local rhymes would certainly be both curious and interesting. Those
cited by Chambers in his amusing work are exclusively Scotch; for a
collection relating to English towns, I would refer your Querist MR.
FRASER to Grose's _Provincial Glossary_, where, interspersed among the
"Local Proverbs," he will find an extensive gathering of characteristic
rhymes. I conclude with appending a few not to be found in either of
these works:
"RICHMOND.
"Nomen habes _mundi_, nec erit sine jure, secundi,
Namque situs titulum comprobat ipse tuum.
From thy rich mound thy appellation came,
And thy rich seat proves it a proper name."
_Drunken Barnaby's Journal._
"Anglia, mons, fons, pons, ecclesia, foemina, lana.
England amongst all nations is most full,
Of hills, wells, bridges, churches, women, wool."
_Ibid._
"Cornwall swab-pie, and Devon white-pot brings,
And Leicester beans, and bacon fit for kings."
Dr. King's _Art of Cookery_. See _Spectator_.
In Belgium I am perhaps beyond bounds, but may cite in conclusion:
"Nobilibus Bruxella viris, Antverpia nummis,
Gandavum laqueis, formosis Burga puellis,
Lovanium doctis, gaudet Mechlinia stultis."
WILLIAM BATES.
You may perhaps think the accompanying, "Rhymes on Places" worthy of
insertion, on the districts of the county of Ayr, viz.:
"Carrick for a man,
Kyle for a cou,
Cunninghame for butter and cheese,
And Galloway for woo."
F. J. H.
_"We three"_ (Vol. v., p. 338.).--It may interest your correspondent to
learn that a public-house exists in London with the sign he mentions. It
is situate in Virginia Row, Bethnal Green, is styled "The Three
Loggerheads," and has a signboard ornamented with a couple of busts: one
of somewhat Cæsarian aspect, laureated; the other a formidable-looking
personage with something on his head, probably intended for the dog-skin
helmet of the ancient Greeks,--but as the style of art strongly reminds
one of that adopted for the figure-heads of ships, I confess my doubts
on the subject. Under each bust appears the distich:
"WE THREE
LOGGERHEADS BE."
The sign appears a "notability" in the neighbourhood, as I have more
than once in passing seen some apparent new comer set to guess its
meaning; and when he confessed his inability, informed, in language more
forcible than elegant, that he made the third Loggerhead.
W. E. F.
_Burning Fern brings Rain_ (Vol. v., p. 242.).--In some parts of
America, but more particularly in the New England States, there was a
popular belief, in former times, that immediately after a large fire in
a town, or of wood in a forest, there would be a "fall of rain." Whether
this opinion exists among the people at present, or whether it was
entertained by John Winthrop, the first governor of the colony of
Massachusetts Bay, and the Pilgrim Fathers, on their landing at
Plymouth, as they most unfortunately did, their superstitious belief in
witchcraft, and some other "strange notions," may be a subject of future
inquiry.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
_Plague Stones_ (Vol. v., pp. 226. 374.).--I have often seen the stone
which G. J. R. G. mentions as "to be seen close to Gresford, in
Denbighshire, about a quarter of a mile from the town, on the road to
Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space, where three
roads meet." It is, I conjecture, the base of a cross. This stone may be
the remnant of the last of a succession of crosses, the first of which
may have given its Welsh name, _Croes ffordd_, the way of the cross, to
the village. There is no tradition of any visitation of the plague at
Gresford; but there is reason to suppose that it once prevailed at
Wrexham, which is about three miles distant. Near that town, and on the
side of a hill near the footpath leading from Wrexham vechan to
Marchwiel Hall, there is a field called _Bryn y cabanau_, the brow of
the cabins; the tradition respecting which is, that, during the
prevalence of the plague in Wrexham, the inhabitants constructed wooden
huts in this place for their temporary residences.
A QUONDAM GRESFORDITE.
I do not think the "Plague Stone" a mile or two out of Hereford has been
mentioned in the Notes on that subject. If my memory is correct, there
is a good deal of ornament, and it is surrounded by a short flight of
stone steps.
F. J. H.
_Sneezing_ (Vol. v., p. 364.).--Having occasion to look at the first
edition of the _Golden Legend_, printed by Caxton, I met with the
following passage, which may perhaps prove interesting to your
correspondent, as showing that the custom of blessing persons when they
sneeze "endured" in the fifteenth century. The institution of the
"Litany the more and the lasse," we are told, was justified,--
"For a right grete and grevous maladye: for as the Romayns had in
the lenton lyued sobrely and in contynence, and after at Ester had
receyud theyr Sauyour; after they disordered them in etyng, in
drynkyng, in playes, and in lecherye. And therfore our Lord was
meuyed ayenst them and sente them a grete pestelence, which was
called the Botche of impedymye, and that was cruell and sodayne,
and caused peple to dye in goyng by the waye, in pleying, in
leeyng atte table, and in spekyng one with another sodeynly they
deyed. In this manere somtyme snesyng they deyed; so that whan any
persone was herd snesyng, anone they that were by said to hym, God
helpe you, or Cryst helpe, _and yet endureth the custome_. And
also when he sneseth or gapeth he maketh to fore his face the
signe of the crosse and blessith hym. And yet endureth this
custome."
