Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/117

 ii s. XIL AUG. 7, 1915.] NOTES AND Q QERIES.

109

In 1892 the late editor of The Church Monthly, Mr. Frederick Sherlock, wrote in the magazine :

" Happily there is one season in the year when

the good old custom prevails in some parishes of making an Easfcer offering to the clergy. I say in some parishes, but why should it not be in ail ? " Prom that time he set himself " to stimulate and promote an interest in the revival of Easter offerings." The success which at- tended his efforts is known to Churchfolk, and has been recognized by the authorities of the Church. Literature was and is circulated from this office to explain the method, which was invariably by means of a collection in church. In advocating the revival of the custom Mr. Sherlock frequently referred to the penultimate rubric at the end of the service of Holy Communion.

EDITOR OF ' THE CHURCH MONTHLY.' 33-34, Craven Street, W.C.

In a Kesteven town, in the days of my youth, it was customary for the parish clerk and sexton to go round to collect " Easter dues," which I believe they took for their own emolument, as though the gifts had been Christmas boxes; and I fancy the sums paid depended on the liberality of parishioners, and not on any assessment or legal requirement. ST. S WITHIN.

ROUGET DE LISLE (11 S. xii. 69). It is well for ' N. & Q.' to correct the statement that Rouge t de Lisle' s remains have now been removed to the Pantheon. Your con- tributor should have said that they were placed in the Invalides on 14 July of this year. H/K. H.

DIDO'S PURCHASE OF LAND (US. ix. 47, 353, 474; x. 17, 430, 497). Matsura Seizan, in his Koshi Yawa,' ser. ii., torn. xli. (which tome appears to have been written in 1830), records a hearsay that Iwakimasuya, one of the then greatest clothiers in Yedo, used to cover his stores with huge envelopes of hide, upon which to pour water every time when a fire broke out near the establishment thus he never failed to save them all from the flames. Then he gives the following narrative :

" One day Toyotomi Taik6, the most powerful overlord of the sixteenth-century Japan, happened to tell Sorori, the very witty story-teller, that whatever he wished to possess he was ready to give him. Sorori replied, ' I wish nothing but a "bagful of rice,' whereupon Taikd exclaimed : and bring your bag.' Sorori thanked him and went off. As he did not appear for the following ten days, Taikd sent a man to see what he was doing at home. After a while the messenger
 * What pity is it that your desire is so petty ! Go,

brought in the report that Sorori was for all these days very busy in preparing a colossal paper bag. To ascertain the motive of such an enormous industry, another messenger was sent to Sorori, who gave him this explanation, that he intended to cover with the bag one of the large rice stores owned by Taik6 and to become possessed himself of all its contents. When Taikd had learned this he laughed away his amazement and revoked his promise."

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

AUTHORS WANTED (11 S. xii. 48;. (2) The Spenserian stanza beginning :

But what most showed the vanity of life Was to behold the nations all on fire,

is stanza lv., Canto I., of Thomson's ' Castle of Indolence.' It contains a description of the sixth picture that was to be seen in the " huge crystal magic globe " of the Castle, called ' Of Vanity the Mirror.' W. B.

ANSTRUTHER, FIFE (11 S. xi. 188, 288, 368, 479 ; xii. 78). Virgil (' ^Eneid,' viii. 18) uses the simile of the tremulous watery rays, reflected from a brazen bowl, when describing how the distracted hero of Laomedon's line " swiftly dispatches his divided mind, and hurries it in various directions, and con- tinually whirls it through everything." In ' Anster Fair ' Tennant, probably having observed for himself the same useful pheno- menon, employs it to illustrate the twinkling of his heroine's feet in the dance :

So quick did Maggie, with a nimble grace, Skip patt'ring to and fro, alert and light.

It would be interesting to discover if the poet has had two editors who have commented on the appositeness of the simile, and ex- pressed curiosity regarding it. The one mentioned at the last reference is said to have wondered that it " had not previously been used in poetry." This, one feels, can hardly be the same as an Edinburgh sponsor of 1871, who writes : " It is so natural and so likely to have been observed, that we wonder if it has escaped previous use." This is not a dogmatic assertion, like the other, but an indirect question obviously propounded by one who is open to receive information. Tennant has not been often edited, and it would be curious to find two of his com- mentators approaching so closely while materially differing in their points of view.

It is correct to say that a line in the song ' Maggie Lauder ' should read :

A piper met her gauc to Fife, but it seems arbitrary to suggest that " ga'in " is a preferable spelling to " gaun." Presumably, " ga'in " is a contraction for the provincial form " gaain," and it might