Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/217

 us. xii. SEPT. 11, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

209

PUNCH'S WHOLE PLAY : GUNPOWDER PLOT (US. xii. 139). The Punch and Judy drama of the streets adheres very faithfully to the old traditions, the only interpolation of any note being a glove-fight. The play of ' Gunpowder Plot ' in connexion with Punch no doubt alludes to Powell's puppet show, which was held at what was popularly known as " Punch's Theatre." See Steele's Spec- tator, No. 14, 16 March, 1711. Amongst the plays produced at this and other puppet shows were ' Whittington and his Cat,' ' The History of Susanna,' and ' Patient Grisel.' ARTHUR BOWES.

Xe \vton-le- Willows.

" (11 S. xii. 49, 90, 146). I did not mean to implv that communique was not good French ; I merely intended to hint that it was not English. We have " com- munication " and " message," which might serve the purpose.

I have been wondering whether fiancee figures in our language in the " fancy " -girl or -man of the costermonger class. Edtkly in the nineteenth century a lover was a " beau " : there is a tendency with us to speak of the appendage in a foreign tongue. ST. SWITHIN.

KMPLOYMENT OF WILD BEASTS IN WAR- FARE (11 S. xii. 140, 186). Dogs, par- ticularly such as were specially trained for war, are hardly wild beasts, but it is worth while to refer to the practice of employing them for war among the Celts. Dogs trained fo: this pu pose were exported from Britain to Gaul (see Strabo, c. 200, iv. 5, 2). An allusion to this practice is probably to be found in the old Welsh poem the ' Gododin,' which relates to the battle of Catraeth (sixth century), and was certainly written as early as the eleventh century, while portions of it are probably a good deal older. The late Sir Edward Anwyl, its latest an 1 best translator, renders 11. 30912 :

" When Caradog marched to battle, like a boar of the forest, rending thirty men, the bull of battle in the strife of slaughter, he used to let loose wild dogs from his hand."

" Wild dogs " (W. gwyddgw)i)may indicate that these dogs were true wild dogs, and so to be classed with " wild beasts in warfare."

H. I. B.

THE VIRTUES OF ONIONS (11 S. xii. 101, 149, 167).. Among many other matters which onions " are good for " is the dissolving hardened animal and vegetable substances in the stomach and bowels. Years ago it said that, in the case of a man's sudden

death from a mass of hardened eggs found in his stomach, the operating surgeon cut the mass with a knife which had just been used for peeling an onion, the juice from which at once dissolved the hard matter. Afterwards it was considered advisable to eat an onion after taking hard-boiled eggs or cheese, as a corrective. It was said by Derbyshire folk that the person who ato raw onions would never ail internally.

THOS. RATCLTFFE. Work sop.

A paragraph in The Sheffield Weekly News of 7 Dec., 1912, described a recent interview with Mrs. Hetty Green, America's clever lady financier :

" Old Mrs. Green [said the writer 1, plainly dressed, and looking the picture of health, was chewing onions in her office when she received a delegation of pressmen on her birthday. ' You may smile,' she said, ' but the healthy colour in my cheeks is due to eating onions ; they are the finest things in the world for the health, and I am never without one handy.' "

It was stated in The Northampton Herald of 3 Feb., 1911, that a Mrs. Rebecca Burns, who died at the age of 115 years,

" attributed her long life to the fact that she always ate onions twice every day. She began this diet when a girl, and never gave it up. To within a day or two of her death she insisted on being served with onions. She ate them either cooked or uncooked. There are records which seemingly prove without doubt the date of her birth."

Unfortunately the writer omits to state where this good lady resided, or to record the date of her death.

See also 7 S. xi. 387, 475 ; xii. 56.

JOHN T. PAGK.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

Amongst the many useful attributes of the onion there is one which I do not see noted by any of your many con- tributors to this interesting inquiry. As I have tested it and found it a genuine success, may I say that the old recipe for taking away the smell of new paint, " Cut a large onion in halves, leave them in the room, and renew daily," is well worth trying ?

Y. T.

SCOTCH COURT OF SESSION (US. xii. 101, 166). Sir J. Balfour Paul's 'The Scots Peerage ' (vol. viii. p. 557) states that the Lords, on dismissing Hamilton Fleming's petition, " expressed grave doubts on the genuineness of the documents on which the claim was based."

S. A. GBUNDY-NEWMAN.