16
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9' s. v. JAN. e, 1900.
" the French first introduced this custom into
the work of writing prefaces before the
works of others." To this query no reply
has appeared.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
In 'The Antiquary's Portfolio,' vol. i. p. 97, 1 find that " the haughty Wolsey con- descended to write a recommendatory pre- face" to William Lily's "well-known Latin Grammar." ALFRED J. KING.
101, Sandraere Road, Clapham, S.W.
THE SURNAME MORCOM (9 th S. iv. 148, 312, 406, 467). If SIR HERBERT MAXWELL will refer to iv. 312, he will see that he is not quite justified in saying that I hazarded a remark- able "assertion" regarding the derivation of Malcolm. An assertion I take to be a plain declaration of fact or belief. I made no such declaration. I thank him for his reply, which is highly interesting to me, and probably to others who know no Gaelic ; but his letter would have been just as valuable without the first six lines. FRANK PENNY, LL.M.
Fort St. George.
MARGARET BLOUNT (9 th S. iv. 287, 355). In addition to what MR. J. POTTER BRISCOE has said at the last reference, I can put before BRUTUS the following extract by Mar- guerite Blount herself. It forms the title and prefatory paragraph of a short story by the American authoress, and was published in Reynolds' s Miscellany (Lond.) in 1858 or 1859 :
"The Funeral at School. A Reminiscence of my Early Life. By Marguerite Blount. Though now in England and writing for Reynolds's Miscellany, I must remind the reader that (as he may have, however, gathered from some of my previous contributions to this periodical) I am an American by birth. It is, therefore, to the United States that the ensuing scenes and incidents belong. With this brief, yet necessary preface, I enter on my little narrative."
Marguerite Blount published several stories at aoout the dates 1855-59 in Reynolds's Miscellany '. They were, however, I* think, short stories mostly. No doubt this reply, with that before given by MR. BRISCOE, will convince BRUTUS that he was wrong in assuming that she and Miss Braddon " are the same." Nevertheless, it has often been said that some of Miss Braddon's earliest work appeared in Reynolds's Miscellany, as it has likewise been said that before the first of her great successes ('Lady Audley,' 1862) Miss Braddon appeared on the stage. Both statements have been denied, and yet I have read in the Era, under a date in 1876/that " Miss Braddon reappeared on the stage at
Jersey." The " reappearance," likely enough,
was at some charitable performance or the
like, but the Era's paragraph seems to imply
that our English novelist had previously
played as a regular actress.
J. W. M. GIBBS.
I HANNAH LEE (9 th S. iv. 477). I believe that this "pretty," or, to speak by the card, most affecting story, is narrated in 4 The Snowstorm,' one of the tales in ' Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life,' by Prof. Wilson, and may be found in vol. xi. p. 48 of his collected ' Works,' edited by his son-in- law, Prof. Ferrier, Edinburgh, 1865.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
m " HOASTIK CARLES " (9 th S. iv. 477)." Hoas- tik carles" are Austwick men. Austwick is in Craven, and its folk have a reputation akin to that which has made the wisdom of those of Gotham proverbial for all time. They, too, tried to hedge in a cuckoo ; and several other absurd stories are told of them. They are said to have had but one knife or whittle, which they kept under a tree. Once, when some labourers wished to save them- selves the trouble of carrying it back, they stuck it in the ground, and, seeing a black cloud immediately overhead, thought that the place was sufficiently marked ; but the tool was never found again. A farmer, wish- ing to get a bull out of a field } asked nine neighbours to help him to lift it over the gate, and they being unequal to the task, one of the number went through the gateway to look for further aid. It then struck some- body that the bull might leave the field by the same way. Another carle lifted a wheel- barrow over twenty-two stiles rather than take it by a road which was about a hundred yards further round than the path across the fields. See Clouston's 'Book of Noodles,' pp. 53, 54. ST. SWITHIN.
It is a pity that Lucas did not know better than to begin guessing that the carles " are no doubt spirits of the woods." They are simply the people of Austwick, a village near Clap- ham, in Yorkshire, who are credited by their neighbours with having been the originals of the " wise men of Gotham." The walling-in of the cuckoo arose from their attempt to secure perpetual summer by building a wall around the bird. Just as the wall was finished the cuckoo flew away, and " they had never thought o' that." The favourite name for these folk is " mooin-rakers," because they tried to rake the reflection of the moon out of a pond, thinking it was a big cheese. By the way, has any one collected all the places
