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the public ignominy of her relative's head being exhibited on London Bridge, and his bowels, &c., on the walls of the city-Shakspeare was in his twentieth year, a husband, and a father; and he must have seen these sad sights, and witnessed his mother's grief. Can we wonder at his life-long avoidance of Leicester, or at his friendship for Southampton and the unfortunate and misled Essex? I hope some competent person will take up this subject. CRUX.

"NOW, BRAVE BOYS, WE'RE ON FOR

MARCHIN'."

(3rd S. iii. 386, 459.)

-

I have long wondered why the words of this well-known Irish military comic song have not been supplied to your valuable journal. I got them in 1840 from Lieutenant Gordon Skelly Tidy, lieutenant (and subsequently captain) in the 48th Regiment, who received them from Ensign John George Minchin of the same corps. Both these officers being now deceased, I act as their literary executor. If we had as I have frequently wished-a portion of "N. & Q." devoted to music, the name of which might, from time to time, be sought after, I could send herewith the music as well as the words of this droll conceit; but, as no such opportunity exists, I can only transmit the "immortal verse of the ballad sought after by your correspondents. I have never seen the version published in the Bentley Ballads to which MR. KELLY alludes. The version which I now send appeared at p. 567 of the Naval and Military Gazette for September 4, 1841, and were furnished by me to the editor of that newspaper :

"THE FAREWELL OF THE IRISH GRENADIER TO HIS LADYE LOVE."

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[Our readers will at once detect the plagiarism from the subjoined ballad which has been committed by the author of " Partant pour la Syrie; indeed it is so evident that it must attract the attention of every person who is not blind to conviction. When "Vivi Tu" and "Di Piacer" shall be forgotten, and when the world shall have become sceptical as to the existence of "Semiramide" or "La Sonnambula," "Love, farewell!" will be remembered with a feeling of gratitude to the individual who first introduced it to public notice]:

"Now, brave boys, we're on for marchin',
First for France, and dhin for Holland,
Where cannons roar, and min is dyin',
March, brave boys, there's no denyin';-

Love, farewell!

"I think I hear the Curnel cryin' 'March, brave boys, there's colours flyin'; Colours flyin', drums a baytin', March, brave boys, there's no rethraytin'.' Love, farewell!

"The Mayjor cries, Boys, are yees ready?
Stand t' yeer arms both firm an' steady;
Wid ev'ry man his flask of powdher,
An' his firelock on his showldher.'

Love, farewell!

"The mother cries, Boys, do not wrong me,
Do not take mee dawthers from me;
Av yees do, I will tormint yees,
An' afther death, mee ghost 'll hant yees.'
Love, farewell!
"Now Molly, dear, do not grieve for me,
I am goin' to fight for Ireland's glory;
Av we lives, we lives victorious,
An', av we dies, our sowls is glorious.'

grass

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LONG GRASS.

Love, farewell!" JUVERNA.

(3rd S. iv. 288.)

PROFESSOR DE MORGAN, quotes from Norden's Surveyors' Dialogue, a statement that in a "meddow near Salisbury there was a yearly growth of "above ten foote long;" and that "it is apparent that the grasse is commonly sixteene foote long." The PROFESSOR says, "This grass must be made shorter before I can swallow it. What do your readers say? What is now the tallest grass in England?"

This note and query are very interesting. The former shows that the irrigated meadows there were in full operation, at a maximum fertility, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago; the latter, that so learned a man, as all the world knows the PROFESSOR to be, is unaware of so old a fact. I will endeavour, as gently as I can, to make him swallow it by cutting it into four, five, or six lengths, each of a month's growth.

In 1851, I was directed by the General Board of Health to investigate and report upon the "Practical Application of Sewer Water and Town Manures to Agricultural Production." My inquiries included the most notable irrigated meadows. The results will be found in a Blue Book presented to Parliament in 1852. I shall forbear quoting" from so large a collection of facts; but will, as briefly as possibly, "extract" a few figures bearing on the points raised by PROFESSOR DE MORGAN.

66

The great fertility of the old meadows near Salisbury has caused the extension of similar irrigation along the river Wiley to Warminster, so as to comprise between 2000 and 3000 acres. I do not appear to have ascertained the annual growth of grass in feet and inches, but state "four heavy crops can be cut in the course of twelve months."

At Myer Mill Farm, near Maybole, in Ayrshire, I found Italian rye-grass growing two inches in twenty-four hours; and in seven months there was cut from one field 70 tons per acre.

At Mr. Robt. Harvey's Dairy Farm, near Glasgow, the evidence of the manager was: "We have cut on Pinkston-hill ten feet of grass this season. The first cut was 4 feet high; the second was 4 feet and 3 inches; and the third was above 18 inches. I measured it myself."

