Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/339

 S. NO 17., APKIL 26. '56.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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age, whose recollection extended almost to the period when the alteration was made, suggesting that probably some other cause was then assigned for the supposed deterioration of the season. " Oh, yes," she replied, " when I first went to service at a farm-house, as a girl of fourteen, my old master used to say that the seasons had never been so fine since the good Earl of Derwentwater was executed." And she then repeated some stanzas of a song which her master was accustomed to sing on festive occasions, and of which I regret I did not take a copy. I believe, however, it was nearly identical with a ballad which I think has been partially reprinted in some late numbers of " N. & Q." It should be observed, that the most in- fluential family in the neighbourhood at the period in question, was more than suspected of Jacobite sympathies.

Another instance of superstition (probably not limited to this neighbourhood) respecting the re- puted letter of Our Blessed Saviour to King Ab- garus, came under my notice soon after I came to reside here. Observing that this apocryphal com- position, printed on a sheet, was pasted up in most of the cottages that I visited, I inquired the rea- son, and was told that it was of great efficacy in diminishing the sufferings of women in child-birth. My informant was the mother of a large family, and apparently entertained no doubt that she had herself experienced the benefit of the charm.

A WILTSHIRE VICAK.

A Gloucestershire Prescription for Epilepsy. The curate of Hasfield, going into the house of a parishioner whose daughter was troubled with epileptic fits, was accosted by the mother of the damsel in a most joyous tone : " Oh, Sir, Emma has got her ring." The good curate fearing that the poor girl might have " stooped to folly," and that this was an intimation that her swain in- tended to make an honest woman of her, sought an explanation ; which was afforded in the follow- ing prescription, which may be useful to any of your readers who may be like afflicted.

" Why you see, Sir, our Emma has been long troubled with 'the fits,' and she went to the church door, and asked a penny from every un- married man that went in, till she got twenty-four. She then took them to a silversmith in Gloster, who promised to get them changed for ' Sacra- ment money' (which he said he could easily do, as he knew one of the cathedral clergy). And with that money, Sir, he made her a silver ring ; and Emma is wearing it, and has never had a fit since."

A MINOR CANON (but not the one who changed the money).

Gloucester.

Easter Sunday Superstition. On Easter Sun- day, at a corner of the churchyard of Bradford, in

Yorkshire, was found, slightly placed under the soil, a lemon stuck with pins ; and at one end, two pins placed to form a +. What form of incanta- tion is this ? E. HAILSTONE.

Unregistered Proverb. There is a Kentish proverb about the adder which confirms the Scripture allusion to its deafness :

" If I could hear as well as see, Nor man nor beast should pass by me."

J. Y. (2.)

flflfnar

Turkish Women.

"We may venture to affirm that a person who had ever experienced an acquaintance with a Turkish woman would have no further taste for the ladies of any other country, whom he would find in every particular so much their inferiors. The cleanliness and sweetness of their bodies, their advantageous dress, their words and actions, which seem enough to declare the unfeigned sentiments of their hearts, their grace, air, and beauty, are sufficient to captivate the most uncongenial breast, while their sincerity and unequalled constancy are capable of fixing their lovers' affections."

The above description of Turkish women is said to have been taken from Lord Sandwich's Voyage Round the Mediterranean, in 1738-9. As his lord- ship's work is not to be met with in the libraries of this island, might I ask if this statement can be verified ? * The Lord Sandwich of the above date is thus described by Burke :

" John, 4th earl (son of Edward Richard, Viscount Hinchinbroke, who died in 1722, by Elizabeth, only daughter of Alexander Popham, Esq., of Littlecote, co. Wilts ). This nobleman, an eminent diplomatist and statesman, assisted at the celebrated Congress of Aix-la- Chapelle, in 1748. His lordship was subsequently secre- tary of state, and first lord of the admiralty. He married in March, 1740-1, Judith, daughter of Charles, Viscount Fane, of the kingdom of Ireland, and was succeeded at his demise, in 1792, by his only surviving son."

By this marriage it would appear his lordship's " taste " was quickly changed. W. W.

Malta.

A Bibliographical Desideratum. In order to complete the lists of " books burnt and sup- pressed," which have at various times appeared in your pages, I should like to see some notices of the impressions destroyed at the establishment of the " Society for the Suppression of Vice," in Bridge Street, Blackfriars. Shelley's CEdipus Tyrannus, or Swellfoot the Tyrant, was one of their victims. V. T. STERNBERG.

Homer's Telegraph, of the Nineteenth Century. In this age of wire wonders, in which the

[* The passage, slightly altered, occurs at p. 158. of his lordship's Voyage.~\