Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/192

 154 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.vm.pEB.i9,i92i. 3Ianor was a strong supporter of the Parlia- mentary Cause, yet we find the jury during the Commonwealth still directing matters to be done on or before " Christmas," "Michaelmas," "Bartholomew's Day," "Whitsunday " and " Peterstyde. " ' Hence, although St. Thomas appears to .have had no particular connexion with alms- giving, we can understand that his day was selected as a convenient day before Christ- mas on which to make gifts to the poor, so that they might be the better enabled to njoy the coming festival. "A St. Thomas Bole " is still sometim.es used as if it were a proverbial expression. Some years ago, after having carried through some professional business for a client to his satisfaction, I received from him just before Christmas a pair of silver candlesticks, and in the letter which accompanied them, which was dated Dec. 21, he referred to them as 'a 'St. Thomas Dole.' ' With reference to the " St. Thomas's Candle " mentioned by C. C. B., it may be doubted whether it has any other connexion with St. Thomas than the fact that it was Pegged on St. Thomas's Day. As other gifts on this day were for the purpose of helping .the poor to keep Christmas, so the gift of a candle was probably to furnish them with .a " Christmas candle." Brand says that on Christmas Eve our ancestors were used to light up candles of an uncommon size called Christmas candles, and he quotes from Blount that Christmas was called the Feast of Lights in the Western Church, because that they used many lights or candles 'at the feast, or rather because Christ the light of lights, that true Light, then came into the world hence the Christmas candles. In the Buttery of St. John's College, Oxford, there is an ancient stone candle socket formerly used to burn the Christmas candle in. Brand states that at Ripon on Christ- mas Eve the chandlers sent large mould candles to their customers. Nicholson's 'Folk-Lore of East Yorkshire' (London, 1890) speaking of Christmas customs says : " At this season of the year Shopkeepers are expected t? s/md presents to their customers. With Growers almanacks have superseded the coloured Christmas Candle. On Christmas Eve this candle, is lighted and burns in the post of honour either in the middle of the table or on the mantel piece." Hazlett ('National Faiths and Popular 'Oustoms ') has a quotation from the 'Country Farmer's Catechism ' (1703), in which the term "Christmas candle " is used in such a way as to show it was a thing well known. It should be recollected that Christmas took the place of the pre-Christian festival of the winter solstice, and that the various sun festivals were celebrated by the burning of lights or fires. WM. SELF -WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe. A lady speaking from personal recollec- tion tells me that in the middle of the nine- teenth century at Harworth in Notts, a gentleman farmer used on St. Thomas's Day to give three pints of wheat each to poor families, and two pints each to widows in the parish. At Plumtree, Notts, and afterwards at Beeford Grange, Yorks, the same lady's father gave cree'd wheat to all who came for it, and raised mutton pies to widows. To " cree " grain is to soften it by boiling. Wheat was cree'd preparatory to the making of frumenty. J. T. F. THE PANCAKE BELL (12 S. viii. 106). A single bell was rung in Durham Cathedral as the "Pancake Bell" until some few years ago, when it was discontinued. Children, victims of a perennial hoax, used to watch for pancakes to drop from the mouth of the famous sanctuary knocker on the "north door, year after year, and I have seen them on the look out since the bell has ceased to ring. It seems not un- likely that the orginal object of this bell was to invite people to confession before Lent. J. T. F. GREY IN SENSE OF BROWN (12 S. viii. 68, 116). Gasc's Concise French Dictionary, 1903, gives "grey," gris ; "brown" (of bread), bis. Bis, "brown": pain h/.v, "brown bread " ; pain blanc, "whity-brown bread." Sachs - Villatte, German Diet., gives: (1) grauer Wein=schmutzig rotlicher ^Yein = vin gris ; (2) Franziskaner or Graue Briider. Meyer's ' Lexicon ' says that their habit was a dunkel braun. Prof. Herdener, of Dur- ham, who has sent me the German refer- ences, adds that he knows British tailors and dvers call a brown suit a grey suit. 1 J. T. F. Winterton, Lines. HAMILTONS AT HOLYROOD (12 S. vii. 110, 172; viii. 115). Count Gustavus Davi Hamilton was created a Count of Sweden in 1751. He married Jacobina Hildebrand and had eight sons ('Heraldry of the Hamiltons,' 110). He was seventh of t ten sons of Baron Hugo Hamilton, by his wife Margaretta Hamilton. This Hugo, and