Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/526

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. NOV. 28, im

co. Wexford, was Matthew Scanderbeg De Rinzy, born 9 Dec., 1836. Burke says that the estate of Clobemon was granted by King Charles I. to the direct ancestor of the family, Sir Matthew De Rinzy, Kt.

There is a Major G. C. De Rinzy in a recent Army List. R. J. FYNMORE.

THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER : GUY FAWKES CELEBRATIONS (10 S. x. 384). Is it known when what are called Guy Fawkes celebra- tions began ? It seems popularly to be taken for granted that they are coeval with the event. But did they really begin on 5 Nov., 1606 ? I do not remember any early reference to these popular demon- strations. If they did not begin at this date, when did they ? and who and what gave rise to this historico-religious popular rite ?

Can another curious fact regarding them be accounted for, viz., that the Guy Fawkes effigy is burnt ; whereas Guido Fawkes, as usual in the good old times, was hung, drawn, and quartered ? I have read in a Hastings paper the suggestion that it is a survival of witch - burning, and that as a live witch cannot be burnt, a dead one is burnt instead. But Fawkes was not a witch, and 5 November is not, so far as I know, a witch day. D. J.

The begging rime used by London boys twenty-five to thirty years ago, and possibly still in use at the present day. ran somewhat as follows :

Please to remember the fifth of November,

Gunpower Treason and Plot ;

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy ! Guy ! Guy ! stick him in the eye,

Hang him on a lamp-post and there let him die !

A penny loaf to feed the Pope,

A penn orth of cheese to choke him,

A pint of beer to wash it down,

And a jolly good fire to roast him.

Hooray !

I can still recall the tunes to which this rime was sung, the air used for the first four lines being repeated for the last four.

GYPSY.

Victoria University, Manchester.

In my young days the hobledehoys who went round collecting fuel for the village bonfire, if they were dissatisfied with the response to their demands, finished up their doggerel song with a promise of A stick and a stump To burn your old rump.

I do not remember any other portion of the formula. E. E. STREET.

On the 5th of November the children here go from door to door with a turnip cut and painted to represent a human face, and carried on a short stick, begging " A ha'p'ny to burn me Pope." I have no knowledge of this custom in any other part of Scotland.

ALEX. RUSSELL. Stromness, Orkney.

LAW OF LATJRISTON (10 S. x. 367). I am also preparing a Law of Lauriston pedigree for a work I am engaged upon, but I am only concerned with the male descendants and their daughters. . I am in communica- tion with the present Marquis of Lauriston, and might be able to give MR. GOWER some particulars, should he care to send me a note of what he requires. I have also some ex- tracts relating to the Laws of Brunton, from whom the Lauriston family is said to derive.

RTJVIGNY. 15, Hanover Chambers, Buckingham Street, W.C

EDWARD MORRIS, M,P. (10 S. x. 350, 397). I venture to think that the reference in 'Vanity Fair' (1848) is not to Edward, but to Charles (1745-1838), the well-known song-writer and author of ' Lyra Urbanica,' 1840 (see 2 S. ii. 412). Edward died in 1815, when Thackeray was but four years old, and did not leave any collection of songs behind him. M.

" DEAR " : " O DEAR NO ! " (10 S. x. 349, 395.) It is suggested at the latter reference that the inter jectional use of " dear " has no connexion with the adjective " dear," but is due to a borrowing of an Old French interjection dea, which is explained to be a shortened form of diable, used inter jectionally. It must be said that this account of the locution is very un- satisfactory. There is no evidence that the O.F. dea ! ever crossed the Channel. Does the interjection dea ! occur in any English text, or even in any Anglo-Norman text ? How is the final -r in " Dear me ! " " O dear no ! " to be accounted for ? This use of " dear " is comparatively modern not earlier than the seventeenth century ; but in the seventeenth century final -r would not have lost its full consonantal value. Even now idea and dear would not be considered perfect rimes. The identity of E. dear with O.F. dea must be rejected on phonetic as well as on historical grounds.

The inter jectional use of " dear " is due to an ellipsis of the divine name. This is suggested in * N.E.D.,' and is abundantly corroborated by dialectal usage, as may be seen in ' E.D.D.' Compare the following