A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. Page 597 598 599 599 600 602 602 605 605 607 G07 GO8 609 €09 - 611 - 611 Replies to Minor Queries: - Death-place of Spinoza Mitigation of Capital Punishment to a Forger - Watch Oaks" Betwixt the Stirrup and the Ground"- St. Luke-Inscription at Dewsbury Miles CoverdaleDeodorising Peat-" My Mind to me a Kingdom is "Ball the Priest and Jack Straw-Richard III.-Genealogy of Sir Francis Drake-Berkeley's Sublime System Highlands and Lowlands-The Erse spoken in America-Biting the Thumb- Sermons against Inoculation-Vegetable Ivory-Misprint in PrayerBooks-The Fern Osmunda MISCELLANEOUS : Notes on Books, &c. Books and Odd Volumes wanted Advertisements VOL. VI.-No. 165. 612 614 617 618 618 --618 Great and long has been the discussion about the nature of Robin Hood-whether he was a myth or a real personage. There are two strong (in our opinion, decisive) reasons for holding that Robin Hood was a widelyspread myth, and no mere English outlaw, whose sphere of action was some English forest. 1. Robin Hood was well known in Scotland. His former great celebrity in that country is vouched for by the unimpeachable authority of an act of parliament, passed in the reign of Queen Mary, prohibiting the pleys and personages of Robin Hood, Little John," &c. There is no ground for supposing that these "pleys and personages were borrowed from the English; on the contrary, it must be admitted that in those days, and long before, the Scotch were not in any mood to borrow customs from the English, whom they viewed and named, with reason, as their "aulde enemies." The legitimate inference, then, is, that the name and fame of Robin were originally common to both countries. With special reference to the next reason, though it has a decided bearing on the preceding one also, it may be here stated, that we concur in the opinion that Robin was the ideal embodiment of outlaws dwelling in the green wood, the wellknown resort of freebooters when they flourished in former ages; and that his name, Robin Hood, was a contraction of Robin O'Wood. The next reason, then, for holding that Robin was no mere English outlaw, is, 2. That we found, somewhat to our surprise, on glancing through a novel of Eugene Sue's some time ago, that he there introduces a Robin de Bois as a well-known mythical character, whose name is employed by French mothers to frighten their children. The original names, in English and French, are thus the same in meaning, and the French custom is in perfect accordance with Robin's position, as the ideal representative of lawless men, whatever his merits might have been in other respects. The difference in name, and its popular use, clearly tend to show that the tr dition must have been as original in France as in England and Scotland. As the fame of Robin thus flourished not only in England, but in Scotland and France, the conclusion seems inevitable, that he was no mere English outlaw dwelling in some English forest, but an ideal character, resulting from the general lawless state of society in remote times in these three kingdoms. It may now be remarked, with reference to what has been commonly urged as to Robin having been a real personage who had lived in England, that it is perfectly indisputable that there have been real persons in England, and in Scotland also, of the name of Hood, and that many of them must, in all likelihood, have borne the very common Christian name of Robin; but, from such a fact, at once narrow, vague, and locally limited in its character, to draw the conclusion that some one of those who happened to bear that name was the renowned Robin of tradition, in his romantic conduct and character, and in his widespread celebrity, seems to us both illogical and unphilosophical. The name John Bull, applied to the English nation, implies no real personage, though we suppose there have been men of that name. And the gratuitous supposition in Robin's case, arising from mere similarity in name, and which has always reference to England only, can never account for Robin's French fame and French name, even supposing that we should be so complaisant as to keep out of view his former great celebrity in Scotland. We do certainly admit that the traditionary fame of Robin has been much better preserved in ballads in England than anywhere else. We can, perhaps, account for the comparative oblivion of Robin of the Wood in Scotland, by the fact that, in the Lowlands, the ancient woods have been long destroyed; and as for the Highlands, Robin never seems to have enjoyed Celtic fame; and the effect of the act of parliament above referred to must also be taken into account. Matters were entirely the reverse in England, where the ancient forests have been preserved to some extent even to the present day, and where Robin's "pleys and personages were not prohibited by the legislature. With