Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/577

 io* s. iii. Jrx E IT, MOB.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

477

are evidently cognizant of the fact, for I have noted several instances in which the speaker, doubtless wishing to convey the impression of an easy familiarity with the usages of polite society, was careful to pro- nounce the word garden as though it were written f/ard-ing. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

" MAY-DEWING'' (10 th S. Hi. 429). The quo- tations given by MR. COLEMAN from Pepys's 'Diary,' that Mrs. Pepys and her friends went on 29 May, 1667, and on 1 1 May, 1669, to gather May dew, " which Mrs. Turner hath taught her is the only thing in the world to wash her face with," shows clearly, I think, that the supposed efficacy of May-dew was not limited to the first day of that month, though, as the first day of summer, the balance of popular favour would incline to give it the preference.

In Act IV. sc. ii. of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream ' Theseus explains as the reason for Egeus's daughter and her companions being asleep on the mountain top, "No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May," but whether to celebrate the return of summer or improve their complexions is not apparent.

In olden days May-dew was credited with medicinal virtues. Lord Chancellor Bacon in his 'Sylva Sylvarum' (sect. 781, eighth cent.) writes : "I suppose that he who would gather the best May-dew for medicine, should gather from the hills."

Wildrake, in Walter Scott's novel of ' Wood- stock,' chap, xv., says : "He sleeps as lightly as a maiden on the 1st of May when she watches for the earliest beam to go to gather dew."

Charles Knight in vol. i. chap. x. of 'Lon- don ' refers to the practice of our ancestors at the close of the eighteenth century, and adds :

"It is recorded that on 1st May, according to annual and superstitious custom, numbers of per- sons went out into the fields, and bathed their faces with the dew of the grass, under the idea that it would render their faces beautiful/'

In 1 st S. ii. 474 H. G. T. writes :

" In the neighbourhood of Launceston the poor people tell me that swellings of the neck and children with weak backs may be cured by the application of dew before sunrise on 1st May, and that the common notion of improving the com- plexion by washing the face with early dew on that day extensively prevails."

A similar custom appears to have existed in Spain, for James Howell, historiographer to Charles II., remarks in his letter to Capt. Thomas Porter, dated Madrid, 10 July, 1623 {'Familiar Letters,' p. 169) :

"Not long since the Prince, understanding that the Infanta was used to go some mornings to the Casa de Campp, a summer house the King hath taken t'other side of the river, to gather May-dew, he rose betimes and went thither."

The custom is declining, as noticed in the song of ' The Brave Old Oak ' :

In the days of old, when the spring of gold

Was lighting its branches grey, Through the grass at his feet crept the maiden sweet

To gather the dew of May ;

and by Wordsworth in his ' Ode on May Morning ' :

Time was, blest Power ! when youths and maids

At peep of dawn would rise, And wander forth in forest glade

Thy birth to solemnize.

It will soon die out altogether, and the custom practised annually by our forefathers will abide with us only as an interesting reminiscence. JAMES WATSON.

Folkestone.

HASWELL FAMILY (10 th S. iii. 225, 313, 376). The information supplied by H. P. L. (ante, p. 313) that mask is a well-known dialectic form may be most valuable to me. MR. HASWELL wrote privately to me inquiring whether I knew the provenience (to anglicize a useful French word) of my Bible. I do not, though I have surmised that it comes from the neighbourhood of Calveley or Haslington, Cheshire. Accident has now acquainted me with the fact that Hassall is a place-name in that neighbourhood, and has been an ex- tremely common surname. If H. P. L. could state whether mash would be used in Che- shire about 1710, or whether we must look to Southampton, as MR. HASWELL proposes, it would simplify the problem.

I may add that the places in Cheshire where, so far, I can trace Hassalls (the name is spelt differently in some cases, eg., Has- wall) are Warmingham, Willaston, Calveley, Hatherton, Nantwich, Occleston, Middle- wich, Haslington, Audlem, Hankelow, Sand- bach, Church Minshull, and Newhall. Perhaps some correspondent in this dis- trict could persuade the incumbents of these parishes to examine their records for the baptisms of the Haswells in question. They might be rewarded by learning that their church steeple was thrown down in " the great gale." P. MONTFORT.

MAIDEN LANE, MALDEN (10 th S. iii. 329, 394). If, instead of consulting the Index merely, MR. COLEMAN had looked at the articles indicated, he would have seen that they do not supply the information required. I had already consulted them and other authorities without success. AYEAHR.