242
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[2i S. NO 12., MAR. 22. '56.
tion, leave no doubt but herein were deposited the bodies
of the defeated and slain Danes, thrown together in a
confused mass: the bones, but more particularly the
teeth, were in a very perfect state." Hutchins's Hist,
of Dorset, vol. iii. p. 196., 2nd edition, 1813, by Richard
Gough.
The extent of the excavation above described is still plainly indicated by inequalities on the surface of the barrow at its western end. As previously stated, the part we opened was near the eastern extremity, the only portion that appeared to be in its original state. I can assure your cor- respondent that digging into such a mass of loose stones and earth is no joke ; and our zeal for the investigation of " long barrows " is not sufficient to render a repetition of the experiment very probable. QUIDAM.
Election of Proctors in the Diocese of Oxford (2 nd S. i. 193.) I can certify MB. FRASER that, at the last election of proctors for the diocese of Oxford, I was summoned, appeared, and voted, as a perpetual curate ; and I imagine there was no mistake in my being included in the citation.
J. SANSOM.
Buslingthorpe.
"Mister" " mistre" or " need " (2 nd S. i. pp. 165, 166.) The following corroborations of MR. ARROWSMITH'S remarks on this word are taken from a letter, written in 1630, by the then Sir David Lindsay, created, three years afterwards, Lord Balcarres, to his eldest son, when a student at St. Andrew's :
" Alexander, let me remember you of what your mother and I spake to you before your going there (St. An- drew's), for the long vacance and jolliness that ye have seen this lang time by gane makes me think that ye will have mister to be halden in mind of your awin weal. . . . . . for youth is the tempest of life, wherein we are in most peril, and has maist mister of God, the great Pilot of the world, to save us." Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 213.
The sense of mister here, as need, is clear ; as, in- deed, it is in your correspondent's examples. By what association of ideas his remarks on the word miss have suggested to me a use of the word care, common to the writers of Anne's time, and in the following age, I must leave to metaphy- sicians to explain, but suggested it they have. Pope writes in one of his letters, " I shouldn't care to have an old post pulled up which I had recol- lected since a boy," meaning that he should care, should feel the loss of it, or miss it. This use of the word with a negative sorely puzzled me when a boy, and is not clear to me now. I should be thankful to have it construed. H. D.
History of Newspapers (2 nd S. i. 153.) I beg to refer your correspondent A. A., and others in- terested in this subject, to Timperley's Encyclo- paedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, for
a great deal of information respecting newspapers.
I mention this work because it is not quoted
amongst the authorities at the end of the article
" Newspapers " in the Penny Cyclopaedia, to which
A. A. has doubtless referred. " W. H. W. T.
Somerset House.
Mabel (2 nd S. i. p. 114.) Camden, in his Re- mains (p. 124., 1674), says :
' Some will have it to be a contraction of the Italians from Mabella, that is, my fair daughter or maid. But whereas it is written in deeds Amabilia and Mabilia, I think it cometh from Amabilis, that is, loveable or lovely."
W. H. W. T.
Somerset House.
Recipe for Cool Tankard (1" S. xii. 450.)
" Take two glasses of wine, one of port and one of sherry, two table-spoonsful of moist sugar, a quarter of a nutmeg, and a sprinkle of ginger ; fill up with a pint of mild ale over a piece of well-baked (but not burnt) toast. Any wine will answer the purpose, but if of two kinds the better. It should stand a quarter of an hour before it is drunk, that the flavour of the sop may be duly imparted to it"
The above recipe is taken from a little book called Spring Tide, published by Bentley, which contains many interesting pieces of folk lore, and curious provincialisms.
If strong ale be used in the composition of the tankard, the wine may be omitted altogether, in which case, however, a little warm water should first be poured upon the sugar and spices. Q. C.
Ode on the Burial of Sir John Moore (2 nd S. i. 158-9.) If any doubts remain as to the author- ship of the lines " On the Burial of Sir John Moore," I have it in my power to satisfy them satisfactorily ; for I know for certainty that the Rev. Charles Wolfe, when chaplain to the old county jail, in the city of Durham, acknowledged the authorship by inserting them in the Durham Advertiser, with his signature attached.
I take this opportunity of stating, that Mr. Crighton, the eminent solicitor, of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, and my brother, Mr. J. H. Dixon, were the chief perpetrators of the transcendent hoax attributing the authorship of the above to Veterinary Doctor Marshall, although I am un- able to assign to each his particular share in it. I will only add, that my brother wrote a second parody, little, if at all, inferior to that of Bar- ham. R. W. DIXON.
Seaton Carew, co. Durham.
Abp. Narcissus Marsh (2 nd S. i. 192.) The whole of Abp. Narcissus Marsh's Diary is pub- lished in vol. xxviii. (July and Aug. 1845) of the British Magazine, with notes by the Rev. Dr. Todd.
Dublin.
