9* s. XL JAK. io, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
33
tree under which the treaty was signed be-
tween William Penn and the Indians, as he
was descended in the female line from Penn.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
I have seen the following lines somewhere current, I believe in the West Country (Devon or Cornwall) :
Green is forsaken, yellow 's forsworn, Blue is the sweetest [qy. prettiest ?] colour that 's worn.
Can any of your correspondents say where they are to be found ? C. S. JERRAM.
[See 9 th S. viii. 193.]
" QUITE A FEW " (9 th S. x. 208, 318). In confirmation of C. C. B.'s remark that " few" and " many " are only comparative terms, I may mention that the version I heard in Huntingdonshire, some forty-five years ago, of the rime he sends, had " few " where he gives "many." The children there used to say:
One 's none,
Two's some,
Three's a few,
Four 's enew (enough),
And five 's a little hundred.
The last line was explained to me as meaning that five was the natural interest on a hun- dred. W. D. SWEETING. Holy Trinity Vicarage, Rotherhithe.
" BIRMINGHAM'S DRESS " (9 th S. x. 409, 472). Surely " a Birmingham " is not a dandy, but a counterfeit imitation at second hand of the veritable dandy ; one who dressed (a long way) after the Prince and the Duke in humble imitation, and was, in fact, a base presentment of the real article.
" Birmingham " and " Brummagem " in the early half of the last century invariably meant something sham made to imitate the real. I remember, as a child, an old lady repeated to me the following (and other) lines :
Mai o' the Wad and I fell out, And what do you think 'twas all about ? I gave her a sixpence, she said it was bad. "It's a Brummagem button," said Mai o' the Wad.
And a " Birmingham " in dress doubtless meant exactly the same thing as a " Brum- magem" in sixpences, viz., a worthless imita- tion. W. SYKES, M.D., F.S.A.
Exeter.
WATCHHOUSES FOR THE PREVENTION OF BODYSNATCHING (9 th S. x. 448). When a boy at old Bancroft's School, Mile End, I remember an octagonal watchhouse, with pent roof, situated in the then recently disused Jews' Burial- Ground, which was
separated from one side of the
by a high buttressed ancient Brick wall.
This watchhouse I always understood had
been erected for the prevention of body-
snatching. Once on every night in each
year, from 1862 to 1866, the watchman
in the burial-ground fired a blunderbuss
from the watchhouse at nine o'clock. This
blunderbuss discharge, I ascertained from an
old man, who as a boy was at Bancroft's
from 1824 to 1830, had been a nightly occur-
rence in his time. And from masters, old
servants, and local tradesmen, at the time
and since, I gathered that the blunderbuss
signal was at least a century old. I left
Bancroft's School in 1869, but, strange to say,
do not recollect the nightly fire - warning
after 1866. F. E. MANLEY.
Stoke Newington.
With reference to the query as to the above, there is a perfect specimen of a tower in the churchyard of Eckford, Roxburgh- shire. Through the exertions of Mr. Walter Laidlaw, custodier of Jedburgh Abbey, a very excellent photograph has been procured quite recently of this structure. Within the memory of man a similar erection stood on the confines of the Abbey burying-ground of Jedburgh. J. LINDSAY HILSON.
In Petty Churchyard, near Inverness, there is a square building, near the entrance gate, for this purpose ; and in Eckford Churchyard, near Kelso, is a round one in the same position. R. B R.
HANGMAN STONES (9 th S. x. 467). Hang- man Stones are heard of in the counties of Leicester, Derby, Pembroke, Devon, Essex, Sussex, and York. For details see ' N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. i. 15, 282, 402, 435, 502.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
MELISANDE (9 th S. x. 467). Melisande in the wood is a character in Maurice Hewlett's ' Forest Lovers. ' W. H. Fox.
HARP (9 th S. x. 448, 514). I have
an old JEolian harp which belonged, I believe,
to my grandmother. It was made to fit
the sash of a window. This one measures
32 inches long by 4| broad, and the upper
surface is sloped. At each end are eight pins to
attach the wires ; the gut appears to have
been all fine A strings. The centre hole is
the size of a five-shilling piece. The depth
is 1 to l inches. (Mrs.) J. COPE.
Much information with regard to the con- struction and use of the ^Eolian harp, with verses occasioned by its description, will be
