Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 5

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"Pandite, atque aperite propere januam hanc Orci, obsecro: Nam
equidem haud aliter esse duco: quippe quo memo advenit Nisi quem
spes reliquêre omnes."
Plautus, _Bacchis_, Act iii Sc. 1.
"Per me si va nella città dolente
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi che intrate."
Dante, _Inferno_, iii. 1-9.
W.B.D.
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FOLK LORE.
_Power of Prophecy._--MR. AUG. GUEST (Vol. ii., p. 116.) will
perhaps accept--as a small tribute to his interesting communication on
the subject of that "power of prophecy" which I apprehend to be still
believed by many to exist during certain lucid intervals before death--a
reference to Sir Henry Halford's _Essay on the [Greek: Kausos] of
Aretæus_. (See Sir H. Halford's _Essays and Orations read and
delivered at the Royal College of Physicians_, Lond. 1831, pp. 93. et
seq.)
J. Sansom.
_Bay Leaves at Funerals._--In some parts of Wales it is customary for
funerals to be preceded by a female carrying bays, the leaves of which
she sprinkles at intervals in the road which the corpse will traverse.
Query, Is this custom practised elsewhere; and what is the meaning and

origin of the use of the bay?
N.P.
_Shoes (old) thrown for luck._--Brand, in his _Popular Antiquities_,
observes, that it is accounted {197} lucky by the vulgar to throw an old
shoe after a person when they wish him to succeed in what he is going
about. This custom is very prevalent in Norfolk whenever servants are
going in search of new places; and especially when they are going to be
married, a shoe is thrown after them as they proceed to church.
C.P.R.M.
Some years ago, when the vessels engaged in the Greenland
whale-fishery left Whitby, in Yorkshire, I observed the wives and
friends of the sailors to throw old shoes at the ships as they passed the
pier-head. Query, What is the origin of this practice?
[Hebrew: T.A.]
_Roasting Mice for Hooping-cough_ is also very common in Norfolk;
but I am sorry to say that a more cruel superstitious practice is
sometimes inflicted on the little animal; for it is not many years since I
accidentally entered the kitchen in time to save a poor little mouse from
being hung up by the tail and roasted alive, as the means of expelling
the others of its race from the house. I trust that this barbarous practice
will soon be forgotten.
R.G.P.M.
_The Story of Mr. Fox._--Your correspondent F.L., who has related the
story of Sir Richard, surnamed Bloody, Baker, is, doubtless, aware of a
similar tale with which Mr. Blakeway furnished my late friend James
Boswell, and which the latter observed "is perhaps one of the most
happy illustrations of Shakspeare that has appeared."--(Malone's
_Shakspeare_, vol. vii. pp. 20. 163.)
The two narratives of Bloody Baker and Mr. Fox are substantially the
same. Variations will naturally creep in when a story is related by word
of mouth; for instance, the admonition over the chamber in Mr. Fox's
house--
"Be bold, be bold! but not too bold Lest that your heart's blood should
run cold."
is altogether of a more dignified character than the similar warning
given by the parrot, at p. 68. Each of these worthies, Baker and Fox, is
seen bringing into his house the corpse of a murdered lady, whose hand

falls into the lap of the concealed visitor; but in Fox's story the
ornament on the hand is a rich bracelet, in Baker's a ring. The assassins
are, in both stories, invited to the visitor's house, and upon Fox
summary justice is inflicted.
It may be asked, if Baker was burned, how came he to have a tomb
with gloves, helmet, &c., suspended over it in Cranbrook Church? Such
honour was not paid to a man of higher rank in Salisbury Cathedral, a
murderer also, who was hung, viz., Lord Stourton. Dodsworth tells us
that till about 1775, no chivalrous emblems were suspended over the
latter, but only a twisted wire, with a noose, emblematic of the halter.
Allow me to ask, What instances have we of tombs or gravestones, as
memorials of individuals who have suffered at the _stake_, exclusive of
those monuments which in after times may have been raised in honour
of distinguished martyrs at the Reformation?
J.H.M.
Bath.
_Baptismal Superstition._--In the north of England, when several
children are brought to be baptized at the same time, great anxiety is
shown by the people lest the girls should take the precedence of the
boys; in which case it is believed the latter, when arrived at man's estate,
would be beardless.
E.H.A.
Rushbearing (Vol. i., p 259.).--Wednesday, July 21, 1847, Grasmere
Church was decorated with ribbons, which had some reference to the
rushbearing which had taken place on the preceding Sunday.
It takes place at Ambleside one