At Halewood Farm, near Liverpool, the property of the Earl of Derby, occupied by Robert Neilson, Esq., I found 8 feet 6 inches of Italian rye-grass cut within seven months, and a sixth crop growing.

At Liscard Farm, in Cheshire, the property of Harold Littledale, Esq., I found 80 acres of Italian rye-grass, from which there had been cut four crops, each 2 to 3 feet thick during the summer and autumn of the same year.

At Port Kerry Farm, Glamorganshire, on the Romilly estate. The first crop of the same kind of grass was 30 inches; the second and third 33 inches each; the fourth, 14 inches. Total, 9 feet 2 inches. In the autumn sheep were turned into it.

Canning Park, near Ayr. The same kind of grass grown and cut the same summer and autumn. First crop, 18 inches; second, 18 to 24 inches; third and fourth, each 3 feet to 4 feet; fifth, 2 feet; and sixth, 18 inches. Total, mean aggregate cut in seven months, 14 feet 3 inches.

I have made this note as brief as possible; and, in conclusion, beg courteously to present to PROFESSOR DE MORGAN, through the editor, a small parcel of the actual grass last mentioned; and two others, of nearly equal length, from the celebrated Craigentinny Meadows, near Edinburgh. They were gathered by my own hands in 1851, and I regret to say they have lost their fragrance.

THE CUCKOO SONG.

(3rd S. v. 418.)

W. LEE.

I think I may venture to affirm, touching the song of the cuckoo, that the pitch of the notes is certainly not always the same (speaking of the tribe generally), even if it do not vary with the season in individual birds. In White's Natural History of Selborne (edited by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, 1843), page 194, after mentioning that the owls in that neighbourhood "hoot in three different keys,-in G flat or F sharp, in B flat, and A flat, and querying whether "these different notes proceed from different species, or only from various individuals," the writer goes on to state that it has been found upon trial that the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies in different individuals. About Selborne wood he (Mr. White's informant) found they were mostly in D. He heard two sing together, the one in D and the other in D sharp, which (as

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The two notes given in Gungl's Cuckoo Galop are B natural and G sharp, the same interval as E natural and C sharp mentioned by your correspondent. But I have just heard the cuckoo give F natural and C sharp, where the interval is not 3.15, as in the above, but 4.27; and in a popular song the interval given is F natural and C natural, or equal to 4.98; these figures being the proportion of 12 into which our musical scale is divided. The author of Habits of Birds gives F natural and D natural, or an interval of 2.94, less than any of the above; and Kircher says (Musurgia, i.) it is from D natural to B flat, an interval of 3.86. See Penny Cycl. xx. 507, where the exact division of the octave is given. According to Mitford (Linn. Trans. vol. vii.), "the cuckoo begins early in the season with the interval of a minor third; the bird then proceeds to a major third, next to a fourth, then to a fifth, after which his voice breaks without attaining a minor sixth," a circumstance long ago remarked by John Heywood (Epigrams, black letter, 1587). A friend of White of Selborne (Lett. 45) found upon trial, that the note varies in different individuals; for, about Selborne wood he found they were mostly in D; he heard two sing together, the one in D, and the other in D sharp, which made a disagreeable concert; he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest, some in C. ("Habits of Birds," L. E. K. 305.)

Lichfield.

T. J. BUCKTON.

I have carefully noticed the cry of the bird as it has been uttered in Somerset and Devon during the last week or two; and my ear, no unpractised or uncultivated one, assures me that, so far it has been invariably a precise interval of a fourth; and not, as R. W. D. describes it, a minor third.

The notes are "do, sol," that is to say (if I adopt the key named by R. W. D.), not E and C sharp, but E and B natural. That this is probably the general song of the bird, musical composers testify; as for example, in the old catch," Sweet's the pleasure in the Spring," in which the cry is imitated by the notes G, D; and in the wellknown setting (I think by Arne) of the song in Love's Labour's Lost.

"Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Oh, word of fear," &c.

Where I think the notes employed are C natural and G.

May 28th. I have this evening heard a cuckoo singing major thirds.

May 30th. And this morning another, singing an imperfect interval between a major third and a fourth.

Weelks's fine old three-part madrigal, "The nightingale, the organ of delight," gives the "Cuckoo" in minor thirds, in at least four different keys (E, C sharp, A, F sharp, B, G sharp, D, B natural).

White, in his Natural History of Selborne, vol. i. Letter X. says, on the authority of a neighbour,

that

"The note of the cuckoo varies in different individuals; for about Selborne Wood he found they were mostly in D: he heard two sing together, the one in D, the other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert: he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest, some in C."

