Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/424

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 . n. NOV. is,

. daughter of John Cawthorne, and took th surname of Cawthorne in May, 1781 (whon he succeeded as Recorder of Lancaster December, 1701) ; matriculated from Queen'b College, Oxford (as Fenton), April 29, 1771 aged 18 ; created M.A., June 1, 1775 admitted to Gray's Inn, Feb. 9, 1792 ; took the additional surname of Cawthorne between 1775 and 1780 ; married Hon. France? Delaval, third daughter of Lord Delaval, and came into a large fortune on that nobleman's death, May 21, 1808. He was colonel of the Westminster Battalion of the Middlesex Militia from May 21, 1791 (being granted the rank of colonel in the array so long as that regiment was embodied, March 14, 1794), till April, 1796, when he was tried by court martial and found guilty on several charges. His successor was made colonel July 25, 1796. W. R. W.

ST. NEWLYN EAST (12 S.ii. 228,317). The cross in the churchyard of St. Newlyn East was erected as a memorial to those who died of typhoid fever in 1880. The disease raged in the little village, and 130 were stricken, though only between twenty and thirty died, and " many of these were taken away for burial." The diocesan chaplain of Truro (Rev. A. L. Price) sends me the following particulars of the memorial :

" The disease was evidently caused by the drink- ing of bad water. The village is still badly supplied with drinking water, having only three wells from which to obtain its supply. The cross was erected in the churchyard during the vicariate of Arch- deacon Du Boulay. I gather that practically all the parish contributed to the fund tor a memorial It is said that the stone upon which the cross stands is the base of the eld. churchyard preaching cross, which was dug up from the south porch, where it had served for many years as a paving stone. On December 31, 1880, Dr. Benson, first Bishop of Truro, preached at a solemn service in the church in remembrance of God's visitation in an epidemic of typhoid fever."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

PERPETUATION OF PRINTED ERRORS (12. S. ii. 87, 177,239). Attentionmay fitly be called under this head to an error in the printing of the well-known hymn " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun," which, though it entirely alters (and spoils) the sense of the original, is very common : the word l< princes " is put for " praises " in the line,

And. praises throng to crown His head. The alteration would almost seem to have been in the first instance intentional, although the Psalm paraphrased has : " For him shall prayer be made continually, and daily shall he be praised."

Another misprint occurs in the same- hymn as given in the collection, ' Church Hymns,' where we read :

The prisoner leaps to loose his chains, an error which persists in successive editions..

C. C. B.

ST. FRANCIS XAVIEB'S HYMN (12 S_ ii. 329). The first version quoted is probably only Pope touched up b^ some bold anony- mous editor after 1791. It figures in many prayer-books and hymnals of Catholics in England to this day. The better (second)- version seems to be Pope's beyond doubt. The ascription to Dryden looks like a rather natural slip of Prof. Fit zmaurice- Kelly, who must have known of the strong tradition that Dryden translated a number of Latin. Breviary hymns into English. L. I. G.

TOUCH WOOD (12 S. ii. 330). To touch wood as a sign of success, or to clinch a bargain, is not so often done as was formerly the case. In the course of a hand at whist I have seen a player, when he and his partner have taken the odd trick and secured honours as well, dump his thumb on the table and say in a tone of triumph : "I touch wood." The same would be done on other occasions when a winning point or score has been made. To touch wood in a demonstrative way is a token of a win or a
 * riumph over an opponent. In some games

to exclaim " I touch wood " makes the player ixempt from penalties, and if he forgoes his ixemption it is done by exclaiming : "I touch no wood." A couple of men on oncluding a deal or a bargain will both ouch wood with their thumbs, thus ratifying or clinching it, and in most cases it is looked on as binding with both. I never knew any- one explain the why and wherefore of it, and . should be glad to know the origin, as the- labit has always interested me.

Worksop. THOS ' RATCUFTE.

ST. GENEWYS (12 S. ii. 349). Baring- ould and Fisher in ' The Lives of the British Saints ' (iii. 247) say :

" In the Demetian Calendar (S) t of which the earliest copy is of the sixteenth century, are entered two brothers, Gwynen and Gwynws, who

re said to have been sons of Brychan ; but the name of either does not occur in any one of the lumerous lists of Brychan's children. They are jommemorated on December 13.

" Of Gwynws but next to nothing is known. It s quite possible that he was the Guinnius men-

ioned in the ' Vita S. Paterni ' as one of the four jersons (duces) whom that Saint set over the

monasteries and churches ' that he [had founded n Ceredigion."