FOLK LORE.

HERRING FOLK-LORE.-Much has been written concerning the folk-lore of the herring, from the time of Martin, who told of the King of the Herrings, to Mr. J. F. Campbell's "Popular Tale" of how the fluke got his mouth curled for sneering at the herring king; and Pennant has mentioned some of the traditions that were believed in relation to the migratory habits of the herring. These traditions are not unfrequently grafted on to the West Highland reverence for the local laird and chieftain, an instance of which is recorded in some "Reminiscences of the Isle of Skye" (dating to about half a century since), published in the Argyllshire Herald, June 1, 1867. The writer is speaking of the Macleods of Dunvegan : —

"I found that a curious tradition prevailed in the district in connection with the return of the laird to Dunvegan after a considerable absence, but of course no one is now found to attach any importance to the strange superstition. It was at one time believed by the people of Macleod's country, that a visit from their chief after a lengthened sojourn in another part of the kingdom would produce a large take of herrings in the numerous lochs which indent the west side of Skye; and it also formed part of the tradition, that if any female, save a Macleod, should cross the water to a small island opposite the castle, the fact would prove disastrous to that season's fishing."

CUTHBERT BEDE.

ANCIENT MUSICAL CUSTOM AT NEWCASTLE. I send the following extract from The Newcastle Daily Journal of June 17, and inquire whether there is any record of a similar performance in any other town:

"THE TRINITY HOUSE AND ALL SAINTS.-Yesterday being Trinity Sunday, in pursuance of a time-honoured custom, the Master, Deputy-Master, and Brethren of the Ancient and Honourable Corporation of the Trinity House attended officially in All Saints' parish church Newcastle. The Rev. Walter Irvine, M.A. preached on the occasion. The Master and Brethren were received and escorted to the church gates by the church officers, Messrs. Hails and Renwick. A noteworthy 'relic of the past' in connection with the service was the performance on the organ (on the entrance and exit of the Master and

Brethren) of the national air, Rule Britannia.' The

rendering of a secular air-even as an evidence of respect has been objected to, but Mrs. Watson, the organist, cites the custom of half a century, and the example, within her own knowledge, of three generations of organists in All Saints' church-illustrating the saying that old

customs die hard.'"

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

J. MANUEL.

MAY-DAY "STICKING."-It is the custom at Warboys, Huntingdonshire, for certain of the poor of the parish to be allowed to go into Warboys Wood on May-day morning, for the purpose of gathering and taking away bundles of sticks. This annual May-day "sticking," as it is termed, was observed on May-day last, 1867. It may, possibly, be a relic of the old custom of going to

a wood in the early morning of May-day, for the purpose of gathering May-dew-a custom which, for its morality, must have been on a par with those that obtain in a mixed agricultural gang of the present day. CUTHBERT BEDE.

NOSE BLEEDING.

A few years ago I knew a man engaged on the Brighton line, who informed me that he always wore a red riband round his throat to stop his nose from bleeding. E. L.

BONFIRES ON THE EVE OF ST. JOHN. - The custom of making large fires on the eve of St. John's day is annually observed by numbers of the Irish people in Liverpool. Contributions in either fuel or money to purchase it with are collected from house to house. The fuel consists of coal, wood, or in fact anything that will burn: the fireplaces are then built up with bricks in the streets, and lighted after dark. I believe the custom is common to every county in Ireland, so I have been informed by many Irish resident here; and the only reason for the observance I can get is, that "it is Midsummer." I subjoin a short notice of the custom from the Liverpool Mercury of June 29 :—

"FIRE-WORSHIP IN IRELAND.-The old Pagan fireworship still survives in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at intervals of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's County, also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand. The people assemble and dance round the fires, children jump through the flames, and in former times live coals were carried into the cornfields to prevent blight. Of course the people are not conscious that this midsummer celebration is a remnant of the worship of Baal. It is believed by many that the round towers were intended for signal fires in connection with this worship."

Liverpool.

J. HARRIS GIBSON.

THE REV. JOHN HEALEY BROMBY, A.M., SEVENTY YEARS VICAR OF HOLY TRINITY, HULL.

