158
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. FEB. 22, 1902.
Church at Shrewsbury appeared in the
Mirror of 30 March, 1833. JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
PEARLS A CURE FOR CORNS (9 th S. ix. 10). Two or three years ago I was told by the shampooer at the Doncaster Turkish Baths that pearl buttons dissolved in lemon juice would cure corns. It never occurred to me that this was " folk-lore " based on ^ the doctrine of " signatures," but I dare say it is. I thought it quite possible that the citrate_of lime might penetrate and bring about pain- less extinction and exfoliation of the corn, tried it, and persevered for perhaps three weeks running, but could not tell that it did the slightest good. I should now have more faith in the solution with excess of lemon juice, which may have answered in some cases, or still more in lemon juice alone. J. T. F.
In response to a query from MR. RATCLIFFE, I write to say that the recipe for corn-curing which he gives is not new. I have ssen it elsewhere, but believe vinegar was to be used in it, not )emon juice. There seems to be some misunderstanding about the material of which "pearl buttons" are made this is "mother-of-pearl," not the marine gem itself.
B. B.
I should like to say that, to my personal knowledge, this quaint remedy has been used for many years in Yorkshire. In Driffield, in the East Riding, also in Whitby thirty years ago, I knew several people who used it. As to_its efficacy I can speak favourably, having tried it with advantage to myself.
W. D. RIDLEY.
REV. ANTHONY WARTON, 1657 (9 th S. ix. 47). This is the second occasion on which A. C. H. has made inquiries respecting this divine, the author of ' Refinement of Zion,' London, 1657. I now refer him to 1 st S. ii. 56, an interesting communication of MAGDA- LENSIS, to which no reply ever appeared.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
THE YOUTHFUL YEAR (9 th S. viii. 484; ix. 57). I am obliged to W. S. for amending my Citation. I have now come to the con- clusion that Dante did not count the age of the year in the Tuscan mode, but that he followed the prescription of Boniface VIII who, according to Sir Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History,' p. 191, began "the year at Christmas, which custom was fol- lowed by nearly all his successors in the
centur y" J do not quite follow
T. WILSON'S argument. The sun enters
Aquarius on 20 January, and if the poet's
year began on the 1st of that month, he had
more right to call it " youthful " than if it
had been born with Advent, though in
either case the epithet would be appropriate.
ST. SWITHIN.
AN OLD CHARM (9 th S. ix. 49)." Naadgrass Dyradgrass " seems to be Welsh. If I am correct in this surmise, the proper spelling would be " Na ad gras, Dyro dy ras," and the meaning " Prevent not grace, Give Thy grace." Unless C. C. B. is quite sure of his reading, I would suggest as more probable, " Naad dy rass, Dyw dy rass," for "Na ad dy ras, Duw dy ras" (Prevent not Thy grace; God, Thy grace). Both these supplications^ but especially the latter, are well known as bardic mottoes. Mediaeval charms of this kind, made up of phrases from Latin and Greek liturgies, interspersed with Welsh words, were common in the Principality right down to the early part of the nineteenth century. The most usual form had its origin in an ancient prayer attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo, which appears in a MS. French Book of Hours of the early fifteenth century, in my possession.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Town Hall, Cardiff.
BURIAL OF A SUICIDE (9 th S. viii. 502 ; ix. 96). It is possible that the story mentioned by MR. HARRY HEMS, of a Frenchman being buried near Reigate head downwards, may have had its origin in the following facts. Mr. Richard Hull built a tower on Leith Hill, in the parish of Wotton, in the year 1766, and, dying in 1772, was buried in the base- ment. Old folks in the neighbourhood told me, some twenty years since, the same story ; but there is no foundation for it. He was, no doubt, buried in the tower, but my inquiries resulted in my being assured that he was buried in the usual way ; all the rest of the story is fiction. Leith Hill tower was repaired by Mr. J. P. Perrin, who purchased the property after Mr. Hull's death. It is now in the possession of Mr. J. Evelyn, of Wotton, who repaired and heightened the tower. The hill is 993 feet above the level of the sea, and on a fine day parts of some ten counties can be seen from it.
F. CLAYTON.
Morden.
SIR THOMAS MORGAN, OF ARKSTONE (9 th S. ix. 9). -The Morgans of Arkstone, in the county of Hereford, were a junior branch of the widely distributed Herbert clan, whose chief is Col. Ivor John Caradoc Herbert,
