Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/104

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. FEB. i, 1902.

be proved. The method of the late Scots Magazine (if we may judge from the illustra- tive extract presented for consideration) does not seem likely to affect his position. Nor is it of any avail to advance against him the opinion of Robertson of Dalmeny, whom he himself disposed of as a very insignificant factor in the discussion. There will always be room for regret that Dr. Grosart did not live to issue, as he thought of doing, a new edition of his 'Works of Michael Bruce.' Possibly he- might not have been able to add much to his original memoir, but I have the best reasons for saying that he would have emphasized his contention that Bruce was the author of the ' Ode to the Cuckoo.'

THOMAS BAYNE.

ST. TEILO (7 th S. viii. 9, 194 ; 9 th S. viii. 511). Any of your readers who are interested in this subject may be glad to be referred to a booklet published at Preston, Lancashire, in 1893, entitled 'The Life and Memorials of Saint Teilo, Patron of Llandaf and Cardiff,' by J. H. M. ; printed for Saint Teilo's Catholic Historical Society of South Wales.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

"FRAIL" (9 th S. iv. 436, 507; v. 51, 158; vi. 378 ; vii. 33, 177 ; viii. 531). At the present time this name for a rush basket is seldom used in Shropshire. I do not remember hear- ing it for many years, except about two months ago when in Bridgnorth I was asked if I would like a parcel put in a " frail," as I could then carry it easily. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

Shrewsbury.

GEORGE HENRY FITZROY, FOURTH DUKE OF GRAFTON, 1760-1844 (9 th S. ix. 9). According to G. E. C.'s ' Complete Peerage ' (vol. x. p. 68) the fourth duke was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. His father, who filled the offices of Secretary of State and First Lord of the Treasury in the first decade of George Ill's reign, was edu- cated at Westminster School and Peterhouse

G. F. B. B.

BIRTHDAY CAKE WITH CANDLES : A GERMAN CUSTOM (9 th S. viii. 344, 486).-DE. KRUEGER says : Ihe Noras sit at Nornagest's cradle and proclaim that his life will last only as long as the candle burning there lasts. I his reminds me of one of the folk-tales col lected by Bechstein. Death introduces a man into a cavern, and shows him a number of candles burning, some nearly burnt to the end and others not so. These candles repre- t the lives of men; and, when they are burnt or blown out, the lives come to an end

Macbeth, speaking of life, says : " Out, out, 3rief candle ! " It may be that Shakspeare lad heard the tale. In one folk-story, at east, Death is represented as hewing down dea somewhat similar to that of these folk- itories is expressed in Washington Irving's urand, which finished the life of Meleager, las some connexion with the foregoing.
 * rees, which signify the lives of men. An
 * ale of ' The Devil and Tom Walker.' Althaea's

E. YARDLEY.

Two years ago I was staying at a hotel in he Highlands, and amongst the guests was an American family. When the birthday of one of the party came round a young lady some seventeen or eighteen years old at dinner there was a sugared birthday cake placed in the centre of the table, with seven- teen or eighteen lighted candles round it, one for each year of the young lady's life. They told us it was a common American ustom to do this on a birthday.

W. G. D. F.

The phrase mentioned by DR. G. KRUEGER occurs in the Walpurgisnacht scene in Goethe's Faust.' Mephistopheles threatens the apolo- jetic will-o'-the-wisp, who cannot keep a straight course to guide Faust and himself up to the Brocken

Ki, ei ! Er denkt's den Menschen nachzuahmen. (leh er nur grad', ins Teufels Namen ! st bias' ich ihm sein Flackerleben

fSonst

aus. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

BEAU BRUMMEL AND BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (9 th S. ix. 8). Has MR. HIATT seen Mr. Charles Whibley's book ' The Pageantry of Life '? If my memory serves me, the article on Brum- mel contained in it will give him the in- formation he asks for. C. C. B.

BURIAL OF A SUICIDE (9 th S. viii. 502). Mention has been made, under this heading, that the body of a certain unfortunate wretch in Lincolnshire who had committed suicide was buried in a standing position. A French- man was interred near the top of a hill in the immediate neighbourhood of Reigate, early last century, perpendicularly and head downwards. This was at his own request. He declared that, when at the last day every- thing was turned topsy-turvy, he was anxious to rise right side up. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

" HEP ! HEP ! " THE CRY AGAINST THE JEWS (7 th S. xi. 420; 9 th S. viii. 471). K. G. Andresen, in his 'Ueber Deutsche Volks- etymologie' (pp. 19, 20), says :

" The cry ' Hep ! Hep !' directed against the Jews is said to owe its origin to the three letters H. E. P.