizabethan period,--these things are put forth; while in trade paintings and songs the Prince CRISPIN is assumed to have a wife or sister, one can hardly tell which, in the person of a princess, the Princess CRISPIANUS, and who figures as the patron of the women's branch of the shoemakers' art; CRISPIN himself presiding over the coarser labour for the rougher sex. This artifice, if not purely historical, is at least very excusable, because so natural, seeing that the duplex principle has such an extensive range; that even the feet themselves come into the world in pairs, and so shoes must be produced after the same fashion--paired, as the shoemakers have done by their adored CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS.

It has now but to be stated that the writer of the foregoing lines (a long time now the common property of his fellow-workmen) and this present paragraph, has for many years contemplated the production of something, which might assume even the size of a book, in connexion with the various curious particulars which may be affiliated with this Crispin story, and therefore would be glad to find some of the numerous erudite renders of "N. & Q." helping his inquiries either through the medium of future Numbers, or as might be addressed privately to himself, care of Mr. Clements, bookseller, 22. Little Pulteney Street, Regent Street.

J. DAVIES DEVLIN.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Barrels Regiment._--I suppose that to this regiment a song refers which has for its burden,--

"And ten times a day whip the barrels, And ten times a day whip the barrels, Brave boys."

I shall be very much obliged to any one who will tell me where I can find this song, or the circumstances or persons to which it refers. It was probably written about the year 1747.

E. H.

_Okey the Regicide._--I should be much obliged for any information relative to the descendants of Colonel John Okey, the regicide, executed April 19, 1662, O.S.

E. P. H.

Clapham.

_Lady Mason's Third Husband_.--Secretary Davison, in a letter dated London, 23rd December, 1581, and addressed to Lady Mason, requests this lady "to join with his honour her husband" in standing sponsor with Sir Christopher Hatton, or Sir Thomas Skirley, to his son, born a few days before. Sir John Mason, second husband to Lady Mason, died in 1566. Who then was "this honour," her third?

G. S. S.

_Creation of Knights._--When were the following knights made?--Sir William Fleming, Sir George Barker, Sir George Hamilton, Sir Edward {621} de Carteret, Sir William Armourer:--the first by Charles I.; the four following by Charles II.

G. S. S.

_Martyn the Regicide._--Was Martyn the regicide married or not? If married, is it known whether he had children? and if any of his children settled in Ireland, and became possessed of property in that country?

E. A. G.

_History of the Nonjurors._--What are the best authorities for the history of the Nonjurors and their sufferings? Of course, Lathbury, Hickes's _Life of Kettlewell_, &c. are well known. Whence came their adopted motto: "Cætera quis nescit?" Any reader who would communicate any information on these points to C. R. would confer a favour.

C. R.

_Florin and the Royal Arms._--What is the authority for placing the national arms (which are by royal proclamations ordered to be borne _quarterly_ in ratification of the respective unions, and to be borne under one imperial crown) in separate shields? They surely cannot with any heraldic propriety be so arranged. The absurdity was remarked in the reign of the Georges, for by the separation of the coats the arms of the German Dominions of George I. obtained the second place, viz. the dexter side, with France on the sinister, and Ireland at the bottom or fourth place.

MAT O' THE MINT.

_A Mistletoe Query._--Why has mistletoe the privilege of allowing the fair sex to be kissed under its branches, on condition that a berry is plucked off at the time? And also, when was this first allowed?[2]

J. W. ASTON (late of Trin. Col.)

[Footnote 2: This Query has been incidentally noticed in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., pp. 13. 208.--ED.]

