Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/159

 s. in. FEB. is, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

127

Quoits.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of ouly private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be sent to them direct.

" ONCE SO MERRILY HOPT SHE." I wish to

know the author and the words of a song sung in 1837, and called as above.

C. L. E. C. Alton, Hants.

[The title-page of the song is as follows : (Picture of a bird sitting on a pear tree.) 'Hop't 8he'

A

Convivial Glee Sung with the most rapturous applause

at all

Pleasant Parties. Composed and Harmonized

by

B. R-h, Esq rc Entered at Stationers' Hall. London, Published by I. Willis & Co., Royal Musical Repository, oo, St. James Street ; 7, West- morland Street, Dublin, and all the Principal Music Sellers in the United Kingdom."

Its words, so far as we recall them, are as follows :

A pie sat on a pear tree,

A pie sat on a pear tree,

A pie sat on a pear tree, Heigho ! heigho ! heigho !

Once so merrily, 1

Twice so merrily, > Hopt she !

Three times so merrily J

Heigho ! heigho ! heigho !

In singing, the company stood up round the table, each with a glass of wine, water, lemonade, or other beverage in his hand. The first four lines were sung in chorus. One then, standing apart, drank from his glass while the others sang, "Once so merrily," and blurted out "Hopt she!" doing the same at the second and the third lines, on each occa- sion repeating "Hopt she ! " At the close his or her glass was supposed to be empty, and was turned super naculvm. An optional penalty for not finish- ing the glass was suggested. This proceeding, in ^vhich, about the period mentioned, we often par- ticipated in or near Leeds, caused endless merri- ment among the juveniles, and was not scorned of their seniors. 1

MILTON : A PORTRAIT. Can any one identify a portrait, said to be that of John Milton, but very unlike any authentic likeness of that poet, which is hanging in the Combination Room at Christ's College ? The portrait represents a young man, with long, yellowish-brown hair, parted in the middle. His clothes are dark, and he wears a broad linen collar and muslin cuffs turned back over the sleeve and fringed with lace. In his right hand he holds a small book, probably a Bible or a Prayer-Book, handsomely bound in light

blue leather with gold tooling. In the corner of the picture is the motto, " Xec ingratus nee inutilis videar vixisse." A. E. S.

Cambridge.

BURTON ABBEY CARTULARY. This MS. used to be in the possession of the Marquess of Anglesey. It does not appear in the cata- logue of the Beaudesert Library as offered for sale last month. Who is the present owner ? Q. V.

" ALGARVA." This is the sign on the facia of a public-house situated on the eastern side (at the top) of Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, which I pass daily. Can any reader state the meaning of the word? It has a look of being Spanish or Italian. I have searched both Dr. Brewer's books in vain. EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN.

SIR ABRAHAM SHIPMAN. I should be obliged for any information regarding the history of Sir Abraham Shipman previous to 1661. The following entries refer to him :

" 1660-1. Sir Abraham Shipman, knight, a gentleman in ordinary of the privy chamber," &c. 4 State Papers, Colonial,' vol. xii.

" Licence to Sir Abraham Shipman to maintain Sir Robert Howard's lighthouse at Dungeness, co. Kent, on expiration of a former grant thereof to Sir Edward Howard. January 1661." 'Domestic, Charles II.,' vol. xxix., 'Docquet Book,' p. 79.

F. W. GRAHAM, Col.

Worthing.

HIPPOMANES. What has modern science to say of this substance, supposed by the ancients to possess aphrodisiac properties ? It is alluded to by Aristotle, Theophrastus, ^Elian, Pausanias, Vergil, and Juvenal. As these writers are familiar to me, I do not want to be referred to any passages in their works. I simply wish to ascertain whether the beliefs of the ancients on the subject had any sound basis in fact. What do anatomists and physiologists say about it?

KOM OMBO.

MOLLY LEPEL'S DESCENT. Can any reader direct me to an article proving that the beautiful Molly Lepel, Lady Hervey, was of Danish, and not of French, descent ?

A. F. S.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S 'HisTORiE OF THE WORLD.' I have a folio copy of this work, " Printed for Robert White, John Place, and George Dawes ; and are to be sold by Thomas Rookes at the Lamb and Ink-bottle at the East-end of St. Paul's, MDCLXVI." It has a finely engraved allegorical title-page by Ren. Elstrack, dated 1665. This edition is not mentioned by Lowndes, and from the place and date of its printing, it