136
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[12 s. i. FZB 12, me.
Author Wanted (12 S. i. 10).—In reply to C. B.'s inquiry, which I have just seen, the following are in full the lines which he asks for:—
A friend of mine was married to a scold
To me he came and all his grievance told
Says he "She's like a woman raving mad"
"Alas" said I "that's very bad"
"No not so bad" said he "for with her true
I had both lands and houses hard cash too"
Said I " My friend then that was well for thee"
"'Twas not so well" said he
"For I and her own brother
Agreed to go to law with one another
We did so I was cast the suit was lost
And every single penny went to pay the cost"
"That was bad" said I
"Well not so bad" said he
"For we agreed that he the lands should keep
And give to me four score of Yorkshire sheep
Fair fat and fine they were to be"
"Well surely that" said I "was well for thee"
"'Twas not so well for when the sheep I got
They every single one died of the rot"
"That was bad" said I
"Well not so bad" said he
"Into an oaken vat I thought to scrape the fat
And melt it for the winter store"
"Well surely that" said I "was better than before"
"'Twas not so well for having got a clumsy fellow
To scrape the fat and melt it into tallow
Into the seething mass the fire catches
And like brimstone matches burns the place to ashes"
"That was bad" said I
"Well not so bad" said he
"For harkee what was best
My scolding wife was burnt among the rest"
I have no idea who was the author and have never seen the piece in print. I have known it for over forty years, as an old friend of ours used to recite it to my brother and myself when we were boys. I have found it on several occasions a useful encore recitation; it is always appreciated, and is new to all who hear it.
The reference to matches points to its not being more than a century old.
[Mr. H. Davey and E. R. supply versions of the story differing in expression in numerous places.]
'THE MAGICAL NOTE ' (US. xii. 400).
A friend now tells me he thinks this little
book has reference to some trouble with the
Duke of York and a Mrs. Clarke ; and he has
shown me an old Sussex newspaper which
refers slightly to the matter. Perhaps this
may furnish a clue.
JOHN C. DOWDNEY. Whitehall, Stratford, E.
[An account of Mary Anne Clarke and her relations with the Duke of York will be found in the 'D.N.B.'l
BRITISH HERB : HERB TOBACCO (12 S. i.
48). Perhaps British Herb, or Herb Tobacco r .
was an English-made imitation of what is
mentioned below. According to a quotation
from Joseph Price's ' Tracts,' vol. i., 1782,
p. 78, given in ' Hobson-Jobson ' by Yule
and Burnell, new edition edited by William
Crooke, 1903, s.v. ' Hooka,' the composition
smoked in a hooka (or hookah) was a
" mixture of sweet-scented Persian tobacco,,
sweet herbs, coarse sugar, spice, &c."
If I remember rightly, I was told many years ago that rose petals were used in the composition for smoking in the hookah r riarghilly, or hubble-bubble. According to ' The Oriental Interpreter,' by J. H. Stocqueler. 1848, s.v. ' Hookah-burdar,' the preparation was made by
" chopping the tobacco very small, then adding ripe plantains, molasses, or raw sugar, together with some cinnamon, and other aromatics ; keeping the mass, which resembles an electuary, in close vessels. When about to be used, it is again worked up well ^ some at that time add a little tincture of musk, or a few grains of that perfume ; others prefer pouring a solution of it, or a little rose-water, down the snake, or pliable tube, at the moment the hookah is introduced. In either case, the fragrance of tlie> tobacco is effectually superseded."
The preparation was, I suppose, the work of the hooka.h-burdar, who had also to place burning charcoal on the top of the composition, when in the bowl of the pipe,. for his master to smoke. Probably there are no, or very few, Europeans in India now who- smoke goracco (guracco) the name given to the composition by Stocqueler.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
The leaves of the common coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) form the basis of the British herb tobacco ('Wild Flowers.... and their Medicinal Uses,' a handy book of wild flowers, Ward, Lock & Co.) ; the dried leaves are mixed with yarrow, rose-leaves,, and some sweet herbs, and this herb tobacco is said to be useful in cases of asthma (' Old English Wild Flowers,' W r arne & Co.). The smoke from the burning roots is employed for driving away gnats C Wild Flowers,' G. Routledge & Sons). Indian tobacco is Lobelia inflata. Mountain tobacco is Arnica montana. QUILL.
Seventy years ago both men and women smoked as tobacco a mixture com- posed of coltsfoot flowers and leaves dried in the sun, then cut and shredded. Many smoked the mixture alone, others filled the pipe with this and tobacco crammed into the pipe bowl in alternate layers. It was mingled with dandelion flowers,
