78
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 27, 1007.
their ' English Etymology ' think the con-
nexion is doubtful. Ettmiiller, however,
in his ' Lexicon Anglo-Saxonicum ' gives
brimse, tdbanus, with a reference to Cottonian
MS. 160, and with this compares briosa,
tdbanus. The occurrence of brimse or
brimsey for a gadfly in the dialects seems
to show that it is really an old English word.
Dr. Murray speaks less magisterially than
MR. MAYHEW. I note also that Prof. Whit-
ney in ' The Century Dictionary ' says that
breese, breosa, is " supposed to be an irregular
reduction of brimsa."
A. SMYTHE PALMER.
BACON'S APOPHTHEGMS (10 S. vii. 328, 435). Byron's remarks on the mistakes made by Bacon in his ' Apophthegms ' were discussed in vol. xi. of the Ninth Series, to which I contributed a letter (p. 199).
May I add that at 9 S. xii. 156 I showed that Bacon's blunders were not confined to the ' Apophthegms,' but that his ' Essays ' are full of similar mistakes and misquotations? These I need not repeat. They are open to all who read my note referred to, as well as the strictures on this point by Reynolds, the editor of the Clarendon Press edition of the Bacon ' Essays.'
Further reference to Bacon's fallibility will be found in articles I contributed at 9 S. xi. 469 ; xii. 54. Baconians do not claim infallibility for Bacon any more than Shakespeareans can do for Shakespeare. As our old friend Horace says : " Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus."
GEORGE STRONACH.
" PISCON-LED " (10 S. vii. 226, 376). As Miss CLARK has not, apparently, had before her an accurate quotation of my note at the first reference, I repeat the chief points of it. Palgrave, in the Quarterly article to which I referred, only mentions inci- dentally the Norman superstition (not "legend") about Vherbe maudite. He does not say what the plant was. Apart from the name, the Norman superstition is just what I was familiar with in Wales. The Welsh belief as I know it is described exactly by Miss CLARK'S informant (a Pembroke- shire woman of the " yeoman class " who knew no Welsh) :
" 'In the grey of the morning Dai, going through the fields, gets into Lidget Snap, and round and round he goes in that field till he felt like one bewitched, for no such a thing could he find [as] a way out. Piscon-led they was used to call it, or pisco-led it might be.' 'Pixie-led?' Miss Clark suggested. '"Piscon-led" I believe it was. No, there's no meaning to it as I ever heard ; it was just a word.'" Folk-lore, xv. 196, June, 1904.
That is all ; there is nothing about the field
being " haunted " by a " being " of any
kind. What especially interested me in
Miss CLARK'S note was that it enabled me-
to give a name to a superstition well known
to me from childhood. As to that lady'&
statement at the second reference, I may
say that " rapper " is a perfectly good
English word ; but in the ' E.D.D.' I cannot
find it applied to a foxglove, nor have I ever
heard it so applied in South Wales. Bysedd
y cum (lit. "dogs' toes") or dail b.y c.
("leaves of d.t.") in the plural are the
only terms known to me. If bys cwn is or
has been in use, it would be virtually
identical with pis-con. In fact, this super-
stition belongs to that large and widely
diffused class of things which it is reckoned
"unlucky" to do, such as "crossing""
knife-blades, putting a pair of boots on a
table, or walking under a ladder.
J. P. OWEN. 70, Comeragh Road, West Kensington, W.
Piscon-led is evidently the same as pixy- led. The pixies are sometimes called pisgies.
" This turning of the coat, or some other article- of dress, is found to be the surest remedy against Pixy-illusion. Mrs. Bray says that the old folk in Tavistock have recourse to it as a preventive against being pixy-led, if they have occasion to go out after sundown." Keightley's ' Fairy Mythology.'
E. YARDLEY.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years- 1535-1543. Parts I. -III. Edited by Lucy Toulm in Smith. (Bell & Sons.)
THERE can be few more welcome reprints than this of the 'Itinerary' of the "learned Leland." The edition is to consist of five volumes, of which the first is before us ; and the third, ' The Itinerary in Wales,' has already appeared. The present volume, begun by Mr. G. L. Gomme, but relinquished by him through pressure of official engagements, has- been most ably carried on and concluded by Miss Toulmin Smith, whose care and accuracy it would be difficult to praise too highly.
The Introduction, which is of adequate, but by no means excessive length, is in three parts, of which the first deals with the life of the antiquary and the various works projected and accomplished by him ; the second treats of the manuscripts of the 'Itinerary'; while the third gives a brief account of the plan or method followed by Leland so far as it can be conjectured in the writing of his book. That the 'Itinerary' consisted actually of several journeys seems beyond a doubt, and Miss Toulmin Smith suggests that Leland's mode of work was, in all probability, "to note down his facts on the spot, or from various local enquiries ; then later, at leisure, he wrote his narrative direct from them,.