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Sewell Family_ (Vol. viii., p. 521.).--Your correspondent D. N. states, that "nothing farther is known of the family of Lieut.-Col. Sewell, who died in 1803, than that he had a son Thos. Bailey Heath Sewell, Cornet in 32nd Light Dragoons, and Lieutenant 4th Dragoon Guards." Had he referred to Lodge's _Peerage_, he would have found that the Honorable Harriet Beresford, fourth daughter of the Most Rev. Wm. Beresford, Lord Archbishop of Tuam, and first Baron Decies, married Jan. 25, 1796, Thos. Henry Bermingham (not Bailey) Daly Sewell, Esq.; and died June 11, 1834, having had three children, viz.:

1. Thomas, formerly Page of Honour to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, _circa_ 1829, afterwards a pensioner of Trin. Coll. Dublin, and subsequently Lieutenant 13th Light Infantry; who died at Landour, Bengal, Aug. 1, 1836.

2. Isabella, who married her cousin Major Marcus Beresford, in October, 1828; and died in 1836.

3. Louisa, married to the Hon. Sir W. E. Leeson, and died in 1849 or 1850.

Will D. N. favour me with the dates of the birth and death of the late unfortunate, and, as I believe, ill-used Lieut.-General John Whitelocke, whom he mentions, with the localities where the birth and death occurred?

G. L. S.

[We have submitted our correspondent's communication to D. N., who has kindly forwarded the following reply:

"My communication (Vol. viii., p. 521.) I was aware was far from a perfect pedigree of the Sewell family, and my object was to give such notices as might form an outline to be filled up by some one more competently informed. Your correspondent G. L. S. has very well supplied the _cætera desunt_, where my information terminated with the appointment of Cornet Sewell to a Lieutenancy in the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards. In the London Gazette 13789, June 23, 1795, he is inserted as 'Mr. Bermingham Daly Henry Sewell' to be a cornet in the 32nd Light Dragoons; and as in filling up commissions much accuracy is always considered very essential, I am disposed to regard those Christian names as correct.

"There was a Rev. George Sewell, Rector of Byfleet, Surrey, Was he a brother of Lieut.-Col. Sewell of the Surrey Light Dragoons?

"Did the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Sewell marry a second wife? For I find, in _The Globe_ of October 9, 1820: 'Died, Saturday, Sept. 16, at Twyford Lodge, Maresfield, Sussex, in her seventy-eighth year, Lady Sewell, widow of the late Right Hon. Sir Thomas Sewell, Master of the Rolls and Privy Councillor, &c.' Now, in Manning's _Surrey_, vol. iii. p. 201., it is stated that Lieut.-Col. Sewell died in 1803, in his fifty-eighth year, which would render it impossible for him to be the son of the above-named Lady Sewell. In Horsfield's _Sussex_, 4to., 1835, vol. i. p. 375., I find a William Luther Sewell, Esq., who most probably was connected by the second marriage, residing at the above Twyford Lodge.

"I regret that I cannot reply distinctly to the inquiries of G. L. S. respecting the late Lieut.-General Whitelocke. I have ineffectually searched all the various biographical dictionaries to that of the Rev. H. J. Rose in twelve volumes, 1848, inclusive, without having found one that has taken the least notice of him. I had casually heard, some years since, that he had fixed his residence in Somersetshire, and that he had died there; which I find confirmed by a paragraph in the _Annual Register_, vol. lxxvi. for 1834 (_Chronicle_), p. 218., which states that he died 'near Bath,' in February, 1834. With such scanty information on the required points, I would still refer G. L. S. to a work entitled _The Georgian Æra_, in 4 vols., London, 1832; where he will find, in vol. ii. p 475., a short _military_ memoir of Lieut.-General Whitelocke, which is dispassionately and candidly written, and which accounts very reasonably for the inauspicious result of his military operations. There is one slight error in the account of _The Georgian Æra_, viz. in the date of the {622} _first_ appointment of Mr. Whitelocke to a commission in the army, which appears in the _London Gazette_, No. 11938. of December 26, 1778, and runs thus: '14th Foot, John Whitelocke, Gent., to be Ensign _vice_ Day."--I trust some reader of "N. & Q." will furnish us with the dates of the birth and death of Lieut.-General Whitelocke, specifying when they took place, as desired by G. L. S., with an abridgment of deficient particulars in his history. D. N."]

_Greek Epigram._--In the _Bath Chronicle_ of the 10th of November last, I find the following advertisement: