Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/170

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. V. FEB. 17, 1912.

of his excavation he lays bare a portion of i coffin lid as big as a barndoor. Through a small hole in the lid issues a mighty voice demanding :

" Who dares

Disturb the quiet of old Wishart's gravo ? " Hodge replies :

" "Iis I, good sir, One Hodge the sexton, come to dig a grave."

The voice demands to know what year it is and is then apprised that a thousand years have elapsed since it, or its owner, was buried, and it proceeds :

" I prithee then. Good sexton, tell me true. What manner of mer Inhabit now the earth ? for by thy voice Thou seem'st a puny elf ! " "A puny elf ! " Quoth Hodge, " I 'm six feet four ! There '.'

ne er a man

In all the country-side that is my match ! "

The voice protests its ignorance of modern

scales and measures, and adds :

" But through this hole

Thrust in thy finger's end, that I may judge By sample small of thy dimensions great."

Hodge reflects :

" Although no mortal man I fear, the dead

Have awful power mayhap " ; and so instead

He thrust his pickaxe nozzle shod with iron.

And he was in the right, for in a trice

Old Wishart bit it off clean as a whistle,

With " Hence, vile boaster, take thyself along.

And learn that finger which thou think'st so strong

Has no more substance than a piece of gristle ! "

H. D. ELLIS. 7, Roland Gardens, S.W.

(10S.vii.69; 11 S. v. 78.)

If more is needed to be known.

The bishop's name was Hinds, not Hind

(Samuel, Bishop of Norwich). In his 1834

volume the stanza is in four lines, not two.

DIEGO.

Lucius (US. iv. 449, 534; v. 59). If MB. JONAS will refer to Haddan and Stubbs, i. 25-6, he will find therein quoted the statements of Bseda, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and others, which Mr. Haddan had before him when writing the summary that I quoted at the second reference.

Mr. Haddan says that the story of Lucius cannot be traced higher up than about 530, and that first Baeda (eighth century), and then Nennius (ninth century), copied this Roman story. See, too, Mr. Plummer's note in vol. ii. p. 14, of his edition (1896) of B eda. He writes : "It [the story] may safely be pronounced fabulous." He gives further references.

MR. WALCOTT, at 5 S. xi. 306, refers to the Coire legend, as to which I have

summarized the views of the best Swiss historians in my 'Murray' (1904), p. 407. I can find no reference to Lucius in the Saxon Chronicle. W. A. B. COOMDGE.

CURIOUS STAFF (11 S. v. 49). The short staff with the crown at the top is perhaps the sort of " emblem of royalty " described by Dickens in ' Pickwick ' thus :

" Mr. Grummer. perfectly speechless with indig- nation, dragged the truncheon with the brass crown from its particular pocket, and nourished it before Sam's eyes. 'Ah,' said Sam, 'it's wery pretty, 'specially the crown, which is uncommon like the real one.'"

Mr. Grummer illustrates its use by running it under Sam's neckcloth, and is promptly knocked down by Sam.

But. used as a tourniquet with the neck- cloth of that period, the little staff would prove an unpleasant handle to drag off a criminal to justice. - GEORGE WHERRY.

This is evidently a Head Constable's staff or badge of office. The description reminds me of the staff given by George IV. to Townsend, the Bow Street runner, except that this latter is wholly of silver. It is in the possession of the family of a banker of Chichester who was a godson of Townsend.

E. E. STREET.

DR. BRETTARGH (11 S. v. 49). Katharine Bruen ( 1579-1601 ), Puritan, was daughter of a Cheshire squire, John Bruen of Bruen Staple- ford, and sister of John Bruen (1560-1625), Puritan layman. When she was about 20 she was married to William Brettargh or Brettergh, of " Brellerghoult " (Brettargh Holt), near Liverpool, who shared her Puritan sentiments. The couple are said to have suffered some persecution at the hands of their Roman Catholic neighbours. See ' D.N.B.,' vi. 286 ; and vii. 139.

For Catharine McAuley (1787-1841), foundress of the Order of Mercy, see ' D.N.B.,' xxxiv. 420. A. R. BAYLEY.

ANCIENT TERMS (US. iv. 528 ; v. 50). One or two of the terms should have been given with their immediate context :

1. " iij freyns doryes dount lun est s/im hevantel.'' 1

2. " j arblaste dont la ventre est de balaynge in Latin baleyna] ove un baudr' [Lat. baldricus] de

quir ove vj setes a arblaste enpinnez des pennes

paun. wasfours xxix e iij vires." What portion is la venire ? There is also ' chapel de fer. What is the precise distinc- ion ?

I am greatly obliged for the kind answers iven. C. SWYNNERTON.