Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851 | Page 4

now at this blest payre, To see a wife soe chast soe fayre. They happy liue; and know noe smart Of base suspects or iealous heart; 50 And if the publike bredd noe feare, Nor sadd alarms did fill ther care, From goodnes flowes ther ioy soe cleere As grace beginnes ther heauen heere."
The poem has no subscription, nor, from the appearance of the paper, should I say there had been one. The comparatively modern phraseology points to a late era. The poem is bound up with a quantity of John Stowe's papers, and I think is in his handwriting, upon comparing it with other papers known to be his in the same book. As it is my chief object (next to contributing to the preservation and publication of these ancient ballads) to obtain data regarding the anonymous productions of the earlier days of England's literature, any remarks, allow me to say, that other contributors will favour our {220} medium of intercommunication with, will be much appreciated by
KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.
[Our correspondent is certainly mistaken in supposing this poem to be in Stowe's handwriting. We have the best possible authority for assuring him that it is not.]
[Footnote 1: Blason, describe.]
[Footnote 2: We have here an instance of the use of the word prayers as a dissyllable.]
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FOLK LORE.
Moths called Souls.--While I am upon this subject, I may as well mention that in Yorkshire the country-people used in my youth, and perhaps do still, call night-flying white moths, especially the Hepialus humuli, which feeds, while in the grub state, on the roots of docks and other coarse plants, "souls." Have we not in all this a remnant of "Psyche?"
F. S.
[This latter paragraph furnishes a remarkable coincidence with the tradition from the neighbourhood of Truro (recorded by MR. THOMS in his Folk lore of Shakspeare, Athen?um (No. 1041.) Oct. 9. 1847) which gives the name of Piskeys both to the fairies and to moths, which are believed by many to be departed souls.]
Holy Water for the Hooping Cough (vol. iii., p. 179.).--In one of the principal towns of Yorkshire, half a century ago, it was the practice for persons in a respectable class of life to take their children, when afflicted with the hooping cough, to a neighbouring convent, where the priest allowed them to drink a small quantity of holy water out of a silver chalice, which the little sufferers were strictly forbidden to touch. By Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic parents, this was regarded as a remedy. Is not the superstition analogous to that noticed by MR. WAY?
EBORACOMB.
Daffy Down Dilly.--At this season, when the early spring flowers are showing themselves, we hear the village children repeating these lines:--
"Daff a down dill has now come to town, In a yellow petticoat and a green gown."
Does not this nursery rhyme throw light upon the character of the royal visitor alluded to in the snail charm recorded by F. J. H. (p. 179.)?
EBORACOMB.
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DR. MAITLAND'S ILLUSTRATIONS AND ENQUIRIES RELATING TO MESMERISM.
I know more than one person who would second the request that I am about to make through "NOTES AND QUERIES" to DR. MAITLAND, that he would publish the remaining parts of his Illustrations and Enquiries relating to Mesmerism: he would do so, I know, at once, if he thought that anybody would benefit by them; and I can bear witness to Part I. as having been already of some use. It is high time that Christians should be decided as to whether or no they may meddle with the fearful power whose existence is is impossible to ridicule any longer. DR. MAITLAND has suggested the true course of thought upon the subject, and promised to lead us along it; but it is impossible at present to use anything that he has said, on account of its incompleteness. In tracing the subject through history, DR. MAITLAND would no doubt mention the "[Greek: Omphalopsuchoi], or Umbilicani," of the fourteenth century, whose practices make a page (609.) of Waddington's History of the Church read like a sketch of Middle-age Mesmerism, contemptuously given. Also, in Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet, a belief somewhat similar to theirs is stated to have been preached in the seventh century (Bohn's Reprint in Shilling Series, p. 191.) by a certain Mose?lma, a false prophet.
I may add that Miss Martineau's new book, Letters of the Development of Man's Nature, by Atkinson and Martineau, which cannot be called sceptical, for its unbelief is unhesitating, is the immediate cause of my writing to-day.
A. L. R.
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Minor Notes.
Original Warrant.--The following warrant from the original in the Surrenden collection may interest some of your correspondents, as bearing upon more than one Query that has appeared in your columns:--
"Forasmuch as S^r John Payton, Knight, Lieutenant of