On June 22 last, I availed myself of an opportunity which previous flying visits to Hull had denied of visiting this aged clergyman, now in his ninety-seventh year, as he himself told me. On presenting my card, after an interval of nearly thirty years, his daughter informed me that her father's memory had failed; and that, unless my business was urgent, be begged to decline the interview. I said my business was simply to shake hands, and say farewell; and I was sure that, if she named Clemens Alexandrinus, be would remember me. I was then immediately admitted. His hand, attenuated indeed, was cool and healthy to the touch, his dark eye bright and clear; he sat on a small elbow chair, and in a light coloured tight morning gown. I recalled many circumstances to his recollection—as his

approval of the laws and questions of a debating society which he allowed to hold meetings in the vicar's school; a sermon he published with the title EIPHNIKON," which, being printed in English for want of Greek type, I had read as eiphnikon, and had applied to a clergyman who lodged in the same house with me and had been master of a grammar school at Leicester to know its meaning, which he could not tell me, but which I afterwards, on learning Greek, found to be eirēnikon. The aged vicar repeated this word eipηvikov twice, and said "Ah! yes, eipnvióν." This sermon was said to have given offence to the Archbishop of York, before whom it was preached, as containing too comprehensive and liberal views for a churchman. I recalled Clemens Alexandrinus to his recollection, and the interview I had with him and my Greek teacher, the Rev. John Blezard, on the grammatical construction of a passage quoted by the vicar as a motto to one of his sermons, when they gave me some better insight into the doctrine of "attraction of cases of nouns. I alluded to the marriage licence he granted, and the name of my father-in-law, Major Jackson, R.M. all which he bore in mind as freshly as a young man. The only point in which he failed, although I tried it twice, was the expression in Hebrew, ". we are men and brethren," for I always considered him a Hebrew scholar. Rabbi Hassan, reading with me, always so spoke of his interviews with the vicar. On one occasion, with the aid of my late accomplished wife (a pupil of Mozart through Attwood), I supplied the vicar with the musical notes of the Hebrew accents, as chanted by Hassan in a manner which even the German Jews at Hull admired. The late vicar, for he retired a few months ago, was particularly interested when I stated to him the literary acquisitions I had made, and that I had communicated more replies to "N. & Q." than any other contributor. He would have arisen at parting, but I restrained him and said: "Nothing can prevent our soon meeting again.' He then replied: "I am happy to have seen you, and hope we shall meet in a better world."

Streatham Place, S.

T. J. BUCKTON.

CULPEPPER TOMB AT FECKENHAM. -The tomb of Sir Martin Culpepper at Feckenham, in Worcestershire, has been subjected to worse treatment than the Porter monument at Claines in the same county, for it has been (as I am informed by members of the Worcester Diocesan Architectural Society) buried under the chancel floor during some recently so-called restoration of the building. The quaint inscription written by the Lady Joyce Culpepper, his wife, beginning

"Weep, whoever this tomb doth see,
Unless more hard than stone thou be,"

is quoted in Nash's History, but the Culpeppers have long been extinct in the district, and their property has passed into other hands. THOMAS E. WINNINGTON.

tiful and well-known poem, entitled "Rock me LITERARY LARCENY.-The authorship of a beauto sleep, Mother," is now in dispute in the United States. Two persons claim to have been the author; one, Mrs. Elizabeth A. C. Akers, of Washthe eminent firm of Ticknor & Fields includes it ington, the edition of whose works published by as one of her productions. Mrs. A. claims to have the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. As pubwritten it in Italy in 1860, whence she sent it to lished there it consisted of six stanzas. In a pamphlet which has just appeared, O. A. Morse vindicates the claims of M. W. Ball, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to its authorship. In this pamphlet it is claimed that Ball wrote it in 1857, and read it in manuscript to a number of friends, who now tained fifteen stanzas, and is now for the first time testify to the fact. The poem as he wrote it congiven in full. Now, one or the other of these parties is guilty of a literary larceny, but which one is a question. It complicates this matter very much that both respectively had the talent to have produced this poem. Has this poem been republished in England, or is anything known of its authorship? It is a very remarkable case, and has any other like it ever before been known?

Frankfort-on-Main.

W. W. M.

"LUCY NEAL IN LATIN. I copy the following from a penny paper called Pasquin, published in 1847. As only eight numbers appeared, it is perhaps as well that this "fly" should be preserved in the "amber" of "N. & Q. :

Carmina Canino-Latina Æthiopica. "Alabamæ natus sum, heri nomen Beale,t

Puellam flavam ‡ habuit, cui nomen erat Neale;
Decrevit ut me venderet, quòd furem me putavit,
Sic fatum, me miserrimum, crudeliter tractavit !
O! mea dulcis Neale, carior luce § Neale,

Si mecum hic accumberes, quam felix essem, Neale ! "Epistolam accepi, nigrâ signatum cerâ,

Eheu! puellam nitidam abstulerat mors fera,
Nunc vitam ago miseram, et cito moriturus,
Sed semper te meminero, ut Hadibus futurus.
O! mea dulcis Neale, carior luce Neale,

Si mecum hic accumberes, quam felix essem, Neale ! (Hiatus haud deflendus.)

