Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/155

 ii s. i. FEE. 19,1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

147

interpretation. Here are some lines from nn old fragment, recounting the appearance, to a distracted mother, of her three sons, who had been drowned some time previously : It fell about the Martinmas,

When nights are lang and mirk, The carline wife's three sons cam' hame.

And their hats were o' the birk ; It neither grew in syke nor ditch,

Xor yet in any sheugh ; But at, the gates o' Paradise

That birk grew fair eneugh.

And when ' rapt Kilmeny,' in ' The Queen's Wake,' returns to earth after her mysterious absence, she is greeted thus :

Where got ye that jupe o' the lily sheen, That bonny snood o' the birk sae green ? Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where ha'e ye been ? " By a natural transition the birch came to be associated with death and the grave, and the fol- lowing is one of the variants of what may be called a stock ending to many^old ballads : The tane was buried in Marie's kirk, The tother in Marie's quair ; And out o' the tane there sprang a birk,

And out o' the tother a brier. " Here is a last request from a ghostly lover to bis mourning ' marrow ' :

But plait a wand o' bonny birk,

And lay it on my breast ; And shed a tear upon my grave, And wish my saul gude rest. " E.

Strom ness.

ALEX.

M. J."

RUSSELL.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

HENRY KAVANAGH AND THE INDIAN MUTINY. I shall be glad if some of your readers will kindly put me into communica- tion with the representatives of Henry Kavanagh, who, disguised as a native, carried the dispatches from Sir James Outram to Sir Colin Campbell out of Luck- now, circa 9 Nov., 1857.

DAVID Ross McCoRD, M.A., K.C.

Temple Grove, Montreal.

Suffolk border, under the charge, and through the influence, of Sir Harbottle Grimston ?

Any further particulars would be greatly esteemed. JAS. F. GILL POTTER.

17, Brunswick Street, Montreal.

BECKET'S PERSONAL HABITS. In that most amusing and withal most stimulating ' History of England l by C. R. L. Fletcher the following is to be found in vol. i. p. 151 :

" It was not until the monks of Canterbury, on stripping his martyred body, found a hair-shirt beneath his costly vestments, and the vermin drop- ping inprowds from his unwashed skin, that they exclaimed with rapture, ' See, see, what a true monk he was, and we knew it not ! ' "

Can any reader of ' N. &. Q.' refer to the original authority for this statement ?

ALEX. LEEPEB.

Trinity College, Melbourne University.

ENGLISH MATHEMATICAL DIARIES. * The Ladies* Diary l was published annually 1704-1840, and ' The Gentleman's Diary ' 1741-1840. In the issue of 1841 these works were united under the title ' The Lady's and Gentleman's Diary, l which con- reprints from and supplements to these Diaries have appeared. As far as I know of them, they are as follows :
 * tinued to appear annually till 1871. Various

1. Diarian Repository or Mathematical Regis- ter. .. .Questions. .. .published in Ladies' Diary, 1704-1760. By a Society of Mathematicians. London, 1774.

2. 'Diarian Miscellany .... Parts both Mathe- matical and Poetical. Extracted from the Ladies' Diary. 1704-1773. Ed. by Chas. Hutton. 5 vote. London, 1775. [Mathematical portion, vols. i.-iii.]

3. The Gentleman's Diary or Mathematical Repository, 1741-1800. Ed. by T. 8. Davies. 3 vols. London, 1814.

from the Ladies' Diary, 1704- T. Ley bourn. 4 vols. London,

4. Questions 1816. Ed. by 1817.

5. [Ladies'] Diary Supplement. Ed. by 0. Hutton. Was published annually 1788-1806.

6. Gentleman's Diary Supplement, 1741 and m:;. 171.",, 1711. :; \.>U.

Can any one supply other dates of issue of No. 6, or particulars of any other Diary

COL. VINCENT POTTER, REGICIDE. I am ! editions or Diary Supplements ? The con- seeking information through ' N. & Q.' con- nexion of ' The Palladium '- with ' The cerning Col. Vincent Potter, one of the Ladies' Diary l has been made clear by Commissioners present at the trial of

diaries L, who also signed the death i vo1 - L P- 466.

- T. Wilkinson in The Mechanic's Magazine,

warrant. To what town did he belong ? \Viiat were his arms ? What became of him after his incarceration in the Tower ?

It may be added that the publication usually known as ' Burrow's Diary * first appeared in 1776 under the title * Ladies'-

Aui F right in assuming that he was removed and Gentlemen's Diary,' &c. From 1780 to

to Hedingham Castle, on the Essex and

the last number in 1788, the work was issued