Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/370

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. OCT. 19, 1907.

conveyed into the midst of the sea by those witches sailing in their sieves, and there thrown in to make a tempest, " which tempest was the cause of the perishing ( a boat coming to Leith with sundry gifts and jewe which should have been presented to the no\ Queen of Scotland, at her Majesty's coming t Leith. Again, it is confessed that the said christene cat was the cause that the King's Majesty's ship a his coming forth of Denmark had a contrary win to the rest of his ships," &c.

Fian himself confessed that they could no compass the King's death, though they ha' power to delay his voyage, for the reason that Satan (who, by the way, spoke in French) stated his Majesty was a " man o God."

The King took much interest in thi trial, and was not only present at the exam inations, but also sent for one of the women concerned, and caused her to play befor< him the tune to which Satan led the brawls at the witches' meetings.

It is evident that Shakspere read the report of this trial in the pamphlet already spoken of, and we see the result in the scene where the witches vow vengeance on the sailor whose wife refused to share her chestnuts :

Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do.

And again :

Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.

Incidentally it seems strange to me that it has not to the best of my knowledge ever been pointed out, on the strength of this ' News from Scotland,' that it was a cat whose likeness Shakspere makes the witch take, and not a tailless rat, as hitherto printed. EDWARD STEVENS.

Melbourne.

'HENRY IV.,' PART II., IV. iv. 90-92 (10 S. viii. 164). In England summer birds, such as the blackbird, thrush, and robin redbreast, sing at the end of winter. Gilbert White has noticed that they sing at the beginning of January, and later. The haunch is the hinder part ; and " haunch of winter," though a strange expression, is quite intelligible. I do not know whether birds sing at the dawn of a winter's day. I doubt whether Shakspeare means that they do. " The lifting up of day " is not necessarily the dawn. Westmoreland brings the good news. He tells that the sun is shining again ; and he gives the tidings to the King, who is sad, sick, and dying. So

the bird, when the winter is far advanced, sings, if the sun should shine and break through the gloom of winter. " The lifting up of day," I think, in this case means the appearance of the sun at any time of the day after gloom.

E. YARDLEY.

Surely the

summer bird Which ever in the haunch of winter sings

is the blackbird or the thrush ; or both may be equally intended. I vote for the former :

The silver tongue Cold February loved,

as Tennyson calls him. He sings as early as any of our songsters, and is particularly a morning singer, though he rarely fails to repeat his song in the evening. C. C. B.

THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER- SHIRE.' The short account of hare-hunting in Gloucestershire is in need of correction. It consists of 72 short lines, and contains at least nine errors and slips in printing :

L. 11. Harman should be Harmer.

L. 12. " Master " should be huntsman.

L. 31. Tocknalls should be Tocknells.

LI. 32-3. Mr. Hudson was not " sub- sequently joined by Sir Francis Ford and Mr. E. Potter," but he was succeeded by Mr. T. Potter, who was succeeded by Sir Francis Ford.

L. 37. T. S. Gibbons should be J. S. ribbons.

L. 46. " The country hunted [by Mr. ribbons] lies in the Vale of Severn " is not orrect, as some of it is on the Cotswolds.

L. 61. Mr. J. H. Friday should be Mr. T. H. Friday.

L. 62. Brockworth should be Longford.

L. 63. Harvey Melville should be Melville larvey.

The subject is no doubt one which is only entitled to a brief notice, but some omissions an hardly be excused on the plea of exi- gencies of space.

It should certainly have been stated that }apt. Dighton kept a pack of harriers Between 1856 and 1868, and also between 871 and 1875 or 1876, with which he unted the country from Tidenham Chase, hree miles from Chepstow, nearly up to the rlalvern Hills. His kennels were at Newland, nd he was his own huntsman. During the ast few years of his mastership, he killed on n average 50 brace of hares a season. An ccount of his harriers may be read in Baily's Magazine, vii. 251-5.