Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/91

 9thS.ni. FEB. 4, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

85

to the fair maiden who looked down from her window on the passing poet, as if she would ask who he might be :

Ich bin ein deutscher Dichter Bekannt im deutschen Land, Nennt man die besten Namen So wird auch der meine genannt.

' Die Heimkehre,' 15.

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

t Putney. GUILLOTINE DITTY. Having had occasion N". & Q.,' 9 th S. ii. 510) to quote the conclud- g lines of what is apparently the earliest ditty on the guillotine, composed at the beginning of 1790 by a member of the Academie Frangaise, it occurs to me that many of your readers would like to have the piece in its entirety. It must, however, be borne in mind that it appeared while the guillotine was "in the air," and that Dr. Guil- lotin merely proposed the use, but had no part in the invention or fabrication, of the deadly instrument, as I have explained at the above reference.

Guillotin, Me"decin, Politique,

Imagine un beau matin Que pendre est inhumain Et peu patriotique. Aussitot II lui faut Un supplice

Qui, sans corde ni poteau, Supprime de bourreau L'office.

C'est en vain que 1'on public Que c'est pure jalousie

D un suppot

Du tripot

D'Hippocrate, Qui d'occire impun&nent Meme exclusivement

Se flatte.

Le Remain Guillotin Qui s'apprete Consulte gens du metier, Barnave et Chapelier, M6me le coupe-tete, Et sa main Fait soudain La machine

Qui simplement nous tuera, Et que 1'on npmmera Guillotine.

F. ADAMS.

106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

THE FATE OF SACRILEGE. In 1793 or 1794 Garnier de Saintes brought about the de- struction of much of the ornamentation of the cathedral of Sees, regarding it as the out- come of vain superstition :

"Alors les figurines des voussures du portail, la statue de la Sainte Vierge, et celles des autres saints, qui en decoraient les trumeaux, les par vis laterales et la galerie, les bas-reliefs de 1'Assomption et des saints Gervais et Protais ; toutes ces richesses d'un autre age furent condaimi^es a disparaitre sous le marteau des demolisseurs. Les debris en furent jete's pele-mele dans la rue Argentan et sur la place du Parquet ; puis comme ils encombraient, la vente en eut lieu par adjudication. Plusieurs tombereaux emporterent ces debris a la campagne, ou 1'on tenta vainement de s'en servir pour batir une maison, dont les murs ne voulurent jamais tenir : la ma!6- diction planait sur ces pierres ainsi profan^es." Dumaine's ' La Cath^drale de Sdes, 3 p. 45.

ST. SWITHIN.

PACK KAG FEAST. The cutting from a weekly called Scraps (ut infra) relating to an old agricultural custom is worth preserving. I gather the feast referred to therein was held in 1898 :

" The agricultural labourers in some of the North Derbyshire villages, among other old customs, retain that of having a social gathering on Old Martinmas Day (23 November), which is, not over politely, designated the Pack Rag Dinner. The name refers to the fact that the indoor menservants about the farms, who are changing masters at Martinmas, gather together their belongings for removal from one house to another. The fanciful title of the feast goes to show that the wardrobes of hinds have not been over-well cared for in the past. Now, when the complaint of the neighbourhood is that it is not easy to obtain skilled labour on the land, the name Rag Pack may be a misnomer. The gathering is held in one of the public-houses in the parish, where the men and lads pay for tea with substantial viands, and afterwards spend the evening in such amusements as present themselves, gossip and drinking probably forming the principal interests of the hour. Bad weather does not often deter the men from coming. In spite of an unexpected deep fall of snow, the last Pack Rag dinner was well attended in the North Derbyshire village of Holmesfield, where many old customs survive. On 1 November, for instance, the children there go singing from house to house for what are called ' caking gifts.' This is a legacy from the old feast of ingathering, when, in a neighbourhood where the fields are somewhat bleak and unproductive in proportion to the amount of labour they de- mand, it was once the custom for the labourers to go from farm to farm on 1 November, receiving at each house a small gift of money and a bread cake baked of the new flour of the harvest."

K. HEDGER WALLACE.

" ACREWARE ": "MOLLOND." These two land terms appear in a court roll (1291) of Green- bury Manor in Barley, Herts, then belonging to Anglesey Priory, with a description of the tenancies in villenage. A tenant will hold a messuage and ten or five " acreware of land," sometimes with, sometimes without, the same quantities of " mollond " the latter by a money rent and services. The term "acre- ware" occurs again, among other places, in