are recorded; which are only part of the deaths of

buryed the first of October.

John the sonne of John and Margaret Mills was baptised Aprill the fifteenth,

The same John was buried April the one and twentyeth.

The mortality among the infants, and often the mothers too, appears exceptional. I have picked out of the register the following entries relating to one family; and I may have omitted some, owing to gaps and defects in the register :

1640. Justiana the daughter of William & Helen Bransbye baptised July 4th.

Justiana the daughter of William and Helen Bransbye was buried August 20th.

1641. Anne the daughter of William and Helen Braneby was baptised July 25th.

The same Anne was buryed July 31st. 1642. Robert the sonne of William and Helen Bransbye was baptised January the first.

buryed September the first.

1644. Robert the sonne of William and Helen Bransbye 1648. Helen the daughter of William and Helen Bransbye was baptised October the two and twentyeth. The same Helen was buried November the twentysixth.

1655. Robert the sonne of William and Ellen bransbye was baptised December 26.

1656. Robert the sonne of William and Ellen bransbye was buried July 10.

1657. Bridget the daughter of William and Ellen Bransbye was baptised the 27 of May.

Bridget the daughter of William and Ellen Bransbye

was buried June 8.

As the weather suddenly became warm and bright, and the air there is very pure and bracing, and was just then full of the scent of myraids of wild roses and fields of beans in flower, the study of the register was hastily abandoned. I hope my interest in "the rude forefathers of the hamlet" may be shared by several readers of N. & Q.' But I think of some of those homely people it could not be said—

Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. For although in several cases it is recorded they were born, sometimes that they were married, not seldom there is no record of their death; so they either moved to other parishes, or, as I prefer to think, they fled to their friends and co-religionists over the sea, where most likely "Trewthe" Bransby had gone before.

Heapham Rectory, Gainsborough.

R. R.

THE FIRST FOLIO OF SHAKSPEARE.-In the Aplendidly critical analysis of the life and works

National Biography' there is only one sentence to which I would venture to take a doubtful exception, and that is a mere "aside." It is such an article as this, the successor of a long line equally admirably, that renders the dictionary not only a monument of learning, but a standard authority for all time. After persuing this biography of Shakespeare, no sane reader will again propound those fantastic theories of authorship to which we have from time to time been treated. We stand amazed, not so much at the amount of knowledge of the man which is here brought out (for Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps had previously gathered this together), but at what reads almost like a new discovery, that the dramatist's work was, in fact, widely appreciated in his own day. The article is at once a revelation and a barrier to those impotent discussions on the authorship that have hitherto only been scotched, never killed.

The sentence to which I have referred is as follows: "About twenty perfect copies, and the same number of imperfect copies, of the first folio seem now known." I was under the impression that the number was much larger; but with a little are actually two copies in this village, and though trouble the question might be settled. There that is an accidental circumstance (for one is a visitor from Cambridge), it indicates the probable existence of a considerable number which have not yet been located. Has no list ever been attempted or published? If not, it occurs to me that such a list would be most interesting. Though not the rarest or most valuable of English works, yet the first folio possesses a unique interest, and the list could not fail to prove acceptable to a large class. If your readers, then, would kindly send me on a postcard the whereabouts of any copy of whose existence they may happen to know, I would gladly prepare a list and send it to N. & Q.' for publication.

HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

FRENCH INVASION OF FISHGUARD IN 1797.The correspondents of N. & Q' who expressed much interest on this subject last year may be glad to learn that the centenary has been observed this month with all due ceremonial, of which a full account is given in the County Echo for Thursday, 8 July, published by Levi Evans, County Echo office, Fishguard, Pembroke shire. A. M. D.

Blackheath.

[See 8th S. ix. 247, 318, 433, 479.]

THE JUBILEE AND THE PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD. -It will not, I think, be alien to the spirit of 'N. & Q' to note the extraordinary coincidence that this annus mirabilis is setting forth of the marvellous development of at once the widespread enlargement and the growing tendency to

unity alike in both Church and State at the close of this nineteenth century. This year 1897 will be alike to be remembered in the annals of both as a date when representatives of both alike were gathered from all the ends of the world to meet, the one in an historic pageant, the other in conclave to memorialize the foundation of our national Church, but both alike to emphasize the expansion and the unity of each. The sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign suggested to perhaps the most wise and patriotic Colonial Secretary we have ever had, Mr. Chamberlain, the showing forth at once the world-wide expansion and the practical unity of her vast dominions. The actual coincidence of this-humanly speaking -purely accidental conjunction with the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the English Church and the Pan-Anglican Synod deserves at least to be noted as symbolizing in Church and State alike the marvellous expansion and the concentrated unity as displayed at one and the same time in both the chief departments of our body politic. CHARLOTTE G. BOGER.

