Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/139

 ii s. ix. FEB. 14, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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hundreds, with the area of each parish or of each portion of a divided parish. These index-maps are still obtainable from the Ordnance Survey agents, but care must be taken to specify the original engraved index - map, as otherwise the more recent zinco- typed edition would be supplied, which is historically useless. Any one could compile a preliminary list of divided parishes from these maps by a couple of days' work at the British Museum. Afterwards the list could be corrected for pre-Ordnance Survey altera- tions, which must be comparatively few. Particular examples described in your columns will form valuable additions to such a list, but a satisfactory list cannot be com- piled in such a casual way.

MB. BOSWOBTH does not appear to dis- tinguish clearly between three things, viz., (1) parishes partly in one county and partly in another (to which Miss WOODS'S query referred) ; (2) detached parts of parishes, and (3) detached parts of counties (as to which see 10 S. viii. 31 ; xi. 269). The particular case of North Woolwich which he quotes does not come under either of these three heads, for Woolwich is entirely in Kent, and the part of the parish and county which extends north of the Thames is con- tinuous in mid-stream with the main portion.

Since writing the above I find, on reference to Dr. Blake Odgers's ' Local Government ' (" English Citizen Series "), that in 1871 there were eighty-five parishes situated partly in one county, partly in another (p. 15). His authority for this statement is apparently the Census Report for that year. This suggests that a reference to early Census Reports might afford an easier means of compiling the list than the six-inch index-maps. A. MOBLEY DAVIES.

CHBISTMAS EVE (11 S. vi. 505 ; viii. 501 ; ix. 78). The Christmas Eve supper of Provence is, or was, strictly a family gather- ing, a feast of the hearth, having nothing to do with reveillon festivities. It was regu- lated by traditional customs, and was at the usual supper -hour, shortly after dark. The table was laid as stated by ST. SWITHIN at the first reference, but some explanation and correction are necessary. The traditional essentials of the fare were thirteen in number, all having symbolical significance. There was the big, flat round loaf, decorated with red-berried butcher's broom, one quarter of it set apart for the first poor person who should call. On the table there were snails (with new long nails for extracting them from the shells), fried stockfish, a big mullet

cooked with olives, two kinds of cooked cardoons (the leaves of one kind, the root of the other, being eaten), a salad of celery with the big red or green peppers of Pro- vence, buns, nougat, Paradise apples (some- times called " cardamoms," perhaps from their spicy smell), with raisins and some other dried fruit. The triple libation poured on the Yule log was of vin kiue, strong wine made from boiled-down grape- juice, and kept for festive occasions.

That the supper was quite early in the evening and ended several hours before midnight is evident from Mistral's account of the time after it : " La vihado, en esperant la messo de miejo-niue, ero longo aqueu jour" ("The sitting -up while waiting for midnight Mass was long on that day "). It was passed at the fireside, talking of the lives and deeds of the old folk and of those departed. I may add that it was strictly "meagre" only fish and vegetable fare; butter was not used, being foreign to Pro- vence, where cows are only kept, even now, for the bourgeois cafe au lait, and generally by Piedmontese ; olive oil is the only fat used in cookery. But the times have changed: with railway facilities butter is imported, and with the encroachment of city habits the men have become impatient of the long sitting-up by the fireside, and they adjourn to the cafe, where drinking of healths, card-playing, " draws " for turkeys, game, &c., pass the time until midnight.

In the meantime pancakes may be fried to keep the children awake ; they are anxious to see the Bethlehem crib in the church, to see the shepherds come in, bringing, perhaps, with them a sheep decked out with ribbons, which will be led up to the crib and there induced to bleat. And on Twelfth Night the children will again be taken to church to see the crib decorated for the visit of the three kings amid the concourse of the other santoun well known, but always new^ and delightful to the young.

EDWABD NICHOLSON. Cros de Cagnes, near Nice.

ANNO DOMINI (US. ix. 69). According to Sir Harris Nicolas's 'Chronology of History ' (London, 1838), reckoning the years from the birth of Christ was first used about the year 527 by Dionisius Exiguus, better known as " Denys le Petit," a monk of Scythia and Roman abbot, in consequence of which it is sometimes called " recapitu- latio Dionisii." The earliest instance of its use in England is supposed to have occurred as early as the year 680, but I believe this