Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/620

 516 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. vi. DEC. 29. 1900. Haynes. The undersigned could give further information regarding the Hackney family of Haynes if necessary. Authorities : ' Memorials of St. John-at- Hackney,' by Simpson, 1882, pt. iii. pp. 4, 16, 22, 24, 31, 33, 197, 221, 239, and 240; also 'Monuments in Hackney Church,' by the same writer, 1884, pp. 71, 72, 73, 75, and 79. CHAS. H. CBOUCH. Nightingale Lane, Wanstead. "LOBSTER," A NICKNAME FOR SOLDIER (9th S. vi. 266).—I am under the impression that the name " lobster" is another of those playful sobriquets which sailors apply to those noble fellows the Marines. I remember the lines :— Here come two lobsters claw in claw: One is boiled and t'other's raw ! an impromptu suggested by the appear- ance pi a man belonging to the Koyal Marines walking arm-in-arm with a man belonging to the Royal Marine Artillery. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Savignano, Italy. Bancroft in his ' History of the United States ' says that " lobsters" was one of the abusive epithets applied to the soldiers by the mob on the occasion of the Boston Massacre (so called) in 1770. In 1840 a battalion of the Rifle Brigade was stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and when a rifleman in green was seen walking with a soldier in red, they were usually saluted by some street arab with the rime :— There go two lobsters, claw in claw, The one of them boiled and the other raw. M. N. G. Lieut.-Col. T. S. Baldock says in his 'Cromwell as a Soldier' that Sir Arthur Hazlerigg's regiment of cuirassiers "from their complete armour obtained the nickname of lobsters " (p. 89). EDWARD PEACOCK. For its application to officers of any class see Sir Walter Scott's letters to William Clerk of Eldin, of date 10 and 30 Sept., 1792, given by Lockhart. In this case a boiled lobster is probably meant, in allusion to the colour of the military uniform ; while in the quotation from Clarendon's ' History ' in the query at 2nd S. viii. 252 the words " bright iron shells" are more suggestive of a live specimen. GEO. WILLIAM CAMPBELL. Leamington. KILLING PIGS IN THE WANE OF THE MOON (9th S. vi. 426).—Few cottagers kill their pigs " on the wane of the moon," as the phrase is, though some are killed every day. The belief seems general that the bacon of a pig killed as the moon wanes will shrink in the pot when boiled, while bacon of a pig killed as the moon waxes swells in the pot. Certainly bacon and hams either shrink or swell in the pot, and this is attributed to the moon's influence. Thirty to fifty years ago bacon was the staple food of the countryman. It was cooked in the pot in huge "chunks," and eaten at nearly every meal. Nine out of ten men going to work at six o'clock in the morn- ing had in his " bass " bread and bacon, his early meal being of the same kind. A work- man seldom broke his fast until nearly noon, and then he had his " ten o'clock " or eleven o'clock," his real dinner of the same materials coming on later, and being his "one o'clock." He had a later "snap," which was his "four o'clock," and then he worked on till six o'clock—a long day's work on hard fare, for his " bread " was mostly oaten cake—" wut- cake " in Derbyshire. These men liked their bacon "light" and "fat," and this lightness was only secured by the precaution or killing their " home-fed " as the moon waxed. When the bacon was close and hard in texture, it was because the pig was killed on the moon's waning. As far as it was possible to arrange it, the " Christmas pig " was killed when the moon had waxed three or four days. THOS. RATCLIFFK. Worksop. I have understood in Lincolnshire, from a great authority in such matters, still living and hearty, that if pigs be killed in the wane of the moon the bacon will always " shrink in the boiling a deal more nor what it will if they 're killed at other times." J. T. F. Durham. In many parts of Worcestershire it is yet an abiding belief that bacon-pigs must be killed under a crescent moon. During the last week of November we in this village were daily saluted with their dying^ groans. The appearance of the professional killer, girt with his long coarse apron and his big knife in its sheath, and carrying a bundle of straw for the singeing, is a signal to all the village youth and idlers, who do not depart till the need is done. Then drink is passed round in a mug, and the carcase is taken away for curing and hung up to a black oak beam in the ceiling, in a central place in the cottage room, very inconvenient, but very honour- able. My sexton has just brought me a piece of spare-rib. W. C. R Kvesham. ST. MARYLEBONE CHURCH (9lh S. vi. 347, 432).—Is it quite certain that the christening