"Notæ, a Doctissimo Dunderhead scripta. "*Alabama. Regio notissima Transatlantica. Incolæ sane mirabiles sunt. Es alienum grande conflant, sed solvere semper nolunt. Libertatis gloriosi, servitutem sanctissime colunt.

† Quis fuerit Balius, incertum est. Non dubito quin repudiator fuerit, ut Alabamiensis.

capilli, sed cutis, colorem, poeta describit. "Cave, lector, ne in errorem facilem incidas. Non

"S Luce. Verbum ambiguum hoc est. Consule doctissimum Prcut, literarum et roris Hibernici peritissimum." JN. WN.

LIOM. F.

COAT CARDS, OR COURT CARDS. - In an article in Macmillan's Magazine for April last, Professor Max Müller states, as an illustration of the metamorphic process in language, that coat cards have been exalted into court cards. I am not aware what the usage may be there at present, but thirty years ago they were in East Cornwall invariably called coat cards, at any rate by the WM. PENGELLY.

middle and lower classes. Torquay.

LETTER FROM KIMBOLTON LIBRARY.-The enclosed copy of a letter, which has no address or date of year, and which contains much puzzling matter, may perhaps be worthy a place in your columns, and may elicit some explanation from some one of your numerous readers. I met with it in the library at Kimbolton Castle:

"I acknowledge your favor, not only in the delivry of my Leter, but that you have a desyer to oblidge me by a visite wch cold I resayve it... trouble to you it wold have brought me much satisfaction. I finde such cause for ye vallewe I have of my Lord Admirall, and such inclination of my owne to love and esteeme his Lo: as I know not what it maye groe to war I not so old I think it might arrive to... the action that Co: Go: and thos that accompaned him was such a on as seuets well with them, and discovered great Corage to incounter broome-men and pinne-mackers, and a rabble of such poore men who have nothing to offend but the lungs, nor to resist but their hands: it may be that this is to ingratiat

themselves, and that is as meane as the other is foolishe. I wish myselfe with you, but I can not come till the later end of next weak, if then and thar is fair cause. Black Tom has more corage than his Grase, and therefor will not be so apprehencive as he is, nor suffer a Gard to atend him, knowing he hath terror enough in his bearded browes to amaze the prentises.

"Pergo, the 16 of Maye."

"I am, &c. "SX.

F.

SOURCE OF QUOTATION WANTED.—

"Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat." Former references in "N. & Q.," 1st S. i. 351, 421, 476; ii. 317; vii. 618; viii. 73; 2nd S. i. 301. The Bishop of Down, in his speech in the House of Lords, June 24, 1867 (as reported in The Times of the following day), gives a source hitherto, as far as I know, unnoticed, at any rate in any of the notes above referred to. He speaks of "the warning contained in The Sibylline Leaves: Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.'' H. K. 5, Paper Buildings, Temple.

ESPARTO GRASS. - The following, taken from the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, July 8, may be interesting to many of the readers of "N. & Q.”: —

"Last week the 'Melancthon' arrived in the Tyne Dock with a cargo of Esparto grass, and in addition to the usual cargo of cut grass the 'hold' contained two large tubs of live grass, sent as a present to Captain Randells. The grass is very handsome, and, though drooping in the head, owing to being confined during the voyage, the whole seemed very strong and healthy at the roots. We understand that Captain Randells has very generously sent one of the tubs to Sir Wm. Hooker, Kew Gardens, London. This is the first specimen of Esparto grass ever brought over to this country. The first cargo of Esparto was brought into the Tyne in 1861, and the imports during the first year reached between 16,000 and 17,000 tons; every year has witnessed a rapid increase in the imports until last year, when the shipments exceeded 50,000 tons." J. MANUEL.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Queries.

ALFRED'S MARRIAGE WITH ALSWITHA.-There is a tradition among the inhabitants of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, that the nuptials of Alfred the Great with Alswitha, daughter of Ethelred, Earl of Gainsborough, were celebrated in 868, when he was twenty years of age, at a "wonderful old hall" in that neighbourhood. The marriage is mentioned by the old chroniclers, Asser Menevensis, Roger de Hoveden, Roger of Wendover, Florence of Worcester, and Matthew of Westminster, but not one of them specifies the locality where it took place. On what authority is the above-named tradition founded? Is it recorded in any document, either printed or in MS. ?

