Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/449

 9 th S. V. JUNE 2, 1900.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

441

in Chamber s's Journal for 15 May, 1886, the garden fumitory is in Kent called "wax- dolls," "from the doll-like appearance of its little flowers." H. ANDKEWS.

Gainsborough.

The 'Diet, of Kentish Dialect' gives " Fumaria officinalis, so called from the doll- like appearance of its little flowers."

ARTHUR HUSSEY. [Other replies acknowledged.]

BOUNDARY STONES IN OPEN FIELDS (9 th S. iv. 476, 542; v. 297). In 1888 Mr. A. N. Palmer wrote in the Archaeological Review, vol. i. p. 17, thus :

"The fields that lie within the ancient arable areas of hundreds of townships in North Wales are still, in many cases, divided into what (in English) are called ' quillets,' that is to say, into open strips marked off from each other merely by boundary stones, and belonging to different owners."

At the first reference I showed how the strips in an open field at Eoyston were marked off from each other by boundary stones. But, at the second reference, C. C. B. expressed some doubt on the point, so that I decided to wait until further evidence turned up. When I examined the boundary stones at Royston I was accompanied by Mr. J. Carr Fletcher, son of a former vicar of Royston, who is himself a landowner in the parish. I have lately seen Mr. Fletcher, who says he is quite sure that the stones in question indicate the boundaries of the different owners of strips.

Some years ago I saw a plan in the Duke of Norfolk's Sheffield office, made early in the last century, on which a few of these boundary stones were drawn and described as "mear stones," i.e., boundary stones. Like the stones at Royston, they were not the boundary stones of a road or lane, but of strips belonging to different owners in an open field. S. O. ADDY.

We had in Sheffield some time ago a number of boundary stones, and there are still remaining a number of old police boundary posts in cast metal with the words " Police boundary " upon them. Are they to be found in any other town ? I have seen boundary stones both in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, but never in the form of a figure. I have met with grotesque finger-posts in various parts of England.

CHARLES GREEN.

u BERNARDUS NON VIDIT OMNIA " : " BLIND BAYARD " (9 th S. v. 356). I suppose the British public will one day discover how large a number of problems can be solved by simple reference to my indexes (1) to my notes on

Chaucer, and (2) to my notes on * Piers Plow- man.'

Trying the Chaucer first, I find in the index at the end of vol. v., " Bernard, St., iii. 89," and "Bayard, blind," v. 431.

In vol. iii. 89 (misprint for 289), there is a note to the ' Legend of Good Women,' 1. 16, and the line runs thus :

Bernard the monk ne saugh nat al, parde ! And the note is :

"In the margins of MSS. C. and F. is written the

Latin proverb 'Bernardus monachus non uidit

omnia.' The reference is to the great learning and experience of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, born A.D. 1091, died Aug. 20, 1153. This we know from an entry in J. J. Hof mann's ' Lexicon Universale ' (Basilese, 1677), s. v. ' Bernardus,' where we find : ' Nullos habuit prseceptores prseter quercus et fagos. Hinc proverb : Neque enim Bernardus vidit omnia.' See an account of St. Bernard in Alban Butler's ' Lives of the Saints,' or in Charabers's ' Book of Days,' under the date of Aug. 20."

Now let us try the other reference. At p. 431 of vol. v. there is a note to 'Cant. Tales,' group G, 1. 1413. The line is :

Ye been as bolde as is Bayard the blinde. The note is :

" Bayard was a colloquial term for a horse ; see 'P. Plowman,' B. iv. 53, 124, vi. 196; and 'As bold as blind Bayard' was a common proverb. See also 'Troil.,' i. 218; Gower, 'Conf. Amant.,' iii. 44; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 139, 186. * Al blustyrne forth unblest as Bayard the blynd ' ; Awdelay's 'Poems,' p. 48."

In my notes to 'Piers Plowman,' index, p. 466, I give the three references to blind Bayard, and a note on p. 82 ; also the two references to St. Bernard, but neither of them refers to his clearness of vision.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

Unless I am mistaken, this phrase is a reference to the story that St. Bernard of Clairvaux walked a whole day along the shores of the Lake of Geneva, so absorbed in meditation that at evening, when his com- panions were talking about the lake, they discovered to their surprise that he had never seen it. WILLIAM CANTON.

Consult the index of ' N. & Q.,' 9 th S. i. under ' Bayard,' and see especially p. 56 ; and the glossary in Hearne's * Langtof t.' For the 'Bernard' proverb, see 'N. & Q.,' 5 th S. x. 34.

W. C. B.

WHATELY AND J. B. PERES (9 th S. v. 337). This matter was discussed in ^1885, when two English translations of Peres's clever pamphlet appeared. It is an amusing "demonstration" that the history of Napoleon is merely a version of the sun-myth, and was directed against those unscientific students