430
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. XL JUNE 5, 1915.
WE must request correspondents desiring in
formation on family matters of only private interest
- to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
GAY : REQUEST FOB LETTERS.' Being
-engaged in collecting material for a bio-
graphy of John Gay, the author of 'The
Beggar's Opera,' I venture to beg the
liospitality of your columns to ask any of
your readers who may possess letters written
to or by the poet to be so kind as to com-
municate with me. LEWIS MELVILLE.
3, Douglas Mansions, West End Lane, N.W.
FLOATING IRONCLAD BATTERIES. In the autumn of 1855 three French batteries, the Devastation, Lave, and Tonnante, and two English ones, the Meteor and the Glatton, went out to the Crimea. The French batteries bombarded Kinburn in October, but the English did not get out in time. I want to find an engraving oF one of these batteries. HARRY B. POLAND.
Inner Temple.
" HERALDRY POLE." In describing the torments of John the Baptist, the author of ^the Scottish legend* tells of the interposition of Sanctulus with the cry :-
"[Jjhon, hald his hand [j?at] wald me sla ! " & fra he had sad sua, his harme,f ]>at strekit [wes] on hicht to strik, he ne mocht for al his mycht bryng done, bot [it] stud strekit l^are a hyldry steng as it ware.
'The forms hyldyr, hyttor, &c., of elder (Sam- bucns nigra), given in the 'O.E.D.,' clearly point to the arm of the executioner becoming like a brittle branch of elder. But one would like to know what the editor meant by his note (iii. 385) :
" Hyldry steng = heraldry pole or pike." Is such an article known from other sources ? How was it used, and how did a human arm resemble such an implement ? Q. V.
- ' SACR AMENTUM." Has recent investiga-
tion given us the terms of the formula by Tvhich the Roman soldier " devoted his person, his family, and his goods to Jupiter, in case he should fail in keeping his oath ' ' ? 1 Q. V.
- ' Legends of the Saints ' (Scottish Text
Society), ii. (1896) 247, line 850.
t Sc., the. executioner's arm.
} E. Cuq, in Daremberg's ' Dictionnaire des Antiques Grecques et 'Romaines,' iv. 951 (1908).
CORPUS CHRISTI IN ENGLAND : POST-
REFORMATION. May I ask for assistance in
collecting facts about traces of the keeping
of the Festival of Corpus Christ! in England,
after the incoming of the Reformation pericd,
until now or recent times ? Is there any
monograph, or dictionary, in which the
record of such items is preserved end
particulars gathered together ?
I am aware of what Hampden, in his ' Kalendarium Medii ^Evi,' tells about the Skinners' Company, and there are the two Colleges dedicated in honour of the Blessed Sacrament; but I think that here and there, up and down the country, relics of the observance must still remain, however little understood by those concerned with them, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, or the Sunday following, and it is of such that I am anxious to learn. Have the Law Courts any usages connected with the day ? What is the exact title of the Kalendar, annually issued with the impTimatur of the Archbishop of Canterbury down to 1832, which contained the feast ?
(Rev.) J. FRANK BUXTON.
At St. Margaret's Vicarage, Oxford.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Could any reader identify the following lines ? They are from a Garland printed by Patrick Neill in Belfast in 1700 :
. . . .did bear her to the giound, The bells did ring in solemn sort And made a doleful sound.
17. In earth they laid her then,
For hungry Worms a Prey ; So shall the fairest face alive At length be brought to clay.
EDITOR ' IRISH BOOK LOVER.'
Sweet eyes of starry tenderness Thro' which the soul of some Immortal sorrow looks.
This was given as a title to a picture by J. M. Jopling in 1871. He evidently did not reproduce the poet's verse-form ac- urately. E. RIMBAULT DIBDIN.
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Whence come the lines :
It 's all very well to dissemble your love, But why did you kick me downstairs ?
KATHLEEN WARD.
Beechvvood, Killiney, co. Dublin.
[The first line should begin "Perhaps it was right." They are from Act I. sc. i. of J. P. Kemble's 'The Panel,' 1788, but had appeared anonymously in 'The Annual Register' for 1783, Appendix, p. 201. See note in 'Cassell's Book of Quotations,' ed. 1912, p. 184.]
