Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/385

 9 th S. X. Nov. 8, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

377

Ecclesiastical Terms,' 1877, s.v. ' Prick ' and 'Pricket'; Pugin's ' Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume,' 1844 ; a paper con- tributed by the late H. S. Cuming on ' Some Early Candlesticks of Iron,' in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol. xxv., old series ; and valuable ' Notes on the Lights of a Mediaeval Church,' by the Kev. F. W. Weaver, in the Antiquary for June, 1892, where we are told' f hat wax candles had various names. The larger ones were called torches (torticii) and tapers ; the smaller ones prickets, serges, ceriors, and betings. But these were, of course, apart from the numerous specific names given to candle- lights in connexion with particular customs or donors, the use of many of which still remains undefined. What, for instance, was a "Judas -candle," a "Hagoney- light," a " Dowell-light," or a " window-light " (ibid.) 1 An item from the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary Hill, London, was, " Fqr ny we wax for the use of the church as in beine-light tapers, prykkets, arid candillis, weighing 92 Ib. at 4$d. per lb., 11. 14s. Sd." ('Illust. of Manners and Customs of the Fifteenth, Six- teenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, from Churchwardens' Accounts,' &c., 1797, by John

Nichols, p. 94). J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

A candlestick with a spike in the centre of the dish or upper part, on which the candle was fixed, was called a pricket, I believe, to distinguish it from a socketed candlestick such as we use now. The late Rev. Mackenzie E. S. Walcott says that there are examples in the British Museum, and also in the collec- tion of the Society of Arts (' Sacred Archaeo- logy,' p. 468). The following references may be of service to MR. WHITE : Archceologia, xxvi. 404; 'Surrey Inventories,' 24, 45, 88, 89 ; ' Monasticon Anglic.,' i. 65. ASTARTE.

LYRICAL POETRY (9 th S. x. 227). It would not be by any means impossible to drop across a book such as BASS CLEF requires. Many poetic selections have been published (and at comparatively cheap prices) during the last fifty years. 1 have myself possessed, and parted with, more than one volume con- taining verses suitable either for "penny readings" or for "setting to music." But "collections " of this sort, being usually taken from the writings of well-known poets L. E. L, T. Hood, Eliza Cook, Mackay, Charles Swain, and others have been already utilized "up to the hilt" by composers. I myself, however, have at present a hundred or so of "non-copyright" verses (scattered here and there in commonplace books or in odd volumes of old magazines) written by

the minor poets of the very early Victorian era. Should BASS CLEF care to drop me a line I would be very pleased to let him (or her) glance through my old-world stores (gratuitously, of course) and see whether any of the " out-of-date " verses (of fifty odd years ago) would be of use by adaptation, condensation, and with (perhaps) some slight alteration. I must, however, mention that the poems now in my hands are, with a few exceptions, of the "woodland," "village," "yeoman," or "truly rural" character, suit- able rather for. basso or baritone singers. I have very few "love" or "pinafore" sub- jects, though even of such I might find one or two. I would like to add that a few volumes of the Family Herald would, .1 believe, provide BASS CLEF with what he requires ; but the poems in the earlier num- bers have (wherever worth setting to music) been used up long ago, while those still "in copyright" could only be set to music by the " kind permission " of the proprietors of the paper. I could notf promise to parfc with any of my volumes of old " mags." ; but should BASS CLEF "spot" a poem which he would esteem suitable I would have no objection to let him cut it out from the page either with pen and ink or with scissors.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

" THIRTY DAYS HATH SEPTEMBER " (9 th S. x. 206, 279, 331). Richard Graf ton was not an original poet so far as these lines are con- cerned, which are a translation of a Latin distich printed in Arthur Hopton's ' Con- cordancie of Yeares,' first published in 1615. From the edition of 1635, pp. 60-1, I quote as follows : '

" The which ordination of the moneths and position of daies, is used to this present time, according to these verses :

Sep. No. lun. Ap. datotriginta: reliquis magis uno : Ni sit bissextus, Februus minor esto duobus.

Which is,

Thirtie dayes hath September, April], lune, and Nouember, The rest haue thirtie and one, Saue February alone. Which moneth hath but eight and twenty meere, Saue when it is Bissextile, or Leap-yeare."

Hopton does not claim the authorship of the lines, neither, I take it, does Grafton, both of whom printed them ; but, as the former was the ' Whitaker ' of his age, he is entitled, one would think, to the credit of having made them so popular. Who was the composer of the distich I cannot say. It is terse and useful, though written in barbarous Latin, in which last quality it is well matched by the English version. The couplet