Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/311

 10 s. xii. SEPT, 25, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

255

somewhat later it furnishes the visitor wit abundance of luscious raspberries. Thi choice spot is within easy reach of thos St. Andrews pedestrians who complete th familiar hill-walk to Drumcarro, but it existence and the conditions on which it ma v be explored are known only to an initiatec minority. THOMAS BAYNE.

TRIPLE CHANCEL ARCHES (10 S. xii. 208) The little church at Elton, near Stockton co. Durham, is another church with tripl chance] arches, apparently of Transitiona date. R. B R.

South Shields.

The ruined church of Reculvers in Ken has a triple chancel arch. Being the oldes example, it was probably a precedent fo the others. WALTER SCARGILL.

The small church of Ovingdean, Sussex has triple chancel arches, probably of Saxon origin. F. S. SNELL.

About fifty years ago there was a triple chancel arch at a church in Essex a few miles from Harlow. It was either Sheering or Matching, I am not sure which, but '. think it was Sheering. G. A. M.

" SHOT AT THE ROOK AND KILLED THE

CROW " (10 S. xii. 147, 218). The form o: this rime, as I remember it being taugh long ago to my children, was

Robbin the Bobbin he bent his bow, 8hot at a pigeon and killed a crow, Shot at another and killed his own brother, Did Robbin the Bobbin that bent his bow.

B. BOBBINS.

The rime I knew when a child ran : All in a row A-benty bow, (Shoot at a pigeon An' kill a white crow.

We made " bowen arrows " the bows of " lember," thin branches of hazel wood, and the arrows were " keks." Chanting the lines, we advanced, shot, and killed in our little idea the " white crows." The best of things were always to us white.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Work sop.

CHARLES PIGOTT'S ' JOCKEY CLUB ' (10 S. xii. 90, 135, 174). The manuscript note cited by me may be " incorrect," but not for the reason given. MR. ALECK ABRA- HAMS is mistaken in saying " there was not a Sir Frederick Eden." Sir Frederick Morton Eden, the person referred to, suc- ceeded his father Sir Robert in 1786, and

died in 1809. He is mentioned on pp. 441 and 480 of vol. xxxix. of ' The Annual Register.' His son, another Sir Frederick, succeeded him, and was killed at New Orleans in 1814. W. H. DAVID.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S. xii. 208).

I sow hempseed : hempseed I sow : He that loves me the best Come after me and mow.

These lines are a popular charm, said to be used in Derbyshire on St. Valentine's Eve, and in some parts of England at Midsummer, or on St. Martin's night. Folkard gives a variant commonly used in Scotland on All- Hallows Eve ; see his ' Plant Lore,' pp. 370- 371, where there is a good deal of information on the subject of sowing hempseed by way of divination. C. C. B.

There are many variations of the rime " Hempseed I sow." Down here in the West it used to run :

'Empzeed I throw,

'Empzeed I zow,

'E that's my true love

Corne arter me an' mow.

It refers, of course, to the attempt made by the sowing of hempseed by maidens to divine who their future husbands will be. Brand in his ' Antiquities ' has a lengthy reference to this custom, which was greatly practised in Scotland on All -Hallow E'en. But in some parts of the country and in Devonshire the hempseed was sown on Midsummer Eve. Gay in his ' Pastorals ' refers to it in these words : At eve last midsummer no sleep I sought, But to the field a bag of hempseed brought ; I scatter'd round the seed on evry side, And three times, in a trembling accent, cried, " This hempseed with my virgin hand I sow ; Who shall my true love be the crop shall mow." W. G. WILLIS WATSON. Exeter.

Miss HORNE is not likely to find any iterary source for her lines " Hempseed I low," &c. It is a common folk rime used or getting a sight of a lover, known or un- mown. It may be found in Hunt's ' Popular Romances of the West of England ' ( ' The pectre Bridegroom'). I think the verses ire in ' Mother Bunch's Closet,' but have 10 copy by me. Hunt prints " Come after me and show thee." One form is as f re- ent as the other. Other forms may be ound in Gregor's ' Folk-lore of North-East cotland,' p. 84, and Gutch and Peacock's Folk-lore of Lincolnshire,' p. 130 (Lintseed nd barley respectively). YGREC,