Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/354

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ADDITIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XXI 18 thrown upon the hakshne, by which proceeding the cake becomes longer one way than the other. Some bakers put in common whiten- inff to make it mix better. The cakes are only partially baked on the hcMttone; when cold thej are soft and limp, and look somethine like leather, for whicJi strangers have taken them. They are finally hung up on ike bread creel, or reel, in the kitchen, for the purpose of drying, wnere they continue till taken for use. CHRISTIAN NAMES. With regard to Christian names two peculiarities may be here noticed. 1. The custom of giyinff nicknames to children at the font is very common ; thus ^e Bens, Freds, Joes, Toms, WiUies, &a are innumer- able. 2. When a double name is given the child is usually addressed by both, of which practice I remember an amusing instance. On one occasion I heard a mother calling her child, whom we will suppose to be Ann Taylor Bamsden ^employing the commoner Christian and surnames). The young laay was upstairs, and the mother, in want of her, bustles forth from the kitchen, and calls pretty loudly, 'Annie, Annie ' (no answer) ; then, raising her voice to reach a flight of stairs higher, ^ Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor ' (still no answer) ; finally, roused to indignation: 'Ann Taylor Bamsden, come downstairs directly.* Thus invoked, Ann Taylor Bamsden demurely tripped down to her wrathful parent. JOSEPH O' NUPPITS. There was, some eighty years since or more (1875), a well-known Almondbury charadler, ' Joseph o' NwppiU* of whom numerous tales are told. I imagine the name to amount to ' Silly Joseph,' or some- thing to that effect Joseph o' Nuppits died about 1794, and was well known by many people to whom I have spoken. He belonjged to the dads of sturdy beggars happily not now so common as of yore, and numerous are the anecdotes still told of him, some of which will be found under the words illustrated by them. He used to carry three pokes ; one for bread, one for meal, and one for wheat. When any of these pokes did not ^t enough to please him^ he laid it down on the ^und and ' sarved it,' i, e. beat it with a whip. Occasionally he earned nine pokes, and in this respect was better equipped than Bobin Hood. See Bohin Hood and the Widou^s Sons, ver. 23 :

  • I've a bag for meal, and a bag for malt, •

And a bag for barley and com ; A bag for bread, and a bag for beef. And a bag for my little small horn.' He carried generally seven whii>s all at once, which John Shearran, a well-known saddler, suppUed him with. It was his habit — ^perhaps he was delicate, or possibly proud — ^not to ask for anything, but to stand at the door until he was attended to.