AUTHORS WANTED.-Can you

LLALLAWG.

inform me where

I shall find the epitaph on the Marquis of Anglesey's leg (shot off at the battle of Waterloo), which commences

"Here rests-and let no saucy knave
Presume to sneer or laugh

To learn that mouldering in the grave
Is laid-a British calf;'

and also the poem-I think the title is "Man"
one of the couplets of which runs—

Liverpool.

"If you just saw him walk I'm sure you would burst, For one leg or t'other Would always be first"?

F. J. J.

BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL.-I shall be very much obliged to any of your readers having access to a list of the killed and wounded in this battle who will kindly ascertain if the name of "Stafford" occurs in the list, and acquaint me with the result by letter. D. M. STEVENS. Guildford.

INSCRIPTION AT BLENHEIM.—I have a volume of epigrams (London, 1751), on which a former owner has made some good notes. Against Dr. Evans's "Inscription for the Bridge at Blenheim"

"The lofty arch his high ambition shows;

The stream, an emblem of his bounty, flows," he has written " v. Anthol. Gr. xcii. 75." I cannot find any similar Greek epigram, but perhaps some correspondent familiar with the Anthology may assist me. T. E. C. "LEO PUGNAT CUM DRACONE."-Medieval seals with this legend, and with a corresponding device of a lion fighting with a dragon, are of not infrequent occurrence. I have always imagined them to have a religious significance, but am unable to

[The epitaph on the Marquis of Anglesey's leg is by Mr. Thomas Gaspey, and is printed in "N. & Q." 3rd ii, 320, 339.-ED.]

find any text of Scripture on which it may have been founded. I would gladly learn the allusion they were designed to bear. J. G. N.

NAME, ETC. WANTED.-I have a very old seal with these arms-viz. sa. a fesse ar. between three cinquefoils ar. I shall be greatly obliged if any of your readers can inform me to whom these arms belong; also, the crest and motto, and when ADAMAS. granted.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT EXHIBITION: THE FORTUNE TELLER.-In the National Portrait Exhibition of this year there is a picture described in the catalogue as "The Fortune Teller," without any mention being made as to whose portrait it is. Can any reason be assigned why it is placed in an exhibition devoted entirely to portraits? Surely the authorities would not have allowed it to be placed there had they not been the readers of "N. & Q." may be able to elucidate aware that it was a portrait? Perhaps some of the mystery attached to the picture in question. EDWARD C. DAVIES.

Cavendish Club.

POEMS, ANONYMOUS. I have lately added to my collection a small MS. book containing several poems, mostly written on some passage from the Bible. No author's name is given. Perhaps some of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." would kindly say if either of the specimens I subjoin have ever appeared in print. The MS. also contains other matters of a commonplace nature. At the end is the date 1703:

"Prov. xviii. 14.

"A wounded spirit who can bear?' "Is't possible who will believe,

A spirit can be wounded, add and grieve? What hath no body needs no blows to fear; Yet 'tis most true, God's word tells you, 'A wounded spirit who can bear?' "One thing there is a Soul will wound So deeply, that 'twill bleed and sound, And even die for grief, for shame, for fear; Sin is the thing

Doth all this bring.

'A wounded Spirit who can bear?' &c. "An old stale widdower quite past the best, That had nothing about him in request, Save only that he carried in his purse, Would have a tender wench to be his nurse," &c. R. C.

Cork. THE POPEDOM.-A writer in the Saturday Review, in an article called "The Pope and the Bishops," states that there is a tradition among the Roman populace that St. Peter reigned as pope for twenty-five years, and that none of his successors is destined to exceed the term. Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me where I can find any particulars of the "tradition" referred to ? EDWARD C. DAVIES.

Cavendish Club.

PORTRAITS OF PERCY, BISHOP OF DROMORE. I am surprised that the National Portrait Gallery does not contain one of the editor of the Reliques of English Poetry, and have a great desire to know where the fine portrait of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds is supposed to be, as one of the good bishop's grandsons has informed me that the representatives are ignorant of its location. It is certainly not in Christ Church Hall, where it might naturally be expected to be found amongst those of the numerous eminent alumni of the house; and it might not have a niche from the fact of his not having been a student, for though presented with a college living (Easton-Maudit in Northamptonshire), it might have come to him as chaplain, as it is of very small value. Perhaps on this point some Christ Church correspondent might throw light. The engraving from this portrait is still to be found, representing him in a plain black gown and bands, a loose black cap on his head, and in his hand the celebrated MS. Folio of Ballads, the very existence of which was denied by the sceptical Ritson.

