Various

“ Bogue presents us with a volume as interesting as it is characteristic and elegant, Christmas with the Poets. A more elegantly printed book was never produced; and it is illustrated with fifty engravings designed and drawn on wood by Birket Foster; engraved by Henry Vizetelly, and printed in tints in a way to render most effective the artist's tasteful, characteristic, and very able drawings. The volume is, as it were, a casket, in which are enshrined all the gems which could be dug out of the rich mines of English poetry ”

“ Thus it happens in the Svarfdæla Saga:
"Gris called aloud to Klanfi, and said, 'Klanfi, Klanfi! keep a fair measure,' and instantly the strength which Klanfi had got in his rage, failed him; so that now he could not even lift the beam with which he had been fighting."
It is clear, therefore, continues Thorkelin, that the state of men labouring under the Berserk frenzy was held by some, at least, to resemble that of those, who, whilst their own body lay at home apparently dead or asleep, wandered under other forms into distant places and countries. ”

“ Does this mean a translation of an ancient poem, or a translation of a poem written in some extant dialect of the language anciently spoken in Britain? Either would appear to me incredible.
As I feel much interested in the poetry of English songs, can you or any of your correspondents inform me if there exists any good collection; that is, a collection, of such only as are excellent of their respective kinds? That the English language possesses materials for forming such a collection, and an extensive one too, I have no doubt, though I have never met with one. ”

“ In the north wall of the church of Tremeirchion, near the banks of the Elwy, North Wales (described by Pennant, vol. ii. p. 139.) , is the tomb of a former vicar, Daffydd Ddu, or the black of Hiradduc, who was vicar of the parish, and celebrated as a necromancer, flourishing about 1340. Of him the tradition is, that he proved himself more clever than the Wicked One himself. A bargain was made between them that the vicar should practise the black art with impunity during his life, but that the Wicked One should possess his body after death, whether he were buried within or without the church ”

“ To conclude, when the fairies had departed, and it was considered safe to unbar the door, to give egress to Willy and his filly, it was found, to the amazement of all beholders, that the identical iron javelin of the fairy king had pierced through the thick oaken door, which for service as well as safety was strongly plated with iron, where it still stuck, and actually required the strength of the stoutest fellow in the company, with the aid of a smith's great fore-hammer, to drive it forth. ”

“ The Illustrated Ditties of the Olden Time is in sooth a delightful volume, and if a love of the beautiful be as closely connected with a love of the moral as wise heads tell us, we know no more agreeable way of early inculcating morality than by circulating this splendid edition of our time-honoured Nursery Rhymes. ”

“ North Marston.—The church is a handsome Gothic structure; there is a tradition that the chancel was built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290, and it is said that the place became populous and flourishing in consequence of the great resort of persons to a well which he had blessed. ”

“ I am no friend of polemical writing, and I believe the less we see of it in your friendly periodical, the better it is; but still I must protest against such copying of partially-written judgments, when good information can be got. I say not by stretching out a hand, for the book was already opened by your correspondent—but alone by using one's eyes and turning over a leaf or two. Else, why did Hermes learn the Dutch language? I ask your subscribers if the following verses are weak, and if they would not have done honour to the English Vondel?
CHORUS OF ANGELS.
(From Lucifer.) ”

“ The monster, smelling the skin, is said to have rushed out and instantly to have swallowed the fatal repast, and feeling afterwards, as may be readily expected, a most insatiable thirst, hurried off to a neighbouring stream, where he drank until the water, acting upon the lime, caused him to burst. The inhabitants, on learning the joyful news, carried the knight and the Lindwurm in triumph into the city of Brünn, where they have ever since treasured up the memento of their former tyrant. ”

“ Bowring's version,—though a good one, if the difficulty be considered of giving back a piece of poetry, whose every word is a poem in itself, and by whose rhyme and accentuation a feeling of indescribable awe is instilled into the most fastidious reader's mind,—Dr. Bowring's version is but a feeble reverberation of the holy fire pervading our Dutch poet's anthem. But still there rests enough in his copy to give one a high idea of the original. I borrow the same Englishman's words when I add:—
"The criticism that instructs, even though it instructs severely, is most salutary and most valuable. ”

