Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/22

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. in. JAN. e, 1917.

1852, either entirely or almost so " ; and it would dispose of the assertion confidently made in Herman Merivale and Frank T. Marzials's " Great Writers " volume (p. 162) : " In 1850, if we except one later nicker in 1854, Thackeray's long connexion with Punch died out." The whole subject, in- deed, is of interest to every Thackeray an, and deserves full elucidation.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

The artist whose drawings chiefly of animals, birds, and fishes ^ appeared for many years in Punch was Capt. H. R. Howard, and not Thackeray. His original signature was a hieroglyphic of three Manx legs, but he subsequently adopted that of a trident, and continued to do so for some fifteen years. He died in 1895. Full par- ticulars of his work will be found in Mr. Spielmann's ' History of Punch.'

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

The very last of Thackeray's contribu- tions to Punch was in 1854, vol. xxvii. p. 113. It was ' A Second Letter to an Eminent Person.' The authority is Mr. H. Spielmann's ' History of Punch ' (Cassell, 1895). W. A. HIRST.

NAMES OF THE MOON (12 S. ii. 429, 478). In the Eastern Counties I have heard of the hay selling moon, harvest moon, hunter's moon, and herring moon ; and I think the months were July, August, September, and October. FRANK PENNY.

To PLAY " CROOKERN " (12 S. ii. 470). As an old Crewkernian I am greatly in- terested in MR. UDAL'S question concerning the custom at Stalbridge for the inhabitants to play " Crookern " on the Ring on Easter Monday. But during the half-century I have been associated with the little town and I have for years been a student of its folk-lore and old customs I have never heard of any game peculiar to it which in any way represents " Hunting the Buck."

The etymology of the word Crewkerne has baffled wiser heads than mine, and even Pulman, the author of that wonderful local history, ' The Book of the Axe,' cannot do more than offer suggestions upon the ex- pressed ideas of Collinson and Barnes. Hill, in ' The Place-Names of Somerset,' takes us a step beyond. Collinson divides the word into " Cruca earn," " the residence of the hermitage at the Cross." " Very pretty," is Mr. Hill's remark. But, incidentally, I may say that Crewkerne had its Cross-tree

Street, and has its Hermitage Street to this day. Mr. Barnes suggests " Carw Coryn," " the stag brook " a feeble association,, perhaps, with "Hunting the Buck." Mr. Hill thinks that Crewkerne, Crockercom.be,.. Cricket St. Thomas, and other places in Somerset are best accounted for as originat- ing in a Norse name Krokr, said to mean a big strong man. Perhaps he hunted the buck ! I shall look forward with the greatest pleasure to some reader of ' N. & Q.' giving me something new about my native town and the " moon douters."

W. G. WILLIS WATSON. Exeter.

THE SIGHT OF SAVAGES (12 S.ii. 410, 536) It is no doubt the case that the sight of savages is exceptionally keen, though it must not be taken for granted that this faculty is due solely to the fact of their being in a savage state. Keen sight would seem to depend on environment, training, and mode of life. Sailors are accustomed to scan the- horizon, and it is astonishing how quickly they will " pick up " a sail or other object at sea which a landsman would hardly notice- Doughty, in his ' Wanderings in Arabia Deserta,' remarks upon the keen sight of the Bedouins, who are continually on the watch for the appearance of any possible danger in the desert. " Plainsmen," like the Red Indians of North America, are also remarkable for the quickness of their vision, as may be read in the works of authors like- Ruxton and Col. Dodge. Savages and others also owe their keen sight, in part at least,, to the fact that they are unable to read or write, and have never strained their eyes.. They are in fact in the happy position of those

Not with blinded eyesight poring Over miserable books.

The writer of an interesting article on deer-stalking in a well-known Ross-shire forest published in The Cornhill Magazine a year or two ago tells how the head stalker there retained his keen sight till quite an old man, this having been, he asserts, largely due to his being unable to

read or write.

T. F. D.

MEWS OR MEWYS FAMILY (12 S. ii. 26, 93^ 331, 419, 432). I have to thank A HAMP- SHIRE MAN for further elucidating the Mew family history, and also for kindly amend- ing sundry statements made in my reply at 12 S. ii. 331, though a reference to the- several sources available when I was com- piling it shows I had given the different excerpts correctly. In Woodward andl



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