MAY-FIRES, ISLE OF MAN. The custom of making, on the night of May 11 (May eve, O. S.), large fires similar to the Irish fires referred to by MR. J. HARRIS GIBSON in "N. & Q." (3rd S. xii. 42), still obtains in the Isle of Man. On a fine evening these fires have a very beautiful appearance, as they blaze on the mountains and other elevations. While the fires are burning, horns are blown in all directions. It is customary, too, on the same evening to place "May-flowers," as they are termed by the peasantry, at the entrances of the cottages, and of the out-offices in which the domestic animals of the farm are kept. The flower used for the purpose is the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). Crosses made of sprays of the mountain ash-or keirn, as it is called in the Manx dialect-are worn on the same night. Though the pretext for these customs is protection against witchcraft, there seems to be little faith now entertained as to their efficacy. The peasantry say that the fires are supposed to burn the wizards and witches; while the keirn cross, and the flowers and leaves of the Caltha, are supposed to possess a charm against the supernatural powers of enchanters and mountain hags. "The sun was anciently worshipped by the Celts under the name of Bel, Beal, Baal, Boal, or Beul, and by the Greeks under the name of Apollo, which differs very little in the sound. He [Apollo] was called Grian, from grianey or grianagh, to bask, heat, or scorch; which word was Latinised into Grynæus and Grannus, which became a classical epithet of Apollo." The alleged derivation of Grynæus from the Manx word grian, the sun, few antiquaries will, I think, be prepared to adopt. It is, I think, quite as probable that Apollo, as schoolboys are taught to believe, derived the epithet from the town of Gryneum, where he is said to have had a temple. It is, moreover, doubtful that Apollo and the sun were identical. Dr. Lempriere says: 66 Apollo has been taken for the sun, but it may be proved by different passages in the ancient writers that Apollo, the Sun, Phoebus, and Hyperion were all different characters and deities, though confounded together. When once Apollo was addressed as the Sun, and represented with a crown of rays on his head, the idea was adopted by every writer, and thence arose the mistakes." Dr. Kelly gives the word Baalan-feale-oin, which he translates "The chaplet of the plant () worn on the eve of St. John the Baptist." He says that the etymology of the word is, An, a chaplet, Baal, of Baal, feailly, on the feast, Eoin, of John. The word is, however, spelled by the editor Bollan-y-feail-oin. Mr. Kelly does not seem to have Sir John Lubbock, in his learned and interesting Prehistoric Times, when alluding to Professor Nilsson's opinion that the Phoenicians had settle-known the name of this plant, which is the mugments in Scandinavia, says: — "The festival of Baal or Balder was, he [Professor Nilsson] tells us, celebrated on Midsummer's night in Scania, and far up into Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until within the last fifty years. A wood fire was made upon a hill or mountain, and the people of the neighbourhood gathered together in order, like Baal's prophets of old, to dance round it, shouting and singing. This Midsummer's-night-fire has even retained in some parts the ancient names of Balders bal, or Balders fire." P. 47. The Rev. John Kelly, LL.D., who died in 1809, in his Manx and English Dictionary (which had not been published, until recently printed by the Manx Society, and edited by the Rev. William Gill) has ingeniously endeavoured to show that numerous Manx words are derived from the name of the Phoenician deity, and indicate the worship of the sun as Baal. Mr. Archibald Cregeen, however, in his Dictionary of the Manx Language, published in 1835 (a work of great research and ability), does not, I believe, even mention the name of the god. Dr. Kelly gives Baal as a Manx word, signifying "Baal, Apollo, the sun, Beel, Bel or Bol, king of the Assyrians," &c. In reference to the Manx word Grian, the sun, he remarks: wort (Artemisia vulgaris). The words Laa Boaldyn (Cregeen), May-day, Dr. Kelly writes Baaltinn (Laa); and attaches the meaning-"May-day, or the day of Baal's fire or of the sun; from tinn, celestial fire, and Baal, the god Baal, or the sun.' Boayldin (Cregeen), a name given to two valleys in the island, is also spelled by Dr. Kelly in the same manner, and supposed by him to have the same etymology as the other word applied to May. He also affirms that the word Tynwald has the same etymology, a word which is clearly not a Manx word at all, but is derived from the two Danish words ting, a court, and bold, a mound of earththe Court on the Mound, where the Manx statutes are promulgated. Of Laa Boaldyn, May-day, Cregeen says its etymology is not well known; but observes that it is said by some to have been