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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xi. MARCH w, 1903.

illustrated, and contained, as its name im- plies, a great deal of " chaff." Some of the fines in it have remained in my memory. They ran somewhat as follows :

Little boy just going to school,

Don't you make yourself a fool ;

Don't begin to grieve and fret,

Time enough for that as yet.

EDWARD LATHAM. 61, Friends' Road, East Croydon.

IRISH HISTORICAL GENEALOGY. Ishould like to know whom the contributors to * N. & Q.' consider the best contemporary writer on Irish historical genealogy. TYRONE.

THOMAS HELM was admitted to Westmin- ster School in 1786, and to Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn in 1788. I should be glad to learn particulars of his career and the date of his death. G. F. R B.

MODERN WITCHCRAFT. When a boy on Deeside, forty years ago, I knew an old woman who was reputed to be "uncanny," and come of " uncanny " folk. She was a poor, feeble, fragile old body, yet every one was frightened at her. A farmer's wife asserted that she had met her coming out of a cow-byre at midnight. What was she doing there ? She did not seem capable of milking a cow. I was told, when I met her, always to speak to her before she could speak to me, as that would counteract her "ill ee." I acted on the advice, but it did not work. I met her one day when I was carrying some eggs, and forthwith fell off the top of a dry-stone dyke and smashed them, so incurring a thrashing for carelessness, the plea that I was bewitched being ignored. Is the belief in uncanny people peculiar to Aberdeenshire 1

A. E. Y.

[See many references under ' Folk-lore : Evil Eye,' in General Indexes. ]

JEWISH CHARM. During the renovation of an old public-house in the south-eastern district of London there was found nailed to the framework above one of the doors a small piece of tin, about three inches long, folded up to the width of a quarter of an inch. When it was unfolded, a small piece of paper or silk, two inches square, was found rolled up inside the tin, having stamped upon it a number of Hebrew characters. There were twenty-one lines in all. Can any one tell me whether this is a Jewish charm, and what object it was supposed to serve by being placed above the door ? G. H. W.

HOCK- : OCKER-. There are several places m the Midlands named Ocker Hill, Hockerill, Hockley, Ookeridge, all hills or hillsides.

Domesday Book records about thirty manors commencing Hoc- or Hock (Hoch, in the sense of hill, was an old Teutonic word), so that it must have been in Anglo-Saxon use, though unrecorded in dictionaries. In Welsh ockr means a hillside, but that can hardly be the root, from the repeated use of Hoch- in Domesday. Is it represented by A.-S. hoh, which is translated as " a heel ! ridge or pro- montory " (of land), but in practice appears to mean "hill," without regard to shape? Can any one assist me ? W. H. DUIGNAN. Walsall.

VERSES ASCRIBED TO LONGFELLOW AND OTHERS. If you could favour me with the authorship of the following I should feel greatly obliged. The first is, I think, Long- fellow's, but I cannot find it in any of the late editions. When I first saw it I am almost sure it was with Longfellow's name ; it was in some current publication, and called 'The Cabin Lamp.' It begins thus :

The night was made for cooling shade,

For silence and for sleep, And when I was a child I laid My hand upon my breast and smil'd, And sank to slumbers deep.

Another verse begins :

land of God ! Lamb of Peace !

promise of my soul !

I would also ask if you could name the author of the following, and say where it is to be found. I have looked through three books of extracts or quotations, and do not see it included. A lady friend is anxious to have it :

1 've often wished to have a friend With whom my choicest hours to spend ; To whoni I safely might impart

Each wish and weakness of my heart.

JOHN McKiBBiN.

"CELIA is SICK." British Museum Har- leian 6931 contains a poem commencing " Celia is sick," the author of which is stated to have been a certain Humphrey Lloid. Can any one give me information respecting author and poem? EDWARD OWEN.

27, Cautley Avenue, S.W.

SHAKESPEARE'S GEOGRAPHY. In the article by Mr. Michael Drummond, K.C., on ' Shake- speare's Contemporaries' in the National Re- view for February the writer quotes from Ben Jonson's 'Conversations' with Drummond of Hawthornden a sneer at Shakespeare's well- known mistake as to the sea-coast of Bohemia. This may perhaps serve as a text for asking whether the equally well-known scene in ' The Two Gentlemen of Verona' in which cha- racters are supposed to go from Verona to