White does not explain which note he or his neighbour considers to be the key-note-the first or the last.

I have above treated the first or upper note as the key-note, calling it "do." Perhaps it would have been more correct to consider the closing note as indicating the key; in which case the two notes (at a fourth interval) would be "fa, do." W. P. P.

LASSO (3rd S. v. 442.) I think your correspondent A. A. is mistaken when he says "there is no such thing as a lasso mentioned in any ancient author." Surely, Sir Francis Head himself could hardly have given a more graphic description of the lasso than the two following. Herodotus, speaking of the eight thousand Sagartian cavalry, says (lib. vii. 85),—

Χρέωνται σειρῇσι πεπλεγμένῃσι ἐξ ἱμάντων· ἡ δὲ μάχη τουτέων τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἥδε· ἐπεὰν συμμίσγωσι τοῖσι πολεμίοισι, βάλλουσι τὰς σειράς, ἐπ ̓ ἄκρῳ βρόχους ἐχούσας ὅτευ δ' ἂν τύχῃ ἤν τε ἵππου ἤν τε ἀνθρώπου ἐπ ̓ ἑωυτὸν ἕλκει· οἱ δὲ ἐν ἕρκεσι ἐμπαλασσόμενοι διαφθείρονται.

Pausanias (i. 21, 5) mentions the Sarmatians as using the same weapon, for the same cause probably, scarcity of metal:

Καὶ σειρὰς περιβαλόντες τῶν πολεμίων οπόσεις καὶ τύχοιεν, τοὺς ἵππους ἀποστρέψαντες ἀνατρέπουσι τοὺς | ἐνσχεθέντας ταῖς σειραῖς.

Suidas (s. v. reípn) mentions the Parthians also as using the lasso; and Mr. Rawlinson says the Assyrian sculptures, now in the British Museum, represent the use of it. LEWIS EVANS. Sandbach.

[We beg to acknowledge a similar communication from OXONIENSIS.]

Can any of your readers tell me when lassos or lazos were first used for catching cattle according to the plan now followed in Mexico and South America?

Were they known in Spain before the conquest of Mexico, or by the English and French buccaneer hunters of Tortuga and Hispaniola, in the sixteenth century? QUERIST.

OLD PAINTING AT EASTER FOWLIS (3rd S. v. 192.)-In No. 114 of " N. & Q." which has lately been received here, there is the description of a curious old painting at Easter Fowlis, near Dundee, by G. G. M. of Edinburgh. In this descriphas evidently not been aware of the modern notion occurs the following sentence: "The artist tions of Satan's appearance; or if so, he has departed widely from it."

Now, I rather think that the artist knew perfectly well what he was about, albeit he appears to have made a devil of a mistake. His satanic majesty is rather notorious for his eccentric tricks in dress, and astonishing transformations of body, tened on this rather dark subject, he has not yet but up to this moment, if I am properly enlighcondescended to honour the crustacean fraternity by assuming the shape and livery of a lobster, or

even a craw-fish-" Verùm cancri nulla sit societas cum Diabolo."

The picture at Easter Fowlis does indeed not represent the parting of the soul from the body, but quite on the contrary, the embodiment of the soul, which, coming from the moon, was embodied on the earth under the influence of cancer (Kápivos), the Encloser or Confiner. Hence, observes Nork (Realwörterbuch, ii. p. 387), the twofold meaning of uaia, which signifies both cancer and also the deity that favours births—the midwife deess Maia. The craw-fish was sacred to Juno, who presided over marriage, and was the protec tress of married women. No doubt the moon can Fowlis if looked for. I hope I have succeeded in be found somewhere in the picture at Easter both to him and the lobsters, by showing that giving the devil his due, and in doing a service they have nothing in common.

Kingston, Jamaica, May 6, 1864.

L. HOFFMAN.

JEREMIAH HORROCKS (3rd S. v. 173, 367.)PROFESSOR DE MORGAN and others appear to overlook the object of my inquiry. If the correct

date of Horrocks's birth be 1619, then he must have been entered as Sizar at Cambridge when only thirteen years of age. This seems very improbable; and hence, it is the date of his birth which I desire to ascertain. I know all about Whatton's Life of Horrocks, and what the Rev. R. Brikell has done at Hoole. T. T. W. ORATORIO OF "ABEL" (3rd S. v. 297.)-I have two word-books of this Oratorio, the titles of which are as follows:

"Abel, an Oratorio, or Sacred Drama for Music. As it is Perform'd at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. Set to Music by Thomas Augustine Arne. London: Printed for R. Francklin in Russel-Street, Covent Garden. MDCCLV. (Price one Shilling.)" 4to.

