Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/493

 XL JUNE 20, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

Matris mel & suavitas, Sororis & passerculus, Fraterculique basium, GVILLELMVLVS nuper fuit :

Sed heu ! fuit.

dolor ! dolor !

Hos psetulos ocellulos, Hsec colla mollicellula, Has lacteas papillulas, MATER, SOROR, FRATER, gemunt :

Frustra, sed heu !

dolor ! dolor !

The adjective " mollicellulus " appears to be a diminutive of " mollicellus," which is a diminutive of " molliculus," which is a dimi- nutive of " mollis."

The date of the boy's death is not given. The dates closely preceding this epitaph range from 1511 to 1605. It is given as one of the Brussels inscriptions, and is apparently under the heading 'Ad Augustinianos.' Apart from the subject of Latin diminutives, the epitaph appears to be pathetic enough to be worthy of exhumation from an old book. EGBERT PIERPOINT.

St. Austin's, Warrington.

SAVONAROLA'S INEDITED MSS. (See 3 rd S. i. 147.) The following passage a note on p. 89 of ' The Monastery of San Marco,' by G. S. Godkin, 1901 led me a wild-goose chase, a fact that prompts me to put it on record as a warning to others : " This work [Savona- rola's exposition of the psalm 'Miserere'] has been translated into German, but not into English, as far as we know." But, as a matter of fact, there have been no fewer than six English versions of this little work, and the last of them was published in 1900. For this information (which, however, came too late to hinder me from making a now useless translation on my own account), and for the dates of these various editions, I am indebted to the kindness of a friend. S. G. OULD.

' THE THREE HAVENS.' The following ver- sion of 'The Three Ravens' is worth pre- serving in 'N. &Q.' It and its sister 'The Twa Corbies ' have frequently been printed in various forms, but I do not remember ever meeting with a text identical with the one I now give. My father committed it to memory, early in the last century, from the recitation of Harry Richard, of Northorpe, an old farm labourer who was quite ignorant of reading. Harry said that when he was young it was commonly sung at sheep-clip- pings, harvest suppers, and other such-like merry-makings. He added that the tragedy alluded to occurred in a grass close adjoining the river Eau (pronounced Ea), very near a deep pool in the stream called the Sloughter

Hole. The statement is curious, but can hardly be accepted as historical. The ballad is so widely distributed that we may be almost sure that the identification of this Lincolnshire version with the Sloughter Hole at Northorpe is a case of transference, not a genuine tradition. Why this pool is called the Sloughter Hole is not known, but the name is assuredly very old. I have heard one person, and one only, call it Souter Hole, but this was, I have no doubt, a mere blunder, owing to defective hearing or memory. 1 have cross - questioned several natives of Northorpe on this point, and not one of them had ever heard of the latter form.

There were three ravens in a tree, As black as any jet could be.

A down a derry down.

Says the middlemost raven to his mate, Where shall we go to get ought to eat ? It's down in yonder grass green field, There lies a squire dead and kill'd,

His horse all standing by his side,

Thinking he '11 get up and ride;

His hounds all standing at his feet,

Licking his wounds that run so deep.

There comes a lady full of woe,

As big wi' bairn as she can go ;

She lifted up his bloody head

And kiss'd his lips that were so red.

She laid her down all by his side

And for the love of him she died. Written down from my father's recitation on 19 January, 1859. EDWARD PEACOCK. Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

THE LAST OF DON PACIFICO. The subjoined advertisement, which appeared in the Times of 30 May, specially deserves embalming in 'N. &Q.':-

" Whereas by an Order of the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) dated the 13th May 1902 made in an action Pacifico v Hassan 18bl r And in the Matter of the Estates settled by an Indenture dated 19th September 1851 and made between the Chevalier David Pacihco of the hrst part and Moses Hassan and Abraham Hassan of the other part consisting of messuages and land Number 8 King Street Tower Hill in the Parish of St Botolph Without Aldgate in the County of Middlesex and Number 4 Little Somerset Street Aldgate in the City of London And in the Matter of the Settled Estates Act 1877 the following enquiry was (inter alia) directed namely an enquiry who was the heir at law of the Intestate David Pacifico the Settlor of the said Settlement at the time of his death (the 12th April 1854) and whether such heir is living or dead and if dead who by devise descent or otherwise is entitled to the hereditaments com- prised in the said Settlement or the proceeds th of which descended to such heir at law And where- as Dona Pacifico the Wife of Jacob Pacifico who died at Smyrna on the 23rd day of April 18o2 was a daughter of the said Settlor David Pacifico and the