“ A black sow and pigs haunt many cross roads in Devonshire.
The Dewerstone is a lofty mass of rock rising above the bed of the Plym, on the southern edge of Dartmoor. During a deep snow, the traces of a naked human foot and of a cloven hoof were found ascending to the highest point. The valley below is haunted by a black headless dog. Query, is it Dewerstone, Tiwes-tun, or Tiwes-stan?— (Kemble's Saxons, vol. i. p. 351.)
The great Cromlech at Drewsteignton is said to have been erected by three spinsters (meaning spinners) ; another legend says by three young men. ”

“ A creature of enormous size, called a "bull-frog," is believed to live under the foundation stones of old houses, hedges, &c. I remember having heard it spoken of with great awe.
Hen and Chickens.—In a parish adjoining Dartmoor is a green fairy ring of considerable size, within which a black hen and chickens are occasionally seen at nightfall.
The vicar of a certain Devonshire parish was a distinguished student of the black art, and possessed a large collection of mysterious books and manuscripts. ”

“ The tragedy itself is condensed by your correspondent into a simple "&c." Now, if Hermes, instead of referring to a stale review for a comparison between Vondel's tragedy and the Paradise Lost, without showing by any proof that Milton's justly renowned epic {508}is indeed superior to this, one of the Dutch poet's masterpiece—if Hermes, being, as I conclude from his own words, conversant with the language of our Shakspeare, had taken pains to read Lucifer, he would not have repeated a statement unfavourable to Vondel's poetical genius. ”

“ With reference to the ancient family residence of the Holts, at Duddeston, it will be sufficient to observe, that in the middle of the last century the house and grounds were converted into a tavern and pleasure gardens, under the metropolitan title of Vauxhall: and for a century they continued to afford healthful recreation and scenic amusement to the busy inhabitants of Birmingham. The amazing increase in the size and population of the town has at length demanded this interesting site for building purposes. ”

“ A tradition of the neighbourhood says that on the shores of this lonely mere the ghosts of bad men are ever employed in binding the sand "in bundles with beams of the same" (a local word meaning bands, in Devonshire called beans; as hay-beans, and in this neighbourhood hay-beams, for hay-bands) . ”

“ That which, by the illiterate, is termed "the bloody hand," and by them reputed as an abatement of honour, is nothing more than the "Ulster badge" of dignity. The tradition adds, that Sir Thomas Holt murdered the cook in a cellar, at the old family mansion, by "running him through with a spit," and afterwards buried him beneath the spot where the tragedy was enacted. I merely revert to the subject, because, within the last three months, the ancient family residence, where the murder is said to have been committed, has been levelled with the ground ”

“ A common saying hereabouts, meaning that if hazel-nuts, haws, hips, &c., are plentiful, many deaths will occur. But whether the deaths are to be occasioned by nut-devouring or by seasonal influence, I cannot ascertain. In many places, an abundant crop of hips and haws is supposed to betoken a severe winter.
Chas. Paslam.
Swans hatched during Thunder.—The fable of the singing of swans at death is well known; but I recently heard a bit of "folk lore" as to the birth of swans quite as poetical, and probably equally true. It is this: that swans are always hatched during a thunderstorm. ”

“ Craftiness, however, at last prevailed where force had proved of no effect, and the Lindwurm fell a victim to the skill of a knight, whose name I believe has been handed down to posterity. The mode adopted by the warrior to deceive his opponent, was to stuff, as true to nature as possible, with unslaked lime, the skin of a freshly killed calf, which he laid before the dragon's cave. ”

“ A saying among the parishes of the south coast during a snow-storm. 'Widdecombe' is "Widdecombe in the Dartmoors."
"Quiet sow, quiet mow."
A saying with reference to land or lease held on lives. If the seed is sown without notice of the death of the life, the corn may be reaped, although the death took place before the sowing.
Bees.—
"If they swarm in May,
They're worth a pound next day.
If they swarm in July,
They're not worth a fly."
Bees must never be bought. It is best to give a sack of wheat for a hive.
Dinnick is the Devonshire name of a small bird, said to follow and feed the cuckoo. ”