derived "from boal, a wall, and teine (fire), Irish, in reference to the practice of going round the fences with fire on the eve of this day." As to the word Boayldyn, Cregeen states that the valleys are no doubt so called from boayl dowin, a low place. As boayl means place, why should not boayl tinn mean the place of fire, and not Baal's fire? Dr. Nuttall, in his Archeological and Classical Dictionary, quoting, I think, from Dr. Jamieson, says that "Among the ancient Scandinavians and Caledonians the words bael, baal, bail, bayle, &c., denoted a funeral pile, or the blaze there from." The word baal, in the Danish language, signifies "a pile of wood"; but the Eastern word Baal, I believe, denotes "lord." The word beeal, in the Manx dialect, means "entrance": thus, beeal y phurt denotes an entrance into a harbour. Is it not possible that some at least of the prefixes, forming parts of Scandinavian words, and mentioned by Sir John Lubbock as being derived from the Phoenician Baal, may have had their origin in equivalents of bual, an entrance, boal, a wall, or boayl, a place, in the Celtic or some other ancient European languages? That the sun was worshipped by the early inhabitants of Man, I am much disposed to believe. The form of some of the ancient tumuli of the island leads to this belief: two seem to have been constructed in an annular form, with radiations. But if the sun was a deity among its primeval occupants, was he worshipped under the name of Baal? J. M. JEFFCott. Isle of Man. THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN.-In a poem entitled "This World is but a Vanyte," from the Lambeth MS. 853, about 1430 A.D., printed in Hymns to the Virgin and Christ (edited by F. J. Furnivall for the Early English Text Society), at p. 83 we have a very curious comparison of the life of man to the seven times of the day. The number seven is here determined apparently by the hours of the Romish church. Thus, corresponding to matins, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline, which were called in old English uhtsang, primesang, undernsang, middaysang, nonsang, evensang, nightsang, we have the following periods of the day and of man's life: : 1. Morning. The infant is like the morning, at first born spotless and innocent. 2. Midmorrow. This is the period of childhood. 3. Undern (9 A.M.). The boy is put to school. 4. Midday. He is knighted, and fights battles. 5. High Noon (i. e. nones or 9th hour, 3 P.M.). He is crowned a king, and fulfils all his pleasure. 6. Midovernoon (i. e. the middle of the period between high noon and evensong). The man begins to droop, and cares little for the pleasures of youth. 7. Evensong. The man walks with a staff, and death seeks him. After this follows the last stanza: "Thus is the day come to nyght, And in coold clay now schal y clinge.' The resemblance of this to Shakespeare's "Seven Ages" is curious and interesting. WALTER W. SKEAT. "RATTENING."-As this word has become notorious in the inquiry into the Sheffield outrages (and has recently been introduced into the London book trade), and as its origin is uncertain, it may be well to inquire about its early use and real meaning while there are some alive who may be able to say whence it came and what the word really means. In the recent inquiry at Sheffield, the word seemed generally to mean the concealment or destruction of the "bands" (the straps by which grindstones, &c. are turned), in order to compel some obstinate workman to conform to the "Union" rules. My own recollection of the meaning of the word is very different, and on referring to a work where I first saw the word many years ago, I find the following: "The murders which these men sometimes commit are perpetrated by a process known under the name of rattaning. The grinder in Sheffield performs his daily labour seated across a sort of wooden bench, known by the name of the Horse, the place which would be that of the lowest part of the horse's neck being the position of the grinding stone, which is sent round with the greatest velocity by a mill. The stone is made steady upon its iron spindle by means of wedges, and rattaning consists in driving one of these wedges so far as slightly to crack the stone. The effect is, that soon after the stone is put into its full motion, it separates, the pieces flying off as though sent from the mouth of a cannon, and the unhappy workman, bending in unconsciousness over the instrument of his destruction, experiences a most horrible death."