Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/84

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. x. JULY 25, 191*.

FOLK- LORE QUERIES (11 S. x. 29). 1. Robins. It is believed in the East Biding of Yorkshire that in the autumn the young birds kill the old ones ; and that, I think, is not improbably a common occurrence, for your robin is not an amiable creature unless lie be cold and hungry, as he is when he con- descends to make approaches to mere mortals at Christmastide. See ' Folk-Lore of East Yorkshire,' by John Xicholson, p. 129. Per- haps in the heat of battle the parents' eyes are often picked out.

They say in Germany that if one kill a redbreast the cows give milk that is tinged with the ruddy colour. The same belief is to be found in Yorkshire. See 4 S. i. 193.

2. Swallows. In Yorkshire, too, if you even rob a swallow's nest, the cows will yield either bloody milk or none at all. PEREGRINTJS will find a story about this in Henderson's ' Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,' p. 122, or he may consult Swain- son's ' Provincial Names and Folk-Lore of British Birds.' There are many bits of doggerel which testify that both robin and swallow are in some sort consecrate.

ST. SWITHIN.

2. The tradition about the swallow is common in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Switzer- land, and applies equally to the martin, the wren, and the robin in those districts. It is believed in Cheshire that if a martin's nest is destroyed on a farm, the cows will give milk tainted with blood ; and both in Yorkshire and Switzerland it is said that if the bird (robin, wren, or swallow) is killed on a farm, the farmer will be punished with " bloody milk " from his cows.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.B.S.L.

" THE WEAKEST GOES TO THE WAIX "

(11 S. x. 27). Writing of Shotteswell Church, Warwickshire, on p. 55 of ' Rambles round the Edge Hills,' the late Rev. George Miller says :

" On the north and west side of the north aisle, the old stone seats against the wall of the church remain. In those days there were no seats in the midst of the church, and -the congregation stood or knelt. When the clergyman commenced his sermon, he used to say ' Let the weakest go to the wall,' hence the proverb so strangely perverted from its original meaning."

In ' English Church Furniture ' (1907), by Dr. J. Charles Cox and Alfred Harvey, it is stated (p. 261) that

"the early rule for a congregation in English or other Christian churches was to stand when not kneeling. The stone benches or tables round the walls would suffice for the aged and infirm ; such

were probably much more numerous in the early churches than would appear from their surviving remains at the present time. Nevertheless such rows of stone seats are more frequent than is usually supposed."

Since it is obvious that Mr. Miller's state- ment, made in 1900, only rests upon tradi- tion, it would be very interesting if any of your correspondents could cite an actual record of such a direction as he refers to ever having been given from the pulpit.

A. C. C.

JSofcs 0n

The Place of the Tleign of Edicord II. in EnglisTt History. By T. F. Tout. (Manchester Uni- versity Press.)

THIS study is an expansion of the Ford Lectures delivered by Prof. Tout at Oxford in the Hilary term of last year. It forms one of the most instructive and suggestive of recent historical works. In a superficial view of English history the reign of Edward II. appears somewhat as a depression between two eminences, while the person and career of the King serve chiefly to- make effective separation between the two great kings who preceded and followed him. No one would turn to these twenty years for an illustra- tion of the dominance of any great national ideal or desire, or for the discovery of any new principle governing, or winning its way to govern, the relations between the several parts of the State. Just as low levels between hills may interest the geologist, who finds exposed there the strata upon which the higher formations rest, so periods such as this are welcome to the historian because in them he can best trace all the constant, normal detail of custom and routine, of the trend of self- interest in the average man of the day, and of the devices employed and struggles maintained in dealing with difficulties not strictly political. A great number of the facts which thus fall under consideration necessarily belong on the one hand to the history of national industries and commerce, and on the other to the history of the administration of government ; and if it happens that in both these fields a period when they are left as the chief matter of history coin- cides with a period which is a turning-point in their own development, then the absence of obviously greater things which might have warped or obscured them will not be regretted by the student.

Prof. Tout points to this reign as offering such a coincidence, and one main object of his book is to demonstrate that it was the turning-point where the differentiation between " Court ad- ministration " and " national administration "" first began to show itself distinctly. The data for this are chiefly contained in the history of the two branches of the royal household, the King's Wardrobe and the King's Chamber, which re- mained intimately concerned with the national finance, in spite of the independence and definite organization attained by the departments of the Exchequer and the Chancery. Under Edward I. the Wardrobe was the King's most effective