Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/194

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. v. FEB. 24, IGO&

(" Endure, Cossack ! You will be an Ata- man"). Considering that Hetman, as pointed out by MR. F. P. MARCHANT, denoted also an elective prince of Little Russia, it might be of common interest to ascertain the date when this loan-word was first imported from German into Russian. H. KREBS.

DEATH - BIRDS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND (10 th S. iv. 530; v. 111). I never heard of the robin being considered a bird of ill omen. One used to come in at the window and perch itself on a chairback, looking at me with its beautiful eye, but I am afraid it was killed by a cat. There are many allusions to it in the poets, as :

Sweet robin, I have heard them say That thou wert there upon the day When Christ was crowned in cruel scorn, And bore away one bleeding thorn.

And again :

Little bird with bosom red, Welcome to my humble shed ; Daily to my table steal While I get my scanty meal.

Yet another, from Shakespeare (' Cymbeline,' IV. ii.) :

The ruddock would,

With charitable bill (0 bill, sore-shaming Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie Without a monument !), bring thee all this ; Yea, and furred moss besides, when flowers are

none, To winter-ground thy corse.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Hectory, Woodbridge.

In her * Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases' (1854), s v. * Robin,' Miss Baker says, inter alia :

" If a robin settle near a house, and at the con- clusion of his song gives a chirp, or instead of singing moans plaintively, it is considered the har- binger of death to one of the inmates. This superstition extends very widely ; according to Brockett ('Glossary of North-Country Words') it prevails in parts of Northumberland and Scotland."

See also 8 th S. x. 452. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

In Devonshire the robin is very generally associated with ill-luck, and not by the illiterate only. At the Ashburton meeting of the Devonshire Association in 1896 a member of the Committee on Devonshire Folk-lore reported (inter alia) as follows :

" During the whole of the past winter a robin took up its abode. in the house of a friend of mine, where it remained until the spring, roosting on the pictures during the night, and 'helping itself to what it pleased from the table during meals. A lady friend (the wife of a clergyman) called one day, and, observing the robin flying about the room, remarked that she should not care to have it in her house, as it would be certain to bring misfortune."

The belief is undoubtedly very prevalent in this county, more especially, as may be- supposed, in the rural districts/

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

LUSTRE WARE (10 th S. v. 110). Although the metallic lustre imparted to the particular kind of earthenware vessels known as "lustre ware" was doubtless suggested by the superior, though similar lustrous orna- mentation of Hispano-Moresco pottery, ifc seems to have been in other respects one of those inventions which were distinctly English, and one which owed nothing beyond this suggestion to continental in- fluences. Copper "lustre"' was made at Brislington, near Bristol, by Richard Frank and his son, the Brislington works having been closed in 1789; but it was also produced in the Staffordshire potteries. This copper lustre, into which copper or a substitute for it entered largely, was turned out in large quantities, to meet the demands of the cottager for something bright and attractive to the eye, and may still be met with frequently in the farmhouses and cottages in the neighbourhood of Gloucester and Bristol. Prof. Church says :

"John Hancock, when employed at Hartley, is said to have originated this kind of decoration, so far as the Potteries are concerned; and he seems to have sold a copy of his recipe to many different firms. We do not know whether he produced 'silver,' that is platinum, lustre, as well as bronze or copper and gold lustres, but Shaw affirms that one John Gardner introduced this kind when i the employment of 'the late Mr. Wolfe (Thomas Woolfe) of Stoke.' So late as 1829 this John Gardner was working for Josiah Spode the third. Other early Staffordshire makers of 'silver ' lustre are stated to have been Mr. G. Sparkes, of Slack Lane, Hanley ; Mr. Horobin, of Tunstall ; and Mr. John Ainsley, of Lane End. Shaw assigns the introduction of gold lustre to one Hennys, also to James Daniel, of Stoke. Fortunately a certain number of marked pieces of platinum lustred ware are still extant, and these afford criteria by which we are enabled to allocate a good many unmarked examples to Robert Wilson, of Hanley. It appears that this potter began this particular branch of his work after the termination of his partnership with Neale certainly after the year 1787, and pro- bably not until 1793. Nine years after the latter date David Wilson, brother of Robert, continued to produce well-moulded vessels for the breakfast table, as well as many varieties of goblets, double- handled cups, and not a few statuettes and figures of animals in 'silvered' ware. The Wilsons also turned out some pieces of 'copper' or 'bronze' lustred ware. Other eighteenth and early nine- teenth century Staffordshire potters who employed platinum on their wares were Lakin and Poole, Spode, and Wood and Caldwell. If the anchor and the letter D accompanied by a sceptre really belong to Davenport, of Longport, his name may be added