Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/331

 10 s. vm. OCT. 5, IDG:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

273

near the end of Letter IV. The story to which the moral is attached therein relates to Thomas the Rimer, and the locality is " Lucken-hare upon Eildon hills." The couplet reads as follows : Woe to the coward that ever he was born, That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn !

Similar legends find local habitation elsewhere. Scott mentions one dating from Queen Elizabeth's time. Hodgson, ' His- tory of Northumberland ' (part ii. vol. iii. p. 287), has one of King Arthur and Queen Guinever, who lie under enchantment at Sewing Shields, on the Roman Wall. The rime in that case is longer : O woe betide that evil day On which this witless wight was born, Who drew the sword the garter cut, But never blew the bugle horn !

The quotation by MB. A. B. MORRIS on the same page, " Where his cathedral huge and vast," &c., is from ' Marmion,' Canto II. stanza xiv. RICHARD WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

MAJOR CDTHBERTSON apparently refers to a tradition current in Northumberland which locates the castle of Sewingshields (the "Castle of the Seven Shields" of " Harold the Dauntless ") as the site where King Arthur, his queen, and the lords and ladies of his Court, with his hounds lie in enchanted sleep. The legend forms the subject of Wilfrid Wilson Gibson's ballad ' The Rousing of the King ' (Northern Counties Magazine, 1901, ii. 395).

R. OLIVER HESLOP.

Scott, in his ' Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' gives as legendary the lines regarding which MAJOR CUTHBERTSON in- quires. He adapts the lines in his ballad fragment ' The Shepherd's Tale,' and, as a foot-note to this, Lockhart quotes the pas- sage from the ' Letters ' in his edition of Scott's Poetical Works.' W. B.

There is the following variant of the words " Woe worth the coward," &c. Arthur [and his knights are supposed to be spell- bound under the great tower or keep of [Richmond Castle, Yorkshire. A voice was Potter, Potter Thompson, If thou hadst either drawn The sword or blown the horn, Thou 'd been the luckiest man That ever yet was born.
 * heard to say to an intruder :

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

[Several other correspondents are thanked for
 * j replies on this and the ' Marmion ' quotation.]

The complete lines about the late Mr. Gladstone in regard to which F. D. makes inquiry at p. 230 are as follows :

" He read the lessons twice on Sunday last With voice as clear and strong as in the past."

! grand old man, ere yet thou hear'st "the knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell "

Cease the grim farce (thy saintly antics shock Religious minds), nor God Almighty mock. The latest effort of thy waning years To set a noble empire by the ears ; Truth, justice, honour, trampled in the dust, Office the object of thy senile lust ! No longer at the lectern masquerade, Lest e'en the stones thy hardihood upbraid. Thy place is rather in the porch to stand, Wrapped in a sheet, a taper in each hand, With legend on thy breast, of all men seen "False to his friends, his country, and his Queen."

They were written by Major Howath Ash- ton, and appeared for the first time, I believe in the Hatfield Parish Magazine in July, 1886. WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

"INCACHED" (10 S. viii. 90, 235). I suggest that this word may be a misprint- for incaged, that is, enclosed in a palanquin, or some such conveyance. There are two instances of the word in Shakespeare, which are quoted in the sixth edition of Dr. John- son's ' Dictionary.' When wo are told that " the king goeth incached, as they do all,' T

1 presume that by the second clause we must understand the wealthier classes of his subjects, for all of them could not go about in this manner. There is something very picturesque in MR. DODGSON'S idea that the king and all his people were clad in a light and airy costume made of lace. Unfor- tunately, his derivation will not stand, for the Castilian word cncaje, once written encaxe, was never pronounced encache, as- he asserts, the x in such a word having the same guttural aspirate as j at the present day. Some years ago there was a discussion. on this matter in N. & Q.' (9 S. i. 85, 317, 458 ; ii. 36, 256), in which MR. DODGSON (who wrote -under the nom de guerre of PALAMEDES) and MR. FERGUSON took part. Nine summers have just elapsed since the fight was fought and, as most people would fancy, ended. When the noise of this fresh encounter is no longer heard, I trust we shall have another truce that will last as- long as the siege of Troy.

JOHN T. CURRY.

The explanations at the last reference cannot be correct. The full passage in Fitch reads as follows :

"The men be of reasonable stature; the women litle; all blacke, with a cloth bound about their