Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/309

 10 s. vin. SEPT. 28, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 255

died of the Plague : her Friends embraced her ; her neighbours saluted her ; but they sprinkled no Holy Water after the Interment."

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort made his voyage in 1 700. ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

A few years ago I attended a funeral in a -Catholic church in New York. The coffin Tvas placed before the altar, and, the Requiem Mass being concluded, the lid was removed, and the body, which had been embalmed, exposed to view. The friends of the deceased then passed one by one in front of it, and sprinkled it with holy water.

A shroud is seldom used now in the U.S.A., the corpse being clothed in ordinary dress. At several funerals I attended in Virginia and elsewhere in the South a small piece of plate-glass was let into the lid of the coffin, sufficient to permit the face of the dead person to be seen. The word " coffin " seems almost entirely to have died out in many parts of the U.S.A., " casket " having taken its place, and very few American undertakers now even know what a " shroud " means.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

SCOTCH SONG : NIGHT COURTSHIP (10 S. viii. 188). The verse quoted is from a ballad called ' The Keach i' the Creel,' beginning :

A fair young May went up the street

Some white fish for to ouy, And a bonny clerk's fa'n in luve wi' her,

An' he 's followed her by and by.

It will be found printed, with its melody, in ' Northumbrian Minstrelsy,' edited by Dr. J. C. Bruce and John Stokoe, and published by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1882. The verse quoted appears in p. 83 of this volume, where it reads :

He 's towed her up, he 's towed her down, He 's gien her a richt down fa',

Till every rib o' the auld wife's side Played nick nack on the wa'.

Mr. Stokoe, in a note, p. 84, states that ""this old and very humorous ballad has long been .a favourite on both sides of the Border, but had never appeared in print till about 1845, when a Northumbrian gentleman printed a few copies for private circulation."

Mr. Stokoe's version is from one of these. The incident related is based on the custom of night courtship. " In former days," adds Mr. Stokoe,

" in the rural districts of Northumberland, court- ship was secretly conducted ; and often the only place of meeting was the ' maiden's bower.' A Better state of things now generally prevails."

It must not be understood that courtship was usually carried on clandestinely. When a farm lad" came to court a lass, it was the recognized custom to leave the couple in possession of the kitchen fireside after the retirement of the household.

R. OLIVER HESLOP.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The song, a verse of which was quoted by MR. ALEX. RUSSELL, might have frequently been heard sung by farm servants in bothies and by kitchen firesides in Aberdeenshire thirty years ago. I never saw it in print. Both it and " Oh, are ye sleeping, Maggie ? " may, I imagine, be certainly taken as evi- dence that the custom of night courting was once common throughout the country. I am by no means sure that it has entirely disappeared in agricultural circles' even yet. In Dr. William Alexander's ' Johnny Gibb o' Gushetneuk 'as faithful a picture of Northern Scottish rural life as ever was written MR. RUSSELL will find an inimit- able description of night courting in the chapter headed ' Rustic Courtship.'

IAN COMYN.

' The Keach i' the Creel ' is evidently the song which is quoted. Prof. Child gives four versions of it in his 'English and Scottish Popular Ballads' (No. 281) ; but the editors of the epitomized edition in one volume have omitted it. Robert Bell, in his edition of Dixon's 'Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England,' prints the ballad

In Kinloch's 'Ballad Book' (1827) 'The Keach i' the Creel ' (which means the catch in the basket), appears with the title ' The Covering Blue ' (No. 17) ; but this is evi- dently an incomplete set of stanzas.

Mr. Gray Graham writes on " night courtship " in his ' Scotland in the Eigh- teenth Century' ; and I might add, see Burns's works, passim.

R. L. MORETON.

GOSLING FAMILY (10 S. viii. 209). The following note bears upon the subject of MR. THURSTAN MATTHEWS'S query, although it does not directly answer it :

" John Nicklin and Ann Mountford were married at Budworth in Cheshire. Samuel their son was born July 2nd, 1760; baptized at Stoke-on-Tern, Salop. He was married Jan. 7th, 1786, at Bhen- stone, near Lichfield, to Hannah, dghterof Joseph and Sarah Gosling, born April 30th, 1764 baptized at Oldbury. Hannah their daughter was born May 10th, 1798 ; baptized at Oldbury.

This Hannah Nicklin was married at Rowley Regis Parish Church, 28 Jan., 1830,