Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/85

 n s. iv. JULY 22, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in the Scottish Lowlands. According to genealogists, " Touch not the cat but a glove " is the motto of the Mackintoshes ; and a kindly host in rural parts may be found who will gently remonstrate with a bare-headed enthusiast in the admonition, " You should not be oot but your hat."

THOMAS BAYNE.

Although the archaic ambiguity of the sense of 1 Cor. vii. 4 may be admitted, yet, considering that " but " is derived from Anglo-Saxon or Old English be-utan, butan, i.e. without (cf. the 'Historical English Dictionary '), it seems to be not quite fair to assert that the Revisers of the A.V., " with all their Greek," " knew very little English." I believe, on the contrary, it was to their credit that they preserved, as far as possible, the archaic character of our Old English Bible version.

STUDENT OF OLD ENGLISH.

0n

Shepherds of Britain : Scenes from Shepherd Life, Past and Present, from the Best Authorities. By Adelaide L. J. Gosset. (Constable & Co.)

THE author of this pleasant work deals with a subject which may well be treated discursively. Many writers have contributed to it, nearly all of whom understand and sympathize with the busi- ness of which they discourse.

The work, which is illustrated with engravings of no common character, is not only well written, but also takes a wide scope. We find the duties of the shepherds of old and modern times grouped in an excellent manner, with a result far different from that produced by the careless and frag- mentary sketches which have often passed for descriptions of lif e among the sheep.

Hitherto we have regarded shepherds and their dogs as objects to be considered from but one point of view, that of the agriculturist and grazier; here we learn to consider them and the flocks to which they have devoted so great a number of their years as really worthy of study both for poetical and historical reasons. It was not till the great enclosures, which were accepted in many cases far from willingly, that sheep were regarded as animals for enclosed land. In former times they were hereditary occupants of the hills, wolds, and high moorlands of the British Islands, and there was no more thought of removing them and devoting the ground to other purposes than of exiling the landlords or their hereditary tenants from their native soil.

A writer who speaks most highly of shepherds regards ordinary farm- labourers in a far different light. He judges them to be, as a class, dull persons who have no interest beyond their work. This opinion is, we think, a mistake, though we need not say that there are exceptions, and that some of them, especially if they represent

what may be called the stolid Teutonic type,, have little power of verbal expression. Small holdings, where they exist, have undoubtedly a beneficial influence in bringing into view intel- lectual capacities which now are often hidden rather than non-existent. The shepherd of the Northern hills and of the South Downs has had ; long hours of loneliness under sun and stars in which to ponder and reflect ; often, too, his occupation is hereditary, and therefore much traditional wisdom has reached him from ancestors long forgotten.

As Mr. Tickner Edwardes, who knows the subject well, has said, " Most shepherds have as long a pedigree behind them as the sheep themselves. The work has been handed down from father to son, generation after generation, and there is a sort of family accumulation of skill and know- ledge. The child is born within sound of the bleating of the flock."

The sheepdog is said, and we believe truly, to> be faithful above all dogs to his own people and his own work ; but he is suspicious of all strangers, and will often bite if caressed by any one with whom he is not familiar. In various parts of the book there are accounts of the know- ledge and capacity to which dogs have attained,, and we look upon these as some of the most interesting portions of the volume. The know- ledge of the animals regarding their duties seems very often to be as highly developed as that of their masters. Sometimes, indeed, they evolve tastes which are quite unexpected. The son of a- Sussex shepherd relates that a shepherd dog was given to an innkeeper. He was made a great pet,, and allowed to wander wherever he pleased. He soon found out the cellar, and accustomed himself to lap the beer which dropped from the taps of the barrels.

The South Downs are, there cannot be a doubt,, the widest sheep walk in England, and the shep- herds and the dogs upon them appear to have had the longest training. How many shepherds- are employed we cannot guess, but we believe that in not a few instances the women of the family have been brought up as shepherdesses, and when called upon have done the work very well,, although it seems doubtful whether there ever have been so many female shepherds in England as in France. We have been informed, however,, that fewer people of either sex now work at this interesting employment than was the case half a century ago.

The account given of shepherds is not limited here to one or two districts. Noteworthy places in Great Britain where sheep are to be found in, large numbers are treated, and much incidental knowledge may be acquired by the ordinary reader. It seems that in Ireland bells, as a help> to shepherds, are or were not infrequently hung round the necks of sheep and cows also. We may remark that in a North Lincolnshire village with which we are acquainted ewes are belled at lambing-time, even in enclosed pastures, to scare away foxes. It appears that in Ireland there was,, and probably still is, a fine levied if these bells are removed. We are informed that sheep - bells are not used in Scotland or the Isle of Man- It does not appear whether they are employed in Wales. Had they been, some of the writers, in the present volume would, we think, have alluded to the custom.