Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/401

 9s. vn. MAT 18, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

393

hearing ray elders talking about it, but I can't remember what they said. The only thing I know for certain is that it couldn't have had anything to do with Lord Lansdowne."

HENRIETTA COLE. 96, Philbeach Gardens, S.W.

COLLET (9 th S. vii. 269). Particulars of Humphrey Collet were sought for through ' N. & Q.,' for which see 2 nd S. xii. 249, 483.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

CORONATION STONE (9 th S. vii. 309). A valuable account of the legends connected with the Coronation Stone was communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1869 by Mr. W. F. Skerie. This paper was published, with notes and illustrations, by Messrs. Edmonstone & Douglas, of Edinburgh, in the same year. HARRY TOWNEND.

MAY-WATER (9 th S. vii. 149, 276). See the pretty song beginning " Here 's a song for the oak, the brave old oak " : In the days of old, when the spring with gold

Was lighting his branches gray, Through the grass at his feet crept maidens sweet

To gather the dew of May.

In the fifteenth chapter of ' Woodstock Roger Wild rake says that he usually " sleeps as lightly as a maiden on the 1st of May when she watches for the earliest beam to go to gather dew." JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

In the fifties it was a very general custom in Devonshire on the 1st of May for young ladies to go into lawns or fields at daybreak and wash their faces in the dew. The dew was supposed to give a good complexion to those who did not possess one, and to improve those who were so fortunate as to own one, I do not think the boys were absolute strangers to the practice. A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

"CARRICK" (9 th S. vii. 208, 292). It is noi the case that this word is obsolete in Scotland It is used to-day by the boys in Fifeshire ir the sense in which their ancestors employee it in the days of Dr. Jamieson. A variation however, has to be noticed. Jamieson say that in Fife " carrick " is the name given t( the game. That is the case still, but, with the usual elasticity observable in the applica tion of terms, the club, or " shinty," is now beginning to be called " carrick " also. Jamie son nowhere assigns the name to the club o driving implement, nor does he restrict th word to Fifeshire. He says that in Pert! and Kinross it denotes "the wooden bal driven by clubs, or sticks hooked at the lowe

nd, in the game of shintie" In Fife the ball s called the " knout," a fact duly noted in its roper place by Jamieson. As regards the tymology of "carrick" or "the carrick," s it is usually designated in Fifeshire there 3 nothing in the Scottish dictionary to sug- >hepherds, one would imagine, are too " few ,nd far between " in any given district to be ivailable in sufficient numbers for a game at hinty. Then, if they did play, and used heir crooks according to the Fife rules and onditions of a shinty game, one and another )f the competitors would probably, in short pace, be found sighing, with Sir Gilbert Elliot, " My sheep I neglected, I lost my heep-hook." Finally, so far as Fife is con- erned, " the carrick " has been a recognized game, from time immemorial, in districts where " crooks " are associated with the ul fate." THOMAS BAYNE.
 * est connexion with the shepherd's crook.
 * himney, and not with " the shepherd's mourn-

VERBS FORMED OUT OF PROPER NAMES ,9 th S. vii. 182, 263). MR. MACMICHAEL appears to have done the late Mr. Banting some injustice as to his system for the reduc- ion of obesity, which is by no means correctly _tated. I have not just now the means of consulting Chamber s^s Journal for 1864, to which your correspondent refers, but I have Defore me a better authority in the third edition of Mr. Banting's own pamphlet (1863). His system was this. He cut off bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer, potatoes, puddings, and pies ; but as a substitute for the first be used well -browned toast or biscuit. He allowed all vegetables except potatoes. I myself tried the system for some time, and with complete success. I did not require it for too much fat, for I was always thin, but it completely removed some symptoms of indigestion which caused me inconvenience ; and to show how well it agreed with me, I may mention that I did not lose an ounce of my usual weight of nine stone. I think Mr. Banting's system has somehow been confounded with the Salisbury (American) treatment, which consists of meat, minced over and over again till it becomes a sort of pulp, and a great deal of hot water. Nothing else. I should not like this at all. GEORGE H. COURTENAY.

It is so essential that the information con- veyed in ' N. & Q.' should be strictly accurate, that I venture to point out two slips in the note on p. 263.

1. To guillotine (surely guillotin has never been used as a verb) is active, not passive, and means not to suffer, but to inflict the punish-