Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/230

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. SEPT. 7,1907.

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

PONTIFEX FAMILY. I should be glad of any information as to the parents of Sir William Pontifex, a Catholic priest. He was chaplain at the church of St. Mary Magdalen in the parish of East Ham, Essex. In his will, dated 9 June, 1517, he desires to be buried within the churchyard of St. Mary Magdalen of East Ham. He men- tions Thomas Guge and William Guge his godchildren, and his niece Agnes Guge, wife of Thomas Guge. The will was proved 10 July, 1518, in the Consistory Court of London. PEIBCE G. MAHONY,

Cork Herald.

Office of Arms, Dublin Castle.

WASHINGTON AND JONATHAN BOUCHER. I am very anxious to obtain information regarding George Washington in connexion with Jonathan Boucher, who was at one time tutor to the former's stepson Custis in America. Many letters exist from Wash- ington to Boucher, and Boucher to Wash- ington, but they are scattered about un- catalogued in the hands of private persons. Could any of your readers help me with information as to the whereabouts of any materials, papers, or pictures connected with these men ? I may say that I know of Mr. Worthington Ford's volume of Boucher letters and of his volume ' The Writings of General Washington,' in which many letters to Boucher occur. I am also aware of the interesting correspondence in regard to Jonathan Boucher published some time back in ' N. & Q.' with extracts from Boucher's autobiography. I mention this to save trouble to any one who is kind enough to help me.

OLIVER LOCKER LAMPSON.

New Haven Court, Cromer.

KRAPINA. In the collected works of the Croatian poet Stanko Vraz, published at Agram, 1877, 1 found the following epigram :

Civut hodocasti

u Palestinu, Mpslemi u Meku

i u Medina ; A Iliri, brate,

bas u Krapinu.

The holy place of the Jew is Palestine ; of the Moslem, Mecca or Medina ; of the Illyrian, Krapina. What is the meaning of

the third clause ? I shall feel obliged if MR. MARCHANT, or any other Slavophil, can tell me for what historical or other reason Krapina is singled out for the rever- ence of the Illyrian race.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

c RULE, BRITANNIA ' : VARIANT READING. In all, or nearly all, modern reprints of this song the refrain is printed

Rule, Britannia ! Britannia rules the waves. Even so careful an editor as Palgrave admits that version into his ' Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics.' But in an edition of Thomson which I have (1802), "with his last corrections and improvements," the words are

Rule, Britannia, rule the waves. Thus the modern words are a boast, while the original is an invocation.

How did this corruption become estab- lished ? I imagine that the change took place from the setting to music of the song. But I may perhaps be allowed to record a protest against such tampering. T. M. W.

[There is much on this song in former series of ' N. & Q.']

' OLD TARLTON'S SONG.' In ' Tarlton's Jests,' by J. O. Halliwell, for the Shake- speare Society, 1844, the writer says (p. xxix)t

" A common nursery song, which probably alludes to some historical event, originated with Tarlton, who perhaps first gave it out at the theatre. It is. called Old Tarl ton's song in a tract entitled ' Pigge's Corantoe, or Newes from the North,' 4to, Lond., 1642, p. 3 :

The King of France, with forty thousand men, Went up a hill, and so came down agen."

Is a " common nursery song " such as Halli- well appears to speak of known to exist ? or are the two lines given the whole of the song that is known ?

' Pigge's Corantoe ' seems to mean ' The Fool's Dance.' G. A. M.

SCOTCH SONG : NIGHT COURTSHIP. Can any one say where I can get the words of an old song containing the following incident ? A lad, going courting to a house where the- old folks have shut him out, is lowered down the " lum " in a creel by his comrade. The old woman, getting up to see to the cause of the noise, falls into the creel, and is pulled up to the top of the chimney, but,, on being recognized, is speedily let fall again. He 's taen her up, he 's letten her doon,

He 's gien her sic a fa', That the very banes o' the auld wife s bulk

Played nik-nak to the wa'. Also, can this song and the better-known '' Oh, are ye sleeping, Maggie ? " be taken