reference to the state of the tradition in France, we know nothing more of Robin's position there than what has been stated above. In what has been advanced, it is of course not Imeant to be denied that the name and fame of Robin must have originated somewhere. From the wide prevalence of the myth, and the unity, yet diversity, in the name (Robin Hood alias De Bois), it may probably have been of ancient Teutonic origin. Or the wandering minstrels of a later, yet very remote, period may have been the authors, as they and their successors were, no doubt, the great upholders and embet Robin's fame. We suspect no clear ligh: be thrown on these points; but the myt the marks of great antiquity, and of his deep into the popular minds of England and France; and it would rather sea obtained its greatest development in E We shall now briefly sum up what, mitted, there are good grounds for infer 1. The name Robin Hood was no pe but a purely descriptive name. 2. It was the name of the ideal perscs of a class- the outlaws of former times. 3. Robin's fame had extended through. land, Scotland, and France; and, so far a present be seen, it seems to have pertained to these three countries. 4. Though men of the name of Robin have existed in England, that of itself cou no ground for inferring that some one of the the Robin Hood of romantic tradition; b pretence for such a supposition is taken a the strong evidence, both Scotch and Frem adduced in support of the opposite view. SHAKSPEARE AND LUCIAN BUONAPABIL During the autumn of 1848 I made an t sion to Stratford-upon-Avon, chiefly with a to inspect a locality made famous by its con with the memory of our immortal dramatist. [ visiting the far-famed house, I perceived: hanging over the kitchen fire-place, from i copied the following verses, and the exp notice preceding them; but could obtains formation respecting the person by whose si it had been there placed. The recent de Her Majesty's ministers respecting Shaky house recalled the circumstance to my which I thought not unworthy of being re in the pages of "N. & Q." "About the year 1810, Lucian Buonapart of Napoleon, passing through Stratford, v house, and inscribed, where this frame now h lines in honour of the poet. These, the then the house, a silly and capricious person, orders white-washed over. As they are the composi one of the most distinguished foreigners done honour to Shakspeare, a copy of them i subjoined: "The eye of Genius glistens to admire 4 "L. BUONAPARTE, Principe di Canin I would be glad to learn from more recent visitors, whether the board in question stil mains in the place where I found it in Aur 1848. TCS 1 DR. WALKER AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. He The accompanying letter, from a singular person who forty years ago was a London celebrity, may not be uninteresting on the present occasion, when every anecdote relating to the great Duke attracts attention. I shall feel obliged if you will give it insertion in "N. & Q. ;" and I shall also be thankful if any of your correspondents can furnish any biographical notices of Dr. Walker.* He practised in Walbrook, and was a curiosity in his day. wore the rigid Quaker costume, spoke much in the style of his letter, was a zealous vaccinator, went out to Alexandria with Sir Ralph Abercrombie's expedition, and was in some way acknowledged as on the medical staff of the army, and practised vaccination on a liberal scale in the expectation of equally protecting the soldiery from ophthalmia and the plague. He founded a museum, which he called the "E Donis Museum," as it was not to contain any article which was not a gift. As it may be imagined, some queer things were contributed amongst others which figured in his catalogue, was a rusty buckle worn at the waistband of Harry VIII.; a "holy farthing;" a farthing with a hole in it; a paring of the hoof of the cow that first propagated cow-pox, &c. The catalogue I once possessed of it is yet in existence: it is a curiosity. Tavern, Lincoln's Inn Fields, thou sayest, Dr. Walker, a member of the Society of Friends, stepped on the platform, and, after pressing the Duke of Wellington's hand, which was courteously extended, the Doctor addressed the meeting,' &c. "A sort of growl of impatience from behind the chair prevented me from fully expressing my ideas; or I might have called aloud on the chairman to follow the example of an elder brother. Thou, Arthur, Duke of Wellington, I remember, hast, heretofore, pressed that hand (which thou kindly extendest to me) on the thorax of a fallen tyrant at the gate of Seringapatam, to try whether he yet respired. After all thy martial achievethee to go on, conquering and to conquer,' in that ments in two different quarters of the world, I wish warfare into which thou art now enlisted, the strife of Michael and his angels against the Dragon and his angels. May ye not cease