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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. JULY s, 1911.

Skid may represent A.-S. scid (mod. shide), stake, stick (for lighting fire), compounds of which are recorded. H. P. L.

RALPH PIGGOTT, CATHOLIC JUDGE (US. iii. 449). This name does not appear in any of the Admission Books of the four Inns of Court, except in the year 1576 in the Ad- mission Book of Gray's Inn; nor does Dugdale or Beatson's ' Political Index ' make mention of it. It seems hardly likely in these circumstances that he can have been an English judge.

C. H. R. PEACH.

HOUSE OF COMMONS PRAYER : SPEAKER YELVERTON (11 S. iii. 467). Prof. A. F. Pollard in the ' D.N.B.,' Ixiii. 315, under Sir Christopher Yelverton (1535 ?-1612), writes, apropos of his being chosen Speaker on 24 October, 1597 : " The prayer which, according to custom, he composed and read to the house every morning is said to have been of much devotional beauty (Foss)."

The Prayer for the High Court of Parlia- ment was composed most probably by Bishop Laud. It first appeared in an 'Order of Fasting' in 1625. The words " most religious and gracious King " are commonly supposed to have been intro- duced as a compliment to Charles II. (see Francis Procter's ' History of the Book of Common Prayer,' 1857, p. 262).

A. R. BAYLEY.

According to Foss (' Judges of England '), Yelverton was certainly the composer of the prayer which he read in the House of Commons every morning ; and according to the same authority, it was the custom at that time for Speakers to compose the prayer themselves.

John Cosin was only three years old when Yelverton was chosen Speaker, and it was not until sixty years later (after the Con- vocation of 1661) that the Book of Common Prayer was enriched with his compositions. I have found no reference in any biography of Cosin to his having drawn up any form of prayer for the use of the House of Commons. D. O. HUNTER BLAIR.

Speaker Yelverton, no doubt, claimed for the House of Commons the power of reform- ing the Book of Common Prayer " if there was anything Jewish, Turkish, or Popish in it." He also boldly defended a member, Mr. Strickland, who had been imprisoned for proposing an alteration in the form of prayer

previously in use in the House. Beyond these facts there does not seem to be any- thing connecting him with the authorship of any kind of prayer. W. SCOTT.

RAGS AT WELLS (US. iii. 409, 470, 498).. Seventy years ago, in Ireland, I often passed a stunted tree known as " the ragged bush," but commonly called by the equiva- lent name in Irish (I spell it as pronounced) " skeogh na gibbogue." .It deserved this title, for it was lavishly decorated with rags of various kinds and colours. At that time it was the habit of the less educated people in the neighbourhood, on certain saints' days, to detach scraps of their clothing, tie them to the bush, and then adjourn to a holy well not far off, and there- do penance by going round the well several times on their knees.

Quite recently a friend at my request visited the spot, and found the bush (even now known as "the bush") still there, but bereft of all claim to its old title, for not a vestige of rag remains. Evidently the ancient practice has died out.

The suggestion that the custom has come to these islands from the East, seems to be supported by the following quotation from a book written by Dr. Sheepshanks, late Bishop of Norwich, and published in 1909 r ' A Bishop in the Rough ' : "/7i Mongolia.

"One place, a long weird valley, abhorred and dreaded of travellers, was full of traces of Obi worship. Cairns on the hillsides were everywhere to be descried, with rods or poles carrying strips of rags, or of clothing torn from the garments of passing travellers, who had alighted to say a prayer. Thus to decorate these piles of wood is a sacred duty. Tradition demands a portion of one's own garb, but any piece of cloth seems to meet the require- ments of the occasion. Amidst these fluttering memorials of the Mongolian religion, the wayfarer left behind him for ever that strange and ill-known country."

HENRY SMYTH.

Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Those who are interested in the subject of rags left at wells may like to be referred, if they do not already know it, to a short story, * The Mourner's Horse,' in * The Delectable Duchy,' by " Q." (Cassell & Co., 1894). The concluding paragraphs are relevant.

If any reader of ' N. & Q.' will condescend to be more communicative than " Q." and explain the bit of folk-lore mentioned in the preface to the book, I am sure other readers will be grateful as well as I.

H. K. ST. J. S.