Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/123

 TJS. II. AUG. 5, 1916.1

NOTES AND QUERIES.

117

l>ook ' From Death into Life.' The fol- lowing passage taken from chap. v. con- tains the answer to the inquiry concerning Hawker's reason for wearing crimson gloves :

"On the Sunday I was asked to help him in the service, and for this purpose I was arrayed in an alb, plain, which was just like a cassock in white linen. As I walked about in this garb I asked a friend, 'How do you like it?' In an instant I was pounced upon, and grasped sternly on the arm <by the Vicar. ' " Like " has nothing to do with it ; is it right ? ' He himself wore over his alb a chasuble, which was amber on one side and green on the other, and was turned to suit the Church seasons ; also a pair of crimson-coloured gloves, which, he contended, were the proper sacrificial colour for a priest."

JOHN T. KEMP.

SARUM BREVIARY : VERSES ix CALENDAR (12 S. iL 71). The hexameter lines which MR. G- H. PALMER quotes are those which specify for each month the Egyptian or unlucky days which fall therein. I have dealt with them on p. xv of my ' Liber Obituarius Aulae Reginae in Oxonia,' but as the book was printed for the members of this College, the members of the Oxford Historical Society, and a few other friends, was not published, and is perhaps not easy to obtain, I may give here the substance of what I have given there.

The days have been the subject of did- cussion in ' N. & Q.' lately. They were generally unlucky to be bled on, or to drink on, or to eat goose on, or to strike either man or beast on, or to begin ny work on. The lines state besides special persons or things for which they were in- dividually unlucky. Each line gives two unlucky days in its own month. The former is to be counted from the beginning, the latter from the end of the month. The lines are not the same in all Kalendars. Those given by MR. PALMER are much the most frequently met with. An alternative sat is given by Wordsworth (' Oxford Kalendars,' 6.H.S. xlv., pp. 198 foil.) from a Kalendar of the University of Paris, and this is also "to be found in the works of Bede. I have found no account of why those particular days were chosen. They do not include the " dies Alliensis " (July 16), the great unlucky day of the Romans. They do include the Circumcision (Jan. 1), the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 25), the Invention of the Cross (May 3), St. Aldhelm (May 25), the Translation of St. Richard (June 16), St. Mary Magdalene (July 22), St. Peter ad Vincula (Auir. 1), SS. Felix and Adauctus <tAug. 30), St. Matthew (Sept. 21). None of

these, except perhaps the Circumcision, are Holy Days of very early date, and X< .. Year's .Day was regarded by the Romans (Seneca, Epist. 83) as unlucky to begin \vork on. They are generally regarded as of non- Christian origin. JOHX R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.

SYMBOLS ATTACHED TO SIGNATURES (12 S. ii. 50). Under the heading ' Witnessing by j Signs,' this subject was discussed at 9 S. xi. 109, 175, 237, 294, 418.

An interesting article containing valuable information appeared also in The Strand Magazine for (I believe) April, 1910.

JOHN T. PAGE.

In ' Folkestone and its Neighbourhood/ published by English, there are some ' Gleanings from the Municipal Records,' and a facsimile of a page of the Records with Jurats' signatures. At p. 265 it is stated that

" these marks, our readers should know, consisted not of the simple cross in use nowadays by people who are ignorant of the art of writing, but every individual seems to have had some peculiar hiero- glyphic known to himself and his friends as his sign manual. Some are like Oxford frames, others are double and treble crosses, others like a pair of scissors open, &c."

R. J. FYNMORE. Sand gate.

FARMERS' CANDLEMAS RIME (12 S. ii. 29, 77). Candlemas Day is one which lore decrees shall rule the future weather con- ditions to a very considerable extent. I have not been able to discover the remaining line to the verse quoted by MARGARET LAVINGTON, but I have found a variant in :

On Candlemas Day

You must have half your straw

And half your hay.

Another says :

Candlemas Day ! Candlemas Day ! Half our fire and half our hay,

meaning we are midway through winter, and ought to have half our fuel and hay in stock. A French proverb says :

On the eve of Candlemas Day Winter gets stronger or passes away.

It is exceedingly unlucky to experience a fine Candlemas Day, for " corn and fruits will then be dear," seeing "there'll be twa winters in the year," and there is sure to be more ice after the festival of the Purification than there was before it. On the contrary, a cloudy and rainy Candlemas Day means that winter is gone. This is not only English, but French, German, and Spanish lore.