Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/43

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
  • s. in. JAN.


NOTES AND QUERIES.


37


('Sylva,' second edition, 1670, p. 120). The tree appears to have been introduced about 1683 (' The Forester,' by Brown and Nisbet, vol. i. p. 393). V. L. O.

Sunmnghill.

FIELD-NAMES (9 th S. ii, 86, ]55, 352)." Bull Dole" = the bull's allotment of pasture, where he fed away from the cows. "In- tacks " = the in-takes, the field taken in and partitioned off from a larger area. " Callum-acre close " = the enclosure, an acre in extent, where culm, or peat, was dug. " Cocked Hat" and "Shoulder of Mutton" are names descriptive of the triangular shape ! of those fields. " Candle Rush Car " = the field where rushes were cut for burning as rushlights. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

"CARNAGE is GOD'S DAUGHTER" (9 th S. ii. 309, 398). The passage referred to reads thus in the six-volume edition of Wordsworth's 'Poems' published in 1837 :

But thy most awful instrument In working out a pure intent, Is Man arrayed for mutual slaughter, Yea, Carnage is thy daughter ! Thou cloth'st the wicked in their dazzling mail, And for thy righteous purpose they prevail. . ' Ode, The Morning of the Day appointed for a j General Thanksgiving, Jan. 18, 1816,' xii.

In the edition referred to (and presumably i when first published) this ode contained fourteen strophes, or sections, five of which (some of them considerably altered) appear in later editions under the title ' Ode, 1815.' The strophes thus taken, wholly or in part, j from the ode of the later to form that of the ! earlier date are the ninth, tenth, eleventh, I twelfth, and thirteenth. There are only a few ; lines I believe not more than three in the 1815 ode which do not appear also in the original edition of the one written for Janu- ary, 1816, but I have not compared the two very closely, and do not speak positively on this point. When and why were these altera- tions made ? MR. HOUSDEN thinks the " Car- nage" passage was altered because of Byron's use of it ; but the eighth canto of 'Don Juan' was published in 1823, and the ode re- mained unaltered until after 1837, as we have seen. C. C. B.

THE COLOUR GREEN AND THE GRAHAMS AND ST. CLAIRS (9 th S. ii. 465). Green has often been regarded as an unlucky colour, and, so far as my observation goes, it is not so common as the other tinctures in English heraldry, though, of course, many examples of it could be furnished. What the origin of this super- stition may be it would be rash of me to venture a guess. It was probably of old


standing ere the Grahams or the St. Glairs are known to have adopted it. Sir Walter Scott says that it was reckoned in Caithness to be unlucky to wear green or cross the Ord on a Monday ('Border Minstrelsy,' ed. 1861, vol. iii. p. 395).

The folk-lore of colours is an interesting subject, which we may hope will receive attention in due time. A few examples may now be given. A woman who was resuscitated after being hanged thought she had been "in a green meadow," and John Hayes, who went through the like ter- rible experience in 1782, said, " I thought I was in a beautiful green field " (' N. & Q.,' 5 th S. i. 444). As to the figure of Death, we find that sometimes, at least, " his cloak was green" (Ballad Society, xxi. 27). A green waistcoat was worn by Yorkshire witches (' Depositions from York Castle/ Surtees Soc., 114, 125). Even now a Yorkshire bride must not wear green at her wedding (Folk- lore, June, 1898, 126). Tim Bobbin ('Works,' 1894, 332) tells us how in Lancashire


At boggart well dress'd all in green.

Scott says, in a note to 'The Lady of the Lake ' (book iii.), that " the Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace, wore green habits, [and that] they were supposed to take offence when any mortals ventured to assume their favourite colour." He further adds, after referring to the antipathy of the Ogilvies and Grahams to green, that there was a gentleman of the latter race who accounted for his horse having fallen when out fox-hunting by observing " that the whipcord attached to his lash was of the unlucky colour." I believe that throughout England the vesture of the fairies was green.

What may be the position of green in the folk-lore of France I do not at present know, but Miss Louisa Stuart Costello has recorded a curious instance of its symbolic use. After the murder of Henry III. of France, she says,

le put


tpensier, the daughter ot the murdered Duke of Guise, distributed green scarf s to all, openly rejoicing in the event ; feux de joie were made also everywhere. The preacheis called Clement a martyr who died to deliver France from a Tyrant." 'A Summer among the Bocages and the Vines,' ii. 132.

A curious record of the use of green for political display is quoted in the Lincoln Herald of 29 July, 1831. I transcribe the


"The Mexmger des Chambres states the occur- rence of a Carlist riot at Montpelier on the 15th instant, the name-day (St. Henry) of the Duke of