Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/522

 NOTES AND QUERIES, [n s. vm. DEC. 27, 1913.

ROOKS' JUSTICE (11 S. viii. 469). Mr. Hall Caine is by no means the first to bring into literature the judging of rooks by rooks. The late Mr. Bosworth Smith in his delightful book on ' Bird Life and Bird Lore,' first pub- lished 1905, has the following passage (pp. 375-6) :

rence was fond of quoting, ' Disputes about land are best settled on the land ' ; and when the nest of a too self-assertive rook is built in a tree in advance of the colony, and without its formal leave, the rooks assemble on the disputed tree and discuss the matter, like so many sanitary inspectors, in all its bearings, and end by 'certificating ' or condemn- ing it. ' Not guilty, but don't do it again, 3 seems sometimes to be the burden of their verdict ; for it does not follow, even if the young are safely reared in the tree licensed for that year, that it will be occupied again the next. Something, perhaps, may have happened in the interim which makes the senators determine that it is unfit for rook occupa- tion. Sometimes, so I have been told by one who watched them narrowly in early youth, a solitary posi- tion far from the rookecy is assigned as a punish- ment to an obstinate marauder who has committed the unpardonable fault of being found out once too often. Social ostracism for the breeding season must be a severe penalty to a bird so eminently sociable as the rook ; but, like ostracism at Athens, it seems to be carefully divested of all painful con- sequences afterwards ; for, as soon as the young are tiown, the culprit is allowed to return to the community with all his old rights and privileges unimpaired. Unlike Draco of Athens, whose laws were said to be written, not in ink but in blood, and who recognized but one penalty for all offences death, rooks recognize degrees in guilt, and re- serve the extreme penalty of the law for the more heinous."
 * ' There is an Indian proverb which Lord Law-

Again, on p. 371, Mr. Smith says that the rooks are

" so law-abiding that they have often been seen to assemble on the ground, place some offender in the midst, as in a court of justice, discuss his case in all its bearings, and, after due deliberation, fall upon and put him to death."

G. L. APPERSON.

The Rev. J. G. Wood's ' Marf and Beast, Here and Hereafter,' is not available for consultation at the moment, but it is a likely source of information regarding the feature of bird-lore utilized in Mr. Hall Caine's novel. The work is not only a re- markably lucid survey of animal life, but also a sustained and stimulating argument, and it abounds in attractive anecdotes. The sagacity of the rook receives ample attention, and in all probability the judicial practices of the cawing assembly are not overlooked. At any rate, if the book has not already come under the querist's notice he will find it worthy of examination.

THOMAS BAYNE.

FLOWER-NAME (US. viii. 467). I think " the little pink flower that grows in the wheat," referred to in the song of ' Twicken- ham Ferry,' is, more than likely, our dainty little wild-flower the scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), popularly known as " the poor man's weather-glass." It is- frequently found in cornfields.

ANDREW HOPE.

The pink blossoms of the field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) are conspicuous in almost every cornfield, twining round the stalks of the wheat, and may well be the pink flower mentioned in the song.

IDA M. ROPER. Bristol.

T[W. S. B. H. who makes the former sugges- tion also thanked for reply.]

OLD LONDON STREETS (US. viii. 469). In vol. ii. of Thornbury : s ' Old and New London ' (p. 8) an account of Fish Street Hill is given. It was formerly called New Fish Street, and according to Stow the Black Prince once lived there.

" Upon Fish Street Hill is one great house, for the most part built of stone, which pertained sometime to Edward the Black Prince, son to- Edward 3rd, who was in his lifetime lodged there. It is now altered to a common hostelry, having the- Blaek Bell for a sign." Stow's ' Survey of London ' (Routledge's edition), p. 221.

Pudding Lane was formerly called Rother Lane or Red Rose Lane (Stow's ' Survey/ pp. 213, 216):-

" The butchers of East Cheap have their scalding, house for hogs there."

Botolph Lane is also referred to by Stow (p. 216), and a list of the monuments in the parish church of St. George in Botolph Lane for about 200 years before his time is given by the historian. G. H. W.

There are directories of Fish Street Hi31- for 1755 and 1763, kept, I believe, at the Guildhall. From these a woollen draper's shop in that street at those dates was traced under the names of Balston & Lloyd- It is said to have been a large business.

THE LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER : AMPT- HILL (1 IS. viii. 467). There is a set of six frescoes (which does not include the familiar figure of the saint carrying the Infant Christ)- on this subject in the Eremitani Chapel at Padua, mainly painted by Andrea Man- tegna (1431-1506). See the new edition (Murray, 1912) of Crowe and Cavalcaselle'^ ' History of Painting in North Italy/ vol. ii. pp. 14-15, and also Kristeller's-