Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/400

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th B. ix. MAY 17, 1902.

of * Chevy Chase ' who, in ** fearful dujnps," when his legs were stricken off, " fought upon his stumps." Mr. Gaminage, who wrote a ' History of Chartism,' afterwards studied medicine, obtained the necessary qualifica- tion, and practised for some years as a surgeon in Sunderland. W. E. ADAMS.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

"ALL COOPER'S DUCKS WITH ME" (9 th S. ix. 127, 298). I doubt whether the chance use of this curious expression by a master butcher who is also a native of Kent throws any real light upon its origin. I have known for many years an Essex man occasionally employ it in the sense ascribed to it by your correspondent W. I. R. V., and he tells me that, though he never hears it now, it was constantly in use among certain of his associates some thirty or forty years ago at Walthamstow, but he cannot offer any ex- planation of its derivation. I have some- times wondered whether it had any connexion with the saying "chance the ducks" that is, " chance the consequences," which the author of ' Popular Sayings Dissected ' states

" ia in reference to a boat's crew arrayed in clean white junipers ready for inspection, when it is dis- covered that some duty involving the possible soil- ing of their garments has been neglected, and they accordingly say ' we must do it and chance the ducks,' that is, run the risk of our ducks being splashed."

Could it be that one of their number named Cooper in so chancing it came to grief, and thus gave its signification to the expression under notice ? E. C. N.

Broxbourne.

HEARTSEASE (9 th S. ix. 267). The query regarding " Heartsease" involves a rather apt and interesting example of what logicians call the "fallacy of equivocation." The beau- tiful and unobtrusive little pansy has always been so great a favourite with botanists and herbalists, as well as lovers, poets, and gar- deners, that it has become known by an unusually large number of romantic epithets. Among these we find : Three-Faces-under- a-Hood, Flamy, Pink-of -my - John, Tittle- my-Fancy, Forget-me-not, Call-me-to-you, Cuddle-me-to-you, Love-and-Idle, Love-in- idleness, Live - in - Idleness, Jump-up-and- kiss-me, Kiss-me-ere-I-rise, Kiss-me-at-the- Garden-Gate, Herb - Trinity, and HeartV ease. But, although this beautiful and interesting favourite of St. Valentine, and special floral decoration of Trinity Sunday, has for so many centuries occupied a very conspicuous position in romantic literature, I have not been able to find so interest-

ing a tale connected with its past history as that which has become attached to a nominal rival. I refer to the wallflower, which, among other names supplied by the riotous imaginations of the herbalists of olden time, also received that of "Hartis Ease." The traditional origin of this appellation was that in the good old days of Border chivalry a kind of Montague-and-Capulet feud existed in the vicinity of the river Tweed. The Caledonian Juliet was kept in close imprison- ment within the walls of the paternal castle. The love-lorn gallant, after many efforts, at last gained entrance, in disguise of an errant minstrel ; sang before his lady-love, who made the usual arrangements for escaping with the assistance of the faithful maid over the wall and into the arms of her languishing Adonis. The sequel of the story has been quaintly and pathetically versified by Her- rick :

Up she got upon a wall, Attempted to slide down withal, But the silken twist untied, So she fell and, bruised, she died. Love, in pity of the deed, And her loving luckless speed, Turn'd her to this plant we call I Now the Flower of the Wall.

We are also told that minstrels arid trouba- dours generally were in the habit of wearing the wallflower as the emblem of an affection which is proof against time and misfortune. This custom was probably due to the fact that it was usually found on the walls of old castles and abbeys.

John Parkinson, Botanicus ftegius Prima- rius of Charles I., and author of the ' Thea- trum Botanicum,' tells us, in the pages of that vast storehouse of herbal lore, that " Pansyes or Hearts Ease is like unto Violets in all the pirts thereof, but somewhat hotter and dryer, yet very temperate, and by the viscous or glutinous juice therein doth somewhat mollifie, yet lesse then Mallowes : it is conducing in like manner as violets to the hot diseases of the lungs and chests, for agues, for convulsions, and the falling sicknesse in children: the places also troubled with the itch or scabs being bathed with the decoction of them doth helpe much: it is said also to soder greene wounds, and to helpe old sores to use the juyce or the distilled water." Such would appear to form the leading items in the romantic and medicinal history of "heartsease." JOHN KNOTT, M.D.

34, York Street, Dublin.

Bunyan, in 'Pilgrim's Progress,' refers to the name in the sense of easing an aching heart. When Christiana in the Valley of Humiliation hears a shepherd boy singing, Greatheart says,

" Do you hear him ? I will dare say this boy leads a merrier life and has more of that herb called