100
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL AUG. i, im.
making, could alone do justice to or convey an idea
of the method of a memorable work.
Cambrian Notes and Queries. Vol. I. Parts II. and III. (Cardiff, Western Mail Office.)
THE second and third parts of this useful periodical have been issued in one cover. This has its advan- tages, but it is rather hard on impatient readers who have to wait so long for replies to their questions. It is in a great measure compiled from the columns of the Weekly Mail, a newspaper which circulates widely in Wales and the adjoining counties. Some few of the paragraphs would have been all the better for revision before they were issued in a permanent form ; but, on the whole, it is a most satisfactory publication, for which we wish all success, because, among other reasons, it testifies to the great interest which the Welsh take in their language and literature, as well as in the bio- graphies of the many eminent men and women whom the Principality has produced. The various sizes of slates in the Penrhyn quarries and, we believe, elsewhere are known as duchesses, coun- tesses, ladies, and other such like honourable titles. Mr. John Evans, of Aberbank, tells us that it is believed these names were bestowed by General Warburton in 1765. If this be true, it is interest- ing. He, moreover, quotes some lines of a ballad regarding these names which we have not seen before. It is curious. We wish the editor had found room for the whole ditty. At Tenby and elsewhere a folk-lore custom prevails which, so far as we have heard, rarely occurs in England. When it is found here, it may well have been derived from our Celtic neighbours. If a person removes from one residence to another it is proper, before the house is occupied, to put salt on the stairs, and this rite must take place before any of the furniture is taken indoors. It seems to be the custom for the man who goes with the first load of furniture to take with him a bag of salt, and, " before putting anything else in, he flings in a few handfuls, just like sowing corn." We have no direct evidence on the matter, but it does not seem improbable that this practice may be a survival from pre-Reforma- tion days of the Benedictio Domus Novce, We cannot turn to any of the house benedictions, of which there were several employed in this island in early days, but the form now used among Roman Catholics may be seen on one of the latter pages of the Roman Missal.
MR. B. W. DEXTER'S Crickltwood, Historical and Descriptive, has also a fully illustrated article on Gladstone Park. It contains many facts which we have not met with elsewhere, and has some good illustrations. We wish, however, the author had not quoted Richard of Cirencester as an authority on Roman Britain.
THE July number of the English Historical Review^ is interesting. The article on Gian Matteo Giberti is concluded, and will afford most valuable information on the group of doctrinal reformers, Contarini, Pole, and their associates, in Italy in the sixteenth century. Prof. Maitland has taken the trouble to see what can be learnt by a study of the actual parchments of the Elizabethan statutes of Supremacy and Uniformity. His discussion of the meaning of the various erasures and interlinea- tions is most valuable, and sheds light on one or two obscure points, while in one particular a con- jecture of Froude's is confirmed. There is an
admirable criticism of Prof. Bury's inaugural lecture
at Cambridge. It is worthy of note that of the
three articles "simply and strictly so called," with
which the magazine opens, two are by women.
THE foremost papers in Folk-lore are 'Some Remarks on the Folk-lore of the Ba-Thonga,' ' Folk- lore of the Azores,' and Mr. Lang's 'Notes on Ballad Origins.' In the collectanea a curious note is given on 'Blessing the Geese,' a practice which was observed some twenty years ago near Epping. Fifth of November customs also receive attention, but definite records of the use of autumnal bonfires in England before the Gunpowder Plot seem difficult to find.
THE later numbers of the Intermediate contain many interesting notes, some on the origins of Tartuffe, others on ecclesiastical celibacy, others, again, on the blood of bullocks employed in mortar and plaster, on marriage under the gallows, burial face downward, and on the celebrated dog of
Jean de Nivelle, Qui se sauve quand on 1'appelle. Several communications also relate to the charivari, from which it appears that the custom of serenading those who break certain popular observances with what in England is called "rough music" is still well known in France. About twelve years since, according to one correspondent, fifty people or so were fined in a Northern town for taking part with saucepans and other kitchen utensils in a charivari corse, because a widower had married a woman thirty years younger than himself.
We m\it call special attention to the following
notices :
ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.
To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."
T. (" O formose puer," &c.). See Virgil, Eclogue iii. 17.
CORRIGENDA. A nte, p. 70, col. 2, 1. 15, for " Del " read Dee; 1. 18, for " To " read lo ; p. 73, col. 2, 1. 13, for "confirm" read conform.
NOTICE.
Editorial communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries'" Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lisher " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.
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