Chart Sutton.

"JESU, LOVER OF MY SOUL."-Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology' says (p. 590):—

"The opening stanza of this hymn has given rise to questions which have resulted in more than twenty different readings of the first four lines. The first difficulty is the term Lover as applied to our Lord. From an early date this tender expression was felt by many to be beneath the solemn dignity of a hymn addressed to the Divine Being. Attempts have been made to increase the reverence of the opening line by the sacrifice of its pathos and poetry. The result was, 'Jesu, Refuge of my soul, a reading which is still widely adopted; Jesus, Saviour of my soul,' and Father, Refuge of my soul. Wesley's reading, however, has high sanction. In the Wisdom of Solomon, xi. 26, we read: 'But Thou sparest all, for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of souls.""

·

Canon Farrar, in his notes on the Wisdom of Solomon in Dr. Wace's edition of the Bible, characterizes pidouxe as "an exquisite and original expression" (while pointing out that in classical Greek pilóyvxos means "loving life," i. e., cowardly); and thinks the epithet may have been suggested by Ezek. xviii. 4, "Behold, all souls are mine." What suggested to Wesley's mind the expression "Jesu, Lover of my soul" does not seem to be known; but it is a curious coincidence that an almost identical form of words was used as the title of a little book published in Amsterdam in 1725, the author being the Rev. Petrus Synjeu, who from 1704 to 1726 (when he died) held the post of Rector of the Seminary in Colombo, Ceylon. The title of the book runs :

"Jesus de Minnaar der Ziele, Gezogt, gevonden, en by hem verkeert, Vertonende de overgang van een Wereldeling Uyt de staat der Natuur tot den staat der genade en kind Gods."

It does not appear from the book itself what

suggested this title to the author; but in it he elaborates the idea of the "Minnaar" after the manner of the theologians of that day. I can hardly suppose that Wesley had seen this book (I am not aware that he knew Dutch); but the coincidence in words which I have pointed out is remarkable. DONALD FERGUSON. 5, Bedford Place, Croydon.

ABRAHAM SHARP.-It is to be regretted that the writer of the account of the above in the sult Mr. Cudworth's Life and Correspondence of 'Dictionary of National Biography' did not conAbraham Sharp,' which appeared in 1889. Reference to it would not only have saved the writer in question from several mistakes (eg., the date of the death of his hero is given not quite correctly), but enabled him to include many interesting particulars respecting one to whom the Greenwich Observatory in its early days, and therefore the science W. T. LYNN. of astromony, owed much.

Blackheath.

IMPERSONATORS OF MEG MERRILIES.-It had originally been intended by Daniel Terry, the actor and adaptor of Scott's Guy Mannering' for stage performance, that John Emery should represent Meg Merrilies; but John refused to go into petticoats. Mrs. Powell (formerly fellow-servant with Lady Hamilton in her days of servitude at Dr. Budd's) was next asked to take the part. She refused, and a quarrel over the matter ensued between herself and the management at Covent Garden Theatre, in consequence of which she left the company. So, as a last resource, the imper sonation was given to Mrs. Egerton, who obtained in it a complete success. Mrs. Egerton was also the original representative of two other creations of Sir Walter Scott-Madge Wildfire and Helen Macgregor.

celebrated actress, made the performance of the Forty years ago Miss Charlotte Cushman, a despised Meg Merrilies a spécialité. Writing from the house of her brother-in-law, Dr. Muspratt, of Wavertree, Liverpool, 24 Oct., 1856, to a manager of a Blackburn theatre, she says, "If you can insure me twenty pounds for the night, I will be with you on the 28th, and will act Meg Merrilies, which will be the best attraction."

Camden Lawn, Birkenhead.

HILDA GAMLIN.

BEANFEAST BEANO. (See 1st S. x. 163, xi. 16; 2nd S. v. 209; 3rd S. iv. 186, 260.)-Questions have been addressed to N. & Q.' as to the origin of the word beanfeast on more than one occasion without eliciting a satisfactory reply. One corre spondent, DR. MACKENZIE WALCOTT, suggested that the name was derived from the custom of farmers regaling their men at the conclusion of the bean-harvest; but this derivation is scarce admissible. 'Chambers's Encyclopædia' derive

the word from beans, or the bean - goose (the Anser ferus of Ray) being the staple of the feast, which is a very conjectural derivation. Reference is also made to the mysterious use of the bean in the lemuralia and parentalia, a custom which is preserved in our Twelfth-night festivities; but these examples are scarcely to the purpose. It is said that in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises' (1680) the payment called "footing" made by an apprentice on entering a shop is called " benvenue," but I have not been able to verify this statement. In 'Gent's Autobiog.' (1746) I find, however, the word "ben-money" used for this payment, and I think it is possible that the word "ben "may have been transferred by a wellknown figure from the money which furnished the feast to the feast itself. Gent (who was a printer), in relating his early experiences, says :

