490 NOTES AND QUERIES, MAY SAYING. What is the actual mean- ing of the saying : Don't cast a clout Till May be out. I have always taken it to mean an admoni- tion not to change to thinner clothes Until the month of May was over, but recently I heard it interpreted as not to change until the- may-blossom or hawthorn (or possibly the little meadow mayflower) was in bloom. This latter seems more probable, as the blossom comes early or late according to the season, whereas the weather is very unstable from year to year at the end of May. R. M. RICHARD PEACHEY OF MILDENHALL, Co. SUFFOLK. Richard, son of Richard Peachey of Mildenhall, Co. Suffolk, married, about 1730, Susan . The usual sources of information .have been searched in vain. Can any reader supply date and place of marriage and wife's maiden name ? Answers direct, please. GEORGE C. PEACHEY. Ridge, Barnet, Herts. JOHN SYMONS OF EXETER, SURGEON. Information is desired concerning family I and career of above, whose death took place Nov. 8, 1788. GEORGE C. PEACHEY. MARY GODWIN. The Rev. J. H. Torre, an Old Harrovian, in his ' Recollections of j School Days at Harrow,' writes : " Among | the celebrities then resident in Harrow j were Mrs. Shelley (nee Godwin), wife of j the poet." Mr. Torre was at Harrow | 1831-1838. Can any light be thrown oni this statement ? W. W. DRUETT. PYE HOUSE. What is a "pye house" We have in Harrow a very old building j known as Harrow Pye House. It is in imminent danger of demolition. Can any' reader tell me what a pye house was ? It is only a small building. W. W. DRUETT. ESSEX CHEESE AND B ANBURY CHEESE. Are there any references available from which could be learnt the size of these two cheeses, their methods of manufacture and their distinctive characteristics ? The ' English Gazetteer ? states, under the head
- County of Essex,' that " Essex cheese is
celebrated in old balladry. " Under date Aug. 13, 1546, in the first volume of the^ ' Acts of the Privy Council,' it is noted that a licence was granted to export Essex cheese from Ipswich to Antwerp ; and in Heywood's ' Epigrams ' (sixteenth century) we are told : I never saw Banbury cheese thick enough, But I have often seen Essex cheese quick enough. A quotation from another source reads : " You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring.' 2 Brewer, in his ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' states that " Banbury is a rich milk cheese about an inch in thick- ness. " What is the authority for this statement ? R. HEDGER WALLACE. HANS ANDERSEN'S ' THE IMPRO VISA- TORE.' 1. Dante. The hostile com- ments on Dante by some eighteenth and early nineteenth century writers, quoted on p. 439 ante, may remind the reader of Habbas Dahdah, the conceited pedant and poetaster who was " the sesthetical head of the Jesuit school, nay, of the Academia Tiberina," in Hans Andersen's novel ' The ImprovisatOre ' (trans, by Mary Howitt ; Richard Bentley, London, 1847). Andersen himself, on the other hand, evidently shared his hero's ardent admiration of Dante. Was his reason for making the scorner of Dante " an Arab by descent " reluctance to attribute such opinions to a genuine Italian ? And was Habbas Dahdah in any way a portrait of the "school rector" (? head master) who used to hold Andersen up to ridicule, according to his Life (p. xxiii. ) given as a preface to the volume, or of any unfriendly critic ? 2. " Harlequin." Can any reader ex- plain the use of the word " harlequin," apparently in the sense of butt, applied to Habbas Dahdah ? The hero writes : Every society, the political as well as the spiritual, assemblies in the taverns, and the elegant circles around the card-tables of the rich,, all have their harlequin ; he bears now a mace, orders, or ornaments ; a school has him no less. The young eyes easily discover the butt of their jests. We had ours, as well as any other club, and ours was the most solemn, the most grumbling, growling, preaching of harlequins, and, on that account, the most exquisite (p. 55). Is this a Danish use of the word ? Or is the translation at fault I G. H. WHITE. 23, Weight on Road, Anerley.
