Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/120

 112

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL FEB. 9, iwi.

soun davans avi li quatre ped blanc, que davalesse o que mountesse, avi6 lou dre, partis, de pas se leva dou trin. E d'aqui lou prouverbi : ' Quau a li quatre ped blanc, pou, se dis, ' passa pertout.' "

" By the rule of the road there was nevertheless an old custom which was respected by all : the carter whose leader had four white stockings, whether going downhill or uphill, had the right, it appears, not to leave the roaa [that is the narrow paved part, when the rest was in a bad state]. And thence the proverb : ' Who has four white feet can,' it is said, ' pass everywhere.' "

I hope light will be thrown on the origin of this privilege to four white feet. The old catch, " Why does a piebald horse not pay toll ? " seems to show that it was not peculiar to France. EDWARD NICHOLSON.

1, Huskisson Street, Liverpool.

THE ACACIA IN FREEMASONRY (9 th S. vii. 9). The "several Freemasons" who have been appealed to by MR. NORMAN must have been singularly unlearned in the traditional lore of the ancient order not to have been able to enlighten him. I am betraying no secret as a Past Master of thirty-five years' standing in generally informing the uninitiated that it is reputed to recall a tragedy ; it signifies a remote, unknown, and liable to be forgotten site. To the vastly preponderating majority of the "brethren of the mystic tie" the words in the ritual, "and having planted a sprig of acacia to mark the spot," will recur as an all- significant reason why that particular shrub or tree should suggest association with funereal rites. GNOMON.

Temple.

According to Folkard ('Plant Lore') the acacia used by Freemasons is not a true acacia, but Robinia pseudacacia, or American locust tree. The practice of dropping twigs of this tree on the coffins of the brethren seems to have originated in America. The Acacia seyal is reputed to have yielded the shittim wood of Scripture, which was much used in the building of the Ark. Hence, perhaps, the reverence Freemasons pay to the acacia generally. C. C. B.

I suggest that your correspondent, if a male, should join the Ancient Fraternity o: Free and Accepted Masons, when the master of his lodge will, if a competent Mason, in struct him in the meaning of that and othei symbols used in Freemasonry. In the mean time consult 'N. & Q.,' 5 th S. i. 57, 197, 316 457 ; ii. 157 ; v. 276 ; 8 th S. i. 433, 524.

BASIL A. COCHRANE.

MAJOR WILLIAMS'S VOYAGE TO CANADA n 1776 (8* S. xii. 402 ; 9 th S. i. 54, 89).-For the sake of ensuring an accurate record in

N. & Q.,' I should like to correct an error oncerning Major Williams occurring at the ast reference. Following the interesting lote signed R. B. B., 8 th S. xii. 402, there appears in this number a statement by . A. W. relating to the voyage of the harming Nancy to Canada in 1776, with a body of artillery on board under the com- nand of a certain Major Williams. The lame of this officer was not Edward, as tated by F. A. W., but Griffith Williams. Some account of him is to be found in Hadden's 'Journal kept on the Campaign,' and a few more details may be given here, le was an elder brother of George Williams,
 * hief magistrate of Newfoundland, who

married Marie Monier, of a French refugee ! amily. This George and his wife were the grandparents of the late Sir Monier Monier illiams, and one of their sons, George also )y name, accompanied Major Griffith Williams to America on this voyage in 1776, although was at the time only eleven years of age. [n the year following, at the capitulation at Saratoga, it was this small boy who carried flag of truce to the camp of the victorious oarty. He was afterwards a colonel in the 20th Regiment and M.P. for Ashton-under- Lyne, and died in 1850. His uncle, Griffith Williams, died Colonel Commandant of Wool- wich in 1790, leaving no male issue.

H. M. BATSON.

Hoe Benham, Newbury.

" CHURMAGDES " (9 th S. vii. 28). The dialect form of chare or char being choor in Hamp- shire (in the Isle of Wight chur), as in the counties west thereof, there can be no doubt that churmagdes were " such yonge Wemen

called Charr Wemen as are in noe

service." See ' H.E.D.' s.v. 'Charwoman.' Shakespeare refers to this type as

The maid that milks And does the meanest chares.

' Antony and Cleopatra,' IV. xv. 75. Charmaid, however, is not in the 'H.E.D.'

F. ADAMS.

THE AREA OF CHURCHYARDS (9 th S. vii. 9). Some light is thrown on the question of the origin of ancient churchyards by that which belongs to the extensive wold parish of Kirby Grindalythe in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The churchyard is large amply sufficient for the requirements of the five or six thorpes and bys, the townships which the parish contains, and whose needs are served by the church and churchyard at Kirbv, which is the most central, but not the largest or most populous of them. The noticeable thing at Kirby Grindalythe, which makes it