Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/21

 a s. in. JA. 7, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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kissing-bush." The outer and inner hoops of which the frame of the kissing-bush was made were kept from year to year, for it was lucky to do this, just as it was to keep a portion of the " yowl-clog " with which to light the next year's fire-log. For many years none used the words " Santa Claus " or " Christmas tree " : it was Father Christmas and Christmas bush, bough, or bunch. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

The Christmas tree, as stated in the query, was originally " made in Germany," whence it was brought over to this country in the early decades of last century. Since then it has attained so great a popularity among us that, as regards devotion to the Christmas tree, Britain may now be said to be more German than Germany itself. The Christmas bough, however, preceded the Christmas tree, and has more claim to be regarded as a British institution. For a discussion of the tree as well as the bough, see the various articles on Christmas in Chambers' s ' Book of Days,' vol. ii. With regard to literary references, does not Washington Irving, in his ' Sketch Book,' say something about the Christmas bough as a feature in Christmas observances ?

SCOTUS.

[MR. HOLBEN MACMICHAEL also thanked for reply.]

OWLS CALLED " CHEBUBIMS " (11 S. ii. 505). I am reminded of a story which I heard, when a boy, from an old Cornish great-aunt, a tale which may be condensed thus :

One evening two miners borrowed a gun, and went out for some unaccustomed sport. Presently something flew across the path in front of them ; the man with the gun fired, and the bird fell. But when the miners went to pick it up, they were first amazed, then terrified, for it was a big white owl ; they had never seen anything like it before, and could not believe that it was a bird. So they came to the dread conclusion that they had shot a cherub. Filled with horror, they rushed off to the rector, con- fessed their crime, and asked what they should do to save themselves from punish- ment. Thereupon the rector, who loved a joke, said that on Sunday they must walk through the village to the church, each clad in a white sheet, as a sign of penitence. Which was done, and no evil consequences resulted to the slayers. G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

The reason probably why the owls were called " cherubims " was the resemblance between owls and the winged faces that passed for " cherubims " on headstones and elsewhere about village churches. I have heard a story of a lad who ran home to his father in a terrible fright, saying, " Father, father, I 've shotten a cherubim," thinking he had committed some unheard-of impiety. The father at once consoled him by telling him it was " nowt but a hullat " (owlet) that he had shot. J. T. F.

Winterton, Lines.

In the late Mr. Bosworth Smith's ' Bird Life and Bird Lore,' published by John Murray, may be seen a reproduction of an old print in ' Sporting Anecdotes ' (1804, Albion Press) entitled ' Cherubim Shooting.' The white owl, which looks at times all head and wings, is not unlike the representation of cherubim in Christian art, in which the head represents the fullness of knowledge implied in the name, the wings the angelic nature. FRANK E. COOPE.

Thurlestone Rectory, Kingsbridge, S. Devon.

ATJTHOBS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (US- ii. 488). The lines quoted by MB. H. S. BBANDBETH are an incorrect version of a well-known passage in Tennyson's ' May Queen : Conclusion,' stanza 7 : The trees began to whisper, and the wind began

to roll, And in the wild March-morning I heard them call

my soul.

The oratio recta of the poet has been changed into the oratio obliqua in the query, and there are other variations. W. S. S.

The original couplet is in Tennyson's 'May Queen.' The garbled version of it appears, I feel sure, in a novel by either Charles or Henry Kingsley. It is there applied to the Guards leaving London for the Crimea : " Surely there was many a fine fellow who," &c. k G. W. E. RUSSELL.

JOHN BBIGHT'S QUOTATIONS (US. ii. 508).

2. Unholy is the voice

Of loud thanksgiving over slaughter'd men, is Cowper's translation of 'Odyssey,' xxii. 412. WM. EDWABD POLLABD.

Hertford.

3. " Fortune came smiling," &c., will be found in Dryden's ' All for Love.'

W. SCOTT.

4. " The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now " is from ' Childe Harold,' iv. 79.

THOMAS BAYNE.