Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/24

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. i. JAN. 2,

character, however, is thus summarized by Weaver in his ' conclusion ' (p. 69) 'The first step Perkins inade towards his present height of blasphemy and imposture, was to dignify himself with the title of Doctor, and to commence watercaster, astrologer, and fortune-teller, but he was then consulted only by silly servant girls who wanted sweethearts and brainsick lovers pining after maids. A temporary suspension being given to his practice in 1810 at the Grantham .Sessions, he invented the system of Lamenism, or spiritual astrology, in the hope of evading further interruption from the law ; and by one bold stroke after another, arrived at his present pitch of worthless popularity.' Mr. Healey, hair- dresser, &c., Market-place, kindly lent me the pamphlet for perusal, &c., and it is now in his possession should any one wish to see it. J. BEALK."

ST. SwiTHIN.

' .MY OLD OAK TABLE ' (9 th S. xii. 448, 514). ' The Oak Table,' or ' My Oak Table,' was sung erroneously to the tune of "My lodging is on the cold ground." The true tune is Charles Dibdin's, belonging to the year 1799, sung in his entertainment named ' Tom Wilkins,' at Leicester Place, one of the "Sans Souci." The song for which it was composed was 'The Last Shilling,' the words beginning thus: As pensive one night in my garret I sat, My last shilling produced on the table, That advent'rer," cried I, " might ahistory relate, If to think and to speak it were able." Whether fancy or magic 'twas play'd me the freak,

The face seem'd with life to be filling, And cried, instantly speaking, or seeming to speak, " Pay attention to me, thy Last Shilling."

Three stanzas follow, worth giving, should the Editor of ' X. & Q.' permit, varying the theme, but adopting the manner of Charles Dibdin's ' Last Shilling,' and keeping to the same tune (see the music of it in vol. ii. pp. 238-40 of G. H. Davidson's 'Songs of Charles Dibdin, with music arranged by George Hogarth,' London, 1848 edition). Genial Tom Hudson, author of 'Jack Robin- son ' and many other popular ditties, wrote and sung 'The Oak Table' in 1822. He printed it in the 'Fourth Collection of his S-jngs,' p. 23. Here are the words :

THE OLD OAK TABLE.

(Tune of Charles Dibdin's ' The Last Shilling.') I had knock'd out the dust from my pipe t'other night,

m O1 Time toward8 midnight was creeping :

1 he last smoke from its ashes had taken to flight

I telt neither waking nor sleeping \\ lien a voice loud and hollow, and seemingly near,

You '11 say 'twas a dream or a fable, Directed towards me, said, audibly clear,

" List, list, list to me, thy oak table ! "

" I was once of the forest the monarch so bold >ior tempest nor storm made me tremble

r of K vei T oft > the famed Druids of old U ould under my branches assemble :

Their mysterious rites they'd perform before me,

Those rites to unfold I am able ; 5ut be that now forgot, I was then an oak tree,

And now I am but an oak table.

When the axe brought me down, and soon lopped was each bough,

And to form a ship I was converted, Manned by true hearts of oak the wide ocean to plough,

And by Victory never deserted. (Bis.) But worn out by Time, and reduced to a wreck,

Bereft of my anchor and cable, A carpenter bought me, and with part of my deck

Made me what you see now an oak table.

thrust in a corner, put out of the way. But I fear I your patience am tiring, [ expect nothing less than, some forthconiing day,.

To be chopped up, and used for your firing." " No, never ! " cried I, as I started awake, " I '11 protect thee, so long as I'm able : And eacn friend that my humble cheer will partake Shall be welcome around My Oak Table ! "

Written by Tom Hudson, 1821.

They sang good songs in those days eighty years ago. J. WOODFALL EBS \VORTH.

The Priory, Ashford, Kent.

DK. DEE'S MAGIC MIRROR (9 th S. xii. 467). The following quotation from the 'D.N.B.' article on the astrologer may perhaps be useful in illustration of MR. PAGE'S interest- ing note :

"The magic mirror, a disc of highly polished cannel coal, was preserved in a leathern case, and was successively in the hands of the Mordaunts, Earls of Peterborough, Lady Elizabeth Germaine, John, Duke of Argyll, Lord Frederick Campbell, and Mr. Strong of Bristol, who purchased it at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842, though another account states that it was then acquired by Mr. Smythe Pigott, at the sale of whose library in 1853 it passed into the possession of Lord Londesborough (Journal of British Archaeological Assoc., v. 52; 'N. & Q.,' 3 rd S. iv. 155). Dee's shew stone, or holy stone, which he asserted was given to him by an angel, is- in the British Museum. It is a beautiful globe of polished crystal, of the variety known as smoky quartz (Archaeological Journal, xiii. 372 ; ' N. & Q./ 7 th S. iv. 306)."

I may add that one day at the end of October last I was shown by a lady (born Napier), who lives at the extreme south- western corner of Cambridgeshire, a crystal globe (pierced through the middle) which once belonged to Dr. Dee. It had been, I understand, one of four similar holy stones, and was purchased at the Strawberry Hill sale. A. R. BAYLEY.

On 22 November, 1592, Mr. Secretary Walsingham and Sir Thomas Gorges were appointed by Queen Elizabeth commissioners "to hear the grievances of Dr. Dee, the German conjurer, and repaired to his house at Mortlake, Surrey, for that purpose, to understand the matter, and the cause for