Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/64

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NOTES' AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. JAN. is, 1902.

as the maypole, whatever that may have been a question into which we need not now inquire. The whole custom seems to be a survival of the ancient worship of the spirit of vegetation, whose cult was practised at various seasons of the year, but chiefly in the spring, when she had to be awakened and propitiated to put forth renewed vigour.

"Clipping the tower" is, then, a vestige of old nature worship, and had nothing what- ever to do originally with either churches or saints. F. T. ELWORTHY.

Here we undoubtedly have the old English word to "clip," meaning to embrace, to encircle with the arms. " Clipping and kiss- ing " was a phrase often employed to express the mutual embracing of a pair of lovers.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

["Clip" in this sense is Shakespearian.]

MOTTO FOR DOOK OF A HOUSE (9 th S. viii. 443, 469). A very suitable Scottish motto for the door of any house is " Better rue sit than rue flit" ; and if the arms of a country may be said to stand for the experiences of the royal bearers thereof, then the motto loses none of its aptness in that relation.

ARTHUR MAYALL.

There is a very interesting list of house mottoes, with their origins and significations, by William Norman Brown, F.R.H.S.. in Country Life, 8 April, 1899. Among them are several Scotch.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

En reply I suggest the words " Enter ; you have been long expected" (Beacorisfield's 4 Coningsby ') LL. LLOYD.

DENHAM, LAIRD OF WISHIELS (9 th S. viii. 484). The first of this family evidently was Symon Dennura, who on 16 June, 1506, was retoured heir to his grandfather, John Liddaill, in the lands of Westschull, in the barony of Cam with (in shire of Lanark). J. G. WALLACE-JAMES.

Jtiaddington.

FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD (9 th S. viii. 504). In the absence of a dated Christmas card prior to 1845, I believe the evidence is con- clusive that "Cuthbert Bede " the Rev Edward Bradley-was the designer of the nrst printed Christmas card. Mr. Bradley entered Durham University in 1845, and at the end of his first year sent designs of a picture card to Mr. Lambert, belonging to the well-known firm of printers and pub- lishers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to be printed tor private circulation at Christmas and

New Year among his friends. During the following year Messrs. Lambert printed several of his designs for him : and for three or four years the private Christmas design was printed. The printers conceived the idea of putting such picture cards into the market, and in 1847-8 the first Christmas cards were offered for sale by Messrs. Lambert to the trade of Newcastle and district. These facts were given me by Mr. Thomas Smith, who in 1845 was foreman printer for Lam- bert, and afterwards began business for him- self in 1847, when he did several engravings for Mr. Bradley. The date of the first sale of Christmas cards by stationers was confirmed on the authority of Messrs. Thomas & George Allan, the well-known stationers of New- castle-upon-Tyne, who began business about that time, and at the death of the Rev. Mr. Bradley ''Cuthbert Bede" informed me in the presence of Mr. Smith, then the oldest printer in the north of England, that there was no doubt about Messrs. Lambert's Christmas cards being the first on sale in England, and "Cuthbert Bede" being "the first to design a picture card for Christmas greetings. JOHN ROBINSON.

Delaval House, Sunderland.

STONE PULPIT (9 tL S. viii. 325, 394, 489). There is an excellent example of a stone pulpit, partly sunk in the wall, in the old refectory of the abbey at Beaulieu, Hants, a structure now used as the parish church. Here Margaret of Anjou took sanc- tuary after the battle of Barnet, and Perkin War beck in the reign of Henry VII. In the ruined abbey of Rievaulx, Yorkshire, may be seen the marks of the spot where the stone pulpit stood from which the monk read during meals. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

MERCHANTS OF LUKES : MERCHANTS OF LUK (9 th S. viii. 338, 481 ; ix. 35). I am engaged in an investigation which closely involves the history of Lucchese merchants in England, and shall be very glad to receive references to any books, other than Rymer and Record Office Calendars, which your readers may kindly send. Those in unofficial documents, such as the work cited by MR. WEARE, will be especially valuable.

ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

C.C.C., Oxford.

" ULLIG " = CHRISTMAS IN MANX (9 th S. viii. 504). The real Manx for Christmas is (1610) in Manx Society's Publications, vol. xxxii. pp. 17, 51, 55. But it is now often
 * ' Nolick." See Bishop Phillips's Prayer-Book