Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/119

 J2S. II. AUG. 5, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

113

The belief is very widely held in most parts of Ireland, but one scarcely expects to find it lingering in a region where folk-lore has so entirely died out as it has in the Isle of Wight, and yet, at a wedding at Whipping- ham Church a few years ago, I saw the cottagers' children press forward as the bride passed down the churchyard, and heard them cry : " I touched her. That's luck for me ! " I made inquiries in the parish afterwards, and learnt that faith in this old superstition was still general there.

Y. T.

" SCRIBENDA ET LEGEND A " : REFERENCE

WANTED (12 S. i. 349). The first part of MR. W. H. CLAY'S quotation, " Eodem animo scripsit quo bellavit,"* is based on Quinti- lian's description of Julius Caesar's oratory : " Tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitatio, ut ilium eodem animo dixisse quo bellavit appareat" (' Institutio Oratoria,' X. i. 114). EDWARD BENSLY.

" WATCH HOUSE," EWELL, SURREY (12 S. ii. 9). There are four of these in two adjacent Midland counties, all within a few miles. Each is of brick, with tall conical roof, and is known as " The Roundhouse," although the shape is octaconal. Two of the four are contiguous to a village pound, called locally " pinfold." One of the " Round- houses " is illustrated in ' Repton and its Neighbourhood,' by F. C. Hipkins, 1899.

W. B. H.

REV. JOSEPH RANN (12 S. i. 510). I think there must be some error in describing the above as " sometime Vicar of St. Mary's, Coventry." There does not appear to be a church dedicated to St. Mary at Coventry. Miller's ' Parishes of the Diocese of Wor- cester ' (1889) contains lists of the vicars of many of the parishes. In that for Holy Trinity, Coventry, appears the name of J. Ram. This may or may not refer to the Rev. Joseph Rann, but, though no dates are given, it would seem by its position to be approximately near the date signified.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Joseph Rann of Bournbrook Hall (or Barnbrook), King's Norton, near Birming- ham, who died on Sept. 28, 1792, was buried in King's Norton Church, where he is com- memorated by a monument. He is de- scribed in the inscription as ''gent.," but he was a butcher, carrying on business at Spiceal Street, and his name occurs in

Strong were our Sires, and as they fought they writ.
 * Compare Dryden's ' Epistle t j Congreve,' 1. 3 :

Sketcbley's Birmingham Directory, 1770. He amassed considerable wealth, and I have always understood that it was from him that the Kennedy family obtained their patro- nymic. The Rev. Rann Kennedy was a master in King Edward's School at Birmingham, and afterwards Rector of St. Paul's, Birming- ham. One of his sons, Charles Rann Kennedy (1808-1867), was a well-known barrister, and Sir William Rann Kennedy, who died about eighteen months ago, was a judge. In order to establish my point, I searched for the will of Joseph Rann at Worcester, Lichfield, Birmingham, and Somerset House, but without success. This does not answer your correspondent's ques- tion, but it may perhaps give him a hint.

R. B. P.

MUSICAL QUERIES (12 S. ii. 49). 2. 'The March of the Men of Harlech,' or, to use its Welsh title, ' Rhyfelgyrch Gwyr Harlech,' is said to be " beyond question the finest specimen of martial music in the world." The composer's name is unknown ; it was probably composed during the Wars of the- Roses, when Harlech Castle was besieged by Gwilym Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, for Edward IV. (1468-9). Richard Llwyd says:

"We are indebted to this siege for the spirited strain 'The March of the Men of Harlech.' The hardships suffered by the brave garrison was so much the subject of conversation in the country that it nave rise to a malediction^still living in the voice of the neighbourhood, ' Yn Harlech y bo- ohwi' (Go to Harlech). In the 'Antiquities of Wales,' written by Dr. Nicholas, it is stated that by the order of the King (Edward IV.) William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, led a powerful army to Harlech, and demanded the surrender of the place ; but Sir Herbert, the Earl's brother, received from the stout defender this answer " I held a tower in France till all the women in Wales heard of it, and now all the women in France shall hear how I defend this castle." Famine, however, at length succeeded, and the intrepid Welshman made an honourable capitulation.'

The old words, if they ever existed, have perished; the Welsh verses in present use were written by J. Ceiriog Hughes. The song was introduced into England by Mr. John Thomas, harpist to Queen Victoria, at St. James's Hall, on July 4, 1862.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

GUNFIRE AND RAIN (12 S. i. 10, 56, 96, 170, 337 ; ii. 38, 74). If vapour in suspension in the air is precipitated in the form of rain by the effect of gunfire, I should understand that, like thunder showers, it would be only local. According to Whitaker's Almanack * 1916, the rainfall in London from November, 1914, to October, 1915, was 33-69 inches,