Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/142

 134

NOTfcs AND QUERIES. t& S: L km 12,

adaptation probably explains a barn being called a "lair" at Monk Bretton and else- where. I think I have heard cowhouses called "lairs" in the North, and Bailey gives this sense. There is a place called "Cow- lairs " near Glasgow. " Lairage" is, of course, such accommodation as is provided in " lairs." Graves in churches were called " lair-stalls " in Durham. J. T. F.

Winterton, Doncaster.

"RANTER" (8 th S. xii. 386). This term is frequently applied in Lincolnshire to members of the Primitive Methodist body, but is generally avoided by courteous people as being calculated to give offence. Forty years ago its use was more common than it seems to be now. I have heard more than one person say, " I 'm not a Methodist, I 'm a Ranter," which shows that then the term conveyed no offensive idea to those who used it. Whether the name " Ranter," as applied to the Primitive Methodists, has come down to them from the seventeenth - century "Ranters," with whom they have no his- torical connexion, may well be questioned. I see no reason for believing it to nave done so. It is far more likely to have arisen inde- pendently, by reason of the noise made at camp-meetings. I have understood that this body took its origin from a camp-meeting, and that this fact is commemorated by a hymn beginning

The little cloud increases still Which first arose upon Mow Hill.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

With reference to the remarks of MR. BOBBINS on the appellation of "Ranter" in connexion with the Methodists, may I say that the word " ranting " has been used in

?uite a different direction ? In the pleasing rish drama of 'The White Horse of the Peppers,' taken from Samuel Lover's story of the same name, and relating to a legend in the family of the Peppers of cp. Meath, the hero, Gerald Pepper, appears in one of the scenes of the play disguised as a guide, and in clothing that had seen better days. He sings a song, of which the following are the first two verses :

Whoo ! I 'm a ranting, roving blade,

Of never a thing was I ever afraid ;

I 'm a gintleman born, and scorn a thrade,

And I d be a rich man if my debts was paid.

But my debts is worth something, this truth they

instill

That pride makes us fall all against our will ; For 'twas pride that broke me I was happy until I was ruined all out by my tailor's bill.

It may be mentioned that " The White

Horse " was the means of preserving to Gerald Pepper his estates, confiscated after the battle of the Boyne ; and in remembrance of the strange event the white horse was introduced into his armorial bearings, and is at this day one of the heraldic distinctions of the family. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

Clapham, S.W.

In the fifties "Ranters" were an extreme body of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. Their great representative in the north of England was a man named Caughey (pro- nounced so, but I am not quite sure as to the spelling). He was a tall, thin man, dressed severely in black, a living personification of the particularly ugly bronze statue of Presi- dent Lincoln in Lincoln Park at Chicago. As a big lad I used to attend some of his week-night gatherings at Coalpit Lane Chapel, Sheffield, and remember very well on one occasion his saying " he had laid and wrestled with the Lord for seven nights." As a bit of an athlete myself in those days, it struck me as particularly curious that a man should lie down to a wrestling match.

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

[The ranting dog, the daddie o't.

Burns, ' i wha my babie-clouts,' &c. A rhyming, ranting, raving billie.

Burns, ' The Twa Dogs. Other instances may be advanced.]

GHOSTS (8 th S.xii. 149,335, 413). A remark- able instance of an aristocratic ghost may be worth noticing as being thoroughly well authenticated, detailed by the eye-witness, and one not generally known, I believe.

Lady Fanshawe and her husband Sir Richard Fanshawe, that devoted loyalist and most high-principled and courageous friend of Charles I., were sleeping in a handsome chamber (which, quite unknown to them, had a haunted reputation) for the first time, 1649. It was in the house of Lady Honor O'Brien (not far from Galway, Ireland), daughter of the Earl of Thomond. Lady Fanshawe, a most excellent and brave woman, was awoke about one at night, and by the light of the moon saw a woman leaning in at the open casement (before shut), having red hair and a pale and ghastly complexion, who, in a loud, unearthly voice, cried thrice "A horse!" and then, with a wind-like sigh, vanished. Sir Richard slept through it all, and saw nothing. Next day tney heard that a descendant of the former owner had that night died in the house, and that ages ago his ancestor had ill-treated this woman, murdered her in the garden, and thrown her body into the river