Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/283

 9* s. v. APRIL 7, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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fairies. Undoubtedly urchin means a fairy, but seemingly a fairy that inspires terror, like the barguest, or Robin Goodfellow, in the form of a bear. Caliban says, "Fright me with urchin shows." Milton speaks of "urchin blasts," showing that he refers to malignant fairies, who would be generally of formidable aspect. The word urchin may be derived from more words than one ; and perhaps the fairy urchin and the hedgehog urchin GO not come from the same root. E. YAKDLEY.

DR. ROBERT UVEDALE (9 th S. v. 188). See Thome's 'Environs of London,' part i. p. 175, and Britten's Journal of Botany, xxix. pp. 9-18.

G. F. R. B.

REFRAIN OF POEM (9 th S. v. 208). I see that MR. HENLEY has been asking for the origin of "Storm along, John." If you have not enlightened him through another correspond- ent, I may inform you and him that the words are found in a sailors' chanty ' Old Stormy.' In Miss L. A. Smith's ' Music of the Waters,' p. 16, these lines occur. " Old Stormy " is a mythical character often mentioned in sailors' songs. Who Stormy was and why he received that nickname, even the most profound and learned chanty-men always confessed them- selves unable to explain. The oldest of these songs is rather the nest of them. The second one contains a hint of decidedly negro origin in the word "Massa," and suggests that perhaps the legend of Stormy is an African rather than a nautical myth :

Old Stormy he is dead and gone,

To me, way, hay, storm along, John ;

Old Stormy he is dead and gone,

Ah, ha ! come along, get along, storm along, John.

Old Stormy he was a bully old man, To me, way, you storm along ; Old Stormy he was a bully old man, Fi i i, massa, storm along.

WM. HUME.

PICKWICKIAN PHRASE (9 th S. v. 229). "In hurry post haste for a licence " is the first line of a song (sung by Mr. Edwin) in 'Tom Thumb.' The title of the harpsichord arrange- ment is

" The Overture, Songs, Duetts, & Choruses, in Tom Thumb as Performed (with Universal Ap- plause) at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Composed & Compiled by J. Markordt, In which is Printed (by permission) the much-admired Song sung by Mrs. Kennedy ; Composed by Dr. Arne. Price 5s. London: Printed & sold by John Preston at his Music Warehouse, No. 97, near Beaufort Buildings, Strand."

Neither Grove's 'Dictionary' nor the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' mentions Markordt. Arne him- self composed a piece called ' The Opera of Operas; or, Tom Thumb the Great' (based

on Fielding's ' Tragedy of Tragedies '), which was produced at the Haymarket Theatre, 1733 (see Grove, 'Arne'). Perhaps some reader of ' N. & Q.' could inform me what is the connexion between Markprdt's piece and Arne's, besides the importation of the song sung by Mrs. Kennedy, which began "'Tis not in Sinew nor in Bone." G. E. P. A.

The lines occur in Kane O'Hara's metrical version of Fielding's ' Tom Thumb,' and form part of Lord Grizzle's song : In hurry post haste for a licence,

In hurry, ding dorig, I come back, For that you shan't need bid me twice hence, I '11 be there and here in a crack.

WM. DOUGLAS. 125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

" FIGS IN FRUIT " (9 th S. y. 209). These figs must be those that one still gets on the Ita- lian lakes in the month of May. Whether they are a distinct species or only a variety, I do not know. The unripe fruit, I believe, remains on the tree all the winter, and then ripens when the warm weather returns. They are rather dry things ; but any fresh fruit is acceptable in the month of May.

SHERBORNE.

INSCRIPTIONS IN BRIGHTWELL CHURCH (9 th S. v. 168). Both the inscriptions recorded at the above reference by 0. appear in Raven- shaw's ' Antiente Epitaphes ' (1878). That to John J>e Smyth, of which a facsimile rubbing is issued as a frontispiece to the book, is dated 1370 and described as " The Earliest Epitaph in English." The spelling does not in many cases tally with C.'s copy. In the Rumbold inscription the age is given as " an hundred and one" and the wager "an hundred to one." I shall be glad to learn which of the readings is correct. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

OLD WOODEN CHEST (9 th S. v. 88, 196). In Warrington Museum is a chest similar to that described by your correspondent MR. HEMS, hollowed out of a piece of solid oak, 5ft. 8 in. long; the cavity does not extend the whole length. It has a lid which is, or has been, fastened by the usual three locks. It is from the neighbouring church of Grappenhall.

R. B R.

CAPT. SAMUEL GOODERE (9 th S. v. _ In 'State Trials, Political and Social,' selected arid edited by H. L. Stephen report of the trial of Samuel Goodere, Matthew Mahony, and Charles White for the murder of Sir John Dineley Goodere,
 * 2 vols., London, Duckworth & Co., 1899),
 * n a foot-note at the commencement of his