Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/411

 9* s. viii. NOV. 16 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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SNOW-FEATHERS. In North Lincolnshire when it snows there is a saying that "the old woman is shakkin* her feather poake." Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet, alludes to this in his * Shepherd's Calendar.' He says :

And some to view the wintry weathers Climb up the window-seat with glee, Likening the snow to falling feathers

In fancy's infant ecstasy ; Laughing with superstitious love

O'er visions wild that youth supplies Of people pulling geese aoove And keeping Christmas in the skies.

In the Zoologist, First Series, vol. xvii. p. 6442 (1859), it is stated that " the falling flakes

of snow in the old German mythology

were represented as feathers tumbling from the bed of the goddess Holda when she shook it in making it." No authority is given for this piece of folk-lore. I have been told that in some countries the bed-making has been transferred from Holda to St. Peter.

COM. LING.

NEWSPAPER ERRORS. The following mis- take, which occurred in the Daily Telegraph of 25 October, in an article upon the " Red Mass " at Sardinia Street Chapel, seems worthy of a niche in ' N. & Q.' :

"In the presence of the Cardinal, kneeling in scarlet and ermine upon the altar, and of Lord Justice Mathew and Justice Walton, sitting in front of a congregation of wigs and robes, a cere- mony which is always striking," &c.

W. H. QUARRELL.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE CUSTOM. The following paragraph appeared in the Daily Mail for 29 October. I have failed to find any account of the custom in the columns of ' N. & Q.,' and therefore forward it for publication :

"An interesting old custom the collecting of the Rhyne Toll at Chetwode Manor starts at nine o'clock to-morrow morning, and remains in force until midnight on 7 November. All cattle passing on any road within the liberty of the manor during that period have to pay a toll at the rate of 2s. a score, with the exception of those belonging to tenants who compound by paying Is. annually. A horn is sounded first at Church Hill, Buckingham, after which the officer makes his way to another part of the liberty on the borders of Oxfordshire and blows the horn a second time. The toll is then proclaimed as having commenced, and collectors take up a position at several places to enforce it."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

SIR W. K. GREEN. In vol. ii. of the Supplement of the * D.N.B.' is perpetuated an error derived evidently from "Burke" or some other year-book. Sir William Kirby Green is credited with having had a third Christian name, "Mackenzie." I have his

sister-in-law's authority for stating that neither he nor any of his family ever bore such a name. ALEYN LYELL READE.

Blundellsands.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

" ORMELLA." In an old thirteenth-century poem describing the building of Salisbury Cathedral, reprinted and edited by Mr. A.. R. Maiden from a MS. in the Cambridge University Library (Dd., 11, 89), come the lines (159-64)

Carior hoc solo quod rarior est philumene Cantus, alauda frequens tedia uoce parit.

Aduersus modulos ormelle fletus oloris Disputat, ilia diem preuenit, ilia necem.

Dulcis uterque sonus, uiuens ormella propinat Ore melos, moriens fert olor ore iiram.

Can any of your readers inform me what bird the " ormella " was ? J. R. M.

Salisbury.

" SPATCHCOCK." Although the matter of political and military speeches is outside the ken of 'N. & Q.,' the language used in them is not; and certainly Sir Redvers Buller, in his famous speech at Westminster, introduced a word which is new to me spatchcock. The ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' defines it " a fowl killed and immediately broiled, on some sud- den occasion," and suggests a derivation from " dispatch-cock," which scarcely seems satis- factory. Webster prefers the spelling " spitch- cock," and explains the word to mean " to split lengthwise [as an eel] arid then broil." But Sir Red vers could have had neither of these meanings in his mind, and would seem to have used the word in the sense in which " to sandwich " is now so often employed, i.e., u to insert a thing between two others." The ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' gives the alterna- tive signification " a boys' game," with which I am unacquainted. Can any of your readers throw light upon the subject 1

W. T. LYNN. [The term is familiar among officers in the army.]

SIR WALTER SCOTT : " Miss KATIES." What does David Deans mean by this term, " deistical Miss Katies," Heart of Mid- lothian,' chap, xviii. (xvii. in some editions) ? A well-read correspondent of my own, whose initials are very familiar in 'N. & Q.,' says : "I cannot guess what it means." As Messrs. A. & C. Black were so kind as to reply to a