Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/238

 104

NOTES AND QUERIES. WS.IL SEPT. 3,190*.

As thunder nor fierce lightning harms the bay, So no extremitie hath power on fame.

6. He also quotes from a copy of com- plimentary verses to the memory of Ben Jonson:

I see that wreathe which doth the wearer arme 'Gainst the quick stroakes of thunder, is no charme 'To keep off death's pale dart : for, Jonson, then Thou hadst been numbered still with living men ; "Time's scythe had feared thy laurell to invade, JNor thee this subject of our sorrow made.

7. Lastly, this writer says :

"The iron crown of laurels upon the bust of Ariosto in the Benedictine church at Ferrara was smelted by lightning, an incident which ' Childe Harold ' notices and comments on :

Nor was the ominous element unjust ;

For the true laurel wreath which glory weaves

Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves."

See Byron, 'Childe Harold,' iv. 41 : The lightning rent from Ariostp's bust The iron crown of laurel's mimicked leaves.

See also Nos. xi. xii. of the ' Historical ^sTotes ' in the appendix to Byron's ' Works ' <Murray, 1837). C. LAWRENCE FORD.

Bath.

It seems that the greater the amount of

oil contained in trees the less they are

threatened by lightning, whereas amylum

attracts it. Very rich in oil are the walnut

tree and the beech ; on the contrary, rich

in amylum and poor in oil are the oak,

willow, elder, poplar, maple, hazel-nut, elm,

anulberry, white-thorn, ash- tree. In the

province of Saxony country folk warn you,

when a thunderstorm is approaching, by this

saying, in which, it appears, the experience

of many generations is summed up :

Vor den Eichen sollst du weichen,

Vor den Fichten sollst du fliichten,

Auch die Weiden sollst du meiden,

Doch die Buchen sollst du suchen.

G. KRUEGER. Berlin.

PSALM-SINGING WEAVERS (10 th S. ii. 128). This query calls to mind the singing whilst at work of hand framework knitters and tockingers of Derbyshire and Notts, as they were in the middle of last century, or .years before, but not much later, for factories in which such work was done by steam-driven machines arose, and, except in some few cases, took away the hand frame- work knitters' employment. The shops in which these men worked were long narrow rooms, with a row of machines along the light side, which was all window. Some of the shops held a dozen frames. Stockingers were rioted as a singing class of men, and, in spite of the constant din made as they

worked the frames, they would join in sing- ing, in perfect time and tune, " psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," to help to pass the time. So accustomed were they to the noise, to which many of them were born and in which they lived from lads upwards, they could carry on conversations with mates several frames away. As for the singing, it was curious in effect when grand old hymn verses were rolled out to a machine accom-

Eaniment of " Ter, ter ! titter-tom-bom," the rst being the sound made by the thread- carriers along the rows of needles, the second that of the foot-wheel going round with the upper portions of the frames pulled forwards to catch and divide not cut the thread, and pass it back over the needles to form woven material.

This will not assist, but it will, maybe, interest MR. MOUNT. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

Falstaff: "I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or anything" (' 1 King Henry IV.,' Act II. sc. iii.). MEDICULUS.

EPITAPHS : THEIR BIBLIOGRAPHY (10 th S. i. 44, 173, 217, 252, 334 ; ii. 57). Allow me to make one or two more additions to the list :

" The Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions in Greyfriars Churchyard. Edinburgh. Collected by James Brown, Keeper of the Grounds, and Author of the ' Deeside Guide.' With an Introduction and Notes. Edinburgh, J. Moodie Miller ; London, Hamilton, Adams & Co. MDCCCLXVII." Pp. Ixxxiii, 360.

There are twenty- three illustrations and a plan of the ground. The book was published by subscription, but many extra copies were purchased by booksellers. Another work on the same subject is : " An [sic] Theater of Mortality; or, the Illustrious Inscriptions extant upon the several Monuments, erected over the Dead Bodies (of the sometime Honourable Persons) buried within the Gray-friars Church-yard ; and other Churches and Burial- Places within the City of Edinburgh and Suburbs. Collected and Englished by R. Monteith, M.A. Edinburgh, 1704," small 8vo.

A third may be added :

"The Register of Burials in York Minster, accompanied by Monumental ^ Inscriptions, and illustrated with Biographical Notices. By R. H. Skaife (1634 to 1836), from the Yorkshire Archceo- logicalJournal, Vol. I. (pp. 226-330)." There is a plan of position of the monuments.

I have noted these three works, as they contain much curious and genealogical infor- mation not only with reference to the inter- ments, but concerning the places where many of the people dwelt, and a record of the appointments which they held. In the