Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/31

. Xii. JULY ii, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

him superseded by Sir Nicholas Parker as Captain of Plymouth Fort in the month of July; but it was not for long, as in the follow- ing September he was restored to his former post " with a pay of 56s. per diem." This year also his elder brother, Edward Gorges, was knighted at Bedington by King James I. Sir Ferdinando retained the governorship of Plymouth until 30 June, 1629, and remained there guarding one of the most important defences of the country at this period, and the scene of the departure of many interesting naval expeditions and voyages of discovery. It was during these years that he matured his great plans for the colonization of certain parts of America, and sank large sums of money in sending many shiploads of emigrants and merchandise to the New World. He received a concession and charter of the Province of Maine, and also spent large sums in planting the colony, and later on he was constituted Governor - General over New England ; but the Civil War occurring pre- vented his going over to America to take up his post, as he was serving the king in his wars in England. He was also President of the Council of Plymouth, and, as such, the chief proprietor of Massachusetts. The charter he received from the king and Council was opposed by the Virginian Com- pany, which had been started by Sir Walter Ealeigh ; but after considerable controversy Sir Ferdinando's claim was upheld. His sons, and especially his grandsons, had also a great deal to do with these vast properties, and were in their turn Governors of Maine, and their names continually appear in the State Papers with reference to this province, which seems ultimately to have been lost to them. Sir Ferdinando's name and memory are apparently much honoured even at this period of time in the United States, many places being named after him in that portion called New England.

It was in the year 1639 that he was created Lord Palatine of Maine, though he had never been able to make the voyage across the Atlantic, for the reason already given. THOKNE DRURY. (To be concluded.)

THE BORROWING DAYS. THE Northern jingle concerning the in- clemency of the closing days of March, or, as I should have guessed, of the opening days of April, is perhaps familiar to most of us : March said to Averil : " I see three hoggs on yonder hill ; And if you '11 lend me dayis three, I '11 find a way to gar them dee."

The first o' them was wind and weet; The second o' them was snaw and sleet ; The third o' them was sic a freeze, It froze the birds' feet to the trees. When the three days were past and gane, The silly poor hoggs came hirpling hame.

Less known in our land is the version of the story told in Provence, though I should pro- bably be wrong if I said it had never found its way into the pages of ' N. & Q.' It begins with February. I quote from the notes to Mistral's l Mireille,' pp. 263, 264, 309 :

" Les pay sans du Midi ont remarque que les trois derniers jours de fevrier et les trois premiers de mars amenent presque toujours une recrudescence de froid, et voici comme leur imagination poetique exphque cela: Unevieille gardaitune fois ses brebis. C etait h la fin du mois de fevrier, qui cette annee- la n'avait pas 4te" rigoureux. La Vieille, se croyant echappee a 1'hiver, se permit de narguer FeVrier de la maniere suivante :

Adieu, Febrie ! 'Me" ta febrerado

M'as fa ni peu ni pelado !

Adieu, Fevrier ! Avec ta gelee

Tu ne m'as fait ni peau ni pelee ! La raillerie de la Vieille courrouce Fevrier, qui va trouver Mars : ' Mars ! rends - moi un service ! ' Deux, s'il le faut ! ' repond 1'obligeant voisin. ' Prete-moi trois jours, et trois que j'en ai, je lui ferai peaux et pelees ! '

Presto-me leu tres jour, et tres que n'ai,

Peu e pelado i farai !

Aussitot se leva un temps affreux, le verglas tua 1 herbe des champs, toutes les brebis de la Vieille moururent, et la Vieille, disent les pay sans, regim- bait, reguignavo. Depuis lors cette periode tem- petueuse porte le nom de Reguignado de la Vieio,

ruade de la Vieille Quand la Vieille eut perdu

son troupeau de brebis, elle acheta des vaches et arrivee sans encombre a la fin du mois de mars, elle dit imprudemment :

En escapant de Mars e de Marseu Ai escapa mi vaco e mi vedeu.

Mars, blesse du propos, va sur-le-champ trouver Avril :

Abrieu,n'ai plus que tres jour: presto-me-n'en quatre. Li vaco de la Vieio faren batre !

Avril consentit au pret ; une tardive et terrible

gelee brouit toute vegetation, et la pauvre Vieille perdit encore son troupeau."

This ill - conditioned old person reminds me of the blackbird referred to by Dante, which cried to God, " Omai piu non ti temo," when a little sunshine made it think that the winter had passed away, leaving it unscathed (' Purgatorio,' xiii. 122). A note to Longfellow's translation of the passage says :

"The warm days near the end of January are still called in Lombardy ' I giorni della merla,' the days of the blackbird ; from an old legend that once in the sunny weather a blackbird sang, ' I fear thee no more, Lord, for the winter is over.' "

ST. SWITHIN.