156
NOTES AND C^UERIES.
[11 S. V. FEB. 24, 1912.
CAPT. FREENY (US. v. 50). 'The Life
and Adventures of James Freney ' (not
Freeny, as J. B. and Thackeray in ' The
Irish Sketch-Book ' spell it), a chapbook,
can still be obtained, I believe, from C. M.
Warren, printer and publisher, Dublin.
Freney is only casually introduced into
' Barry Lyndon.' The basis of that work is
said by Lady Ritchie to be the unhappy
marriage of Andrew Robinson Bowes and
the Countess of Strathmore, whose domestic
differences were the talk of the town (1790-
1799). Various pamphlets, such as ' Life,'
' Trial,' ' Confessions,' &c., were published
between those dates.
EDITOR ' IRISH BOOK LOVER.'
MONEY-BOX (11 S. v. 50, 117). Chambers' s Journal for the current month contains a paragraph which reminds me of S. J. A. F.'s inquiry. It occurs in an article on ' Money- boxes,' by Mr. G. L. Apperson (p. 134), and I have pleasure in copying it :
" Roman money-boxes may be seen in museums. A seventeenth-century writer describes a ' Roman money-pot fashioned almost like a pint-jug with- out a neck, closed at the top, and having a notch in one side, as in a Christmas box.' Mediaeva examples are numerous. In that remarkable collection of mementos of the London of days gone by, the Guildhall Museum, there may be seen several earthenware money-boxes, both glazed and unglazed, of the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. One of green glazed ware with a slit on the shoulder for the reception o coins, has plainly been broken at the bottom, no doubt for the extraction of the contents. Anothe of the same date (15th century) is in the forii of a toad, while a seventeenth-century specimen is in the form of a Sussex pig, and was perhap made at Rye."
S. J. A. F. would do well to read the res of the article, which I heartily commenc to his notice. ST. * SWITHIN.
[MR. Tiros. RATCLIFFE also thanked for reply.]
ST. AGNES : FOLK-LORE (11 S. v. 47, 112).
On St. Agnes' Day, 21 January, the
blessing of the lambs takes place at Rome,
and on 28 January is commemorated, not
another St. Agnes, but the appearance of the
same St. Agnes to her parents, who were
spending the night at her tomb. Hare, in
his ' Walks in Rome ' (15th ed.), ii. 137, says
in a foot-note, without citing any authority :
" Yorkshire maidens, anxious to know who
their future spouse is to be, still consult St. Agnes
on St. Agnes's Eve, after twenty-four hours'
abstinence from anything but pure spring water,
in the words :
St. Agnes, be a friend to me
In the boon I ask of thee :
Let me this night my husband see."
JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.
BERNARD GILPIN'S WILL (11 S. v. 85).
This document, which except the first two
lines is in English, is printed in ' Durham
Wills and Inventories,' published by the
Surtees Society, p. 83 ; and is reprinted,
vith some annotations, in Rev. C. S. Colling-
wood's ' Memoirs of Bernard Gilpin ' (London
and Sunderland, 1884), Appendix L, pp. 289-
301. JOHN R. MAGRATH.
Queen's College, Oxford.
" CATJLKER," A DRAM OF SPIRITS (11 S. v. 87). Jamieson's ' Dictionary ' has cawker r also written caidker, " metaphorically used
- o denote mental acrimony," as in ' Guy
Mannering,' ii. 325 :
People come to us with every selfish feeling, newly pointed and grinded ; they turn down the' very caulkers of their animosities and prejudice, as smiths do with horses' shoes in a white frost."
The word also means " a dram, a glass of spirits." Jamieson adds :
It seems to admit this second sense metaph. ; because a dram is falsely supposed to fortify against the effects of intense cold" ;
and quotes Mayne's ' Siller Gun,' p. 89, c. 1803 :
The magistrates wi' loyal din Tak aff their cau'kers.
TOM JONES.
This word is much used, but it is generally spelt corker, and means bottling up, 01 corking a bottle. A man gets a glass oi something strong, which " takes his breath,' and as soon as he can speak says, " Thai was a regular corker." When a company ii telling good stories, the one who has cappec the rest has " told a corker."
THOS. RATCLIFFE.
" SAMHOWD " (11 S. iv. 446; v. 99).- MR. RATCLIFFE is quite right. I havi repeatedly heard sam howd = take hold sam it up = take it up, &c., in West Yorkshire Sam in sense of gather, &c., appears ii ' E.D.D.' as Sam(m). Sam howd ought t< be there. Howd is simply hold with loss of i I am surprised that it does not appear ii this sense in ' E.D.D.' Sam is in ' N.E.D, as obs. or dial. The dictionaries do no
give the exact shade of meaning, but if yo
sam howd of a thing, you do, in fact, gathe
it into your hand and to yourself.
J. T. F. Durham.
THIERS'S ' TRAIT DBS SUPERSTITIONS (US. iv. 530). As far as I am aware, onl two editions of J. B. Thiers's ' Traite de Superstitions ' have been published, bot of them in French, and both appearin
