Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/55

 9* s. V.JAN. 20, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

A short memoir of her previous career is given and its successes,

Yet even 'Norma' did not escape being travestied, for I can remember huge posters on the hoarding of the new Royal Exchange, then in building, which represented Paul Bedford in the character of Norma, dressed in female clothes and enacting the part.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

[Oxberry's burlesque of ' Norma,' with Bedford as the heroine, Wright as Adelgisa, and Mrs. Grattan as Pollio, was given at the Adelphi, November, 1841.]

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"HiPPiN." In the 'Nidderdale Almanac' for 1874 this word occurs for some kind of cake. I should be glad to hear from some person who has made it or eaten it what a " hippin " precisely is. In the Bavarian dia- lect hippen is used for a wafer-shaped cake (see Schmeller; cp. also Lexer's Middle High German and Schiller-Liibben's Middle Low German dictionaries). In 'E.D.D.' material the above is the only evidence for the word in an English dialect. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

FRANCIS MERCER was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, from Westminster School in 1618. I should be glad to have further information about him. G. F. 11. B.

NICHOLAS HEMINGTON is said to have been elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, from Westminster School in 1619. I should be glad to receive any information about him.

G. F. R. B.

SIDBURY, DEVON. The Earl of Clare was created in September, 1799, Baron Fitzgibbon, of the above place, in the peerage of Great Britain. Can any correspondent inform me why the parish of Sid bury was selected for this honour ? A. R. BAYLEY.

St. Margaret's, Malvern.

ARMY RANK. In what record and on what date is mention made of the ranks of colonel and of lieutenant - colonel in the English army ? SENEX.

EDWARD CAREY, M.P. FOR WESTMINSTER IN 1656-58. He is not mentioned in the Blue-book list of members of Parliament, but clear evidence exists of his return. He

served on most of the principal committees of Cromwell's third Parliament and was a very active member. There can be no doubt that he was the Edward Carey, "Counsellor for the State," who was appointed Examiner and Treasurer to the Committee for Advance of Money, and who is repeatedly named in the calendar of the proceedings of that committee. In one place allusion is made to a John Carey as his deputy, who possibly was his brother. I have failed so far to find him a place in any of the well- known Carey pedigrees, and should be obliged to any correspondent for aid in discovering his parentage. His position as Counsellor to the State would seem to denote that he was a member of one of the Inns of Court.

W. D. PINK. Leigh, Lancashire.

GREEN FAIRIES : WOOLPIT GREEN CHILDREN. Woolpit (fossa luporum), in Suffolk, about eight miles from Bury St. Edmunds, is a con- siderable village, possessing a Lady's Well, near the site of an old chapel, but deservedly celebrated in the annals of fairy mythology. The story " De quodam puero et puella de terra emergentibus," told by William of New- bury and by Ralph of Coggeshall, is exceed- ingly curious. It describes two children, a boy and a girl, coming out of the trenches (or Wolf pits) one harvest time, both having green bodies and dresses of an unknown stuff. When they were caught they would eat nothing but beans, and soon lost their green colour ; when they had learnt English they said that they came from the land of St. Martin, and as they were watching their father's sheep they heard a sound as of bells, and then suddenly found themselves among the reapers at Woolpit. The boy lived but a short time ; the girl survived and married a man of Lynn. Keightley relates this quaint tale in his * Fairy Mythology ' (p. 281), while Burton refers to " those two greene children, which Nubirgensis speakes of in his time, that fell from heaven," and suggests that they may have dropped from the sun. Is there any parallel to this strange history in the folk-tales of any other country 1 There is an odd touch of reality in the statement that the green girl married a man of Lynn. Can any significance be attached to the children's statement that they came from the " land of St. Martin " 1 Martinmas was the slaying time, the time of death. JAMES HOOPER. Norwich.

" VINE " = A FLEXIBLE SHOOT. When did vine first acquire this meaning 1 The word is used both in Great Britain and in North