Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/205

 9 th S. II. SEPT. 3, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

197

Salby are given in the ' Bibliotheca Topo- graphica Britannica,' vol. vii. p. 530 1

F. ADAMS.

In the second edition of Spelrnan's ' Villare Anglicum,' published in 1678, a place cata- logued as Solesby, in the Calceworth Hundred of Lincolnshire, may be that intended.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

CHILD'S HYMN (9 th S. ii. 67). The version with which I have been familiar all my life differs slightly from all that have appeared in these columns. It runs thus :

1 lay my body down to sleep ;

I pray the Lord my soul to Keep ;

Irl should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I have also heard another version, evidently very corrupt :

I lay me down to rest me,

I pray the Lord to bless me ;

It I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

C. C. B.

This hymn reminds one of Dr. Watts's well- known ' Evening Song,' in which he says :

I lay my body down to sleep ;

Let angels guard my head, And, through the hours of darkness, keep

Their watch around my bed.

Possibly the doctor was acquainted with the child's hymn before he composed his song.

G. J. DEW. Lower Heyford, Oxon.

HAIR-POWDER (9 th S. ii. 147). The cause of the general disuse of hair-powder at the date mentioned was the high price of flour. It was thought little less than criminal that flour, which was almost beyond the reach of some of the very poor, should be used by the rich as a mere fashionable luxury of dress. Voluntary associations were formed the members whereof bound themselves not to use hair-powder. In a similar way the abolitionists bound themselves not to use any sugar whose production involved the employment of negro slaves. W. C. B.

CURIOUS CHRISTIAN NAME (9 th S. i. 446 : ii. 57, 152). MR. WILSON'S remark at the last reference that the Christian name Erica "may somewhere have been given in ignor- ance" of its connexion with Eric seems to me beside the question. It would be in place only if the name were common among us, Christian names being seldom bestowed with a thought of their etymology ; but it would not be curious were it common. MR. PICK- FORD, however, submitted but one example of Erica, where, as I said in reply, the sur-

name is unquestionably Scandinavian (Ice- landic stdrr, great). The inference that in this case the Christian name is Scandinavian is equally unquestionable. For aught that appears to the contrary, Miss Erica V. Storr may be a North-Briton ; and MR. FLEMING'S dim recollection of having " met with Erica as a girl's name in Scotland" passes into strong probability when we remember that some families of Norse origin still remain in the Orkney and Shetland islands, and that others similarly descended may have migrated from these ancient Norse possessions to the mainland. I do not think it needful to com- ment on Crabbe's fiction. F. ADAMS. 106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

'COMIN' THRO' THE EYE' (9 th S. ii. 66). Admirers of Scottish song readily admit that there is a vagueness about the topography of this lyric, but they recognize at the same time the hopelessness of attempting to render it more definite. Had Burns written the song, the Eye an undoubted Ayrshire stream might have been added to his Afton and Lugar and bonnie Doon as destined to flow in glory for ever ; but Burns is merely an editor in this case one who gave his pre- ference for a certain form of a lyric already old in his day. He chose a particular version of the song for Johnson's ' Musical Museum,' vol. v. According to his wont he dressed the piece in some measure, modifying it, and embellishing it here and there with fresh touches ; but, after all, the song is not his, and may have no Ayrshire reference what- ever. But need " the rye " be an offence to the students of Scottish song ? It is of spring- time that the love minstrel chants the spring of the year and the spring of' life's onward and chequered movement and there is nothing wonderful in a country girl's passage across a field of rye with the crop but lately brairded and fresh. The fact that Jenny simply "draiglet a' her petticoatie" is of itself sufficient to show that she had traversed a young crop : she would have been drenched had she attempted a passage through a dewy rye-field, even in June. It is a spring song, then, with conception and imagery appro- priate to the season, and stimulated by the feelings that are dominant In life's morning march when the bosom is young.

THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B.

Seeing that Burns did not write this song, but only added a verse to aij anonymous lyric current before he was born, I do not see how it can be decided whether he meant a stream or a field of rye grain. Burns