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 9* s. viii. SEPT. 21, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

255

century." The first mentioned is leet-ale, which Drake says was

" the dinner provided for the jury and customary tenants at the court-leet of a manor or view of frank-pledge, formerly held once or twice a year before the steward of the leet."

To this court Shakespeare alludes in his 'Taming of the Shrew,' where the servant tells Sly that in his dream he would

Rail upon the hostess of the house, And say you would present her at the leet, Because she brought stone jugs and no seal'd quarts.

Douce observes that

" concerning the etymology of the word ' ale' much

pains have been taken and that the best opinion

seems to be that, from its use in composition, it means nothing more than a feast or merry-making, as in the words ' leet-ale.' "

CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield.

CORLETT OF DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN (9 th

S. viii. 184). I should suggest that W. J. W. J. should put himself in communication with that very courteous antiquary the Rev. Ernest Bickersteth Savage, M.A., of St. Thomas's Vicarage, Douglas, or with Mr. Corlett, Hosier, Eastgate Street, Chester, a Manxman himself and doubtless connected with the family sought.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Lancaster.

"HALSH" (9 th S. viii. 81). MR. MAYALL'S researches in the * H.E.D.' have not been very thorough. He will find under the spelling halch what he says is omitted. Q. V.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

County Folk-lore. Vol. II. Examples of Printed Folk-lore concerning the North Riding of Yorkshire. Collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch. (Nutt.) THE service which Mr. Edwin Sidney Hartland has rendered to Gloucestershire, Lady Eveline Camilla Gordon to Suffolk, and Mr. C. J. Billson to Leicestershire and Rutland, Mrs. Gutch, a well- known antiquary, now renders to the North Riding. Either she has been more assiduous than her pre- decessors, or materials are more abundant with her than with them, since, while the three previous collections constitute in all but one volume of the Folk-lore Society's publications, Mrs. Gutch's work is a volume in itself. The nature of the scheme for collecting printed extracts precludes, of course, all notion of originality. It leaves, however, ample scope for industry in research and judgment in selection and arrangement. These qualities are discoverable in Mrs. Gutch's work, which forms in itself an introduction to the study of folk-lore. In a score sections Mrs. Gutch treats superstitions, beliefs, and legends connected with natural objects,

animals, goblins, witchcraft, magic, divination, ocal customs, games, nicknames, and the like. The whole of the information supplied is, of course, neither peculiar to the district nor exhaustive as regards separate matters making, indeed, no pre- tence to be either. On subjects such as wells, games, and festivals volumes have been written, and matters such as magic, divination, &c., have given t)irth to a literature. Materials in plenty are to her hand. In dealing with leechcraft, for instance, she has consulted the 'Arcana Fairfaxiana' (re- viewed in our columns, 7 th S. xi. 100) and the receipts at the end of ' The Life and Memoirs of Henry Jenkins'; and in the case of witchcraft, Canon Atkinson's 'Forty Years in a Moorland Parish.' The mere list of authorities who have been laid under contribution occupies sixteen pages. Upon our own columns to which Mrs. Gutcn is a Frequent and, it is needless to say, esteemed con- tributorshe frequently draws. She has, indeed, left few sources of information unexplored. The result of her labours is a book overflowing with interest to the antiquary. What service the Folk- lore Society is rendering in the collection of matter which was on the point of being lost most of our readers are aware. The present will rank as one of the most valuable of its compilations. In apolo- gizing for the scantiness of information in regard to tales and ballads, Mrs. Gutch tells us that Mr. J. Horsfall Turner promises a Yorkshire anthology that will cover a thousand years of Yorkshire his- tory in verse. This is agreeable intelligence, which we gladly communicate to our readers. A story on p. 19 concerning the building of Kilgrim bridge (qy. Kilgram bridge, on the Ure?) narrates how Grim, a dog belonging to a shepherd, was sacrificed to the devil in order to establish the foundations. This idea seems to entitle the bridge to a place in the collection of church-grims, &c. There is not a page of the volume from which matter of interest might not be drawn.

A Concise Dictionary of the French and English

Languages. By F. E. A. Gasc. (Bell & Sons.) THE French and English dictionary of M. Gasc is, as we know by many years' constant use, the most convenient, trustworthy, and serviceable of works of its class. It is now published in a concise form and in an even more convenient shape, and may be heartily commended to general use.

The Chiswick Shakespeare. Edited by John Dennis. Illustrated by Byam Shaw. Love's Labour's Lost; The Merry Wives of Windsor. (Bell & Sons.)

THE two latest volumes of " The Chiswick Shake- speare," prettiest and daintiest of pocket editions, consist of ' The Merry Wives of Windsor' and ' Love's Labour 's Lost. Each play has a short and serviceable introduction, and a few useful notes, combined with a glossary and half a dozen quaint and brilliant designs by Mr. Byam Shaw. The pretty title-pages should also be counted among the illustrations.

Russian Self -Taught, with Phonetic Pronunciation.

By C. A. Thimm, F.R.G.S., and J. Marshall,

M.A. (Marlborough & Co.)

THIS excellent manual will be of high utility to all interested in the study of Russian. The value of such study for purposes of commerce and its im- portance to those connected with the government