Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/308

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NOTES AND QUERIES, do* s. i. MARCH 26, im

impunity, that I smile incredulously at the foreboding of the last line of the Spanish quatrain. ST. SWITHIN.

NAMELESS GRAVESTONES (9 th S. xii. 504; 10 th S. i. 173). Another interesting example is to be seen in Jesraond Cemetery, New- castle -upon- Tyne. It is a square stone pedestal, about four feet high, and upon it are what appear to be fragments of a broken vase, carved out of the solid stone. The foot of the broken vase stands beside the pedestal, while the body of it, on which is carved a rose spray, lies on its side close by, and the handle and two rosebuds, supposed to be detached from the spray by the fall, lie near at hand. On the southern face of the stone is the following inscription: "Ad Urceolum, Fceminas, et Auricomum, valde defletos. Hunc cippum Pater Mater que dedicant." The cemetery was consecrated in 1836, but I understand that no record of the erection of this affecting monument can be found.

RICHARD WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

MOON FOLK-LORE (10 th S. i. 125, 175). In Derbyshire the lasses greeted the new moon thus :

All hail to thee, moon,

All hail to thee ;

I pray thee, good moon,

Reveal to me this night

Who is my husband to be.

Not in his riches,

Not in his array (=his best clothes),

But in his clothes

He wears every day.

To work the charm properly the lass must be alone, out of doors, and as near the moon as she can get. The latter condition was met by standing on a wall or climbing the bars of a five-barred gate. She must tell no one what she went out to do, and must not tell when she returned what she had done. All these conditions properly carried out, she would in her sleep tnat night see her " true love "her husband to be.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

There is early evidence of moon folk-lore and superstition. For instance, certain fancies with regard to the influence of the moon on planting, sowing, and grafting date back at least to the fourth or fifth century, to the time of Palladius, who wrote a book on agriculture, 'De Re Rustica,' or possibly to (Jolumella, of the first century A.D., from whose work Palladius derived material. In 1872 the Early English Text Society pub- lished a Middle English translation of his book from a manuscript of about 1420, under

the title ' Palladius on Husbondrie.' From this work I quote two lines (825-6) as illus- trative of the point :

To graffe and sowe in growing of the moone, And kytte and mowe in wanying is to doon.

CHARLES BUNDY WILSON. The State University of Iowa, Iowa City.

In my childhood we had a rather different invocation to the new moon from that given by J. T. F. Ours ran as follows : New moon, new moon, I woo thee In the name of the Lord and a fair ladye : If I rnarry a man or a man marry me, In my dreams this night may I him see, Not clad in his rags or in his gay, But in the apparel he wears every day.

M. N.

EPITAPHS : THEIR BIBLIOGRAPHY (10 th S. i. 44, 173, 217). The following books, not men- tioned in MR. MACMICHAEL'S list, are on my shelves :

Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph. Chronicles of the Tombs : a Select Collection of Epitaphs. Bohn, 1857.

A Select Collection of Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions. Ipswich, printed and sold by J. Raw, 1806.

Andrews, William. Curious Epitaphs. 1899.

The numerous epitaphs recorded and in- dexed in ' N. & Q.' would alone form a book of no small proportions. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

Not having access to Mr. W. Andrews's ' Curious Epitaphs,' I cannot say how many of the following are therein mentioned :

T. Caldwell. Ancient and Modern Epitaphs, 1796.

F. T. Cansick. Collection of Epitaphs, 3 vols., 1869 75.

W. Henney. Collection of Epitaphs, 1814.

James Jones. Collection of Epitaphs, 1727-

One Hundred and Twenty-six Sepulchral Mottos, 1819.

A. J. Munby. Faithful Servants, 1891.

B. Richings. Voices from the Tombs, 1858.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

BATROME (10 th S. i. 88, 173). I would sug- gest that " Batrome " or " Batram " is merely a variation of " Bertram," which has frequently been written and pronounced " Bartram." This in Northumberland is invariably the form used, Barty being the diminutive. In the old Border ballad ' Barthram's Dirge ' the same form appears. HELGA.

TRAVERS FAMILY (10 th S. i. 208). T Much information about this family is contained in "A Collection of Pedigrees of the Family of Travers, or Abstracts of certain Documents towards a History of the Family, by S. Smith Travers, Esq., arranged by Henry J. Sides,