Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/39

 10 S. XL JAN. 9, 1909.] X< )TES AND QUERIES.

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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.

" THE WOOSET." In ' Christmas Notes ' (10 S. ix. 51) mention is made of "the horse's head with its clapping jaws and white sheet, called Mari Llwyd in Wales and the Wooset in Wiltshire."

I should be glad of further information regarding the Wooset, or reference to any description. I am about to go to press with a booklet on the Kent Christmas custom " The Hoodening Horse," which ig of a like nature ; but I am anxious also briefly to describe any similar custom. I am acquainted with " Mari Llwyd," but the Wooset is unknown to me.

PERCY MAYLAM. Canterbury.

" CHRISTMAS PIG." In how many English counties are " Christmas pigs " baked ? What kind of pastry is used for shaping the pigs, and what ingredients form the " filling " ?

I learn that in North Lincolnshire the best kind of " Christmas pig " is made of pork-pie crust filled with pork-pie meat, duly seasoned ; but " mince-pie pigs " are also often seen. The pigs are usually sup- posed " to please the children," but they may be manufactured for older people, as "a bit of fun."

Are they ever known in these days as " Yule pigs," which was probably their old name ? M. P.

LASCAR JARGON. Some time ago I was shown a book of phrases in the Lascar jargon, used by Oriental sailors. I have forgotten the title, and shall be glad if any one can supply it, or the author's name, or other particulars by which I can trace it.

I fear the vocabulary of the British officer is mainly objurgatory. I have heard him say, sarcastically, to the " little brown brother," " Tumhari joru bhej do," i.e., " Give your wife the job to do," also " Tum- hara bap jilgaya hai," i.e., " Your father was burnt," which was an insult, being addressed to a Mohammedan, since it implied that he was a Hindu ! JAS. PLATT, Jun.

NYM AND " HUMOUR." I am timid about asking a question which I dare say the 'H.E.D.,' the 'E.D.D.,' the 'D.N.B.,' or the best edition of Chaucer might enable

me to answer for myself ; but this is Clirist- tnastide, and I will indulge in the luxury of getting somebody else to work for me. What is the jocosity involved in Nym's

onstant use of the word " humour " in The Merry Wives of Windsor ' ? I am not sure that there is more than one of his speeches from which the word is absent, and sometimes it comes in twice or more. When he last opens his mouth he provokes

"rom Mr. Page the comment : " ' The

lumour of it,' quoth a' ! Here 's a fellow

'rights English out of his wits." Shakespeare himself was rather fond of

rumour in its many senses, and some of them seem to have originated about his

ime. ST. SWTTHIN.

" PROXEGE AND SENAGE." Appen- dix XXXI. to Dugdale's ' History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London' (1658, fo. 271) is headed ' The state of the londes of the Churche,' and is expressed to be extracted " from the aforesaid paper Register." Pre- vious references do not give any press- mark for the Register in question ; nor is there sufficient evidence that it is identical with any of the Registers reported on in Part I. of the Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS.

The first among the " certain and ordi- nary " yearly outgoings set down at the foot of the " state " is " Proxege and Senage, xxxiiis. vjd."

I shall be very grateful if some one who knows the Cathedral records will tell me the date of this account, and give the true reading. The printed text abounds in forms which are obviously impossible^ in the English of any period. Q. "V.

MRS. OLIPHANT'S ' NEIGHBOURS ON THE GREEN.' I should be glad of information as to the persons indicated in the nine tales forming this volume. It is inscribed to General George Chesney and Mr. R. H. Hutton, " who at the time these stories were written gave distinction to the Green."

JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

PIERREPOINT'S REFUGE, ST. JAMES'S STREET. At the foot of the lamp-post standing in the refuge between the two corners of the top of St. James's Street the above title is cast on the iron. I am not certain about the spelling of the name. It may be " Pierrepont." It was hidden by the surrounding asphalt some years ago. If I remember rightly, the present lamp-post was new about ten years ago. The mscnp-