from your labours till the galling chain of African bondage, heretofore connecting the opposite hemispheres, and now happily rent in twain at its centre and sunken in the ocean, be broken in pieces in all its yet remaining extremities. Remember, though there may still be duties for thee to perform beyond De Gama's Cape of Storms; and as a noble relative, by liberal remuneration of the Bramins, opposed barriers in Hindostan, more extensively than other individual against the spotted plague, which has heretofore ravaged all the regions of the earth; and by ordinance most decisive, as Governor-General of India, from his palace of oriental splendour at Calcutta, suppressed a usage more atrocious than the rites of Moloch "John Walker, M.D., to the Editor of the Sunday seeing that there was not any superstition mingled Times.' "Bond Court, Walbrook, 15 x, 1828. "Friend! In the extensive range of the readers of thy hebdomadal tidings, some of my professional friends, I mean sectarian as well as medical, &c., are included. From both, I received the information of thy honourable mention of a very courteous, condescending, attention of the chairman, the Duke of Wellington, to a piece of enthusiasm, on my part, on the founding of King's College, London, at the Freemasons' Tavern, on the day of the Estival Solstice. "On the memorable day of founding of that aca demic institution, under the modest or unassuming title of College,-a college for general education, in which one department is proposed for the younger pupils, and one for the elder students; in which a provision is contemplated for the instruction of casual attendants, as well as of residential students; in which the progress of the pupil, not the privilege of the professor, not the power of the institution to confer degrees as in universities, is the professed object of the eminent characters who have founded the great national establishment the man at the head of the ministerial executive of the greatest empire of the world, condescended to come down to the meeting, and to give it his countenance, his counsel, his support. account of the memorable meeting at the Freemasons' In thy [* Dr. Epps has written a Life of Dr. Walker, which may frequently be met with on the book-stalls of the metropolis. ED.] in the mode of Indian infanticide, as in the sacrificing of children by certain tribes in Africa to their idols, on commencing their expeditions; so, from the comparatively smoky caverns of Westminster, in Christian compassion, if chivalric feeling be not sufficiently stimulant to the deed of relieving the female sex consigned to destruction, let the mandate go forth that the Suttees be hereafter suppressed that the Bramins be compelled to abandon the murderous sacrifice.- Farewell." JAMES CORNISH. ROBIN HOOD'S HILL. The following song was formerly well known in the district to which it refers, and is taken from a manuscript copy in my possession, written in the latter part of last century. The orthography is the same exactly. The peasantry pronounce it as it is above spelt, but its proper pronunciation and name is "Robin's Wood Hill." Wis always sounded in Gloucestershire as H. The "prattling rill" mentioned is strongly impregnated with iron, great quantities of which were formerly dug here for the Gloucester forges. Ye bards who extol the gay vallies and glades, The jessamine bowers, and amorous shades, Who prospects so rural can boast at your will, Yet never once mention'd sweet "Robin Hoo Hill." This hill tho' so lofty, yet so fertile and rare, Here lads and gay lasses in couples resort, Like those that are found on sweet "Robin Hood's Had I all the riches of matchless Peru, I'd forfeit the whole with a hearty good will, praise; Nay Envy herself must acknowledge it still, That no spot's so delightful as "Robin Hood's Hill." FOLK LORE. H. G. D. Stone Coffin and the Goblins.-On visiting a farm called Cortiallock or Carallock in St. Cleer, I saw in the courtyard a very heavy granite coffin, which the owner told me his father had purchased at Rosecradock for a trough, for which purpose it is now serving. The block of moorstone is externally irregular in shape: the hollow is six feet one inch, by one foot four at the head, one foot nine at the breast, and nine inches at the foot; the depth is ten inches at the foot, and seven inches at the head. Upon the stout yeoman purchasing the sarcophagus, he sent his team of oxen and horses to draw it home, which after much labour was accomplished; and the receptacle of former greatness as placed so as to accommodate the swinish herd the farm-yard. After the toils of the day, the family retired to rest. About midnight a peculiar scratching noise below awakened them all; they assemble at the stair-head in fear, and conclude that "the spirits" had come to take the coffin back to Rosecradock, to restore it to its proper resting-place. In considerable awe they wait until dawn, when the maid-servant first ventures down into the dairy; outside which was, the evening before, the coffin. She sees a cat sitting outside the window-sill, and vainly endeavouring to reach its paw through the apertures in the wire-work, in order to reach some tempting gibles hang up close to the window place. Puss cors y scratched the wires, in her ineffectual thoug derous immovability: and as the cat jury perate attempts. Outside lay the coffin in down on it, and Joan removed the giblets, iz spirits departed, and have never troubled the town-place of Carallock since. S. R. P. Cure for Scarlet Fever.