"On my entrance amongst a number of young men, besides paying what is called Ben-money, I found soon after I was, as it were, to be dubbed as great a cuz as the famous Don Quixote seemed to be when he thought himself a knight, and that the Muleteer was Lord of the Castle, in the yard of which he judged the honour was conferred."

ANCESTORS.-On the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canterbury on 29 May, the Dean is reported as having mentioned Edward the Black Prince as the Prince's ancestor. The mayor of another city in Kent once referred to the Queen's ancestors Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary I., who had no children. Edward the Black Prince had two sons; but as they both died childless, explanation seems required. KILLIGREW.

LADY KATHERINE GREY.-The volume last issued of the 'Dictionary of National Biography includes the Seymours, and Lady Katherine (Grey), wife of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, has her place. The lady's story occupied considerable space in N. & Q., 8th S. vii. and viii. (Feb. to Aug., 1895), and the attempt was made by me to correct errors hitherto current. It is, therefore, disappointing to find that the correction has been fruitless so far as it concerns the latest account of Lady Katherine, viz., that which now appears in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' The ascertained year of her birth is not stated, and the old errors are repeated, that the earl and countess were recommitted to the Tower in 1564, and that the latter, for the benefit of her failing health, was finally transferred from the Tower by the Lieutenant, Sir Owen Hopton, to his country house, Cockfield Hall, in Suffolk, where she died.

The fact was, as I attempted to show, Lady

Katherine never returned to the Tower after leaving it in Aug., 1563, but that during the remaining space of her life, four years and five months, she was, by command of the queen, passed from one keeper to another in the country, the last of these keepers being Sir Owen Hopton (not then Lieutenant of the Tower), in whose house, Cockfield Hall, she died on 27 January, 1568.

Truly literary errors die hard! And as the account of Lady Katherine in N. & Q' has evidently escaped the notice of the writer in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' might it not be useful to include in the 'Index of Archæological Papers,' now annually published, such articles of that nature as appear in 'N. & Q.'? W. L. RUTton.

27, Elgin Avenue, W. "TALLY-HO."

The Century Dictionary rightly connects this with Fr. taïaut, having the same sense, used as a cry to incite dogs. See Molière, Les Fâcheux,' II. vii. Godefroy gives several varieties of the same cry in old French, viz., thiaulau, thialaut, thialhaut, thahaut, tha tha thahaut, and ta ha thiaulaut. Such a variant as thialaut haut would give the form which was probably the original of the English exclamation. The component parts of the phrase appear to be unmeaning interjections. WALTER W. SKEAT.

EPITAPH.-I copy the following epitaph from a Welsh paper :

"In a little churchyard near Llanymynech is a tombs stone with these lines upon it :

In crossing o'er the fatal bridge, John Morgan he was slain, But it was not by mortal hand, But by a railway train. John Morgan was the huntsman to the Tanatside Harriers, and paid the capital penalty for taking a short cut along the Cambrian line."

F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY.

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE COMMEMORATION SER

VICE.-There is a variation in one of the rubrics in this order from the rubric as it stands in the Prayer Book, which has not been pointed out, so the Commemoration rubric is," Then shall be said far as I have noticed. After the second lesson, Prayer Book it is, "Then shall be sung or said, &c," or sung the Apostles' Creed, &c." But in the inclined to found an argument in favour of a choral a collocation of words upon which Dr. Arnold was rendering (Sermons, iii. 202). The alteration was needless and to be regretted.

Hastings.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

CURFEW. A custom which still lingers in the North of England shows the true meaning of the word curfew, and the reason why the curfew bell was rung. It was usual to keep the kitchen fire burning all right. About 9 P.M. in winter, and