The original of another portrait of him, in crayons, is somewhere supposed to be hidden. A copy of this is in the possession of his grandson, Major Meade, and an excellent engraving of it is to be found in Dr. Dibdin's Decameron, vol. iii. It represents Percy at the close of life, and when totally blind, feeding his swans in the palace garden at Dromore. Information in regard to the location of both is sought by OXONIENSIS. Alvechurch, co. Worcester.

PORTRAIT OF MRS. SHELLEY.-May I use your columns to learn whether or not any portrait of Mary W. Shelley, the poet's second wife, has ever appeared in any form? It seems strange that there should not be one, when Mrs. Shelley was living so lately.

W.

SOLOMON AND THE GENII. When the Fisherman of the Arabian Nights liberated the Genius from the vase, that worthy related the following story:

"I am one of those spirits who rebelled against the sovereignty of God. All the other Genii acknowledged the great Solomon the prophet of God, and submitted to him. Sacar and myself were the only ones who were above humbling ourselves. In order to revenge himself, this powerful monarch charged Assaf, the son of Barakhia his first minister, to come and seize me. This was done, and Assaf took and brought me in spite of myself before the king his master. Solomon, the son of David, commanded me to quit my mode of life, acknowledge his authority, and submit to his laws. I haughtily refused to obey him, and rather exposed myself to his resentment than take the oath of fidelity and submission which he required of me. In order, therefore, to punish me, he enclosed me in this copper vase; and to prevent my forcing my way out, he put upon the leaden cover the impression of his seal, on which the great name of God is engraven. This done he gave the vase to one of

those Genii who obeyed him, and ordered him to cast me into the sea, which, to my great grief, he performed directly."

Many other Oriental tales likewise make mention of "Solomon's" dealings with the Genii. I would ask if it is not a mistake of the story-tellers to attribute such acts to the son of David? Do they not rather belong to the mythical race of pre-Adamite princes, who bore the common name of Solomon, and, according to the Mahommedan creed (set forth in the preliminary discourse to Sale's Koran), ruled over the troublesome beings called Genii, who occupied an intermediate place in the scale of creation, between angels and devils?

ST. SWITHIN.

SPROUTING PLATES AND JARS. -In Nature and exhibiting the curious phenomenon of the enamel Art, vol. i. p. 141, is a drawing of a jar of porcelain rising in lumps on the outside and inside of the vessel. Mr. Frank Buckland, in the second vol. of his third series of Curiosities of Natural History, describing a plate with the same peculiarity, says:

washing soda had been scattered over the plate, and at"At first sight one would imagine bits of common tached to it by gum; but on close examination with a magnifying glass, I observed numerous excrescences of a whitish opaque substance, apparently growing or extending themselves out of the centre and rim of the plate. size of a fourpenny-bit, and it has raised up a portion of The largest eruption (if it may be so called) is about the

the enamel above the surface of the plate to about the height represented by the thickness of a new pennypiece."

Mr. Buckland goes on to say the proprietor told him that he had refused a cheque for a thousand pounds for his specimen.

Mr. George Chapman, author of the article in Nature and Art above alluded to, offers the following as a probable explanation of the phenome

non:

"Carbonate of soda was used in the enamel as a flux, the soda forming a glass with the siluric acid or silica. (the carbonate of soda being most likely in excess), a The quantities not having been accurately proportioned slow decomposition (not necessarily on the surface) has been going on for a long time. There is hardly a medival window where such decomposition may not be observed. The atmosphere of all large towns, London especially, contains sulphuric acid, the result of the combustion of sulphur in the coal. The acid has by slow degrees combined with the soda and formed sulphate of soda, the moisture of the air supplying the water of crystallization. Every equivalent of sulphate of soda takes ten equivalents, or more than half its weight of water of crystallization; the increase, therefore, in the bulk of salt on crystallizing is very considerable, and hence the sprouting.'

I wish to know if any specimens exist in any of our public museums. It would be worth while to look over china-closets, and see if any of the articles have grown since they were deposited there. JOHN PIGGOT, JUN.