Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/312

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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by " Mare," and, I am told, by other terms such as " Cock," " Hare," &c. The " plaiting" of the stalks varied probably a good deal, and the rustic imagination gave to it various names. The "cutting " clearly was one thing, the "crying" was another.

It is plain that in the past there was great pride taken by farmers and their labourers in being the first to accomplish any agricul- tural work. Few hereabouts can remember the "(Jutting of the Frog," but many can recall the loud and prolonged cheering, to be heard all over the parish, which was raised by the workpeople of any farmer who were the first to finish harvest, who would mount an empty waggon and make the welkin ring with their noise, as well upon the field as while being drawn home to the farmhouse.

' Crying the Neck" or "Mare" is referred to by Brand, Halliwell, and others, but I have never seen anywhere any reference to "Cutting the Frog."

HAMILTON KINGSFORD.

Stoulton Vicarage, Worcester.

SIR WILLIAM BANISTER. As the date of death of this deposed baron of the Exchequer is given neither in Foss's ' Judges ' nor in the 1 Diet. Nat. Biog.,' it seems worth noting that he died at his seat at Turkdean, Gloucester- shire, 21 Jan., 1721 ('Hist. Keg.,' 1721, 'Chron. Diary,' p. 6). There is a memorial to him in the nave of Turkdean Church, which may afford further particulars. In his will, dated 3 March, 1708/9 (P.C.C. 83 Buckingham), he states that upon the marriage of his daughter Jane Hamilton he stood by articles obliged to settle one moiety of his real estate in Gloucestershire upon her and her husband John Hamilton and the issue of that marriage. The other moiety he left to his unmarried daughter Elizabeth. Administration with the will was granted 19 May, 1721, to his two daughters and only issue his widow, Lady Elizabeth Banister, first renouncing the execu- trixship. He preferred to spell his name "Banastre." ITA TESTOR.

GIPSY FUNERAL.

"The wife of a gipsy chief lately died in an encampment of the tribe near a small German town. Thereupon all the 'tabor' went into mourning, i.e., plaited red and yellow ribbons in their hair and in the manes of their horses. And every gipsy brought a present and placed it on the bosom of the deceased as she lay on her couch. A pack of cards was spread out in a ring, with the ace of hearts in the centre. Then a tent was pitched, into which the coffin, painted dark red, was brought. A bonfire was lit before the tent, and the kinsfolk and friends of the deceased sat down around it, and sang the praises of her virtues and good deeds. The body lay in the open coffin bestrewn with flowers

and bright-coloured wreaths, and wrapped in a silken shroud, with jewels interspersed. From far and near other gipsies nocked in to take part in the ceremonies, and to utter encomiums on her to whom they had gathered to pay their last tribute of respect. The bier was borne out to the burial followed by a dense crowd, and preceded by six gipsies on horseback. During the last sad offices the musicians of the tribe played merry airs. Upon return to camp the ' funeral wine ' was drunk, and the rest of the day was spent in quiet converse on the merits of the deceased."

Translated from the Peterluryskaya Gazeta of 26 Jan./7 Feb., 1898. H. E. M.

St. Petersburg.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY. An appreciative tribute to the memory of Manchester's greatest litterateur appeared, oddly enough,- beneath an article of my own in the last number of the since deceased Nuntius Latinus Internet- tionalis (April, 1892), and the fact is deserving of record in ' N. & Q.' for future biographers of the author of ' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.' The article is written in excellent Latin, is signed " Aristarchus Batavus," and is evidently the outcome of a voluminous acquaintance with De Quincey's works. Its length precludes its insertion in these pages, but a passage or two may be quoted as samples of its grasp :

" Thomas De Quincey fuit Anglicus nee minus Greece quam Latine doctus et in litteris Anglicis externisque perfectus. Multa et diversa scripsit

quorum omnia honesta ornataque sunt Quam-

obrem lucubrationes ejus et scripta suavissima atque saluberrima non studiosorum duntaxat hominum lectione sed omnium virorum cognitione digna sunt.

Multis lectoribus rotundus periodorum ductus

est laboriosus et nonnulli dicunt ut in ejus operibus sententise dictionem sequantur, non ut dictio sen- tentias, sicut natura rectissime fert; nihilominus mihi videtur omnia a Thoma De Quincey scripta esse ornatissima et solida, prrejudicata et perfecta, neque, si vera dicenda sunt, ego figurarum genus ipsum nee earum redundantiam reprehcndere possum. Quse enim ad lectoris voluptatem scienti- amque attinent etoptimredictionisAnglicfleexempla prodiderunt, omnibus hominibus utilia sunt eadem. I would have craved a corner for this note before, but my copies of the Nuntius only recently came to hand at a periodical over- hauling of my books. J. B. S.

Manchester.

" ON HIS OWN." This is an instance of a literal translation of a Welsh idiom, used by English speakers on the Welsh border.^ T expression means " on his own account," on his own initiative," &c., and is simply the Welsh " ar ei hun." " He did it on his own ; nobody helped him." " I am going to si business on my own." These are instances of the employment of this phrase, noteworthy that the Welsh word means, pro-