Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JAN. 8, '98.

chant captain of Portsmouth, by whom she had one son and six daughters (Kalph de Lalo, Elizabeth, Susanna, Mary, Hannah, Keturah, and Sarah). James married (on 10 January, 1701) Mary Seager. She died in July, 1702, and her husband's decease occurred some two years later, in June, 1704.

ALF. T. EVERITT. High Street, Portsmouth.

KOMAN ENGLAND (8 th S. xii. 448). There is a useful little book * Roman Britain,' by the late Rev. H. M. Scarth (S.P.C.K.).

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

BUTTER CHARM (8 th S. xii. 387). Brand (ed. 1888), p. 750, quotes as follows from Ady's 1 Candle in the Dark ' (1655):

"Another old Woman came into an House at a time when as the maid was churning of Butter, and having laboured long and could not make her Butter come, the old Woman told the Maid what was wont to be done when she was a maid, and also in her mother's young time, that if it happened their butter would not come readily, they used a Charm to be said over it, whilst yet it was in beating, and it would come straightways, and that was this

Come Butter, come,

Come Butter, come,

Peter stands at the gate

Waiting for a butter'd Cake,

Come Butter, come.

This, said the old Woman, being said three times, will make your Butter come, for it was taught my mother by a learned Church-man in Queen Marie's Days, when as Church-men had more cunning, and could teach people many a trick, that our Ministers now a days know not."

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

The words of the charm are given in Brand's ' Popular Antiquities,' iii. 313.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

In Irish this would be : Tar, im, tar ; Tk Peadar ag an dorais, Ag fanacht an t-im agus an t-aran ; Tar, im, tar.

A literal Welsh translation is : Dere, 'menyn, dere ; Mae Pedr wrth y borth, Yn aros am y 'menyn a'r dorth ; Dere, 'menyn, dere.

It would seem, from the rhyme in the Welsh lines, that the verse referred to by your correspondent was in that language, and. not in Irisn. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

When daffodils come in or "daffa down dillies," as Derbyshire children call them a

favourite amusement is to loosen the stem of the flower next the bell-shaped portion in such a way that the interior comes out with the stem. This forms a churn, and the amuse- ment is to go through a motion called "churn- ing " by thrusting in and withdrawing the loosened portion, saying in sing-song fashion :

Churn, churn,

Butter, churn !

Peter 's at the iron-gate,

Waiting for a butter-cake !

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

'MEDIEVAL OXFORD' (9 th S. i. 20). The plate which you so favourably mentioned at the above reference, and which you attributed to me, was designed and drawn by the well- known architectural and archaeological artist Mr. H. W. Brewer, who is also the author of the pamphlet. Please correct this.

DOUGLAS FOURDRINIER.

SUPPORTERS (8 th S. xii. 408). Henry VIL, Henry VIII., and Edward VI. used a lion or for England as the dexter supporter of the royal arms, and a dragon gules for Wales as the sinister supporter. Mary I. and Eliza- beth changed the tincture of the dragon to or. A griffin was never a royal supporter. Boutell (' Heraldry, Historical and Popular ') and Dr. Woodward (' Heraldry, British and Foreign '), among other heraldic writers, give complete lists of royal supporters.

E. E. DORLING.

The Close, Salisbury.

The arms of Queens Mary and Elizabeth were sometimes represented with a lion and a dragon as supporters. That is the nearest approach I can make to the "griffin" of J. S.'s query. ST. SWITHIN.

Henry VII. was the first and Elizabeth the last sovereign to use as a supporter a red griffin (the ensign of Cadwallader, the last king of the Britons), and the arms in Eliza- beth's reign are always encircled by the garter. E. LEGA-WEEKES.

The lion and dragon were the royal sup- porters during the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII. and the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Supporters generally are treated on in *K & Q.,' 1 st S. ii. 136, 221; 4 th S. viii. 47, 130, 188, 251, 294, 311, 385 ; the supporters of English sovereigns in 8 th S. ix. 228, 477, as given by the various authorities, from the reign of Edward III. (1327) to James I. (1603), since which time there has been no change.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road,