_Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper._--Two centuries ago furs were so
rare, and therefore so highly valued, that the wearing of them was
restricted by several sumptuary laws to kings and princes. Sable, in
those laws called _vair_, was the subject of countless regulations: the
exact quality permitted to be worn by persons of different grades, and
the articles of dress to which it might be applied, were defined most
strictly. Perrault's tale of _Cinderella_ originally marked the dignity
conferred on her by the fairy by her wearing a slipper of _vair_, a
privilege then confined to the highest rank of princesses. An error of
the press, now become inveterate, changed _vair_ into _verre_, and the
slipper of _sable_ was suddenly converted into a _glass_ slipper.
Jarltzberg.
_Mistletoe on Oaks._--In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the
extreme rarity of _mistletoe on oaks_, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny;
and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in
the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, I communicated to the latter journal, last
week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant
growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.
I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I
previously appended as likely to be interesting to the archæologist of
Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile
N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a
moated {215} mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beachley adjacent,
and of Llanllowell.
George Ormerod.
Sedbury Park, Chepstow.
_Omnibuses._--It may be interesting to your readers at a future time to
know when these vehicles, the use of which is daily extending, were
introduced into this country; perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to
state how the fact is. Mr. C. Knight, in his _Volume of Varieties_, p.
178., observes:
"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four horses and six
wheels; but we refused to accept it in any shape till we
imported the fashion from Paris in 1830."
And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral
carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general
scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he
"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having
originated and established the Omnibus in England."--_Report_,
p. 124., 8vo. ed.
Arun.
_Havock._--Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the
use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of
those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of
Richard II, art. x.:
"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir
la teste coupe."
This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry
of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that
no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable
and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the
Admiralty, has this passage:
"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he
that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that
doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis ...
and his body in prison at the king's will."
And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken
from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions,
&c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a
hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare
combines both senses:
"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."