Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/115

 o* s. VL An* 4.1900J NOTES AND QUERIES. 93 KATHERINE.LADY OGLE (9th S. vi. 48).— She died at BothaL, 18 April, 1629, and wa buried at Bolsover, Derbyshire, 20 April 1629. As I am making a study of the Ogl( family I should be glad to know with wha object MR. PERCY SIMPSON prefers his query HENRY A. OGLE, Bart. CUTTING BABIES' NAILS (9th S. v. 375, 500) —This belief, in common with many other prevalent in Europe, is found in Missouri among the mixed race of negro and Indian descent, whose superstitions are told by Miss M. A. Owen in 'Old Rabbit the Voodoo (1893). One of the "aunts" who are the interlocutors in these delightful tales had been in great sorrow because a son of hers had been locked up for hen-stealing. " Granny's " comment may be given in plain English, the dialect being difficult to begin- ners :— " ' I blames that up against Eni'ly. I does so. When that child was a baby, in spite of all I could say, Em'Iv used to cut that child's finger nails with the scissors, instead of biting them off. Of course, that was bound to make him a thief.' So said they all of them."—P. 79. C. DEEDES. Brighton. With reference to MR. RICHARD WELFORD'S communication, it may not be immaterial to state that in 'Nummits and Crummits' (lately published), a book written by Sarah Hewett concerning Devonshire folk-lore, stories, and superstitions, these lines—at least the longer variant of eight lines—are given by the author (at p. 22) as applied to the best day for a marriage, with some few differences not, perhaps, very material, except the important one that Sunday—for which she does not give any line or lines—is stated in the text which follows the lines to be an exceptionally fortunate day upon which to enter the holy state. The lines, as given to me from memory by a lady friend some few years ago, are for the most part very similar. They are as follows:— Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth, Wednesday is no day at all. Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses, Saturday best day of all. Better the child had ne'er been born That cuts its nails on a Sunday morn. EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN. SAMUEL JOHNSON'S FATHER AND ELIZABETH BLANEY (9th S. vi. 6).—It is greatly to be deplored that such interesting memorials as the one mentioned by MR. BOUCHIER are left to the mercy of irresponsible persons. A faculty is supposed to be the necessary precursor to their removal in any case, but I know from experience that they are con- tinually being desecrated with impunity at the sole sweet will of their temporary custo- dians. I would that some severe penalty might be enforced which would act as a deterrent. It is an interesting fact that when Dr. Johnson visited Lichneld for the last time in September, 1784, he ordered a large stone to be laid over the grave of his parents in St. Michael's Church, and composed an epi- taph for it. At the same time he had the stone in the floor of the cathedral com- memorating Elizabeth BJaney repaired and restored. The former was apparently lost when the floor was repaired in 1796, and quite recently some Staffordshire worthies " have placed a slab, with a copy of the old inscription, in the same church (Col. Grant's ' Life of Johnson,' p. 145). The same authority deplores the disappearance of the Blaney memorial, which tact is also noted in 'An Illustrated Guide to Lichneld Cathedral' (1897), p. 26. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. LARGEST FIRST ISSUE (9th S. vi. 49).—I am able to correct my own query so far as to say that of 'The Christian/ by Mr. Hall Caine, K),'000 were issued as a first edition, accord- ing to a note on the back of the title-page of a copy in my possession. HIPPOCLIDES. DOMINICAN ORDER (9th S. v. 230, 346).—In lis ' Ecclesiastical Heraldry,' Dr. Woodward iays of the Dominicans, Friar Preachers, or Slack Friars, that ' the well-known arms of the order are: Argent, chap£ sable (the colours of the habit). To this limple coat additions were afterwards made: In lase a houud couchant, holding in its mouth a orch blazing proper ; in chief a palm branch," &c. Ara. Jameson writes in her ' Legends of the Monastic Orders,' p. 376 :— " Before he [St. Dominic] was born, his mother ireamed that she had brought forth a black and white dog, carrying in its mouth a lighted torch. Vhen his godmother held him at the font, she Beheld a star of wonderful splendour descend from leaven and settle on his brow. The colours of the labit, black over white, which form the field of he arms, were said to have been determined by he Blessed Virgin herself, in a vision seen at Means by a monk of the order. Hence, when he Dominicans are figured as dogs (Domini canes),, common allegory, they are always white with latches of black." he convent of Dominicans at Monboson, in tranche Comte, registered their arms as :— " D'Argent, chap6 de sable, a deux etoiles d'or en hef, et un chien couch£ de sable en pointe, tenant