Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/91

 10 S. XL JAN. 23, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ing Platina, William of Newbury, and Leland. William of Tyre asserts that he died of a quinsy. Bale ('De Script. Brit.,' Cent. XII. Appendix), on the authority of Joannes Funcius and Pagi, avers that he was choked by a fly getting into his throat while he was drinking. Fuller (' Worthies ') adopts the same story. Matthew Paris, however, is con- fident that the Supreme Pontiff fell a victim to Roman revenge. He had borne in mind the advice of the King of England against unworthy appoint- ments, and was secretly got rid of, to make way for a less conscientious Pope (' Vit. Abbat. St. Alban.,' 74)."

Perhaps OCTOGENARIAN is seeking the reference to Fuller. S. L. PETTY.

The fly story of Pope Adrian's death was told in the first school history I had, which was, I believe, Pinnock's 'Goldsmith.' This is hardly an authority, however.

C. C. B.

' Outlines of English History,' by Henry Ince, M.A., and James Gilbert, London, 1868, was the title of the book from which, in my earliest days, I imbibed my first lessons in history. On p. 48 of that little work, under the heading of ' Names of Note,' occurs the following :

" Nicholas Breakspeare, the only Englishman who was ever chosen as Pope : he took the title of Adrian IV. (1154). and was choked by a fly in the tifth year of his pontificate (1159)."

If this is a fiction, it must have had a pretty wide circulation among the youth of my day, as read on the title-page that " the present edition brings the sale of this work up to three hundred and twenty-two thousand." WM. NORMAN.

6, St. James Place, Plumstead.

At p. 108 of 'Pope Adrian IV.' (the Lothian Essay, 1907), by J. Duncan Mackie, it is stated :

"Imperialist tradition ascribed to divine inter- position the opportune removal of the Pope, who had dared to resist the mighty Barbarossa, and told with awe how he was choked by a fly which he swallowed in a draught of water."

Mr. F. A. Lumlye, whose life of the Hert- fordshire Pope is printed in ' Memorials of Old Hertfordshire,' 1905, says :

" It has been asserted that he was poisoned, but this theory never had a shadow of evidence to support it. The Emperor's party invented a silly tale that he was choked, while drinking, by a fly. This idle story is frequently found in modern books whose writers ought to know better."

W. B. GEHISH. Bishop's Stortford.

[BRUTUS also refers to Ince's 'Outlines.']

CHRISTMAS DAY AND LADY DAY (10 S. x. 508). The matter is discussed at some length by Mgr. Duchesne, ' Christian Wor- ship ' (S.P.C.K., 1903, pp. 257-65).

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

"CHRISTMAS PIG" (10 S xi. 27). See 8 S. ii. 505, under ' Rural Christmas Fes- tivities in the Fifties,' for a description of these as I remember them in Nottingham- shire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and (I believe) Warwickshire. I am under the impression that an article dealing entirely with these "pigs" appeared early in 1893 in Folk-lore, but I have no copy of it. It is certain that, in response to a request from Miss Burne, I caused some " pigs " to be made for her, which were exhibited at a meeting of the Folk-lore Society at which a paper on the subject was to be read. The theory then put forward was, I believe, that the " pigs " were a survival of a cere- monial eating of swine at the ancient Yule festival. Jn my article in ' N. & Q.' I omitted to say that the paste used for making the " pigs " might be either the usual " pork- pie " paste or " puff paste," as used for mince-pies, &c. The " filling " was the same as for mince-pies, but at Christmas this always contained some ingredient from the pig. C. C. B.

It would seem that this is merely a variant of the Yule dough cake, which is not peculiar to any one county, and is suggested by the Christmas dish of the pig or boar's head. In Cornwall a boar is always a " pig," for instance. I remember, when a boy, their being made in my own family, stuck with currants, and the grocer always used to send a quantity of raisins and almonds for similar Yule confections. In other parts the cakes were made in the form of babies, or dolls ; and the Christmas before last I noticed such whimsical examples of pastry in a confectioner's shop at West Kensington, opposite the railway station.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

"THE WOOSET" (10 S. xi. 27). A " wooser," " wooset," " husset," " hoset," or " whuzzer " seems to have its derivation in a " whizzer," a machine " which rotates rapidly and drives out most of the moisture from wet places " hence anything impres- sive by reason of violence or size, as a sting- ing blow. Any one who has seen, as I often have, a carthorse's cranium excavated from the depths of the London soil, could not but be impressed with its enormous size, and it was probably such a skull that was