Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/441

 9* s. xii. NOV. 28, Ira] NOTES AND QUERIES.

433

out that in a book called ' Spendthrifts and other Social Photographs ' (Vizetelly & Co., 1887), by the late Mr. E. C. Grenville Murray, particulars will be found of a case, stated at p. 47 in an emphatic and very unhesitating manner, in which a couple of obliging medical men certified that a young and foolish member of a great family had died after a brief illness ; but in lieu of his noble remains a coffin full of bricks was duly buried with the accustomed religious service. Mr. Grenville Murray supplied the additional information that the youthful lord who was said to have departed from this for a better world in 1870 went to America instead, and resided there under the un- romantic name of Simpson. In connexion with the career of this unfortunate nobleman, I take permission to mention that at one time of his life he took to the stage as a pro- fession, and that on the occasion on which I saw him perform in a farce in a London theatre his acting was simply execrable.

HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

THE OAK, THE ASH, AND THE IVY (9 th S. xii. 328). I find, on .referring to 'Popular Rhymes of Scotland,' published by William & Robert Chambers, 1842, the following :

"Reference is supposed to be made to some old law in the following :

The aik, the ash, the elm tree, They are hanging a' three. That is, it is capital to mutilate these trees." I hope that this may help W. B. H. It would be interesting to know if there is any trace of a law of this kind ever being in force on the Borders. As Jedburgh was noted for pike- staves, there might have been some regulation as to the cutting of timber.

H. J. GIFFORD.

. I recollect many years ago seeing the fol- lowing words carved on an old mantel-piece frieze in a house in Rotherham :

The ivy, and the ash, and the bonny oak tree Flourish the best in the North Countree. The correct quotation seems to be the one above, as the ivy, being a creeping plant, scarcely suggests the term "tree." I never heard the quotation without the word " ash ' being included. CHARLES GREEN.

18, Shrewsbury Road, Sheffield.

In my undergraduate days at Oxford, some forty years ago, I remember that one of our number a scion of an ancient North-Country family used to sing a song called 'Home, Boys, Home ! ' which dealt, in merry but inoffensive vein, with the amours of J salacious mariner and of an ingenuous cham

Dermaid who loved not wisely, but too well.

The only verse that I remember in toto is the

"olio wing :

0, if it is a girl she shall wear a golden ring,

And if it is a boy he shall fight for his king ;

With his breeches all so white, and his jacket all

so blue, He shall toddle up the rigging as his daddy used

to do.

This verse, as well as each of the others, was
 * ollowed with the rousing chorus :

Some, boys, home, and it 's home I 'd like to be, EEome, boys, home, in the old countree, Where the ash, and the oak, and the bonny

ivy tree Are all growing green in the North Countree.

The above was the order in which the three trees were named. TRACY TIPTOFF.

This is a North - Country song, and the correct form of the line is :

The oak, and the ash, and the bonny rowan tree. The "rowan tree" is, of course, the pretty mountain ash. " Bonny ivy tree " is mean- ingless. R. B R.

Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Robert Surtees, written from Edinburgh 21 Feb- ruary, 1807, said that

"Ritson had a ballad with a simple Northern burden :

The oak, the ash, and the ivy tree, 0,they nourish best at hame, in the North Country." George Taylor's ' Memoir of Robert Surtees' (Surtees Society, 1852), p. 42.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

On so many occasions has this subject been discussed in the columns of 'K & 0.' that I believe nothing new can be added. See 1 st S. v., vi.; 2 nd S. x., xi.; 4 th S. iv., xi., xii.; 5 th S. i., ix.; 6 th S. i., ii.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

MANNINGS AND TAWELL (9 th S. xii. 148, 194, 229, 277, 310). Whilst reading an account of Padding ton, under date 1868, I came across the following, which no doubt refers to the above, and may be of inte- rest :

" The electric telegraph is at work by the side of this iron road [the railway] ; and it is now three- and- twenty years since a murderer was first taken by means of the electric wire: it was then laid from the Slough Station to Paddington ; the man left in a first-class carriage, and at the same instant was sent off, by the telegraph, a full description of his person, with instructions to cause him to be watched by the police upon his arrival at Padding- ton, where he was pointed out to a police-sergeant, who got into the same omnibus with the suspected man, and he was captured in the City. Thus, while he was on his way at a fast rate, the telegraph, with still greater rapidity, sent along the wire,