Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/225

 9*8. IX. MARCH 15, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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off, were on this occasion revived by order of the kin p. Respecting that of Sir William Craven, 1610, I have no note, although it would appear that there was such a one. Sir Edward Barkham's, 1621, was 'The Sunne in Aries,' by Thomas Middleton (seven leaves without pagination = sig. A B\ which is very rare. That of Sir Peter Proby, 1622, also by Middleton, is entitled 'The Triumphs of Honor and Vertue,' and is of extreme rarity. Hazlitt calls it "unique." There is an imperfect copy of seven leaves (wanting the title) in the British Museum. It has been reprinted in the Shakespeare Society Papers, ii. That of Sir Martin Lumley, 1623, 'The Triumphs of the Golden Fleece ' (four leaves without pagination), was by Munday, a copy of which is in the National Collection. There was also another "pageant" for the occasion, written by Middleton, entitled ' The Triumphs of Integrity' (nine leaves), and the Duke of Devonshire possesses a copy. I may add that the libraries of the British Museum and the Guildhall, London, con- tain the finest collections of Lord Mayors' "pageants" extant. Some of those at the Museum belonged to the well-known Hum- phrey Dyson. W. I. R. V.

The Lord Mayor's pageant for the year 1621 was reprinted in Nichols's ' Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James I/ It is also given, together with that for the year 1623, in the 'Lord Mayors' Pageants,' by F. W. Fairholt, issued by the Percy Society in 1843. Both of the above-named volumes are in the Corporation Library, Guildhall.

Reference should be made to 7 th S. vii. 47, 211, 294, for the titles of other works treating on this subject.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

STAUNTON, WORCESTERSHIRE (9 th S. viii. 383, 510 ; ix. 11, 92, 110, 170). I think your correspondent has proved his case.

CHARLES W. DILKE.

"BEANFEAST" (8 th S. xii. 64, 174, 312, 371). In 'Time's Telescope for 1820,' p. 247, I find this term applied to the celebrated Fair- lop Fair. The extracts refer to Daniel Day, the founder of the fair, who died in 1767 :

" Mr. Day was the possessor of a small estate in Essex, at no great distance from Fairlop Oak. To this venerable tree he used, on the first Friday in July, annually to repair ; thither it was his custom to invite a party of his neighbours to accompany him, and, under the shade of its branches and leaves, to dine on beans and bacon."

" Mr. Day, during his life, annually visited his favourite spot ; and, in memory of ita origin, never

failed, on the day of the fair, to provide several sacks of beans, with a proportionate quantity of bacon, which he distributed, from the trunk of the tree, to the persons there assembled. For several years before the death of the benevolent, although humorous, founder of this public beanfeast, the pump and block makers of Wapping, to the number of thirty or forty, went annually to the fair in a boat made, like that of Robinson Crusoe or an Indian canoe, of one entire piece of fir. This amphibious vehicle was covered with an awning, mounted on a coach -carriage, and drawn by six post-horses, the whole adorned with ribands, flags, and streamers. It was furnished with a band of musicians, and attended, as may be supposed,

By whifflers and staffiers on foot." If Fairlop Fair was known as a beanfeast, the transfer of the term to other annual outings appears to me natural. W. H. DAVID.

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS AND SHROVE TUESDAY (9 th S. ix. 86). There is an interest- ing allusion to the custom at Oxford with regard to Christmas decorations in the last number of the Historical Manuscripts Com- mission Reports. Dr. Stratford, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, writing to Lord Harley, afterwards second Earl of Oxford, 3 February, 1719/20, says :

" It has been usual for our choristers to burn the day before Candlemas the greens which are put up in the hall at Christmas. They did so on Monday at noon. There was no fire in the hall at supper

time, being fast night Nothing appeared till

Tuesday morning about 5 o'clock, when the lanthorn

appeared all in a flame I bless God he quenched

it, but not without the loss of that part of the roof on which the lanthorn stood and of the breadth of a window on each side of the lanthorn." Report of the MSS. of his Grace the Duke of Portland, part vii. p. 269. Q. F . B. B.

" HIGH-FALUTING " (9 th S. viii. 505 ; ix. 176). There is but one objection to Dr. Brewer's derivation from the "Du. verlooten, high- flown"; but it is sufficient. The word is a ghost-word, with a wholly imaginary mean- ing. To launch such words is a common device, and often succeeds with the simple.

At the same time the notion that the prefix fa- represents the unaccented Du. prefix ver- is not a bad one. And if Dr. Brewer, in- stead of trusting to his creative fancy, had only consulted a Dutch dictionary, he might have found something better. Thus Cahsch s dictionary (1875) has Du. verluchten, to air ; verluchting, an airing. Also Imhten, to air, ventilate ; lucMig, airy, thin, light, unsub- stantial, careless, unsteady, flighty; from lucht, air, atmosphere. Supposing that lucht could easily pass into lute, by neglect of the guttural, we may easily imagine that tiigti- faluting would mean " going high in air, or "soaring" or "flighty"; and high-faluting