Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/59

 10 s. XL JAN. 16, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

43

but they were little more than asylums for the aged and infirm. It is on record, too, that during the epidemic of 1665 several households were sent by their masters and mistresses to lodge with people to whom reference is made as " nurses." But neither these " hospitals " nor " nurses " could have fulfilled the same functions in the com- munity as their namesakes of the nineteenth- century " hospital movement."

With medical assistance, therefore, outside the attainment of most of the lower classes, and in light of the fact that there were but few general practitioners even for the more wealthy, the following letter affords grounds for speculation as to, first, what this " gentle- woman surgeon ' ' was in her everyday capacity ; secondly, how she had gained the knowledge that earned her the reputation that she appears to have acquired. Her description seems rather to deny the answer that she was an ordinary " quack."

The letter occurs in ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1665-6,' vol. clii. 180 :

From Lidlington, March 5, 1665.

" There being now a person condemned in Bedford Goall, for unfortunately striking a Tobacco pipe into ye eye Brow of a Man who is since Dead, And ye person prosecuted by one sole witness, being a Woman generally knowne of a very Lose and debosht Life, And since Sentence passt, a Gentle woman Surgeon of sound judgment and good re- pute, has been before severall Justices of ye County (being much troubled in mind she was not calld to the Barr to give her evidence) which she is since ready to attest on oath that she first drest the Person of his wound and soe continued her care to ye Last, and that the wounded person dyed noe more of that wound than of a Cutt finger."

They desire a reprieve. And so on

Signed, Bedford.

Tho. Snage, high sheriffe. Henry Chester. Hrd. Wingave.

STARTLE Y WILLIAMS, B.A.

Queen's College, Oxford.

UNPUBLISHED SONGS BY T. L.

PEACOCK. (Concluded from 10 S. x. 444.)

THE songs contained in ' The Three Doctors ' number eleven in all. Three of these a Septette, a Quintetto, and a short chorus are omitted here, as they lose their interest in being transplanted from their surroundings in the play.

'THE THREE DOCTORS.'

I. Song: Hippy. Couldn't that old sot, Sir Peter, Keep his house a little neater ? Not a sofa to recline on ; Not a table fit to dine on ;

Dogs and horses all past healing ; Every servant drunk and reeling : Flames of scorching anger burn me :

I 'm so hurried,

Vexed and flurried,

Teased and worried, Zounds ! I know not where to turn me f Piled in heaps the pans and kettles ; All the garden full of nettles ; In the arbours sheep are housing ; In the greenhouse goats are browsing ; Forced to scramble, when I ramble, Through a copse of furze and bramble, I 'm with endless plagues surrounded : Rage vexation Tribulation Botheration And confusion thrice confounded,

II. Duet.

Caroline.

To him, my dear, my wandering youth,.. Who first deceived my plighted truth,

I '11 ever constant prove : Life's rugged path has not a charm The stings of fortune to disarm

Like constancy in love. Lucy.

The varying scenes through which we stray With magic wiles in vain essay

The constant mind to move : The faithless train, that rove and range. Will find no charm in endless change

Like constancy in love. Both. '

The breast of truth no fears confound, Though darkness close our hopes around,.

And tempests scowl above : The ills at which the clouds repine Can never reach the sacred shrine

Of constancy in love.

III. Song: Barbet.

From London town,

Where high renown

My skill doth crown,

I 've rattled down ;

And now present

To your content, Good sir, your most obedient.

All ills I cure

That dogs endure :

I give them drugs,

I shave their mugs,

I comb their coats,

I cut their throats, As you may deem expedient. .

Caesar, Fowler,

Pompey, Jowler,

Ranger, Hero,

Neptune, Nero,

One and all

Obey my call, For faith, sir, I 'm no noodle;.

At my command

They go or stand,

Pointer, terrier,

Greyhound, harrier,

Bulldog, ban-dog,

Newfoundland dog, Spaniel, pug, or poodle.