_Golden Legende_, edit. 1483, fo. xxi. b.
F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.
Kentish Town.
_Abbot of Croyland's Motto_ (Vol. v., p. 395.).--MR. FORBES is quite
correct with regard to the motto of Abbot Wells, which should be
"Benedicite Fontes Domin_o_." The sentence, "Bless the Wells, O Lord!"
which is placed in so awkward a juxtaposition with it, is really a
distinct motto for the name of Wells, and, so far from being a
translation of the abbot's, is almost an inversion of it; and this
should, as MR. FORBES justly remarks, have had "some editorial notice"
from me.
M. A. LOWER.
_Derivation of the Word "Azores"_ (Vol. v., p. 439.).--The group of
islands called the _Azores_, first discovered in 1439, by Joshua
Vanderburg, a merchant of Bruges, and taken possession of by the
Portuguese in 1448, were so named by Martin Behem, from the Portuguese
word _Açor_, a hawk; Behem observing a great number of hawks there. The
three species most frequently seen now are the Kestril, called
_Francelho_; the Sparrowhawk, _Furobardo_; and the Buzzard, _Manta_; but
whether very numerous or not, I am unable to state. From the
geographical position of these islands, correct lists of the birds and
fishes would be of great interest, and, as far as I am aware, are yet
wanting.
Martin Behem found one of these islands covered with beech-trees, and
called it therefore _Fayal_, from the Portuguese word _Faya_, a
beech-tree. Another island, abounding in sweet flowers, he called
_Flores_, from the Portuguese, _Flor_, a flower. _Terceira_, one of the
nine islands forming the group, is said to have been so called, because,
in the order of succession, it was the third island discovered (from
_Ter_ and _ceira_, a bank). _Graciosa_, as a name, was conferred upon
one of peculiar beauty, a sort of paradise. _Pico_ derived its name from
its sugar-loaf form. The raven found at Madeira and the Canary Islands
is probably also a native of the Azores, and might have suggested the
Portuguese name of _Corvo_ for one of the nine. St. Mary, St. Michael,
and St. George complete the names of the group, of which St. Michael is
the largest and Corvo the smallest.
WM. YARRELL.
Rider Street.
_Scologlandis and Scologi_ (Vol. v., p. 416.).--As these names occur in
a Celtic country, we are justified in seeking their explanation in the
Celtic language. I therefore write to inform G. J. R. G. that the word
_scolog_ is a living word in the Irish language, and that it signifies a
_farmer_ or _husbandman_. It is the word used in the Irish Bible at
Matt. xxi. 33., "he let it out to _husbandmen_"--tug se do _scologaibh_
ar chios i.
I may also mention that the name _Mac Scoloige_ is very common in the
co. Fermanagh in Ireland, where it is very generally anglicised
_Farmer_, according to a usual practice of the Irish. Thus it is not
uncommon even now to find a man known by the name of John or Thomas
_Farmer_, whose father or grandfather is John or Thomas Mac Scoloige,
the name Mac Scoloige signifying "son of a farmer."
The _Scologlandis_, in the documents quoted by G. J. R. G., must
therefore have taken their name from the _scologs_ or farmers, by whom
they were cultivated, unless we suppose that they were anciently the
patrimony of some branch of the family of Mac Scoloige, whose remains
are now settled in Fermanagh.
In Scotland the word is now usually written _sgalag_, and is explained
by Armstrong in his _Gaelic Dictionary_ "a farm servant." And the word
does certainly seem to have been used in ancient Irish to denote a
_servant_ or menial attendant, although the notion of a _farm_ servant
seems to have grown out of its other significations. Thus in a very
ancient historical romance (probably as old as the ninth or tenth
century), which is preserved in the curious volume called _Leabhar
breac_, or _Speckled Book_, in the library of the Royal Irish Academy,
the word _scolog_ is used to designate _the servant_ of the Abbot of St.
Finbar's, Cork.
J. H. T.
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
If there be any one class of documents from which, more than from any
other, we may hope to draw evidence of the accuracy of Byron's
assertion, that "Truth is strange, stranger than fiction!" they are
surely the records of judicial proceedings both in civil and criminal
matters; while, as Mr. Burton well observes in the preface to the two
volumes which have called forth this remark, _Narratives from Criminal
Trials in Scotland_, "there can be no source of information more
fruitful in incidents which have the attraction of picturesqueness,
along with the usefulness of truth." In submitting therefore to the
public the materials of this nature--some drawn from manuscript
authorities, some again from those works which, being printed for
Subscription Clubs, may be considered as privately printed, and
inaccessible to the majority of readers--which had accumulated on his
hands while in the pursuit of other inquiries connected with the history
of Scotland, Mr. Burton has produced two volumes which will be read
with the deepest interest. The narratives are of the most varied
character; and while some give us strange glimpses of the workings of
the human heart, and show us how truly the Prophet spoke when he
described it as being "deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked;" and some exhibit humiliating pictures of the fallibility of
human judgment, others derive their chief interest from revealing
collaterally "the social secrets of the day,--from the state mysteries,
guarded by the etiquette and policy of courts, down to those
characteristics of humble life which are removed from ordinary notice by
their native obscurity." Greater dramatic power on the part of Mr.
