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The VISITATION of GLOUCESTERSHIRE, in 1623, by The VISITATIONS of BEDFORDSHIRE in 1566, 1586, and The REGISTERS of DURHAM CATHEDRAL. To be Edited The VISITATION of DORSETSHIRE, in 1623, by ST. The VISITATION of STAFFORDSHIRE, in 1583, by GLOVER as DEPUTY to FLOWER. The VISITATION of SHROPSHIRE, in 1584, by LEE as LIST of KNIGHTS with their ARMS, from HENRY VII. The VISITATIONS of WORCESTERSHIRE in 1569 and 1634. The VISITATIONS of SUSSEX, in 1530. by BENOLTE; The REGISTERS of ST. ANTHOLIN, WATLING-STREET, The REGISTERS of ST. JOHN the BAPTIST upon The REGISTERS of ST. JAMES, CLERKENWELL, LON- Persons wishing to join the Society should apply to GEORGE J. ARMYTAGE, ESQ. F.S.A., Hon. Sec., Clifton Woodhead, near Brighouse. LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1882. CONTENTS.- N° 156. in Sicily, 502-Christmas Boxes in the London Banks, 504 FROST THE RED-NOSED. Among the nature-forces which popular fancy NOTES:-A Rondeau-Frost the Red-Nosed, 501-Christmas has personified, Frost sometimes plays a part, but Christmas with the Witches-Christmas under the Common-one, as a general rule, of no great importance. wealth, 505-An Ancient Christmas Carol, 506-The Shrines It might well have been supposed that, at least of Peg Woffington and Kitty Clive, 507-A Yorkshire Ghost among the Northern nations, not unacquainted of Story-Bull-baiting, 508-King George III. and Bob Sleath, old with some such monstrous brood as the frostthe Toll-gate Keeper, 510 The Bagmere Portent: a Cheshire Legend-The First Christmas Day, 511-Christ- giants of Scandinavian mythology, the wintry mas Superstitions of Italian Tirol and Lombardy-YuleThe Shepherds who Saw the Star in the East-Snow Pre-powers would have so strongly impressed the saged by Nose-bleeding, 512-Christmas under Cromwell- rustic imagination that it would have given The Glastonbury Thorn-Decking Churches at Christmas- prominence in its creations to symbols of their Hotchell-Frost in December, 1676-A Laudable Christmas QUERIES:-Rubens and Title-pages, 513-Mrs. Bracegirdle's REPLIES:-"A month's mind." 516-Welnetham, 518- NOTES ON BOOKS:-Palmer's "Folk-Etymology "Allen's Notes. A RONDEAU. In "N. & Q." we meet to weigh We trace, thro' all its moss o'ergrown, Letters and Folk-lore, Art, the Play; We make our theme, we make our own,— Stranger, whoe'er you be, who may Aghast, the waste of things unknown, December, 1882. AUSTIN DOBSON. The sway. But in folk-tales it is not often that they are introduced, at all events under clearly defined shapes. It may be that the demoniacal beings of the class to which Koschei the Deathless belongs, the gaunt stealers of fair maidens, really are what they appear to some observers to be, types of the cruel cold which robs the earth of the gifts and graces of the genial portion of the year. slumber of the Sleeping Beauty may be supposed without extravagance to refer to the long winter trance of nature, and her awaking to the revival brought about by spring. It is even possible that some of the cases of ossification or petrifaction which are recorded in stories of witchcraft may have originally been intended as allusions to the benumbing influence of cold. It does not often occur, however, that the hand of any wintry being is clearly seen directing the machinery of a drama due to the unaided mind of the common people. Among the prettiest of the stories in which such wintry beings play a part may be reckoned the well-known tales of "The Twelve Months" and "The Snow-maiden,” both of which have about them a somewhat literary air. One of the most effective introductions of freezing into a legend is undoubtedly that employed in the Servian description of how the Devil stole the sun and carried it about on a lance. The archangel Michael induced the stealer to dive into the sea, and then turned its surface into ice, and so kept him from emerging long enough to enable the stolen sun to be taken back to heaven. Of animal stories, the most indebted to a rapid cooling process is certainly the explanation of how the bear became short-tailed, having left all but the stump of its tail in the frozen ice-hole on which the fox had induced it to sit. In Russian folk-lore Frost the Red-nosed often figures as a being of irresistible might, but of a not altogether inexorable nature. Many functions are attributed to him, mostly of a beneficent kind. He is the smith who makes the chains which fetter the earth and restrain the rivers throughout the winter; he is the bridge-builder, "a true Samson, who, without an axe, without a wedge, constructs bridges" across all waters. Sometimes, as in many German and other tales, he appears as one of the supernatural attendants of a |