Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/70

 56 NOTES AND QUERIES. P-s. vi. JULY 21,1900. Beautiful Spotted Negro Boy." A woodcut, 5| in. by 4 in., depicts him in a standing attitude, bow in nght hand, arrow in left, quiver at his back, sandals on his feet. He is only partially clothed, and the spots are very much in evidence, but by a pictorial licence they appear as black on a white skin instead of being in white and brown on what was doubtless his " proper " tincture. Under his portrait is the announcement:— " That the Public in General may have an Oppor- tunity of viewing the surprising Beauties or this astonishing Child Mr. Richardson has thought it his duty to introduce him between his pieces, in gratitude for that Patronage and Support, which he has for so many years experienced, and being the Last Season of the Boys remaining in this Country. This superlative Curiosity is the offspring of Negroes, beautifully covered by a diversity of Spots, trans- parent brown and white: his hair interwoven brown and white, this fanciful Child of Nature, formed in her most playful mood, is allowed by every Lady and Gentleman that has seon him, the greatest Curiosity ever beheld." An untimely death seems to have interfered with the return of the native. J. ELIOT HODGKIN. I saw a few days ago a small coloured en" graving of this boy for sale in a second-hand shop in Clifton. It represented a naked child seated on the back of a turtle, and playing ap- parently with a leopard, or some other striped animal. The skin of the boy is curiously spotted and marked, and brown and white in colour. Underneath the picture is inscribed : "The Portrait of George Alexander: an extra- ordinaryspotted boy from the Caribbee Islands in the West Indies. Painted from life by Dan1 Orme and engraved under his direction by his late pupil R. R. Cooper." FREDERICK T. HIBGAME. " HOGNAYLE " (9th S. v. 287,459).—The origin of this word still appears to be in ambiffiio, hut, given that " Hognor," "Hogenstore," Ac., constitute a very free spelling of " Hog- many store," it is not difficult, when the illiteracy of the old-time churchwarden is considered, to allow a similar ortho- graphical latitude in the spelling of "Hog- many ale," which would, abbreviated, become "Hognayle," " Hognell," Ac.; so that in the former word the allusion is more par- ticularly to the "store" of bread or other victuals which was distributed in doles at Hogmany (Old Year Day), while "Hognayles," or "Hognells," were of the convivial character over which Sir John Barleycorn presided, such "ales" or feasts having been countenanced by the clergy to encourage a due observance of the Church's great festivals, and were said also, by bringing the people together, to soften social asperities. When it is objected that it was not actually Christmas Day, but 31 De- cember, that was styled " Hogmany," it should be remembered that while Old Year Day was thus incidentally marked by special rejoicings, it was still part and parcel of the festival of the Nativity, which did not terminate, so far as the men were concerned, until Plough Monday, t. e., the first Monday after Twelfth Day, when they returned to the plough, or to their daily work, and for the women till Rock Day, or the day after Twelfth Day, when they resumed their rock, or distaff. In the ' Wandsworth Churchwardens' Accounts from 154o to 1558,' about to be published by Mr. Cecil Davis, the local librarian, an item of receipts lays some stress upon Christmas-<wfc, as distinct from the day itself, thus, "For the Noggells at the tifme of C/irysttma», xxijs. vjd. (1545-6)." " Hogenstore " was thus, apparently, a contribution towards the sea- sonable feasting of the poor, while a " Hog- nayle" contributed to wards their seasonable drinking, money being collected for that purpose, as Pasch money was collected for similar purposes at Easter. Another item of receipts given by MR. A, L. MAYHEW was "Jamess Ale," i.e., money collected to cele- brate old St. James's Day, 5 August, for an " ale " or feast, when grottoes were erected to the memory of St. James of Compostella and his world-renowned shrine, a custom for which it is not surprising that such a comparatively large sum was forthcoming, considering that its popularity is sus- tained to this day by street urchins with their grottoes of oyster-shells. Then there were other ales, as Whitsun ales, church ales, clerk ales, &c., so that whatever faults are charged to the clergy of those days, it could not be said of them that " because they were virtuous" they set their face against cakes and ale." Spice bread and cheese with liquor are still given away on Old Year Day in North Northumberland (Heslop, ' Gloss.'). But an acceptable etymology of Hogmany " might elucidate whatever is obscure concern- ing an observance that seems to have for- merly been customary from John o' Groat's to Land's End, and still survives in Scotland, Northumberland, and—the police willing— outside St. Paul's Cathedral on Ne Year's Eve. J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL. Wimbledon Park Road. SHAKESPEARE AND CICERO (9tt S. v. 288,462). —MR. PERCY SIMPSON attacks me for what I wrote before in ' N. & Q.' concerning Shak- speare's ignorance of the sea. He says that the evidence of Shakspeare's knowledge of