Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/409

 12 s. ix. OCT. 22, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 335 CHEESE SAINT AND CHEESE SACRIFICES (12 S. ix. 130, 239, 255, 279). In Baring- Gould's ' Lives of the Saints ' I find cheese referred to twice. 1. St. Goeznow (A D. 675), a native of Brita : n, probably of Cornwall, who had a horror of women, when begging for his | monastery once asked a farmer's wife for j some cream cheese. She assured him she ! had none. " You say truly," said the saint ; j " you had some, but if you look in your ] cupboard now you will find them turned to stone." Baring-Gould, writing in 1898, states : The petrified cream cheeses were long preserved ' in the church of Lau-Goeznou. They were re- ; moved at the Revolution, and remained in the ! Manor of Kergroas, and there they possibly are I at the present day. Can anyone say where these cheeses are at j the present day ? 2. St. Majolus (A.D. 994). Baring-Gould states that Abbot Aymard " fancied a bit of cheese," and because he did not get it promptly he put Majolus to penance. R. HEDGER WALLACE. FAMILIES OF PRE -REFORMATION PRIESTS (12 S. ix. 290). MAJOR RUDKIN'S query would require volumes to answer adequately. Perhaps he has access to the ' Catholic Encyclopedia,' which contains a long and very learned article on ' Celibacy of the Clergy,' by the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S. J. HARMATOPEGOS. That Roman Catholic priests were in early days allowed to marry is undoubted. In the time of Henry II., 1154-89, the clergy were allowed to retain their wives upon payment of a certain tax (see Lyttelton's ' Henry II.,' vol. i., p. 153). CHARLES STOCKER. SHAKESPEARE'S CHEESE -LOVING WELSH- MAN (12 S. ix. 110, 196, 234, 254). I have just returned from the West of England and met at a Clevedon inn with a lecturer on agriculture for the Somerset County Council. In the course of conversation he mentioned, what was new to me, that an auction sale of cheese is held at frequent intervals at High Bridge, a junction on the main line near Bridgwater, and that there Cheddar and ateo local cream cheeses are sold to factors, a large number of whom come from Wales. The trade with Wales for cheese made in the district is, I understand, considerable. PRESCOTT Row. THE ESCAPE OF KATHARINE NAIRNE (MRS. OGILVIE OF EAST MILN) (12 S. ix. 290). Toone, ' Chr. Hist.,' ii. 163, under date March 15, 1766, says : Catherine Nairne, who had been lately tried and found guilty (with Patrick Ogilvy) of incest and murder, escaped out of Edinburgh gaol disguised in man's apparel. It was supposed she got a passage to France, having been seen at Dover after her escape. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. QUOTATIONS ON CHEESE ( 12 S. ix. 188, 235, 255). Possibly MR. HEDGER WALLACE may be interested in the following excerpt from Daniel Wall's edition of M. J. G. Ebel's ' Switzerland ' (London, Samuel Leigh, 18, Strand, 1820), at p. 4 : The inhabitants of the smaller cantons and valleys used to subsist on the produce of their flocks and herds. The bread, which they made once a year, served them on festival days, with the flesh of several animals. Wine was unknown except as the medicinal means of prolonging life in old age or sickness. Marriages connected families more closely with each other. A cheese was prepared in common, upon which were carved the names of the parties about to be married. This cheese served for the marriage of the chil- dren, and was often eaten wh'en more than fifty years old. Births and deaths were consecrated in the same manner. The custom still exists in all the mountainous part of the canton of Berne. The cheeses thus used are of a superior quality, and the inhabitants present portions of them to those whom they wish to honour. In a country where every family lived in a distinct house, and isolated in the midst of its possessions, the rich made provision for the year, and the poor alone were deprived of this advantage. In the struggle between ancient and modern manners the Swiss learnt to esteem wealth ; and every man who had provisions for a year was a man of importance. The traces of this are still visible in the mountains of the government of .igle and Gessenay, where the inhabitants make a merit of eating the provisions of the preceding year, and offer to those whom they mean to compliment nothing but mouldy food. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. " LAY " AND " LIE " (12 S. ix. 270, 312). It seems not to be generally known that " lay " has been used intransitively for " lie " since the fourteenth century. See the ' O.E.D.' s.v., where instances of this use are numerous. Caxton, Bacon, Earle, Butler (of the 'Analogy') and Fielding are among the authors quoted. I came across an instance the other day in ' Sense and Sensibility.' The * O.E.D.' has also in- stances of the contrary use of " lie " for " lay " from 1387 down to 1880. C, C. B.