Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/91

 10 s. xii. JULY 24, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the instances of omissions alleged in ' N. & Q.' and elsewhere would disappear, to the saving of wasted space. The present phrase is recorded in the ' Dictionary,' properly explained, I think, and furnished with four quotations, selected out of some forty-five, which could have been given if the Dictionary extended to a hundred volumes instead of ten. But MB. ROBBINS has supplied one twelve years earlier from a work published since C was prepared, and for this we thank him. Many such additions will be possible as historical MSS. are printed.
 * Dictionary ' more carefully, more than half

"Burgator" (10 S. xii. 26), also noted by MR. BOBBINS, is not a " familiar phrase " ; if not a misprint of some kind (e.g. of bursator), it must be the Latinized form of some derivative of burgh or borough ; perhaps investigations made at Hindon might throw light upon its meaning and history. Will any one investigate, and give us the results for our Supplement ?

J. A. H. MTJBBAY.

HABVEST SUPPEB SONGS (10 S. xii. 30). One song much sung on these occasions, namely, 'The Brave Old English Oak,' was recognized by Chorley, the musical critic, as his own, when he attended, towards the end of his life, the only harvest supper of that life, on the borders of Hampshire and Surrey. D.

SEETHING LANE (10 S. xi. 485 ; xii. 11). I am much obliged to DB. SHABPE, whose help is greatly appreciated. I am glad he has found " Syfethenlane." But there is no reason why this may not mean Syfechen, because c and t are so often miswritten for one another. I first discovered this for myself (though it was known before) some forty years ago, when I came across the amazing word tercis in a MS. in Trinity College. The riddle was solved when I found that other MSS. had the form certes, as T then knew what was meant.

WALTEB W. SKEAT.

ROBEBT NOYES (10 S. xi. 288, 431, 512). Through the kindness of Robert's grandson the REV. DB. NOYES, I am enabled to add a fact or two to those contained in my reply at the second reference. Robert Noyes died March, 1843, and is buried in St. John's Churchyard, Wolverhampton. He came of a well-known Wiltshire family, and began life in a bank, but soon gave up business to devote himself to painting. His work was done mostly in Wales, Shropshire, and

Staffordshire. He married Anne Giddings, who died at Leamington in 1869. Like MB. JOHN LANE, DB. NOYES is interested in his grandfather's work, and is forming a small collection of it, but is unable to dis- cover where the best of it is gone. Perhaps some one at Wolverhampton could give further information. A second-hand book- seller in Birmingham bought some of his drawings about ten years ago, and was at the time unwilling to restore them to the family, who regretted having let them go.

A. POTTS. The College, Cheater.

ASTBONOMY IN THE MIDDLE AGES (10 S.

xii. 9). Perhaps the following books may be of use : Wright's ' Popular Treatises on Science ' ; ' Leechdoms, Wort-cunning, and Starcraft of Early England,' ed. T. O. Cockayne (Rolls Series) ; Roger Bacon's ' Opera Inedita ' (Brewer). The British Museum (Royal Lib. 7 F. viii. fo. 99-191)

Possesses a complete MS. of an early writing y Roger Bacon, the ' Computus,' on astro- nomy and the reformation of the Calendar (1263). A. R. BAYLEY.

HOCKTIDE AT HEXTON (10 S. xi. 488).

Alexander Tille's book on the history of the German Christmas treats the Christmas tree as an almost modern development of the bough, or switch, used in heathen and early Christian times for blessing cattle at the great fore-winter festival, when the animals were driven from the summer pastures into their winter quarters. This view scarcely accounts for the English Christmas bough, unless it may be supposed to descend from the switch in another line ; but if it be correct, the English Hocktide poles and Maypoles, with the Scandinavian midsummer poles, may possibly have been derived from the rods used for blessing cattle when they were driven out to their grazing-grounds in spring touching with a green bough or twig being an Indo-Germanic custom. Similar poles are known in Russia, and they were even formerly used by the natives of Central America before the people left off heathen worship.

Possibly, after all, both the English Christmas bough, and its supplanter the German Christmas tree, may represent a branch, shrub, or tree honoured within- doors at the great fore-winter festival as the representative of that vegetation which was now entering into a dormant state in the outer world. In this case the open-air pole of springtide would stand for the reawakening of field and forest.