"

rather later in summer, a quantity of "raking slack was shot out of a wooden coal-box upon the fire. This box was like a big wooden shoe, or slipper, with a handle at each side. Then water out of a lading can was thrown upon the fire, to make it "crozzil" better. About five in the morning in summer, and six in winter, the fire was revived by putting in a few sticks. Owing to the increased price of coal, and also to the invention of matches, this custom has been generally discontinued, but it is remembered by old people. In some houses in South Yorkshire the fire is still "slaked" and kept burning all night in winter to maintain warmth. In earlier times, when wood was burnt, a big log of wood, once known as a "head brand "* or "hearth-stock," was put at the back of the fire, and the fire was "slaked," or covered up for the night, by pulling this log down, and raking other pieces of wood upon it. Those who have seen a Yule log burnt behind the fire at Christmas will readily understand how this was done. The Yule log is pulled down just as the "headbrand" was. Amongst the Greeks and Romans "it was a sacred obligation for the master of every house to keep the fire up night and day. Woe to the house where it was extinguished! Every evening they covered the coals with ashes, to prevent them from being entirely consumed. In the morning the first care was to revive this fire with a few twigs."§ On these grounds we may conclude that the curfew bell was rung as a signal not, as is commonly supposed, to put the fire out, but to keep it in by "covering" it up with slack. It was a warning to "slake" the fire and go to bed. The covering" of the fire was done in three ways: 1. By throwing a little water upon the burning coals to diminish the speed of combustion. Damp peat would do the same thing. 2. By throwing ashes on the coals for the same purpose. 3. By laying a thick log of wood on the coals.

S. O. ADDY.

Repofocilium, an hedbronde"-Wright-Wülcker, 'Vocab.,' 607, 33. "Herthe stok or kynlym, repofocilium.”—Prompt. Parv., ed. Way, p. 237. This is explained in the Catholicon' as" id quod tegit ignem in nocte, vel quod retro ignem ponitur; super quod a posteriori parte foci ligna ponuntur, quod vulgo lar dicitur."

Compare such phrases as "to slacken (diminish) speed."

De Coulanges, 'The Ancient City,' Boston, U.S.A., p. 29, where numerous references are given.

word is Ajuz, whose various significations are rendered as follows in Richardson's Dictionary':"An old woman, a young woman of a delicate constitution, a traveller, a king, a kingdom, an army, a battalion, a governor of a province or city, a companion, familiar, intimate, consort, heaven, the universe, the world, the earth, the sun, a parhelion, halo, or red circle surrounding the sun, a heap of sand, a road, path, way, the temple of Mecca, a Christian church, a monastery, the sea, a ship, a well, a hot wind, hell, calamity, misfortune, contrariety, vanity, hunger, hungry, a fever, dart, the point of a sword, a stud or nail in a sword-bilt, health, the right hand, war, a tent, a shield, a kind of a needle, a sting, a bow, a quiver, a standard, ensign, colours, a drum, a feather, a dish, a plate, a kettle, a pot, a bottle, a flask, a trivet, a grate, anything supporting a pot or holding fire, an impression made by burning, a page, a leaf, a sheet of paper, &c., a woman's shift or boiled, purified, or salted, wine, a species of perfume, under-garment, a dish of food made of a sea herb, butter musk, silver, price or value, a weight of four drachms. delay, a lion, a horse, a bull, a cow, a he-wolf, a she-wolf, a she camel, a hare, a hyena, a dog, poison or venom, uterus, pubes feræ, a palm tree, a species of plant called summak, five, or according to some seven, days at the winter solstice, an ill-looking old woman, infirm, helpless, unable to support life, aged (woman)."

A pretty fair number and variety of meaninga for one word! PATRICK MAXWELL.

Bath.

CALDWALL HALL, KIDDERMINSTER. (See 8th S. xi. 488.)-The British Archæological Society visited Kidderminster on 26 August, 1881. Probably the secretary would be able to supply MR. H. K. CLARK with information respecting the map mentioned by CUTHBERT BEDE. Anent the above visit a series of illustrated notes on the locality appeared in Society in August, 1881. The number for 27 August lies before me, and contains several characteristic sketches by CUTHBERT BEDE.. Amongst them is one of Caldwall Castle, or Caldwall Hall, as it is now generally called. Áppended! to the sketch is the following note:

"Caldwall Castle stands on the banks of the river Stour, on the outskirts of Kidderminster, on the road to Stourport. It had six towers, only one of which remains, octangular in form, of red sandstone, and of great solidity. It contains two large rooms, with a stone staircase to a tower on the leads; and has a groined baseof a modern house, which has been closely invaded by ment story with an arched door. It now forms a portion modern-built mills and factories. Its old gardens and trees, however, are still preserved."

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

JOHN T. PAGE.

MACAULAY AND ROBERT MONTGOMERY.

Macaulay, in his eagerness to damn Robert Montgomery, is sometimes unjust. He quotes this line from Montgomery's poems :

A soulless thing, a spirit of the woods. Then he asks, "" How can a soulless thing be a spirit?" But if he had stayed to think he could have answered his own question easily enough. A fairy is a soulless thing and a spirit. Undine was