Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/413

 ii s. XH. NOV. 20, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of the Church,* viz. Mr. Edward Coddington, Mr. Lewis Somersall, and Mr. Thomas Archer; out of which three, one is to be chosen to sit upon the place of election with the other two, viz. with Mr. Andrew and Mr. Coney.

Then the said Mr. Archer was chosen to sit upon the place of election, with the said Mr. Andrew and Mr. Coney.

Then were there three Cqmburgesses set upon the cushion or place of election, viz. Mr. Andrew, Mr. Coney, and Mr. Archer. Out of which three one is to he chosen Alderman of this town or Borough of Grantham, for the year next ensuing. And so by the general consent of the assembly Mr. Giles Andrew was chosen Aldermanf of this town or Borough of Grantham for this year next ensuing.

Whereupon the said Mr. John Mills discharged himself J from the place and office of Alderman, according to the ancient custom; and so the said Mr. Giles Andrew, being chosen Alderman for the whole year next to come, in manner and form aforesaid, hath at this assembly taken the daths according to the ancient and laudable custom of this Borough. And so this assembly is dismissed.''

ST. SWITHIN.

See 10 S. xii. 148, 337 several instances- At the latter reference there is an extract from Lyon's ' Hist. Dover,' vol. i. p. 97 : "electing of their mayor, and their representa- tives in parliament, not only in their church, but at the Communion table. This was first done in the year 1585."

R. J. FYNMOBE.

Sandgate.

D'ISRAELI : THAMES STREET (11 S. xii. 359). MR. JACOBS will find Thames Street mentioned, but not described, in Disraeli's ' Tancred,' chap. x. :

"The Inns of Court, and the quarters in the vicinity of the port, Thames Street, Tower Hill, Billingsgate, Wapping, Rotherhithe, are the best parts of London; they are full of character; the buildings bear a nearer relation to what the people are doing than in the more polished quarters."

B. B.

HEBREW DIETETICS (11 S. xii. 334). MR. BRESLAR'S reference to the materia medico, of the Hebrews emboldens me to ask for a note on that subject on the same lines as the one referred to above. It is stated in Wootton's ' Chronicles of Pharmacy ' that it is " not certain that in the whole of the Bible there is any distinct reference to a medicine for internal administration," and the infer- ence is that the Jews of olden time had little medical lore. The few plants MR. BRESLAR mentions as medicinal are dietetics as well.

Church.' "
 * "In the vernacular, 'put them down the

t " ' Was espied to bo Alderman.' " I " ' Knocked himself off.' "

Asparagus (one of the sources of asparagin r which is a well-known diuretic) figures in our older dispensatories, but its virtue was held to reside chiefly in the root. Was the root used among the Hebrews? A diet of asparagus is frequently recommended by our old herbalists as being both diuretic and laxative, but it was only possible at certain -easons. C. C. B.

THE MAKING OF FOLK-POETRY (11 S. xii. 358). English country boys will help each other to invent doggerel in ridicule of an unpopular schoolmaster. They will also link together the names of the elder villagers in a rigmarole of many verses. One such jingle began :

Charlie Clay Ran away

Forty miles in a day. Billy Lee Went to see, And found him in an apple-tree.

To make rime of a kind is a common gift. The difficulty with regard to many of the ancient ballads is that they are not only rimes, but genuine poetry, for poets are not born under every bush.

It may be that at some of the popular dances, such as the midsummer dance men- tioned in a Danish ballad, a professional rimer or an itinerant singer extemporized the principal lines of a new creation which was to embody the story of some local tragedy or love-tale, while the rest of the dancers contented themselves with evolving a burden which would allow the leader time to find the next line of the narrative. A ballad gaining popular approval would soon, be heard far and wide, receiving modifica- tions wherever it went. There is a French version of ' The Gay Goshawk ' which may be the parent or the sister ballad of the versions given in our ballad-books, and there is a German version of ' The Cruel Sister.'

L. C. N.

The word used by the Illinois boys when playing at marbles is a corruption of " fens,'* applied to that which is forbidden or inter- dicted in boys' games. Its more usual form in England is " f en " (for fend). Dickens in his ' Bleak House ' has " fen larks " (chap, xvi.). It stands for " fence," Lat. fensum (de-fensum), what is warded off, and so is prohibited or forbidden, Fr. defendu. New England dictionary -makers of the future will doubtless be puzzled by this " vance." A. SMYTHE PALMER. Tullagee, Eastern-lie.