Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/425

 io" s. ii. <XT. -29, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

used to be played in the street by little girls, who stood, four, holding hands, dancing and singing round one ("Dobbin") lying on the ground :

Old Dobbiu is dead,

Ay, ay ;

Dobbin is dead, He 's laid in his bed, Ay, ay.

There let him lie,

Ay, ay ;

Keep watch for his eye, For if he gets up He '11 eat us all UP

and awa.y they scampered, and Dobbin after them. The one he first caught lay down again for " Dobbin/' when it was repeated.

Has any reader heard of this game? and does it now survive in any part of England or Wales ? W. I. R. V.

LOUSY - LOW. In Bateman's * Ten Years' ings ' a barrow called Lousy-low, in

Staffordshire, is mentioned. In the 'Black Book of Hexham' (Surtees Soc.), p. 61, I find " Le Lousy-lawe " and *' Lousy-law-carre " ; compare also Lousey-Cross, near Richmond, Yorkshire. According to Mr. Searle's ' Ono- masticon Anglo - Saxonicum,' Lownan is a form of Leofnan. If that is right, Lousy may stand for the man's name Leofsige, of frequent occurrence. Can this derivation be justified by the laws of phonetic change ?

S. O. ADDY.

HAZEL OR HESSLE PEARS. A very com- mon kind of pear is known in these parts as the " Hessle pear," and is so described in Shirley Hibberd on * Vegetables and Fruits,' London, n.d., p. 257, in a list of "Hardy Pears suitable for the North of England." This writer seems to think that the pears are named from Hessle on the Humber, and they are commonly so named. In Hull market, however, they are labelled "Hazel pears" (often pronounced "Hazzle"), as if named from their I lazel-brown colour. Is it known what the origin of the term really is 1 I do not find anything like it among the sixty-four names of pears in Parkinson's 'Paradisi,' 1629, pp. 592-3. J. T. F.

Winterton, Doncaster.

BOTTESFORD, otherwise spelt Botesford, was in the reign of Henry III. a manor in Devonshire. Does it exist now ? if so, where is it? See 'Calendar of Inquests post Mortem,' vol. i., Henry III., articles 50 and 564. N. M. & A.

THE TENTH SHEAF. A friend of mine tells me that it used to be the custom in Dorset- shire to arrange the sheaves of corn in

the harvest field in shocks by ten, so that in each shock the last or tenth sheaf repre- sented the tithe. Is this custom still kept up, and in what parts of the country ? What is the most usual way of putting the sheaves into shocks ? and how many sheaves do the shocks usually consist of ?

H. W. UNDERDOWN.

JACOBITE VERSES.

(10 th S. ii. 288.)

IN a MS. collection of Jacobite songs and poems which I procured some years ago from Mr. Baker, of Soho Square, I find on p. 19 the following. It or the other given below may have been the "jingle" which got Mr. Fern into trouble. I quote literatim :

A SONG.

Of all the Days that 's in the year I dearly Love but one day, And that is Called the Tenth of June And it falls on a Tuesday. In my best Cloaths And my White rose

I '11 Drink a health to J v [Jamey],

He is my true and Lawfull K g And I hope he '11 Come and see mee.

Br s k shall goe, and Turnops hoe For such as please to buy them,) And Nummy he shall Drive the Cart And about the streets shall cry them. A figg for those That dose oppose

So Bright a Lad as J y.

He is n>y true and Lawfull K g And I hope he soon will see mee.

Potatoes is a lovely Dish

While Turnops is a springing,

When J y comes we will rejoyce

And set the bells a ringing.

W '11 take the C-k-d by his Horns

And Halle him down to douer,

W '11 put him in a Leather boat

And send him to Hannouer. The date of this song might be fixed by the coincidence of 10 June with a Tuesday. Who was *' Nummy " ? It is slang for num- skull, dolt, or noodle (see below).

On further examination I find on p. 42 this same song, with slight variations and an extra verse, written by another hand. Here in the first verse " Tuesday " becomes " Mon- day," and the second verse begins :

Old H r does Turnips sell

And through the Street does cry them,

Young noodle leads about the Ass

To such as please to buy them.

The last verse begins :

The British Lyon then shall rear

The foundered horse of B k.

And G ge for want of better Nagg Shall ride upon a Broomstick.