214
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. MAR. is, m
child was about to touch a clock, or a fragile
ornament, or the poker anything that might
be injured by the child's rough handling, or
anything injurious to itself the exclamation
"Bob-baw!" from an elder was generally
sufficient to keep the little hands off. The
word was also used as a noun, to indicate
things which a child must not touch. My
youngest brother once went into a neighbour's
house, and asked what was inside a corner
cupboard, and received for answer, "Bob-
baws." Having never heard the word before
(for my mother always called a sheep a sheep
and a dog a dog, and we only heard of baa-baas
and bow-wows by chance from outsiders), he
came home and asked what it meant, and
was greeted with a general laugh. The next
time he strolled into the same house the
cupboard-door happened to stand open, and
he exclaimed, " Why, they 're cups and
saucers ! " R. WALLIS.
Cambridge.
I suspect that the meaning of tprut is explained by Zachary Grey's note on
- Hudibras,' part ii., canto iii. 1. 773.
M. N. G.
ENTRY IN REGISTER (9 th S. iii. 90). With diffidence I offer the suggestion that the "cutted owen" was a bird with striped or banded plumage, perhaps an eagle. "Cutted," or "cuttit," was used in the sense of cut or slashed, as applied to a garment (e. g., in William Langland's ' Piers the Ploughman ') ; and it seems at least possible that " owen " was a variant of erne (Icelandic cern), meaning sea-eagle. This word also might have been used of the golden or mountain eagle, which undoubtedly bred in the Snowdon and Peak districts and elsewhere in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The golden eagle is described as of a dark-brown colour, with elongated neck-feathers of a lighter tint, and therefore might have the term "cutted," mean- ing slashed, fancifully applied to it. Perhaps an eagle of the kind was domiciliated on the land of some local magnate. It may be worth recalling that " cuttie " is a Scotch name for the black guillemot ; also for a horse or mare two years old. EDWY G. CLAYTON.
.Richmond, Surrey.
The " cutted owen " is probably from " cutted," a local word for scolding, bawling, quarrelsome, or from " cut," signifying a fool or daft person, and Owen, the Christian name or surname of the person buried.
JOHN RADCLIFFE.
"RODFALL" (9 th S. iii. 89). Cannot OLD SUBSCRIBER give us a few more particulars
about the "rodfall" on his property in Essex 1 ?
" There are," he says, " certain privileges in
connexion with this ' rodfall ' which I need
not trouble you with." Many of us would be
glad of fuller detail ori what appears to be a
very interesting subject. R. CLARK.
Walthamstow, Essex.
PLAYING CARDS ON A CHURCH TOWER (9 th S. iii. 90). The curious opening in the south face of the fourteenth-century tower of Little Wittenham Church, Berks, certainly bears a strong resemblance to the ace of spades, and local tradition has attached to this archi- tectural vagary a legend which attributes the erection of the tower to a lucky game of cards, in which that particular card brought a large sum to a gambler, who devoted a portion to the church, marking his gift with this leaf from the 'Devil's Picture - Book.' No other cards are represented on this tower so far as I know ; the opening in the west face, which might be taken for the ace of clubs, is only the ordinary " cross arrow-slit " form usual at that date. H. MESSENGER.
ROMAN NUMERALS (9 th S. iii. 90). There cannot be any doubt, I imagine, as to which is preferable, MCM. being correct as well as shorter. I have for a time been exercising my mind as to how those of us who usually contract the month and year are to do so intelligibly next year. Not a few, to save time, write, say, for the 6th of this month, 6/3/99. It is evident that the year cannot be shortened thus, /OO. Now what is to be done ? ALFRED CHAS. JONAS, F.S.A.Scot.
CAXON (9 th S. ii. 26, 132). Caxon is the eighteenth-century form of cajon, Castilian for a box, or chest, or drawer. May it have been used as the name of some kind of Spanish wig having the shape of a box or sold in a box ? A wig might be considered a case or box for the head. An old wig may well have been thrown into what Spaniards call the caxon de sastre, or box for odds and ends. The Spaniards have an expression which is very nearly our " give a wigging to."
PALAMEDES.
" THREE ACRES AND A cow " (8 th S. xi. 365, 432, 475, 517 ; xii. 57). The following letter, signed J. H. L, in the Standard of 9 Feb. gives an earlier origin for this phrase than any at these references :
"Neither Mr. Impey nor Mr. Jesse Collings is entitled to the honour of having initiated the political panacea of 'Three acres and a cow.' In his journey ' From London to Land's End,' a certain person not unknown to English readers viz., Daniel Defoe states that he was the author of a scheme for providing certain refugees from the
