Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/109

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

72 Devon Notes and Queries, These relics of the past are not to be moved, repaired and set up in prominent situations upon new foundations without the expenditure of some trouble and pains and money, and it is scarcely fair that this expenditure should entirely fall upon one individual, who possesses perhaps rather a facility for making antiquarian discoveries. I have already rescued one cross from destruction without assistance from anyone — been instrumental in recovering two more, one from the interior of a well, and I am acquainted with the whereabouts of several others. Will any of the readers of Devon Notes and Queries aid in their restoration? W. H. Thornton. 51. Herbs. — Can any reader of the Devon Notes and Queries give any information about herbs, especially those that are still used by the Devonshire people? I should be glad to hear of any that are employed medicinally, and particularly of those used in connection with charms, or that derive increased virtue from being gathered at certain times or from certain places, as, (or example, Cowflop. Even more valuable would be any ,in£^mation about herbs employed at diffdrBQl seasons, Qf ojf various occasions of feasting or mourning, either merely from tradition, as ever- greens at Christmas-time, or with a recognized object, as the Germans grew house-leek on the roof to protect their house from lightning. Any miscellaneous customs or sayings about herbs would be most welcome, and I should be extremely obliged if any correspondent would be good enough to write to me direct at Pynes, Exeter. Rosalind Northcote. 52. Thomas Richards. — Professor W. Bany-Kaufe — Professor of English Literature in the University of Louvain — writes to the Rev. R. Medley Fulford as follows: — It is just possible that Thomas Richards, who was Prior of Totnes and who at the dissolution became Rector of St. George's, Exeter, is the author of an old play

  • Misogonus,' a copy of which is in the library of the Duke of

Devonshire. In this play are two names of localities, viz., ' Banles bush ' and ' Pipers' Hill.' Can any one inform me whether these names occur in the neighbourhood of Totnes or Exeter ? To settle this question would be of the highest importance in the history of the Early English Drama. E.D.S.