Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/46

 36 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* & vi. JOT.T M, woo. clusively identified with the healing of eye ailments is evident from an account of a Slav festival described by Sir Richard Burton as having been witnessed by him while Consul at Trieste, in the village of Opcina. There the Slav peasant men, in their big boots and knickerbocker trousers, slouch hat, and brown velveteen jacket, wore one earring, and one flower jauntily cocked behind the ear (' Life,' by Isabel Burton, vol. ii. p. 16). Recking as the Slav is with superstitions, he may be depended upon for haying a good reason for thus wearing an earring, so that it is almost certain to possess in his estimation some amuletic value, probably of astrological origin. To a similar use apparently were put the Scandinavian bracteates, or the astroiogieally devised ornaments which adorn the harness, particularly that of the head and chest, of the modern carthorse, common also in Italy and Sicily, in all cases thus employed as a protection from the blighting influence of the evil one, whether it take the form of sore eyes or of any other affliction. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. Lady Morgan, on her first visit to France in 1816. had, at Calais, "stood entranced before the gold earrings and three-cocked hats of the most awful of custom-house officers" (see her 'France in 1829-30,'vol. Lp. 4 of the first edition). Book v. of her 'France' (in 1816) contains a description of the picture gallery at the H6tel de Crauford, where she remarked "a head of the great, and unfortunate Duo de Biron, who was decapitated by Henry IV., whose cause he had so ably defended. The countenance is very fine, and marked by an air of high distinction. A few days before I saw this portrait, I was intro- duced [says she] to his descendant, the Due de Biron Gontaut; but / could trace no other resemblance between him and his illwitrio'iui ancestor, than that they both more very long yold ear-rings [italics mine]." Rather hard upon poor Biron Gontaut, for his portrait, whilst he was still living, to be thus critically "catalogued" for posterity. In Russia, Cossacks, sailors, and some others are often seen wearing a plain round wire earring, evidently not for ornament, but wherefore I know not. On the subject of men's jewellery, I noticed dandies here in the billiard-rooms a few years ago conspicuously wearing bracelets, with which they coquet- tishly posed as they made their strokes (like some female musicians at the piano). I think this fashion is already on the wane. Wedding- rings, of course, are exchanged in the Russian and Lutheran churches, and the husband wears one, as well as the wife. But this is a different subject. H. E. M. St. Petersburg. MOYSE HALL (9th S. v. 497).—I have in my possession several deeds of the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. in which the name " Moyse" occurs. In one of them dated 25 Edward I. Richard Moyse de Codenham is grantor of land in the parish of Codenham, and in a deed of the next year he is grantee of land in the same parish. Codenham is some twenty miles from Bury St. Edmunds. Perhaps this may throw some light upon the question raised oy MR. M. D. DAVIS, though I believe that Moyse as a surname is not peculiar to Suffolk. H. A. HARBEN. DWNN OF DWYNN, RADNORSHIRE (9th S. v. 415).—In ' N & Q.,' 1" S. vi. 273, it is said that Dr. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, was the son of a London merchant descended from a respectable Welsh family. The Editor has furnished references to various MSS. in the British Museum, pedigrees of the Donne families of Cheshire and Shropshire, <fec., and to a number of works relating to the families of Dwnn, Doon, Dean, and Dunne. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. "REREDOS": "LARDOSE" (9th S. v. 455).— Neither " 1'arriere dos " nor " reredos " appears to be met with in modern or old French, unless " reredos" may be imported or bor- rowed from England. Its equivalent archi- tectural term in France is "retable," which, in its turn, was adopted likewise in England as synonymous with, "reredos" in the sense of an altar-screen (see the 'Century Diet.,' sub'Retable'). H. KREBS. Oxford. EXTENT OF ST. MARTIN'S PARISH (9th S. v. 397, 479).—Walpole doubtless refers to an instance of the legal fiction (only ended by the Judicature Act of 1873) whereby torts and breaches of contract committed abroad were brought within the jurisdiction of Eng- lish courts. There is a great deal of curious learning on the point in Lord Mansfield's judgment in Mostyn v. Fabrigas, most easily found in John W. Smith's ' Leading Cases.' It is at p. G66 of the eighth edition, 1879. Q. V. Oxford. The royal parish of St. Martin's still dis- plays the crown on its lamp-posts, the palace of Whitehall having been within its precincts. The church of St. Martin's - in - the - Fields does not appear to have had any defined boundaries assigned to it until the reign of Henry VIII., who rebuilt the church and formed a parochial organization; whence,