-The Irish, when any one has been attacked with scarlet fever, are accustomed to cut off some of the hair of the sick man, which they put down the throat of an ass. By this means the disease is supposed to be charmed away from the patient, and to attack the ass instead. F. M. M. Bayard's Leap. On the great Roman read from Leicester to Lincoln, about four miles from Sleaford, is a spot called Bayard's Leap, where are placed three stones about thirty yards apart, and the legend told by the peasantry is that a valiant knight was riding past, when the witch who haunted the place sprang behind him upon his horse's back, named Bayard, and that the animal in pain and terror made these three terrifie bounds and unhorsed the fiend. This tale has been in existence from time immemorial, and the name of the horse evidently proves a remote orig probably Norman. An ancient preceptory of the Knight Templars is close by, named Tee Bruyere. Newark. Wassailing in Sussex. In Sussex there obtains a custom at Christmas time called "wassailing Under this term is understood the singing cars and songs by parties of labouring men, going about from house to house. They are welcome as the fireside of the cottage and farm, and are stil tolerated at the hall. Christmas fare is shared with them in exchange for their minstrelsy. The period during which this wassailing is lawful, extends from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Day. Until a very recent period, but few of the Sussex labourers could read. They were dependent on oral tra dition for their songs; many are old and curious Two, which are in Percy's Relics, are common'! sung, viz., "The Baillie's Daughter of Fair Is lington," and "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green." There are others apparently as old, which I have not met with in any collection of ballads, "A Sweet Country Life," "The Husbandman and the Serving Man." There is also "Lord Bateman was a Noble Lord," a pretty ballad, made ridiculous a few years since by Cruickshank. These ballads are not only remarkable as poetry, but are sung to very pretty tunes, curious in their style, and probably old as the ballads. H. F. BROADWOOD. Children crying at Baptism.—I have often heard that it was lucky for infants to cry at the time when they were baptized, but have only lately been informed of the reason, which is, that if they are quiet and good then, it seems to show that they are too good to live. Is this the generallyreceived explanation of this very widely-spread superstition? W. FRASER. Night Rains.-I was lately in East Anglia, in the neighbourhood of the breach, called locally the “Gull," made by the late floods in the Ouse, which laid many thousand acres of the fens under water. Of course nothing else was talked of at the time but the inundation, and the probable extent of the damage it would cause. I heard some gentlemen remark, that they had heard from an old woman a saying, common in her youth, but which no one remembered to have heard before, which had been singularly true of the late autumn. She recalled the old rhyme, and it was observed that it had certainly been the case that the greater part of the excessive quantity of rain which fell in the last quarter of 1852 had fallen at night. This old saying seems to me to deserve being put on record in the Folk Lore columns of "N. & Q.” E. A. J. Norfolk and Suffolk Spells.—I take this opportunity of adding to the spells which have been communicated, from time to time, to "N. & Q." the following, still used by the country maidens in Norfolk and Suffolk : "A clover of two, if you put in your shoe, Nursery Rhymes.-Something the other day recalled to my memory the following rhymes which I heard in the nursery, years ago. I have never heard them since, or seen them in print; nor is there intrinsically anything in them worth preserving; yet there is an originality which invests them with pretensions to appear in some future edition of Nursery Rhymes. They are at the service of any of your correspondents or readers making collections: "There was a man, a man indeed, Who saw his garden full of seed, And when the pig began to squeak, I believe there were more of these jingles, which G. A. C. I cannot now recollect. |