Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/351

 9* s. iv. Nov. ii, w.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 405 nexion therewith. The ' Lough Derg Pilgrim ' is one of the stories in W. Carleton's ' Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry,' and in it the writer gives his own experience as a pilgrim, when a young man, to the island in Lough Derg, co. Donegal, called St. Patrick's Purgatory. The pilgrimage described took place in the early part of this century. I wonder whether any such pilgrimages to this spot with the accompaniment of horrors take place to-day. On his journey, lasting several day8, on bare feet, to the Lough, the writer describes a road he passes over thus :— " After getting five or six miles across the country, I came out on one of those by-roads which run, in- dependently of all advantages of locality, ' up hill and down dale,' from one little obscure village to another. These roads are generally paved with round broad stones, laid curiously together in longitudinal rows like the buttons on a schoolboy's jacket. Owing to the infrequency of travellers on them, they are quite overgrown with grass, except in one strip along the middle, which is kept naked by the hoofs of horses and the tread of foot- passengers. There is some tradition connected with these roads, or the manner of their formation, which 1 do not remember." This seemed to me not unlike the descrip- tion of the roads given in the article above mentioned on 'Sunken Lanes.' The passage quoted may be found in the edition of the 'Traits and Stories' published in 1875 by William Tegg, p. 211. E. A. (J. Is not this term similar to the well-known " Fosse Road," described in part of its course as a "deep ditch"? It has been traced chiefly through Leicestershire; but we haveFosbury, Wilts; Fosdyke, Lines; FossFarm, Warwick- shire, and many other sites. It is found also in Scotland. A. H. Highbury. Booksellers' Blunders (9th S. iv. 324).— 'N. & Q.' need not ask for more about the two George Olivers. See 6th S. v. 396: 7th S. i. 514. W. (J. B. "Briveting" (9th S. iv. 329).—The word " brevit" appears in both Baker's and Stern- berg's Northamptonshire glossaries. It is very rarely heard in use here now. I remem- ber that it was a favourite word of my grand- mother's {ob. 1863, est. seventy-six) and that one of her cats bore the name " Breviter." John T. Page. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. "Haives" (9th S. iv. 328).-The Scottish peasant any where would recognize "haives" as intended for hoofs, especially with the help of the context. The vowel sound in the word, however, is usually that given to the u in French par, or the ui in Scottish " puir," as in Burns's expression "for puirauld Scotland's sake." "Hovis" was the equivalent of modern hoofs in Gavin Douglas's day (1513), the sub- sequent intercourse between Scotland and France no doubt modifying the pronuncia- tion. In Douglas's translation of '.Eneid ' xii. ('Works,' iv. 119, ed. Small) the vehemence of the charge made by Turnus was such That his swyft stedis hovis, quhair thai went, Spangit vp the bludy sparkis our the bent. Thomas Bayne. "Han" (9th S. iv. 327). — Han is one of the sounds which some men make while at work on the delivery of each stroke. I have heard it, as well as Heh, Hos, Wos. But the sound made seems to me to depend entirely upon the nature of the man who makes it, and most men work without any sound ex- cept that of the tool used. One man told me that it was silly of any one to do it, as it was a waste of breath and made the work more exhaustive. Some emit a "grunt," and others noisily expel breath at each blow. Many hostlers emit a "sissing" sound while "doing down " their horses, and say that the animal likes it. Thos. Ratcliffe. Worksop. It is only one of the numerous relics which were locally kept in honour by popular credulity during the Middle Ages, but which disappeared, being scoffed at by critical writers of the Reformation. In most cases they are known only by these criticisms. Mr. Mayhew's explanation of the relic (after Cotgrave) is quite correct, and I only add that the name of the place is now officially written Cour-Cheverny, in the Department of Loir-et-Cher. H. Gaidoz. 22, Rue Servandoni, Paris. "Vulgar" (9th S. iv. 288, 336).—In the oldest dictionary which I possess, dated 1670, this word is described to mean " the fashion of vulgar people," but it must originally have meant ordinary or general. For instance, we often hear of the vulgar tongue," which simply means the language generally or commonly spoken. Everard Home Coleman. 71, Brecknock Road. Gates on Commons (9th S. iv. 107, 155, 251). — An obstreperous Quaker, who, in a spirit of opposition, would attend a religious meeting of another denomination, was "led out" (as he euphoniously has it at p. 34 of his 'Account,' &c.)"of the house through thefold and through a gate that opened to the common, and shut the gate after me." This was in 1658, and