“ At this point the vicar suddenly closed his discourse, and dismissed his congregation, saying he was wanted at home, and hoped he might arrive there in time. When he entered the chamber the hen was already touching the ceiling. But he threw down a bag of rice, which stood ready in the corner; and whilst the hen and chickens were busily picking up the grains, he had time to reverse the spell.— (Ceridwer takes the form of a hen in the Hanes Taliesin.) I believe a hen and chickens is sometimes found on the bosses of early church roofs. A sow and pigs certainly are. ”

“ A stone, at about the distance of a mile, has the marks of his finger and thumb. The stone circles, &c. on Dartmoor, are said to have been made "when there were wolves on the hills, and winged serpents in the low lands." On the side of Belstone Tor, near Oakhampton, is a small grave circle called "Nine Stones." It is said to dance every day at noon. ”

“ It has, however, a clear reference to a very curious Northern superstition.
Thorkelin, in the essay on the Berserkir, appended to his edition of the Kristni-Saga, tells us that an old name of the Berserk frenzy was hamremmi, i.e., strength acquired from another or strange body, because it was anciently believed that the persons who were liable to this frenzy were mysteriously endowed, during its accesses, with a strange body of unearthly strength. If, however, the Berserk was called on by his own name, he lost his mysterious form, and his ordinary strength alone remained. ”

“ Kite (French, "Cerf-volant") .—Some years ago, when reading Dr. Paris' popular work called Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, 5th edition, London, J. Murray, 1842, I observed that the author could not explain the meaning of the French term "cerf-volant," applied to the toy so well known among boys in England as a "kite," and in Scotland as a "dragon." The following passages will solve this mystery:{517}
"Cerf-volant. ”

“ When I heard this story, and understood that the operator was an Irishman, I bethought me of how Rosalind says, "I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat," and accounted satisfactorily for the fact that, "as touching snakes, there are no snakes in Ireland:" for, as the song voucheth, "the snakes committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter," i.e. they were charmed to death by St. Patrick.
I fear it would now be impossible to recover the charm made use of by the coast-guard man ”

“ Here the Holts resided until May, 1631, when Sir Thomas took up his abode at Ashton Hall, a noble structure in the Elizabethan style of architecture, which, according to a contemporary inscription, was commenced in April, 1618, and completed in 1635. Sir Thomas was a decided royalist, and maintained his allegiance to his sovereign, although the men of Birmingham were notorious for their disaffection, and the neighbouring garrison of Edgbaston was occupied by Parliamentarian troops. ”

“ It is proper to make a low bow whenever a single magpie is seen.
It is not considered safe to plant a bed of lilies of the valley; the person doing so will probably die in the course of the next twelve months. ”

“ Sir John Shorne, therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears to have been a saint of no small reputation. The common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his memory by many traditional stories. Browne Willis, says, that in his time there were people who remembered a direction-post standing, which pointed the way to Sir John Shorne's shrine." [2]
North Marston, formerly Merston, is about four miles from Winslow. ”

“ Can any of your readers give an explanation of the inscription?
F.B. Relton.
[This is another specimen of the alms-dishes, of which several have been described in our First Volume. The legend may be rendered, If thou wilt live long, honour God, and above all keep His commandments.]
The Use of the French Word "savez."—About fifty years ago the use of the French word savez, from the verb savoir, to know, was in general use (and probably is so at the present time) among the negroes in the island of Barbadoes,—"Me no savez, Massa," for, "I do not know, Master (or Sir) ." ”

“ Also it is curious to know that in his "Visions of Hell" he meets Leviathan Hobbes, the philosopher of Malmesbury. The passage is curious, for if true, and written by Bunyan, it proves him to be personally acquainted with Hobbes. I extract it. After hearing his name called out, Epenetus (the author and visitant of the infernal regions) naturally inquires who it is that calls him. He is answered,—
"I was once well acquainted with you on earth, and had almost persuaded you to be of my opinion. ”

“ Should J.R.M. not yet have seen it, I beg to refer him to Mr. Halliwell's interesting edition of The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham (Lond. 1840) for fuller and further particulars.
J.B. Colman.
Replies To Minor Queries.
Master John Shorne.—As neither Mr. Thoms' Notes (Vol. ii., p. 387.) nor Mr. Way's (p. 450.) mention where this reputed saint lived, or speak of him as connected with Buckinghamshire, I will offer an extract from Lysons in the hope of casting some little light on the subject. ”