Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/22

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. m. JAN. 7, ion.

' GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE ' : NUMBERING OF VOLUMES (11 S. ii. 388, 477). I am in- debted to MR. A. S. LEWIS for his reply, but it is not clear to me that he solves the diffi- culty by assuming a slip on the part of the editor. No doubt it is true, as MR. LEWIS points out, that the preface of fche January to June, 1857, volume speaks of its " two hundred predecessors " ; but this seems to be merely a loose phrase for " two hundred or thereby," as the immediately preceding leaf explicitly styles the volume "the two- hundred-and-second since the commence- ment," and this numeration is adhered to in subsequent volumes.

Another correspondent points out that in the Preface to the Obituary Index printed in 1891 an attempt is made to defend the numeration by reckoning the issue for 1782 as composed of two volumes instead of one. But is there any justification for this ?

The numbers for 1781 run to 633 pages.

The numbers for 1782 run to 631 pages.

The numbers for 1783 run to 1067 pages.

It thus appears that the increase in bulk suggesting the breaking-up of each year into two parts took place in 1783, not 1782. Further, I find that the caption-heading of the number for July, 1783, is " The Gentle- man's Magazine for July, 1783 : being the first number of the second part of vol. 53 " ; while the heading of the number for July, 1782, lacks the italicized part. Our copy of July to December, 1783, has an independent

title-page : " The Gentleman's Magazine

for the year 1783. Part the second." Does a corresponding title-page exist for July to December, 1782 ? P. J. ANDERSON.

Aberdeen University Library.

DANES' -BLOOD, A FLOWER (11 S. ii. 488). This is a local name in Hertfordshire and Essex applied to several plants which are supposed to owe their origin to the blood of slaughtered Danes. My first acquaintance with a plant of this denomination proved to be the Dane wort or dwarf elder, which grew fairly freely in places by the side of the main road between Anstey and Barkway.

Weever in his ' Antient Funeral Monu- ments,' 1631, p. 707, referring to Bartlow, Essex, says :

"Banewort, which with bloud - red berries commeth up here plenteously, they still call by no other name than Danesbloud', of the number of the Danes that were there slaine."

Camden in his 'Britannia,' 1607, refers to the same plant as the wall-wort or dwarf elder. It should be noted that the elder-

berries are not red, but a reddish-black, and yield a violet juice.

The Anemone pulsatilla or pasque-flower, found in abundance near Ashwell, Herts, is also known locally as Danes' -blood. Mr. E. V. Methold in his ' Notes on Stevenage, Herts,' remarks that in the hedges of the field known to this day as " Danes' Blood Field " there grows a plant called " monkshood," in which, during the spring, the sap turns to a reddish colour. W. B. GERISH.

In * Tongues in Trees,' a work on plant- lore published by George Allen in 1891, I read at p. 48 :

"The pasque-flower, Anemone pulsatilla, a native in the fields near Royston, is there supposed to have grown from the blood of Danes slain in battle. The same idea attaches in Wiltshire to the Danewort or dwarf elder, Sambucus Ebulus ; though at the High Cross on Watling Street near Leicester it is recorded as having been planted by the Romans as a preser- vative against dropsy."

W. T.

According to Folkard, the plant to which this legend properly belongs is the dwarf elder. He quotes Aubrey in support, who locates the legend at S laugh terford in Wilts.

Friend says the name is given in various places to the rose, anemone, thistle, Adonis,, and other flowers too numerous to mention.

C. C. B.

Britten and Holland, ' Plant Names/ 1886, p. 142, give three species : 1. Sambucus Ebulus, L., Cambs, Wilts ; 2. Anemone pulsatilla, L., Cambs, N. Essex, Norf. 3. Campanula glomerata, L., Cambs.

S. L. PETTY.

Ulverston.

It is not only the clustered bell-flower (Campanula glomerata) that is known as Danes' -blood. The dwarf elder, Sambucus Ebulus, is also known both as Danes' -blood and Danes' -wort (Berkshire), and, as may be seen in Salmon's ' London Dispensatory,' was a common remedy for various ills. The popular belief that the flower sprang originally from the blood of the Danes which stained the ancient battle-fields is still common in Wiltshire, North Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Cumberland, North Essex, and Norfolk. In Northamptonshire the plant is known also as Dane-weed, and Defoe in his ' Tour through Great Britain ' speaks of his going a little out of the road from* Daventry to see a great camp called Barrow Hill, and adds :

" They say this was a Danish camp, and every-
 * thing hereab'out is attributed to the Danes, because