Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/344

 .3.36 NOTES AND QUERIES, pi s. til a«ul 26, 1913. by St. Patrick, who found fire-worship or •un-Worship (for they are identical) preva- lent in Ireland. I was told at Ac-hill that the ancient custom of lighting the Mav Day fire* wh still (1898) kept up in Inniskea and other adjacent islands. Another observance closely connected with this subject, and which existed in remote district* until quite recently, was the custom of declining firmly to give the " seed of the fire " to any one on May Day. On other days of the year, except during the actual operation of butter-making, a neigh- bour Wliose fire went out in the night always fot a coal or two without demur, but on fay Day it was no use to ask. I remember the case of one old man who lived close to our farm, whose fire was out on May morning. He Went to his next-door neighbour, an old Woman, for the " seed of the fire " ; but she strenuously refused, whereupon he tore off a piece of his ragged corduroy trousers, which lie lit as if to " redden " his pipe. This, however, was not his object: as corduroy burns slowly he took it away, notwithstanding the protests of the old lady, who predicted that some harm would Ix-fall her before the day was out. The man succeeded in lighting his fire, but the old Woman's goat, her only possession, died before night. Down to a few years ago cattle were struck with burning branches taken from bonfires on St. John's Evo, and boys, and sometimes even daring girls, used to jump across the outskirts of the fire, round which they always danced " Ie deiseal na greine "— i.e., they followed the apparent course of the sun, but never wont in the contrary direction, which is the course taken by witches ami those who practise charms on I lullo W-e'en. With regard to the derivation of the word " nealltuino," I think it comes from teine (lire) and Baal (the Irish Sun-God). T. O'Neill Lane. Tournafulln, co. Limerick. 'Eccentric Biooraphy ' (11 S. vi. 369, 4.14).—I have lately como across an ad- vertisement in a Work dated 1802 which is almost certainly of tho book inquired for. It. runs :— "Just published. By T. Hurst, Paternoster How, Neatly printed in a lV.cket Size, Price 4s. Ill IioiiiiIh, Kcccnlric Jiiogrnphy ; or, Sketches of upwards of SOD Remarkable Characters, ancient and modern, embellished with Portraits... .A few copies are reserved, with the Portraits printed in Colours, price t(*. boards." W. B, H. BLayter's ' Trial or Qceex Caroline ' (11 S. viL 69. 152).—This very large canvas was not exhibited at the Academy. When completed in 1823 it was shown at "Mr. Cauty's Great Rooms. Xo. 80i. Pall Matt. Admittance one shilling."' The" " Catalogue with five plates of reference " is of more than usual size and merit. Hayter in his introduction provides some additional infor- mation worth transcribing :—■ " This day was preferred as one when the honour- able aDd learned gentlemen of the Bar bad, if possible, a little less occupation than during the examination or cross - examination of a witness; which enabled the painter to show, with more pro- priety, the faces of some gentlemen, whose backs would otherwise have been turned towards the spectator. It appears in the journals of the day, that the persons most exerting themselves, pre- viously to the Queen's leaving her chair in the house, at half-past twelve o'clock, were the Right Honourable the Lord Chaucellor, Lord Amherst, Lord Falmouth, Lord Ellenborough, and the Earl Grey, who is checking the prolixity of the inter- preter, the Marchese Spinetti, desirous to proceed with the examination of the witness." The picture was again exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, during 1843, with other works of this artist. A descrip- tive catalogue (8vo) with " Eleven plates of reference " was on sale at Is., and two different handbills were issued. I was at fault in suggesting at the first reference that it remained at Dover House from 1830 to 1860. Aleck Abrahams. Hart Logan, M.P. (11 S. vii. 170, 238).— Hart Logan was one of two members for West Suffolk, elected 7 Aug., 1837. After his death Henry Spencer Waddington of Cavenham, Suffolk, was elected in his place 7 May, 1838 (see Blue-book of Members of Parliament). Apparently Logan was not in possession of Kentwell Hall (1J miles beyond Long Melford on the road from London to Norwich) for very many years. He appears as living there in ' Paterson's Roads, eighteenth" edition, by Edward Mogg, 1826, p. 337;' but in 'Kearsley's Traveller's Entertaining Guide through Great Britain,' 1801, col. 18, and in ' Cary's New Itinerary,' fifth edition, 1812, col. 545, Richard Moore is given as the inhabitant of Kentwell Hall. Baron Stulz (11 S. vii. 121).—Stulz is namod in Marryat's ' Japhet in search of a Father,' vol. i. chap, xxi., as the fashionable tailor, apparently of St. James's Street. The novel appeared in 1836, according to Allibone. Of course this does not show that on actual Stulz existed at that time. Robert Pierpoint.