"The Sacrifice: or Death of Abel. An Oratorio, or Sacred Drama for Music. As it is Perform'd at the

Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. Set to Music by Doctor Arne. London: Printed for R. Francklin, &c. MDCCLXII. (Price One Shilling.)" 4to.

On the latter is written, in a contemporary hand," By John Lockman.""

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

DOR (3rd S. v. 416.)-Though Bailey gives "the drone bee" as the meaning of the word Dor, this cannot be the insect alluded to by Thos. Adams, in the passage quoted, where he speaks of "dor in dunghill." I have all my life heard the name applied to a beetle, one of that sort which one so often sees alighting on ordure, with a deep droning noise, and which is described in the well-known line in Gray's Elegy: —

"Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight." In fact Bailey gives this meaning to the word Dorr, "a kind of beetle living on trees," and Dyche gives as the meaning of Dorr, "the common black beetle; also the chafer, or dusty beetle," which latter, no doubt, was the one intended by Bailey, being the cockchafer. The common black beetle is, however, so commonly called the Dor beetle, that notwithstanding the difference of spelling, I cannot doubt that it was the insect meant by T. Adams. Bees do not often light upon dung; but every one knows that beetles do so habitually. F. C. H.

A drone bee has nothing to do with dunghills. The drone fly has, indeed, to a certain extent; but the insect here meant must surely be the well-known beetle- the dor, or clock, as he is sometimes called - Geotrupes stercorarius, the shard borne beetle, whose droning flight on summer evenings is so constantly seen.

Temple.

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

To MAN (3rd S. v. 397.)-Several elucidations of "Man but a rush" have lately appeared. Two, I think, are sufficiently curious to bear transplanting into "N. & Q.":·

It is

"The reading is a blunder of the first folio, and perhaps was allowed to remain and be repeated because the right one-Rush but a man" is so obvious. noticeable that, before the text was set right, Jeremy Taylor, in his Liberty of Prophesying, and Milton in his Areopagita, quote it accurately. Perhaps they did so from some book which we have not. Perhaps they felt that the received reading was merely a misprint."-Public Opinion, April 9, 1864..

Another correspondent says:

"May I be permitted to suppose that there have, originally, been two printer's errors, viz. of punctuation and of spelling. Read Othello's address to Gratiano as follows:

"Do you go back dismayed? 'tis a lost fear, man; Put a rush against Othello's breast and he retires." Id., April 16.

I merely transcribe the above. I have always avoided giving an opinion on readings in Shakspere, lest, like my betters, I should lose my temper. FITZHOPKINS.

Garrick Club.

HAYDN QUERIES (3rd S. v. 212, &c.)-May I be permitted to add another to the former queries? Which is the composition called, in Germany, "The Razor Quartette"? The tradition is, that the great composer one morning was shaving, and in a pet with his instrument, which, like most of the foreign cutlery at that time, was very bad. In the middle of the operation his publisher came in; and Haydn said, "I would give a first-rate quartette if I could but get a good English razor." The publisher, who had not long before been in England, took him at his word; ran home directly, and fetched one he had brought over with him. Haydn kept his promise, and presented him with the score of what he told him at the time was the best quartette he had ever written. A. A. Poets' Corner.

SALMAGUNDI (3rd S. v. 388.)-The story told in France relative to this dish, which is made of salted fish, is, that one of their queens was very fond of salt, and her chief lady was of the Italian family the Gondi. During dinner, the former was in the habit of continually asking for her favourite condiment: "Le sel, ma Gondi-le sel, ma Gondi." And it is said, that when this dish was by a slight corruption, became salmagundi. The invented, the courtiers gave it this name; which, story is perhaps neither vero nor exactly ben trovato; however, it is the tradition across the Channel.

Poets' Corner.

A. A.

MARROW BONES AND CLEAVERS (3rd S. v. 356.) H. S. will find in Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 360, the custom of marrow bones and cleavermen attending often at marriages. The writer says as follows:

