Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/243

 s. ix. MAR. 21, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

237

for the days during which it is supposed to linger near the deserted body. " Never close the door of the 'dead-room,' " whisper the servants, " lest you pinch the ghost in the crack of the door ! "

In my Ulster home there was a press or cupboard where were kept fine linen sheets and coverings, wax candles, and silver candlesticks. These were solely for the use of the poor in my father's cottages, &c. They were at their service never offered, but always claimed and my mother told us the custom had come down for genera- tions. Candles must burn till the funeral. The dead must not be left alone, " lest the Evil One have power " ; and every article of furniture in the poor room must be covered with pure white linen. We were taken to see our poor friends when thus lying dead a hard ordeal for children, and yet we never shrank, even from a farewell kiss ; for the more friends who say farewell thus, the better will the corpse fare in the life beyond the grave.

The most terrifying thing I remember was the whisper : " He 's looking for one to follow him," if an eyelid were not closed.

If ST. SWITHIN cares for any notes on such superstitions, I can send them to him direct.

Y. T.

" NOT ROOM ENOUGH TO SWING A CAT "

(11 S. ix. 187). The querist has evidently never seen a " cat " used, or he would not say : " Who has ever heard of swinging a whip when used in chastisement ? " " Swing- ing " is the exact word to employ, for the " cat " is (or was) swung round the operator's head between each stroke.

I well remember the first flogging I saw. It took place on the narrow top of the ram- parts at Gibraltar, where our men were drawn up in line to see the punishment car- ried out. My place was in front, near the centre, and quite close to the triangle to which the prisoner was tied so close, indeed, that my white tunic was spattered with his blood. I had thus every oppor- tunity of seeing the movements of the " cat." The operator was a young trum- peter ; I suppose a full-grown man might have inflicted too severe a punishment.

The last flogging I saw was inflicted on a negro in the West Indies, about 1866 or 1867, soon after which flogging was ctone away with in the Army. Both men bore their punishment bravely, but the negro turned an ashen grey all over. Though a cruel punishment, it was only inflicted in the case of very gross and brutal offences.

Supposing the operator to be 5 ft. tall, the stretch of his arm upwards might make the total up to 6 ft., to which must be added the length of the handle and lath of the " cat," which at a rough guess might be 3 ft. 6 in. So that a height of 9 ft. 6 in. would be the minimum in which it would be possible to " swing a cat."

G. S. PARRY, Lieut. -Col. 17, Ashley Mansions, S. W.

"WITHIN SOUND OF Bow BELLS" (11 S. ix. 167). As Cheapside was for many cen- turies pre-eminently the centre of the commerce and social life of London, and St. Mary-le-Bow in that thoroughfare en- joyed priority above all other parochial churches of the metropolis as the mother- church of the thirteen peculiars of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in conse- quence became in ancient times the place of sitting of the Court of Arches, to be born or to live " within sound of Bow bells " became a proverbial expression to denote a citizen of London a Cockney par excellence. To be " married within sound of Bow bells " may, therefore, merely denote that the marriage ceremony was performed at a church situate within the City bounds.

Of the churches in the near neighbourhood of Bow Church in 1780, only St. Mary Alder- mary and St. Mildred, Bread Street, are now standing. Churches in the vicinity of St. Mary-le-Bow which have been destroyed since that date are St. Matthew, Friday Street; St. Mildred, Poultry; and St. Antholin, Size Lane. F. A. RUSSELL.

116, Arran Road, Catford, S.E.

THE SECOND FOLIO OF THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS, 1632 : MILTON'S EPITAPH (11 S. viii. 141, 196, 232, 294, 317; ix. 11, 73, 114, 172, 217). On the suggestion of SIR EDWIN DURNING - LAWRENCE I have given fresh and careful consideration to his view of Milton's tribute to Shakespeare, and I have now to report that I am unable to change my opinion as to its value. I still hold that the lyric is an unqualified eulogy of Shake- speare, and contains no cryptic allusion -to Bacon.

Having thus responded to SIR EDWIN DURNING - LAWRENCE'S kindly hint, may I ask him as a favour to give his views on the question of Bacon's authenticated verse, to which I have already referred ? I feel that this is an essential matter in the present controversy. If Bacon disguised himself as a poetical novice when he wrote the verse included in his Collected Works, it may be relevant to say much regarding