Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/374

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL APRIL 20, 1907.

and conducted both the hymn on the Tower and the Christmas Eve music in the Hall. He rowed stroke in the School No. 1 four-oar, which at that time was coached by the Rev. Robert Henry Codrington, " the Head Master's assistant, and now Prebendary of Chichester . . . . Once a year Mr. Codrington invited all the crews to a feast of straw- berries at Wytham." Of one of his school- fellows, John Richard Green (10 S. vi. 3), Mr. Hall says :

" There has been a notion spread abroad that he was not fairly treated at school, and even that he was sent away from school, because on writing an essay about Charles I. he took the Parliamentarian side and riot the King's side. My recollection is that J. R. Green was treated with perfect fairness while at school : indeed, he was rather a special favourite with the Head Master and with a Mr. Ridgway, who was at one time an assistant master."

The Rev. Gascoigne Mackie, who was at M.C.S. 1876-82 and a chorister, tells me that " Royal Oak Day was kept with great vivacity at M.C.S. To wear oak on 29 May was compulsory, and to neglect to comply entailed merciless persecution." I have already quoted (10 S. iv. 23) from Mr. Mackie's ' Charmides ; or, Oxford Twenty Years Ago ' (published by B. H. Blackwell, 1898) ; and the following lines from that work illustrate a passage of Mr. Hall's reminiscences noticed above :

Do you remember how on Easter morning We used to sing the resurrection hymn Outside the old dean's rooms ? Four boys together, We stood upon the darkling staircase, singing As dawn rose slowly o'er the tranquil towers. And when we ceased and caught his grave salute, How sweet the low and measured Latin fell : " Surrexit ille, benedicite, Laudate pueri, surrexit deus : " Then doled his silver bounty out with smiles ! And not to be outvied in courtesy, We gathered bunches of fritillaries (Snake's-headwe called them) from the river marsh. With these we hurried to the good old priest, And, shyly laying them outside his doors, Slipped down the oaken stairs, nor stayed for thanks.

And of Christmas Eve Mr. Mackie sings :

Do you remember how, upon the eve

Of the Nativity, we used to gather

Within the laurel'd hall time-honoured custom

To keep the vigil of the King of Peace ?

It was a brilliant scene ; but, could I choose

And tell what touched me most, where every heart

Wore the glad social garment of good- will :

I think 'twould be the carol sung long since

In Swabia : I have heard them singing there :

" In Dulci Jubilo" : a strain so pure

That even the memory of those sweet accents

Ringing amid the rafters, when the snow

Is falling, and the hour draws on to twelve,

Brings tears into mine eyes :

And when the tongue of midnight told the hour,

" Glory to God," the Italian canon rose

In intricate iteration, as of old,

Amid the scarlet conclave and the pomp

At Rome, the selfsame triumph : " Peace on earth,

Good will to men " : Then from the latticed belfry

The ten big bells rolled out a royal welcome ;

Until the solemn towers in exultation

Shook their white robes, and every dome and spire

Caught up the prelude, echoing peal for peal.

A. R. BAYLEY.

St. Margaret's, Malvern.

(To be concluded.)

FLYING - MACHINE EXHIBITION. It is worth while placing on record in these pages that the first exhibition of models of flying machines was opened at the Agricultural Hall on the 6th inst. Demonstrations of more or less practical machines have been made during the past 150 years, but this is the first assemblage of competitive models. The earliest advance in aeronautics was closely followed by experiments with dirigible balloons, but the present models are recent developments on the lines of motor - impelled aeroplanes. For them a distinctive name is required, less pretentious than " flying machines," and more suited to the common tongue than " aeroplane."

At the Adelaide Gallery there was ex- hibited (circa 1838)

"a model of the stupendous triumph of modern science, Henson's Aerial Steam Carriage, or Flying Steam Engine. The model deposited in this In- stitution, is made on the scale of an inch to a foot of a large machine now building, intended to carry passengers, merchandise, and Her Majesty's Mails to all Parts of the World, and will be publicly Explained, and its practicability demonstrated, in a Lecture on Aerial Transit in the course of a few clays." Quoted from a programme. There was, it is to be presumed, some con- nexion between the Aerial Transit Company, the promoters of this exhibition, and the Balloon Railway Company, which was promoted in 1849. ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N.

" BUMBLE-PUPPY." The earliest mention of this game in the ' N.E.D.' bearing date 1801 (Strutt), it may be worth while to note that plate xv. of James Godby's ' Italian Scenery,' London, 1806, represents boys playing at "bumble-puppy" near the Temple of Vesta :

''The youths in the plate are amusing them- selves by playing at Bumble - Puppy. They first cut in the grbxmd with a knife nine holes, large enough to receive the ball with which they play. Every one of the players puts into the centre hole the piece of money it has been agreed to play for ;

then they .sAow fingers to see who is to begin If,

when the ball is thrown, it do not get into any of