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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. MA*. 25, m
Lancashire' a long account is given of the
trial (in 1612) and subsequent execution of a
batch of old women for the crime of witch-
craft. The facts are woven into Harrison
Ainsvvorth's well-known novel of ' The Lanca-
shire Witches.' Amongst the various alleged
methods of bewitching and causing the deaths
of certain individuals was the manufacture of
clay models of human beings stuck full of
pins. Alice Nutter was one of the witches so
convicted and executed. The house in which
she is said to have lived is about one mile
from Sabden, near Clitheroe. Workmen have
lately been altering a chimney-stack in this
building. To their amazement, one day a clay
figure stuck full of pins (supposed to be that
of Abbot Paslew of Whalley) suddenly de-
scended upon them. The men unfortunately,
either in panic or otherwise, smashed it up.'
HENRY TAYLOR.
Birklands, Southport.
"FEY." (See ante, p. 160.) In the review at the above reference of 'The Records of the Burgery of Sheffield ' occurs the following sentence : "We meet more than once with 'feying,' that is, cleansing a pool : a word intelligible enough in Yorkshire or Lincoln- shire, but perhaps not known in the Southern or Midland counties." I must take exception to the last part of this sentence, as the word is common enough here. If a man has to clean out a drain or cesspool he invariably refers to his work as " feying." In her ' Dic- tionary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases ' Miss Baker gives : " Fay, fey, fie, or fow, to cleanse a pond or ditch, or any re- ceptacle for mud or filth, as a cesspool." She adds, amongst other information : "The latter orthography, which appears to be the most ancient, is the least general, and is, I believe, confined to the eastern part of the county." JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
CHAUCER AND HORACE. Amongst the sug- gestions made as to the mysterious " Lollius " cited by Chaucer among his authorities is one that the name comes from a misunderstanding of the lines :
Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli, Dam tu declamas Romse, Prseneste relegi. Prof. Lounsbury gives some strong reasons for doubting Chaucer's acquaintance with Horace. It may. therefore, be worth while to point out that this very passage is quoted by John of Salisbury. The lines occur in the ' Polycraticus ' (lib. vii. cap. ix.). Of this book Prof. Lounsbury observes :
" It was a work widely read and much admired in the Middle Ages. Chaucer was certainly acquainted !
with it, though any direct indebtedness on his part
does not extend apparently beyond the opening
chapters of its first book."' Studies in Chaucer/
I do not desire to discuss this particular Lollius theory, but only to show that it is possible Chaucer may have read this epistle of Horace, even though he had 110 acquaint- ance with any other of his poems.
WILLIAM E. A. AXON.
Moss Side, Manchester.
SHAKSPEARE AND RABELAIS. In the intro- duction to his edition of Urquhart and Motteux's translation of the ' Works of Francois Rabelais' Mr. Alfred Wallis says that it is certain that Shakespeare was cog- nizant of the name and attributes of the famous giant Gargantua, but that whether he got his knowledge direct or from hearsay "cannot now be determined." Perhaps the following citations may be thought to go far to determine the question :
"Presently they appointed him a great sophister- doctor, called Master Tubal Holophemes, who taught him his A B C so well that he could say it by heart backwards." ' Gargantua,' Book I. ap. xiv.
"The Philosophical Cream of Encyclopedic Questions : by Pantagruel : which were Sorboni- cojicabilitudimssels, debated in the Schools of the Decree near St. Denys de la Chartre at Paris." Vol. v. p. 230.
" I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a ivord: for thou art not so long by the head as honor ificabilitudinitatibus." ' Love's Labour Lost,' A.ct V. sc. i.
" Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book. What s A B spelt backward with the horn on his head ? " Ib.
The schoolmaster in ' Love's Labour Lost,' as in ' Gargantua,' is Holofernes. C. J. I.
THE TITLE OF MARQUESS. For many years Charles Watson Wentworth, the second Mar- quess of Rockingham, the celebrated states- man and patron of Edmund Burke, was the only nobleman bearing the title of Marquess in the peerage of England. He died s.p. in 1782, and until 1784, when the Earl of Shel- Durne was created Marquess of Lansdowne there was no one of that grade in the English peerage. There are now twenty-two bearing
- he title, the premier Marquess being Win-
chester, a title created originally in 1551. [t is curious to note that the marquessate of Winchester was merged in the dukedom of Bolton for more than a hundred years, Charles Ppwlett, who was then sixth mar- quess, having been created Duke of Bolton in 1689. This dukedom became extinct on the death of Harry Powlett, sixth duke, in 1794,
