Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/335

 12 S. IV. DEC., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

329

i.e., the piece of wood which, as in the game of tip-cat, did duty for the ball. If a number of players were engaged in this game and they grew excited, it might easily be said that it " rained cats and dogs " on the playing-field. Could the expression have arisen in this way ?

A " dog " also means a portion of a rain- bow, and generally precedes or accompanies a squall at sea. In this connexion the ' English Dialect Dictionary ' quotes " It'll mebbe be fine i' t'efternoon if t' thunner keeps off, but there's too many little dogs about " (West Yorks). The connexion of " dogs " with a downpour of rain is accounted for by this use of the word. Some humorist may have added " cats," and the phrase, thus originated, may have caught the popular fancy. But this is merely a sugges- tion, and I should be glad of a less hypo- thetical explanation. N. E. TOKE.

[PROF. DE MORGAN, the author of the ' Budget of Paradoxes,' wrote in ' N. & Q.' for Nov. 9, 1861 (2 S. xii. 380), that the suggested derivation from the Greek " will not do for the whole phrase, which, when I was a boy, was ' cats and docs, and pitchforks with their points downwards.' "J

JAMES FLEETWOOD, BISHOP OF WOR- CESTER : PORTRAIT. In the Catalogue of the Worcestershire Exhibition held at Worcester in 1882, at p. 24, a portrait of the bishop is catalogued, lent by the Rev. D. Robertson of Hartlebury Vicarage, Kidderminster. No indication is given to show whether it was a portrait in oils or an engraving, and efforts to trace it have so far failed. It is not at Hartlebury Palace, where there is a large collection of portraits of occupants of the see. Can any reader give particulars of the portrait and the name of the present owner ? R. W. B.

ST. CTJTHMAN. Little seems to be known about this Sussex saint, concerning whom Hare in his ' Sussex,' at pp. 163-4, writes as follows :

" A church was founded at Steyning Stane Street by S. Cuthman, a West-Country shep- herds who miraculously guarded his father's sheep by making a circle round them, which nothing could break through. His mother had long been paralysed and confined to a couch on wheels, upon which, on his father's death, he wheeled her ' eastwards.' The cord by which he drew the couch broke, and he replace'd it by elder-twigs. Haymakers, who watched him from their fields by the wayside, mocked at him, and were ever after punished by storms which spoilt their hay. The couch finally broke down at Steyning, where Cuthman erected a hut for himself and his mother. He also built a timber church, working at it with his own hands, but, wearing gloves (cheirothecas) whilst he worked ,

and hanging them up outside the church whilst he, was at prayers .... The Confessor gave Steyn- ing to [the Benedictine Abbey of] Fecamp in Normandy, and William I. confirmed the grant. At the suppression of alien priories (1 Ed. IV., 1461) Steyning [i.e., the Priory of SS. Cuthman and Mary Magdalen] was transferred to [the Bridgettine Abbey of] Sion. Cuthman's church ....stood on the site of the existing church of 5. Andrew, built by Fecamp Benedictines in the

time of Henry I There is a tradition that as

often as the field at Steyning known as ' the Penfold field ' (a meadow which S. Cuthman crossed when wheeling his mother) is mown> rain follows immediately after."

The author of ' The South Downs ' (L.B- & S.C.R. Co.), at p. 63, writing of Steyning, wrongly says :

" The church is dedicated to St. Cuthman, and the chronicler of this Saxon saint relates how, on his father's death, he started to travel^the world, carry ing his mother in a wheelbarrow. '

Is any ancient effigy of this saint extant ? His day was the 8th of February. When did the Priory of Steyning cease to exist ? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

STAFFORDSHIRE POETS. I am assisting Dr. C. H. Poole to edit a volume with this title in his " Poets of the Shires " Series, and though it has been unavoidably delayed since my first- query under this heading (see 11 S. ix. 448), I should now be very grateful for information on any of the following points, and should deem it a favour to hear direct.

1. Ned Farmer, author of ' Little Jim.' I have his ' Scrap Book ' (1872 edition). Birth- place and dates of birth and death wanted.

2. Thomas Henry Allbut, b. 1842 at Hanley. - Date of death, biographical information, and poetry wanted.

3. Charles Bowker Ash, b. 1781 at Adbaston. Date of death, information, and poetry wanted. I have his ' Hermit of Hawkestone ' (Bath, It -6), but require a sight of the poetical works in 2 vols.

4. William Vernon, b. 1756 at Wolverhampton. I believe he died at Wolverhampton, but I require date of death.

5. Mrs. Anna Harrison (nee Bptham), 1797- 1881, sister of Mary Howitt. Biographical in- formation and poetry wanted. Rupert Simms mentions "Poems, Reprinted with Life, Lett and Journals. With illustrations by her daughter A. M. Harrison. London, 1893." Simms adds " Not yet (May, 1893) published."

6. Rev. Rowland Muckleston, b. 1811, The Close, Lichfield. Worcester College, Oxford, 1830, &c. ; R.D. Hereford, 1869-89. Translated Bishop Tegner's poems from the Swedish into English verse. Date of death and poetry wanted.

7. Rev. Richard Thursfield, b. 1827 at Wednes- bury. Caius College, Cambridge. Rector of St. Michael-in-Bedwardine, Worcester, from 1S7/ to 1893 or later. Author of ' Bethany ; or, Thoughts in Verse,' &c. Date of death and poetry wanted.