Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/399

 10 s. vni. OCT. 26, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tinder the name of Kitty Cocks." G. E. C. calls her Katherine, second daughter of Henry Cocks. Who was she ? and did she ever appear on the stage ?

J. M. BtrLLOCH. 118, Pall Pall.

TELLING THE BEES. In the ' Greek Anthology,' vii. 717 (xi. 8 in Mr. Mackail's selection), is a poem by an unknown author on the death of a bee-master in which the words occur ravm /jieAi'crcrais Ae^are " tell it to the bees." Neither Jacobs* nor Mr. Mackail has any note on the passage. The practice of " telling the bees " of a death probably of other important happen- ings also exists to this day in some parts of England. A year or two ago a retired village-blacksmith in Norfolk told me that he had made a point of telling his bees of his wife's death. Asked how he told them, he said that he had rapped on the board supporting the hives with the words, " The mistress of this house is dead." Asked what would have happened if he had not told them, he said they would have died. A few days ago a Bedfordshire rector s gardener told me that his bees had actually died upon his failure to inform them of his master's decease. Does the passage in the ' Anthology ' point to an ancient practice and belief of this kind ? and is the practice common in the country at the present day ?

W. A. Cox.

49, Chesterton Road, Cambridge.

[The English custom has been often noticed in 'N. & Q.' Numerous examples will be found at 7 S. x. 126, 177, 234, 312.]

CHARLES II. 's TUTORS. In addition to his " governors," who were King Charles II. 's tutors besides Brian Duppa and Thomas Hobbes ? I particularly wish to know whether any of the following, all clergymen, occupied any such position William Hunt, William Jones, Henry Squibb, John Hill, Jonathan Corley. Kindly reply direct.

R. L. MORETON.

Heathfield, Gerrard's Cross, Bucks.

" DOWN IN THE SHIRES." In Kent and Sussex the phrase " He (she) comes from the sheers " is used to express mild reproba- tion, and as an excuse for eccentricity of morals or manners. I am informed that the usage is quite modern, and arose a generation or so ago, when strangers from the Midlands or elsewhere had the audacity to tender for farms in these counties over the heads of natives. But may there not

Jacobs has a note, but not bearing on my queries.

be here a survival of some much older antagonism between the South-Eastern kingdoms and Wessex or Mercia ? Is the expression common also in the Eastern Counties ? The preposition used is always " down " " down in the sheers," or " from somewheres down in the sheers."

E. G. T. Crowborough.

" UMBRE OTON." In an ecclesiastical suit as to the various dues payable by the inhabitants of Cleobury North it was de- cided inter alia that a certain measure of oats was due annually to the rector from certain parishioners, " que prestacio vul- gariter nuncupatur umbre oton " (entry in the Register of John Trilleck, Bishop of Hereford, 17 June, 1352). What is " umbre " ? Is it Salopian ?

JOSEPH H. PARRY.

Harewood, Ross.

EBBIN, A CHRISTIAN NAME. A gentleman recently brought before me for using obscene language complained that he was charged as " Edward," while his real Christian name was " Ebbin." This being corrected, he pleaded guilty, and accepted his fine philosophically. I do not remember to have heard the name before. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell me anything about it ? E. E. STREET.

HAMLET FAIRCHILD. Fpossess the scarce " Chippendale " book-plate, circa 1750, bear- ing the above name, and signed by Kirk of St. Paul's Churchyard. This may serve as an addendum to the information given ante, pp. 4, 155, 237, regarding the use of Hamlet as a Christian name.

But I should be grateful to learn whether anything is known of this Hamlet Fairchild. In Guppy's ' Homes of Family Names ' Fairchild is entered against Devonshire alone, and as existing there in the proportion of 7 per 10,000. It is described as " an old Bamstaple name still represented in the neighbourhood. The mayors of that town in 1678, 1718, and 1725 bore this name." The plate is not given under examples of Kirk's signed work in Fincham's ' Artists and Engravers of British and American Book- plates,' is not in the British Museum collec- tion, and did not occur in any of the other large collections, as far as I have seen them, until their owners acquired the duplicates then in my possession. Kirk engraved several plates attributed to American owners ; and as the Fairchild plates show the deep yellow tone noticeable in many