Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/401

 2nd g. N" 20., MAT 17. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

393

Fairies. The following passage occurs in Shaftesbury's Characteristics, edition 1727, vol. i. p. 6.:

" Were it needful I could put your lordship in mind of an eminent, learned, and truly Christian prelate you once knew, who could have given you a full account of his belief in fairies." Who was the prelate here alluded to ?

CHARLES WYLIE.

[The prelate was Dr. Edward Fowler, Bishop of Glou- cester. There is reprinted in Morgan's Phcenix Britan- nicus, p. 545., a curious tract on fairies, entitled, "An Account of Anne Jefferies, now living in Cornwall, who was fed for six months by a small sort of airy people called Fairies ; and of the strange and wonderful cures she performed with salves and medicines she received from them, for which she never took one penny of her patients : in a Letter from Moses Pitt to the Right Rev. Father in God Dr. Edward Fowler, Lord Bishop of Glou- cester: London, printed for Richard Cumberland, 1696." Morgan tells us, that the copy from which he reprinted it, had at the bottom of its title-page this N.B. in manu- script : " Recommended by the Right Rev. to his friend Mrs. Eliz. Rye." He means, no doubt, the Bishop of Gloucester, who, as an orthodox folk-lorist, not only tacked to his creed this article of belief in fairies, but as a sequence upon it that of ghosts. Upon this alarming topic Dr. Fowler had frequent altercations with Mr. Jus- tice Powell. The bishop was a zealous defender of ghosts ; the justice somewhat sceptical and distrustful of their being. In a visit the bishop one day made his friend the justice told him, that since their last disputation, he had had ocular demonstration to convince him of the exist- ence of ghosts. " How ! " says the bishop, " What ! ocu- lar demonstration? I am .glad, Mr. Justice, you are become a convert. I beseech you, let me know the whole story at large." " My lord," answers the justice, " as I lay one night in my bed, about the hour of twelve, I was wak'd by an uncommon noise, and heard some- thing coming up stairs, and stalking directly towards my room. I drew the curtain, and saw a faint glimmering light enter my chamber, [' Of a blue colour, no doubt,' says the bishop!] of a pale blue, (answers the justice) ; the light was followed by a tall, meagre, and stern per- sonage, who seemed about seventy, in a long dangling rug gown, bound round with a broad leathern girdle ; his beard thick and grizly ; a large furr cap on his head, and a long staff in his hand ; his face wrinkled, and of a dark sable hue. I was struck with the appearance, and felt some unusual shocks ; for you know the old saying I made use of in court when part of .the lanthorn upon West- minster Hall fell dowif in the midst of our proceedings, to the no small terror of one or two of my brethren : ' Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum fcrient ruinae.'

But to go on It drew near and stared me full in the face." " And did not you speak to it (interrupted the bishop) ? There was money hid, or murder committed, to be sure." " My lord, I did speak to it." " And what answer, Mr. Justice?" "My lord, the answer was, not without a thump of the staff, and a shake of the lanthorn, that he was the watchman of the night, and came to give me notice that he had found the street-door open, and that unless I rose and shut it, I might chance to be robbed before break of day." The judge had no sooner ended, than the bishop disappeared.]

Brabanqons. Why were the mercenary sol- diers and marauders in the twelfth century called

Brabanqons, and Rouliers or Cotteraux ? What is the meaning and derivation of these words P

W. A. H.

[A Brabanfon means one from Brabant. The JBraban- fons were troops of adventurers or bandits, who made a trade of war, and lent themselves to those who paid them best; and who were so called because, for the most part, they were from Brabant. They were also called Routiers, because they were always on the route, from one place to another as they were commanded. Father Daniel says they were also called Cotereaux. " The king of England, irritated at the rising in Brittany, sent the Braban9ons to ravage the lands of Raoul de Fougeres ; but the people of Raoul, having cut in pieces those who were sent with provisions to the Braban9ons, the rest were obliged to retire" (Lobineau). See further, the Dictionary of Trevoux. These foreign troops were paid out of the privy purse, and were really a set of freebooters of all nations, ready to embrace any side for hire, and were mostly enlisted by our kings iu their disputes with the barons. They were employed by William Rufus, Stephen, Henry II., and John. See a short notice of them in Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. i. p. 56., edit. 1786.]

Cornish Floral Fete. In the course of this week the Flora-day Fete (May 8), will be held at Helstone, in Cornwall. We shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents, who may be ac- quainted with the antiquities of Cornwall, can tell us the origin of this peculiar custom. On this occasion the lower orders form parties, and, pre- ceded by a band of music, dance in couples into the country, where they partake of refreshments. As they are returning into the town, they are met by the " Halantons," singing a ballad beginning with :

" Robin Hood and Little John,

They both are gone to fair, ; And we will go to the merry green woods,

To see what they do there, 0."

At a Jater hour in the day, the higher classes dance through the streets and houses, and the fete terminates with a ball in the evening.

TRE, POL AND PEN.

[This festival is more popularly designated "The Furr}-," respecting which much has been written in Pol- whele's Cornwall, vol. i. pp.41 44., edit. 1816; Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 223. (Bohn's edition) ; and Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. ii. p. 648. It is evidently of Pagan origin. Polwhele says : " In the Furry of the Lizard, and in the Furry of Helston, we recognise the religious gratitude of our Pagan ancestors. The Furry has been, from time immemorial, celebrated at Helston. on the 8th of May. That Furry is a corruption of Flora, is a vulgar error ; though there is doubtless a correspon- dence, or rather a resemblance, between the festival of Flora and the Furry. I scruple not to deduce Furry from the old Cornish word/er, a fair or jubilee." A few stanzas of the Furry song will be found in Polwhele as well as in Brand. ]

" DisJ-onavit pfinem belli." Will any of your readers kindly explain to me the meaning of these words ? They occur in the Testa de Nevill, and explain the tenure by which certain lands were