Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/87

 10 s. x. JULY 25, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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musical resources " ; that it is not " sing- ing " nor " humming " ; that it is " probably the most primitive form of producing melodious sounds " ; and that it is the indefinite production of " deedle-deedle- deedle-dee." To these words the " deedler " "deedled" a tune, quick for dancing, slow for other purposes. Now and then a woman may be seen " deedling " to a child on her knee. In all the instances I have noticed, she had the tips of the child's fingers in her hands, and the " deedle " has been

Deedle deedle deedle dee, Deedle deedle deedle dee, Deedle deedle deedle dee, Deedle deedle dido,

her arms and body moving in rhythm.

Two musical cronies come together, and begin to chat about old and new music. One asks the other how such and such an air goes ; in reply the other " deedles " it over, and mutual musical satisfaction ensues.

It is over fifty-five years since I heard a " deedler " deedle for dancing at a village wedding party in the heart of Derbyshire, and this was the first and last time I knew "deedling" done for purposes of dancing. The fiddler of the village had trapped his fingering fingers the day before, and could not play upon his instrument. But Blind Stephen was a man of resource, and offered to " deedle " some " dancings." He was a big man ; he stood on a slightly raised platform at the end of a barn, and began to deedle a dance tune. As he warmed to the work, his arms, body, and legs took part in the deedling, and the couples spun round and about almost as well as if the music was a crowder's. Another man put more life in it by standing beside Blind Stephen, snapping his fingers as an accompaniment, his arms, body, and legs " going like smoke " in time with the deedling ; and now and then he twirled on his feet, bringing them down with a stamp. My mother afterwards told me that deedling tunes was common when fiddlers were not available in the villages when she was a girl not quite a hundred years ago.

Then "deedling" was practised by chil- dren in the course of their games, and though it was not known as " deedling," they would say, " Sumbdy deedle a bit ! " And the words of the deedling, as far as I can reme mber, were :

Deedle, deedle, deedle day ; Deedle, deedle, deedle, di ; Deedle, deedle, deedle, do ; An' we '11 say nowt about it.

What it all meant I am sure the children did not know ; but their deedling was a remnant of a lost qrt in the days when musical instruments were in many villages unknown. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

WIDOW MAURICE, PRINTER.--! find this curious name or rather conjunction of names as printer in ' The Cypress Wreath,' by Mrs. Cornwell Baron Wilson, published by Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill, 1828. " Veuve " So-and-so is not an uncommon business title in France, but the analogous title in this country must be unusual.

W. ROBERTS.

(fiwrus*

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

DON SALTERO'S TAVERN, CHELSEA. In the ' Book of the Words of the Chelsea Historical Pageant,' on p. 113, a scene is described in " The Garden behind the Coffee- House of Mr. Salter in Danvers Street," and on the map at the end of the book " Salter's Coffee-House " is marked as occupying a portion of the site of Sir Thomas More's house. I remember perfectly well, in the early sixties, a house in the centre of Cheyne Walk which, by its ground-floor windows and unenclosed and paved forecourt showed that it had been in a very different occupation from the adjoining houses, and I was always under the impression that this was Don Saltero's. Both Faulkner and Walford confirm this. Has anything been recently discovered to throw doubt on this generally accepted belief ? or is it merely " pageant " history ?

J. TAVENOR-PERRY.

5, Burlington Gardens, Chiswick.

COMTE D'ANTRAIGTJES. I should be glad of any particulars of the career of the Comte d'Antraigues who was murdered at Barnes in July, 1812. According to * The Annual Register,' the Comte had eminently distin- guished himself in European politics.

R. A. A. L.

SILVRETTA MOUNTAINS. Can any one tell me of any literature dealing with this group of mountains in the Lower Engadine, more especially as regards the native guides ?

H. O.