Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/264

 256

NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. i. MA*. 26, 1910.

"golden handed" sun, the lavish distributor of the countless benefits which his light and heat confer upon man ; and among the Slavs, the Lithuanians, the old Prussians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hindus the first conditions of worship were that the sacred fire should be. transmitted from father to son (see further * Marriage in Celtic Britain ' in the Journ. Brit. Archceol. Assoc., circa 1892).

The "Christmas Braun " is certainly the the West Riding, and in South Worcester- shire, a "Christmas brun " ; in Somerset- shire, "bran"; and in Devonshire, " braund n and "brawn." Hence our phrases "fire-brand" and "bran-new," i.e., fire new, or fire-brand new.
 * ' Yule-brand, ?? or " brun " ; in Wexford,

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. Wroxtoii Grange, Folkestone.

An article on ' Christmas Eve l in Cham- bers's ' Book of Days,' ii. 733-7, makes it evident that the superstition referred to by DUNHEVED is not confined to Cornwall. It quotes some verses from Herrick, including the stanza :

With the last year's brand Light the new block, and,

For good success in his spending, On your psalteries play That sweet luck may

Come while the log is attending.

W. SCOTT.

The Yule log or " clog,' ? as we called it in Derbyshire was, when I was a child, brought to my home in much the same way ; but we had no fire-place large enough to hold it in one piece, so two of the men, with a double-handed saw, made it into more con- venient logs and some loose bits of wood were laid on, amongst which was a piece of the previous Christmas clog. A piece of the last clog burnt on Christmas Day was always put aside for the Christmas to come. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

THEATRICALS IN MARGATE (11 S. i. 167). I take the following description of the " new theatre " at Margate, mentioned by W. J. M., from ' Hall's New Margate and Ramsgate Guide 2 for 1790, p. 12:

"The Theatre Royal, built about three years ago, is a neat and elegant structure after the model of Covent Garden ; its scenery was exe- cuted by Mr. Hodgins ; the Patentees, Mate & Robson, are not wanting in anything that can render their new undertaking worthy of support ; good actors are retained at large salaries, and

every attention is paid by the acting manager bo the accommodation and entertainment of

the publick."

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

'THE CANADIAN BOAT SONG' (11 S. i. 81, 136). One rises from reading MR, BAYNE'S reply with a feeling akin to despair. If we have not yet learnt at this late day to disentangle fact from fiction in the ' Noctes Ambrosianse,' or to distinguish between Lockhart in earnest and Lockhart at play, our critical methods of interpreta- tion and textual annotations of classical works are assuredly not worth the writing. Long ago Prof. Ferrier pointed out that the dialogues of the ' Noctes ? are ' ' conversa- tions on men and manners, life and litera- ture,'* that is to say, conversations on actual men and manners, on real life and literature. The element of mystification does not enter into the subjects discussed, but has respect only to the persons supposed to be discussing them around Ambrose's jovial board. No doubt the dialogues are variously treated, some being serious and others broadly farcical. It is comparatively easy to dis- criminate between them. No one who will take a little trouble need be at any loss to say whether politics, when they turn up, are considered in a spirit of savage satire or in a mood of sombre melancholy. In the September ' Noctes ? of 1829, admittedly written by Lockhart, ' The Canadian Boat Song ? is introduced in connexion with a dis- cussion of the Highland clearances or evic- tions going on for years, which had depopu- lated many parts of the Highlands. The parties taking a share in the discussion are mainly the Shepherd, Tickler, Macrabin or Patrick Robertson, and Lockhart, mas- querading for the time being as Christopher North. The speakers are evidently in sober earnest. Would a fastidious writer like Lockhart have been guilty of a device so inartistic as the introduction of a needless mystification into a serious discussion ? Such a mystification would have been clumsy and quite unnecessary. Instead of dragging in ' ' a friend in Upper Canada, sailing dowti rivers for days on end, listening to Gaelic songs," he needed but to say " a friend sent me the lines," and the mystification, if mysti- fication were intended, would have been far more effectually achieved. But undoubtedly Lockhart had no mystification in view. On the contrary, he was taking peculiar pains to indicate who the author was. He had, doubtless, tinkered Gait's lines and imparted to them a flavour of Prof. Wilson. But, at the same time, he indicated in no obsci