"Hogarth, in his delineation of the Marriage of the Industrious Apprentice to his master's daughter, takes occasion to introduce a set of butchers coming forward

with marrow bones and cleavers, and roughly pushing aside those who doubtless considered themselves as the legitimate musicians. We are thus favoured with a memorial of what might be called one of the old institutions of the London vulgar- one just about to expire, and which has, in reality, become obsolete in the greater part of the metropolis. The custom in question was one essentially connected with marriage. The performers were the butchers' men,-the 'bonny boys that wear the sleeves of blue.' A set of these lads, having duly accomplished themselves for the purpose, made a point of attending in front of a house containing a marriage party, with their cleavers, and each provided with a marrow bone, wherewith to perform a sort of rude serenade, of course with the expectation of a fee in requital of their music. Sometimes the group would consist of four, the cleaver of each ground to the production of a certain note; but a full band-one entitled to the highest grade of rewardwould be not less than eight, producing a complete octave; and, where there was a fair skill, this series of notes would have all the fine effect of a peal of bells, When this serenade happened in the evening, the men would be dressed neatly in clean blue aprons, each with a portentous wedding favour of white paper in his breast or hat. It was wonderful with what quickness and certainty, under the enticing presentment of beer, the serenaders got wind of a coming marriage, and with what tenacity of purpose they would go on with their performance until the expected crown or half crown was forthcoming. The men of Clare Market were reputed to be the best performers, and their guerdon was always on the highest scale accordingly. A merry rough affair it was; troublesome somewhat to the police, and not always relished by the party for whose honour it was designed; and sometimes, when a musical band came upon the ground at the same time, or a set of boys would please to interfere with pebbles rattling in tin canisters, thus throwing a sort of burlesque on the performance, a few blows would be interchanged. Yet the marrow bone and cleaver epithalamium seldom failed to diffuse a good humour throughout the neighbourhood; and one cannot but regret that it is rapidly passing among the things that were."

King's College.

THOMAS T. DYER.

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"I have just come across an old story in the Facetic Bebeliana, which may be regarded as the original of that adventure in the modern romance, which tells how the

Baron's horse was cut in two by the descending portcuilis of a besieged town," &c.

The original, however, may be looked for at a much earlier date. The following passage is taken from The Lady of the Fountain, p. 54, in the Mabinogion of the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, as translated from the ancient Welsh MS. by Lady Charlotte Guest, 1838. After describing a fight between the two knights, it says:

"Then the Black Knight felt that he had received a mortal wound, upon which he turned his horse's head, and fled. Owain pursued him, and followed close upon him, although he was not near enough to strike him with his sword. Thereupon Owain descried a vast and resplendent castle. And they came to the castle gate. And the Black Knight was allowed to enter, and the portcullis was let fall upon Owain; and it struck his horse behind the saddle, and cut him in two, and carried away the rowels of the spurs that were upon Owain's heels. And

the portcullis descended to the floor. And the rowels of the spurs and part of the horse were without, and Owain, with the other part of the horse, remained between the two gates, and the inner gate was closed, so that Owain could not go thence; and Owain was in a perplexing situation." [Aside, I should think he was.]

At p. 367 of the same collection, relating the adventures of Peredur, the son of Evrawc, there is mention of a remarkable stag. Though not the cherry tree, "he has one horn in his forehead as long as the shaft of a spear, and as sharp as whatever is sharpest; and he destroys the branches of the best trees in the forest, and he kills every animal that he meets with therein; and those that he does not slay perish with hunger."

It is said that if the tail of a leech be cut off, after the animal has fixed itself to the skin, it will drink blood as Baron Munchausen's horse drank P. HUTCHINSON.

water.

BARONY OF MORDAUNT (3rd S. v. 416.) — P. S. C. does not seem to be aware that the late Duke of Gordon had several sisters, between whom the barony of Mordaunt of course fell into abeyance, to the exclusion of all other claims. They all married, and all I believe had issue. CHARLES F. S. WARREN.

CARY FAMILY (3rd S. v. 398.)—I am sorry that I cannot aid MR. ROBINSON in tracing the Cary family in Holland; but with reference to his suggestion that possibly some descendants of the first Lord Hunsdon may still exist, I think it may not be amiss to inquire what probability there is of such being the case.

I presume that MR. ROBINSON has in view male descendants only, and to such I shall confine my attention.

The first Lord Hunsdon had four sons,-George, John, Edmund, and Robert. Robert, the youngest son, was created Earl of Monmouth, and as that title became extinct so long ago as 1661, it is clear that there can have been no male descendant

in this line for the last two centuries. We may, therefore, confine our inquiries to the three elder

sons.

George, the eldest son, who on his father's death became the second Lord Hunsdon, died without male issue, and the title descended on his brother

John, the second son.

On the death of his grandson, the fifth lord, the line of John, the second son, became extinct, and the title passed to the descendants of Edmund, the third son.

This Edmund, the third son, had a son Sir Robert, who, according to MR. ROBINSON, had four sons-Horatio, Ernestus, Rowland, and Ferdinand. The line of Horatio, the eldest son, became extinct on the death of Robert, the sixth baron, in 1692. The line of Ernestus, the second son, became extinct on the death of Robert, the seventh baron,

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