470
NOTES AND QUERIES. UIS.XII.DEC. 11,1915.
TREE FOLK-LORE: THE ELDER (11 S.
xii. 361, 410, 429, 450). I incline to think
that speakers and writers have confused the
attributes of the elder with those of the
alder. A friendly spirit dwells in the
former ; but with the latter, as his name
denotes, the erl-ldng is connected, and it is
not likely that its influence should be benign.
Having occasion, since I wrote the above paragraph, to turn to Marlowe's ' The Jew of Malta,' I found Ithamore, nearly at the end of Act IV. saying : " The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder when he hanged himself." Mr. Dyoe's note on this is very interesting to us just now :
" That Judas hanged himself on an elder- tree, was a popular legend. Nay, the very tree was exhibited to the curious in Sir John Mandeville's days : ' And faste by is zit the Tree of Eldre that Judas henge him self upon for despeyt that he hadde whan he solde and betrayed oure Lorde ' (' Voiage and Travaile,' &c., p. 112, ed. 1725). But, according to Pulci, Jud-ishad recourse to a carob- tree:
Fra di sopra a la fonte un carrubbio L'arbor, si dice ove, s'impicco Giuda.
' Morgante Mag., c. xxv. st. 77."
I do not remember ever having read that the Cross was made of apple-wood. The branch which Seth had from Eden and planted on his father's grave is said, in Miss Millington's rendering of Didron's ' Iconographie Chre- tienne,' to have come from the Tree of Life.
- La Legende Doree ' calls it " 1'arbre qui
avait ete la cause du peohe d'Adam " (t. ii. p. 108), -and the story tells how it was contributory to the Cross of Calvary. Accord- ing to another time-hallowed tradition, that Cross was composed of olive, cypress, palm, and cedar.
I still maintain the suspicion with which I began this note, and recommend a consulta- tion of Grimm's ' Teutonic Mythology,' vol. i. pp. 651-3, to those who may wish to pursue the subject. ST. S WITHIN.
CHURCHES USED FOR ELECTION OF MUNICI- PAL OFFICERS (11 S. xii. 360, 404, 430). I am much obliged to your correspondents for their replies, and particularly for the full account of the procedure on one occasion at Grantham.
I have examined the statements at the references given by COL. FYNMORE, and find that all the places there mentioned are, like Grantham, situated in the East of England. I am, however, specially interested in the West, and had hoped that some particulars might be forthcoming concerning Totnes and Plymouth, which have recently been men- tioned (in Dr. Cox's 'English Parish Church '),
but without any details. I understand that
the evidence for these is cf recent discovery - r
hence my desire to be referred to any pub-
lished account fo them. It is important, too,
to ascertain at what period such elections
took place, and whether the procedure was
continued as a regular custom. The quota-
tions given by COL. FYNMORE at 10 S. xiu
337 indicate in the case of Dover that the
usage began in 1585, but how long it lasted
is not shown.
At Lydd and New Romsey it appears to have begun before 1622, and the words of the paragraph quoted from Archceologia Can- tiana, viz., " Around it assemble the Jurats . . . .annually," &c. ; taken with the date of publication (1880), imply that it was con- tinued down to that year. But if so, what about the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Acts ? W. S. B. H.
FRENCH "OF STRATFORD- ATTE- Bo WE '* (11 S. xii. 301, 366, 404).-! regret to find that (through my own careless transcription) words have been omitted from the passage in Ben Jonson's ' The New Inn ' quoted on. p. 404, which should run thus :
Lord Latimer. Is he a scholar ?
Host. Nothing less ;
But colours for it as you see ; wears black, And speaks a little tainted, fly-blown Latin, After the school.
Lord Beaufort. Of Stratford o' the Bow r
For Lillie's Latin is to him unknown.
H. DUGDALE SYKES.
AUTHORS OF FRENCH QUOTATIONS WANTED* (US. xii. 68). 3. The oft-quoted phrase of Talleyrand about which I sent an inquiry has been located by a distinguished scholar^ Prof. Eugene Hitter of Geneva, Switzerland.
It occurs in the ' Memo ires pour servir a 1'histoire de mon temps,' by Guizot, t. i. p. 6- Guizot writes : " M. de Talleyrand me disait un jour : ' Qui n'a pas vecu dans les annees voisines de 1789 ne sait pas ce que c'est que< le plaisir de vivre.' '
OTHON GUERLAC.
Limoges, France.
THE COLLIE (11 S. xii. 341, 389). Some fifty years ago an article appeared in The Saturday Review on the collie. It stated that the collie had been crossed with the setter to improve its coat, and the cross-bred dog had the character of treachery from that time. I had an instance of this vice about the year 1870. and have not kept a collie since. J. P. STILWELL.
Hilfield, Yateley.
