Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/307

. vi. SEPT. 29, i90o.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 253 persecution of Valerian, he was tortured to death for his unswerving adherence to the new religion by being broiled alive on an enormous gridiron, he mocked his tormentors by saying, " It is now roasted ; turn me and eat" (S. Ambros., 'De Officiis,' i. 41, ii. 28; S. Aug., Serm. 103, cited in Robert Owen's 'Sanctorale Catholicum,' 1880, p. 238- see also Butler's ' Lives of the Saints'). Hence his attributed unwillingness to exert himself in this respect procured for him this patronal status over the lazy. Similar proverbial sayings tend to show further that it was not, as supposed, mere alliterativeness that suggested the phrase: "As lazy as Joe the marine, who laid down his musket to sneeze": "As lazy as a Mahon soldier," i.e., an Indian Mohammedan soldier, whose physical energy was not so great as that of a British soldier; "As proud as Cole's dog that took the wall of a dung cart, and got crushed in the wheel" ; and the uttermost depths of laziness were reached by "David Lawrence's dog that leaned his head against the wall to bark," a piece of facetiousness only suggesting that the real origin of "Lazy Lawrence" had already been forgotten. "Lawrence bids wages" was an excuse for laziness, and "St. Lawrence has got hold of you was, and perhaps is still, a common provincial saying of any one neglecting work, while St. Lawrence's Day, 10 August, generally a hot day, was one on which persons were exceptionally supposed to shirk their usual avocations. This saint, whose martyrdom shook the foundations of pagan unbelief, is still further commemorated in "St. Lawrence's tears," as the meteoric or shooting stars were called, which are said generally to make a great display on his anniversary. As regards " St. Loza," Bailey's ' Dictionary,' 1740. gives " Lozel=a lazy luober." J. HOLDEN AtACMlCHAEL. Wimbledon Park Road. " CHORI-EPISCOPUS " (9th S. vi. 190).—Dods- worth's 'Salisbury' (1814), p. 138, has the following:— ^"On the day sacred to this patron of childhood [St. Nicholas], the choristers annually chose one of their number, who was called the Bishop of the Boys, or Choristers. From his election, till the night of Innocents' Day, he bore the name and state of a bishop, was pontitically habited, carried a pastoral staff, and wore a mitre, frequently surpassing in richness those of real prelates. His fellow-choristers likewise assumed the style of canons, or preben- daries. On the evo of Innocents' Day they per- formed the same service, except the mass, as was performed by the bishop himself, with the other members of the church. They went in procession through the west door, to the Altar of the Holy Trinity, habited in copes, with lighted tapers, and took precedence of the dean and canons residentiary. Afterwards the Chorister Bishop appeared in the first chapter, and was allowed to receive all the offerings made at the altar the day of the procession. So much importance was attached to this frivolous ceremony, that Bishop Mortival (1315-'29) deemed it worthy of a particular regulation in his Statutes.'' Dodsworth mentions "Gregory in his account of the Boy Bishop," and on p. 191 says:— " Under the arch opposite to Bishop Roger is the monument of a Chorister Bishop, who probably died in the short period of his episcopal honours." R. M. " QUARTER "OF CORN (9th S. v. 456 ; vi. 32).— It is inquired of what measure a quarter of eight bushels was one fourth. The answer would seem to be a ton. A bushel of wheat weighs on an average sixty pounds, and in many countries that weight is a bushel according to law. But if one bushel weighs sixty pounds, a quarter weighs 480 pounds, and four quarters weigh 1,920, which is not far short or a ton of 2,000 pounds. Including bags the four quarters must amount to a full ton. JAMES D. BUTLEK. Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. MOATED MOUNDS (9th S. v. 309, 399, 454; vi. 11, 76, 134, 170).—MR. HAYLLAR'S note on the mound at Owston contains several state- ments for which I can find no justification in Stonehouse, to whom in a general way he refers as his authority. He says, for instance, that when the castle at Owston was built the course of the Trent would be within three or four hundred yards of the spot where the mound stands. Where, then, was the village 1 Certainly not where it is now, unless it were under svater. Stonehouse supposes the Trent to have run through the parish of Laughton—more than two miles eastward of its present channel—to the vil- lage of West Ferry, and then to have pursued " a devious course in several streams " ; but he expressly says that there would be an ex- tensive tract of low marshy ground eastward of the castle—that is, between the castle and the river. MR. HAYLLAR says also that the castle was "probably on the Roman road between Lincoln and Doncaster." I should have thought that nothing could well be less probable, seeing .that the road in question crossed the Trent at Segelocum (now Little- borough), several miles sou th of Gainsborough, and never entered the Isle of Axholme at all. Nor does it seem to me likely that, as MR. HAYLLAR says was the case, the isle would be a " favourite spot" for the battles between the kings of Northumbria and Mercia. Stone-