Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/252

 206

NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. SEPT. u, 1907.

CHILDREN'S ACTION GAME. Present at a Sunday-school treat at Exmouth, Devon, the other day, I watched a number of merry little girls who had formed a circle in the good old kiss-in-the-ring style. Very prettily they chanted a number of lines, singing each line three times, and then running round the ring three times, illus- trating to some extent by pantomime the words previously uttered. And the follow- ing is what they sang :

1. When I was a schoolgirl I went like this. Here they jumped laughingly around, one .after the other.

2. When I was a teacher I went like this. Clapping hands.

3. When I was a governess I went like this. Pointing a finger at each other in well- -assumed lofty disdain.

4. When I had a sweetheart I went like this. Here they walked around, arm-in-arm.

5. When my husband beat me I went like this. Simulating a good cry.

6. When my husband died I went like this. 'Three hearty cheers were then given.

7. When I was a washerwoman I went like this. At this juncture each took the end of her little frock in her hands, and pretended to scrub it.

8. When I had a donkey I went like this. Here, turning to the right, they caught hold of the tails of each other's skirts, and ran around.

9 When I had a wooden leg I went like this. 'This was the concluding line. Then the liappy troop hopped around the ring, succeeding, in turn, in tripping each other up, and presently, amidst shrieks of shrill laughter, they all lay in a heap upon the green sward. The fun was over !

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

" PULLE " OR " MASTE." On p. 173 of ' The Fables of ^Esop as first printed by William Caxton,' published by D. Nutt, London, 1889, vol. ii., one reads : " And the thyrd sayd I shalle haue alle the rote, the pulle or maste and alle the branches of the pere tree."

It seems evident that pulle in this place would be pole in modern English ; yet in the glossary of the volume, p. 321, there is this item: " pulle, fruit of beech, 173." The writer, forgetting that the trunk or stem of & pear-tree is in question, took pulle as a synonym of beech-mast, instead of thinking of the mast of a ship, as defined in Prof. Skeat's ' Dictionary.' E. S. DODGSON.

BREAM'S BUILDINGS. A question was asked at 8 S. i. 334 as to who was the Bream who gave his name to the street in which the premises of ' N. & Q.' now are. There was a family in this locality named Bream, Braem, Brames, &c., descended of a family originally out of Flanders. Jacob Braems was a merchant of Dover. Sir Arnold Bream of Bridge married Margaret, da. of Sir Thomas Palmer of Wingham (Berry's ' Kentish Genealogies,' p. 258). Sir Arnold built Bridge Place, where he lived, as did his son Walter till his death in 1692. The cost of building was so great that his heirs about 1704 sold the house to John Taylor, Esq., of Bifrons (Hasted, vol. ix. p. 288). Sir Arnold was born in Dover ; baptised 3 Oct., 1602 ; died 13 Nov., 1681 (Arch. Cant.).

Walter Brames, Esq., was lessee of the Parsonage, Folkestone, 1673-89.

Elsewhere I find Jane, second da. of Walter Harflete, described as first wife of Sir Arnold (she d. 1635), and Elizabeth, second da. of Sir Dudley Digges, as his second wife (she d. 1645). Perhaps Sir Arnold married thirdly, as above, Margaret Palmer.

Whether these marriages afford a clue to a possible connexion with Bream's Buildings I leave to those who may care to pursue the inquiry. R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

NICOL, EARL OF ERROL. In ' The Scots Peerage ' (vol. iii. p. 565) it is stated that Nicol, Earl of Errol, granted a charter of the lands of Ury to his uncle Gilbert Hay on 12 Aug., 1467, and died in 1470. The date of the Earl's death is important, because it conclusively proves how the erudite Riddell had blundered and misled others. In the ' Miscellany of the Spalding Club ' (vol. ii. p. 348) there is the following :

"Item Nicolaus Comes de Errol films quondam Gulielmi Comitis de Errol obiit apud Killimuir et eepultus est apud Cuprum anno domini MCCCCLXVII mensis August! xxiv."

This proves that the contract with Huntly could not have been in 1476. D. M. R.

" RETROSPECTIVE " IN FRENCH. In Querard's magazine entitled Le Querard (1856, p. 155) C. C. Pierquin de Gembloux says that Querard introduced this word to the French language. The words used are :

" En 1832 vous empruntiez a 1'Angleterre 1'ex- pression : retrospectif. C'est d'apres ce meme besoin que vous fetes egalement celle de polyonyme," &c.

RALPH THOMAS.