Burton might have given additional attraction to his narratives; but
though the want of this power is obvious, they form two volumes which
will be perused with great curiosity and interest even by the most
passionless of readers.
Speaking of the use of Records reminds us that our valued cotemporary
_The Athenæum_ has anticipated us in a purpose we have long entertained,
of calling the attention of historical inquirers to the vast amount of
new material for illustrating English history to be found in Sir F.
Palgrave's _Calendar of the "Baga de Secretis,"_ printed by him in
several of his Reports, as Deputy Keeper of the Records. As _The
Athenæum_ has however entered upon the subject, we cannot do better than
refer our readers to its columns.
_Letter addressed to Lord Viscount Mahon, M.P., President of the Society
of Antiquaries, on the Propriety of Reconsidering the Resolutions of
that Society which regulate the Payments from the Fellows_: by John
Bruce, Esq., Treas. S.A.--is the title of a temperate and well-argued
endeavour on the part of the Treasurer, to persuade the Society of
Antiquaries to return to that scale of subscription, &c. which prevailed
at the moment when unquestionably the Society was at its highest point
of reputation and usefulness. Originally addressed to the President, and
then communicated to the Council, it has now been submitted to the
Fellows, that they may see some of the grounds on which the Council have
recommended, and on which they are invited to ballot on Thursday next,
in favour of a reversal of the Resolution of 1807. Looking to the
general state and prosperity of the Society as exhibited in this
pamphlet, and comparing the payments to it with those to the numerous
Archæological Societies which have sprung up of late years, the proposal
seems to be well-timed, and deserving to be adopted by the Fellows as
obviously calculated to extend the usefulness and raise the character of
the Society. We hope that when the ballot is taken, some of those old
friends of the Society to whose former exertions, in connexion with its
financial arrangements, the Society owes so much, and who are understood
_now_ to be doubtful as to the measure, will put in their white balls in
favour of a step which ought clearly to lead to increased exertions on
the part of all persons connected with the Society; and which may well
be advocated on the ground, that it must lead to such a result.
The lovers of elaborate and highly finished drawings of antiquarian
objects are recommended to inspect some specimens of Mr. Shaw's artistic
skill, comprising portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, Mary of England, the
Pall of the Fishmongers' Company, which will be on view to-day and
Monday at Sotheby and Wilkinson's Rooms, previous to their sale by
auction on Tuesday next.
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BIBLIA SACRA, Vulg. Edit., cum Commentar. Menochii. Alost and Ghent,
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REPOSITORY OF PATENTS AND INVENTIONS. Vol. XLV. 2nd Series. 1824.
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NICHOLSON'S PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. Vols. XIV. XV. 1806.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. No. XI. 2nd Series.
SOROCOLD'S BOOK OF DEVOTIONS.
WORKS OF ISAAC BARROW, D.D., late Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
London, 1683. Vol. I. Folio.
LINGARD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Vols. VI. VII. VIII. IX. XII. XIII.,
Cloth.
FABRICII BIBLIOTHECA LATINA. Ed. Ernesti. Leipsig, 1773. Vol. III.
THE ANACALYPSIS. By Godfrey Higgins. 2 Vols. 4to.
CODEX DIPLOMATICUS ÆVI SAXONICI, opera J. M. Kemble. Vols. I. and II.
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ECKHEL, DOCTRINA NUMORUM. Vol. VIII.
BROUGHAM'S MEN OF LETTERS. 2nd Series, royal 8vo., boards. Original
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REPLIES RECEIVED.--_Eagles' Feathers--Many
Children--Longevity--Oasis--Newton, Cicero, and Gravitation--Burial of
Suicides--Warwickshire Ballad--Algernon Sydney--Mother Damnable--Passage
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our_ 1st Vol., pp. 211. 236. 325. 357. 418., _where he will find that it
is derived from the French proverb quoted by Gruter in 1611, "A brebis
pres tondue, Dieu luy mesure le vent"_.
POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. _If_ EBLANENSIS _will call on the_ Assistant
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KESEPH'S BIBLE. _The Query on this subject from_ "The Editor of the
Chronological New Table" _has been accidentally omitted. It shall be
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J. M. G. C. _is thanked. His suggestions and communication shall not be
lost sight of._
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SPECIMENS OF TILE PAVEMENTS.
DRAWN FROM EXISTING AUTHORITIES
BY
HENRY SHAW, F.S.A.
Although some few examples of the original designs, and many
separate patterns taken from the scattered remains of these most
interesting Pavements, are figured in divers Architectural and
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specimens of the many varieties of general arrangement to be found
in those still existing, together with a selection of the
particular Tiles of each period, the most remarkable for the
elegance and beauty of the foliage and other devices impressed
upon them, were classed chronologically, and brought within the
compass of a single volume, it would prove highly valuable as a
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engaged in furnishing designs for any kind of material where
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The present work is intended to supply such a desideratum. It will
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