Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/458

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. DEC. 4j 1915.

something might be discovered among the writings relating to the. history of the Cantillon- family, with which her brother seemed so conversant. He himself eventually emigrated to the United States, and died in New York several years ago.

CHARLES O'KEEFFE. 37, Canonbury Road, Islington, N.

SONG WANTED : ' JOHN BROWN'S BODY ' (11 S. xii. 301, 347). Some account of this song is given in ' Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors,' collected by Walter Hamilton, vol. v. p. 278, 1888 :

" The origin of this celebrated anti-slavery song is obscure and involved. John Brown attempted to incite the negroes to rebel against slavery, and, although he did not succeed in this, he, with a few fanatical followers, seized a small fort at Harper's Ferry. The United States troops attacked them, captured or killed Brown's followers, and Brotvn himself was hanged on December 2, 1859. Insignificant as was this episode, it was the warning of the coming storm between North and South, and was the death knell of slavery. ' John Brown's Body ' appears to have been'first adopted as a marching song by the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteers, com- manded by Colonel Fletcher Webster. The soldiers of this regiment sang it as they marched down Broadway in New York, July 24, 1861, on their way from Boston to the front."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

"A STRICKEN FIELD " (11 S. xii. 379, 409). There are seventeenth-century instances of the use of this phrase. I have met with several; but the only full reference now at hand is this :

" [Men saw] in the very place where the Battell was strucken, infernall Armies, jarring and contrarie. . . .a Saturday about Christmas- time." This is from

"A Great Wonder in Heaven, shewing the late Apparitions and prodigious noyses of War

and Battels seen on Edge-Hill neere Keinton

&c. London. Printed for Tho. Jackson, Jan. 23, Anno Dom. 1642 [O.S.]."

L. I. GUINEY.

, Oxford.

TREE FOLK-LORE : THE ELDER (11 S. xii. 361, 410, 429). Shall I venture to ask of your correspondent if in Huntingdonshire they really mean the elder tree, or not rather, perh aps,*i the pliable branches of the marsh- elder, which could be used in place of wicker to m ake baskets and cradles ? As for the tree which the Cross was made of, it was formerly considered as being an apple-tree, and it was said to have been the same one which was in the Garden of Eden. The of this with many curious arid charming
 * Golden Legend ' gives the whole story

details. That it was an ancient belief irt England is shown by an epigram of Aldhelm r the Anglo-Latin poet in the seventh century r

Ex me tune prise processit causa ruinae.

Dulcia quae rudibus tradebam mala colonis ;

En iterum mundo testor remeasse salutem,

Stipite de patulo dum penderet Arbiter orbis.

Grimm gives the tradition about our forefathers' courtesies to " Lady Elder," and adds this, which may be of some interest :

"In Hildesheim, when any one dies in the country, the gravedigger goes in silence to an elder- tree and cuts a wand to measure the corpse by ; the man who takes it to the grave does the like, and holds this wand in place of the usuab whip. .. .Elder planted before the stall -door preserves the cattle from magic." Grimm, p. 375 ;. Supplement, p. ciii. p IEBRE TURPIN.

29, The Bayle, Folkestone.

As MR. A. ACKERMANN has shown me,, the ' N.E.D.' reference, which I trusting published in ' N. & Q.,' is incorrect. I have just found the precise quotation : Sir Thomas Browne, ' Vulgar and Common Errors,' bk. ii. chap. vii. (seven) sect. 8 (eight). This makes Judas's gibbet, as I said, the elder- tree ; but Sir Thomas else- where (' Relig. Med.,' sect. 22, note) makes it a fig- tree, and (in ' Vulgar and Common Errors,' bk. vii. chap, xi.) kills Judas with a cartwheel. H. H. JOHNSON.

103, Abbey Road, Torquay.

LATTON FAMILY (11 S. xii. 400). I find that in addition to the sources MR. J. E, LATTON PICKERING has already mentioned there are two most useful pedigrees to be found in The Genealogist, v. 283, and Harleian Society, xliii. 225.

E. E. BARKER.

The John Rylands Library, Manchester.

CHAPTER AND VERSE WANTED (11 S. xii, 341). (2) As to the passage in Seneca from which the words " Caecitas," &c., are sup- posed to be taken : the ' Thesaurus Linguae Latinae ' professes, at least in the part in which " Caecitas " is indexed, to give all the passages in classical authors in which the indexed words occur. Under " Caecitas " it gives several passages in Seneca in which " csecitas " occurs, but not one of them is in the least like that quoted by your corre- spondent. I think it safe to infer that the passage is not found in Seneca's extant writings. The ' Thesaurus ' has not yet advanced as far as " progressio," and in the present unhappy state of things it would be difficult to say when it may be expected to- ad vance so far. REGILLA.