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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. DEC. 26, iocs.

The Nativity in Art. In Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. Ixxii. pp. 1-16, with illustrations, December, 1885.

A Book of Christmas Carols, pictured by Members of the Birmingham Art School. 1906.

The Magi: How they recognized Christ's star. By Lieut. -Col. G. Mackinlay. Preface by Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay. 1907.

Chateau and Country Life in France. By Mary King Waddington. 1908. Art. vi. is ' Christmas in the Valois,' pp. 200-28).

Holly, Yew, and Box. With notes on other ever- greens. By W. Dallimore and Thomas Moore. 1908.

Four Excellent Carols for Christmas Holidays. Lancaster, n.d.

W. C. B.

THE FIFTEEN O's. There are notes on the Fifteen O's in ' Visitations of Churches belonging to St. Paul's,' Camd. Soc., p. Iv. One of them was " O Jesu heuenly leche " ; and in ' The Life of Merlin,' p. 170, He is addressed as " most wholsome leech." In the ' Obedientiars of Abingdon,' Camd. Soc., we have O Radix Jesse, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, and O Emmanuel, pp. 7, -53, 62, 75, 86, 105. W. C. B.

BOY-BISHOP. (See 10 S. viii. 484.) Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, by his will, proved in 1500, left to his College of Jesus at Rotherham a mitre of cloth of gold, having two knops of silver enamelled for the use of the " barnes-bishop " (' Testa- menta Eboracensia,' iv. 142). W. C. B.

CHRISTMAS AT SELBY ABBEY, 1397. In the account roll of Selby Abbey are many entries of rewards given to persons bringing gifts to the abbot and convent at Christmas, 1397, from St. Thomas's Day to the Epiphany a swan, eels, fish, part- ridges, and two hounds ; and also to many minstrels, four coming from the Duke of Norfolk, four from the Earl of Northumber- land, two from Selby, one from the Duke of Lancaster, and one other (Yorksh. Archceol. Jowrvxv. 411-12). W. C. B.

MISTLETOE.

Upon the oak, the plumb-tree, and the holme, The stockdove and the blackbird should not come Whose mooting on those trees does make to grow Rots curing hyphear, and the mistletoe.

W. Browne, ' Britannia's Pastorals,' 1613 Book I. song i.

A bath for horses' lega :

"Take of the leaves and berryes of Missletow

three or foure good handfuls, boyle all these

together untill all the hearbes and Missletow Become soft/' T. de Gray, 'Compleat Horseman,' 1639, p. 85 ; again, for a "poultesse," p. 250.

"Pride is a weed that will grow out of any ground (like Misseltoe, that will grow upon any tree, but for the most part upon the best, the oak).'" C. Ness, ' History and Mystery,' 1690, i. 304.

W. C. B.

INSCRIPTION OVER HALL DOOR.

Pax intrantibus, Salus exieuntibus, Benedictio Habitantibus.

The above I copied recently at Holmhurst, St.-Leonards-on-Sea, the residence of the well-known writer the late Augustus J. C. Hare. CHARLES S. KING, Bt.

WATCH INSCRIPTION. It may be of interest to some readers of ' N. & Q.' to learn of a curious inscription, which was printed inside the outer case of a watch of the usual warming-pan type, which I was proud to possess as a little boy. The in- scription ran as follows :

There are

fabricated & renovated

traquiliac horologies portable

or permanent linguaculous or

taciturnal whose circumgirations

are performed by internal

spiral elastic or extensive

pendulous plumbages

diminutive simple or compound

invested with aurant

integument.

The watch was made in Nottingham, and I understood from my grandmother that this inscription was also placed over the shop door.

Is it a parody of, or a genuine instance of, the absurd Latinizing of the language in vogue at the time ?

FREDK. W. MANSON.

LEG GROWING AFTER DEATH. Here is a story for Christmas from ' Illios ' (pp. 2, 3), by Dr. H. Schliemann :

" There was a legend that the castle [of Anker s- hagen] had once been inhabited by a robber knight of the name of Henning von Holstein, popularly called 'Henning Bradenkirl,' who was dreaded over the whole country, for he plundered and sacked wherever he could. But to his vexation the Duke of Mecklenburg gave safe-conducts to many of the merchants who had to pass by his castle. Wishing to wreak vengeance on the duke, Henning begged him to do him the honour of a visit. The duke accepted the invitation, and came on the appointed day with a large retinue. But a cowherd who was cognizant of Henning's design to murder his guest hid himself in the underwood on the roadside,

behind a hill and lay in wait for the duke, to

whom he disclosed his master's murderous intention, and the duke accordingly returned instantly. The hill was said to have derived its present name 1 Wartensberg ' or ' Watch-mount ' from the event.