-The Age of Great Cities; or, Modern Civilisation viewed in its Relation to Intelligence, Morals, and Religion. By Robert Vaughan, D.D., President of the Lancashire Independent College. Second edition. London: Jackson & Walford, &c. 1843. Although the passage is rather verbose and clumsy, the process of "rattaning" is described pretty clearly, and apparently from positive personal knowledge. What, then, is the etymology of the word? Did "rattaning" begin with grinders? How long has the word been used in a more general sense? How should it be spelled? Rattaning, rattening, rattan-ning? Fifty years hence these and a dozen other queries will be asked about what is now unfortunately a very "familiar word," and then there will be no hope of an adequate reply. For the present I withhold my own speculations and researches (which are in no way satisfactory) in the hope that some philologist or some Sheffield reader will settle the whole question by a brief history of this word, as to its origin, its changes, and its ESTE. use. WRITING ON THE GROUND.—In John, viii. 6, 8, our Lord is so represented. In the Acharnians (v. 31) of Aristophanes the word ypάow is used by Dicaopolis (a just citizen) to express, with other words, how he tried to pass off the tedium of attending in the Pnyx, or one of the Grecian Houses of Commons. This word is translated scribble by Hickie, but Artaud renders it “je trace des caractères sur la sable," I draw figures on the sand. As this play was written B.C. 425, it is probable that ypάow was used in its primary sense of to scratch, scrape, or draw marks or figures, and not in the sense of writing letters or words, which being done on the ground or sand would be speedily obliterated. I have seen in engravings of the woman taken in adultery, the Hebrew words represented on the ground, meaning "thou shalt not commit adultery," but such writing seems to me improbable. The act, whatever it was, appears to have been a sign on the part of our Lord, used twice at this interview, to show his unwillingness to hear further the subtile crimination of the Jews; for when he looked up the second time after he had again written on the ground, all had gradually departed, probably considering that their position in moral logic was indisputable. As to the French translation of ypápw, drawing figures on the sand in this particular passage, it seems to me erroneous, for the Pnyx is represented as crowded, and sand was probably not there at all, for it was cut out of solid rock. What Dicæopolis scratched or drew upon was a tablet, TтUKTòs Tívαg (Hom., Il. §. 169), answering the purpose of our pocket memorandum books as well as of our post letters. Streatham Place, S. T. J. BUCKTON. DRAMATIC CRITICS. The following list of dramatic critics, taken from the September number of The Broadway, in an article written by Mr. John Hollingshead, may be worthy of a corner in "N. & Q.":· Times.-Mr. John Oxenford. Herald and Standard.-Mr. Desmond Ryan. Pall Mall Gazette.-Mr. G. H. Lewes. ORIGIN OF MOTTOES.-Allied to the subject of punning mottoes, of which many examples have been given in "N. & Q.," is the origin of mottoes of particular families, which are often of historical interest. I find the following account of the origin of the mottoes of the different branches of the Campbell family in The Scotsman's Library, 1825, p. 219: "The motto of the armorial bearings of the family is, Follow me.' This significant call was assumed by Sir Colin Campbell, laird of Glenorchy, who was a Knight Templar of Rhodes. . . . . . Several cadets of the familyknight; and when the chief called Follow me,' he found assumed mottoes analogous to that of this chivalrous a ready compliance from Campbell of Glenfalloch, a son of Glenorchy, who says, Thus far,' that is, to his heart's blood, the crest being a dagger piercing a heart; from Achline, who says, With heart and hand'; from Achallader, who says, 'With courage'; and from Balcardine, who says, 'Paratus sum'; Glenlyon, more cautious, says, Quæ recte sequor.' A neighbouring knight and baron, Menzies of Menzies, and Flemyng of Moness, in token of friendship, say, 'Will God I shall,' and 'The deed will show.'" The "Grip fast" of Leslie, Earl of Rother, was gained by the founder of the house, who saved Queen Margaret of Scotland from drowning by seizing hold of her girdle when she was thrown from her horse in crossing a swollen river. She cried out, "Grip fast," and afterwards desired her words to be retained as her preserver's motto. "Primus è stirpe" was the motto assumed by the precedence as the eldest of the younger branches of family of Hay of Leys to indicate their right of the house of Hay of Errol. "Quæ amissa salva,” the motto of the Earl of Kintore, refers to the preservation of the regalia of Scotland by Sir John Keith, the first Earl, who during the usurpation of Cromwell, buried them in the church of Kenneft, and pretended to have carried them to France, in consequence of which all search for them ceased. These few examples of the origin of particular mottoes will, I hope, induce some of the correspondents of "N. & Q." to continue the subject, which is full of interest. H. P. D. OXYMELI EPISTOLARE. Some ninety years ago, Monsieur Elie Beaumont, a distinguished member of the French bar, and founder of an annual "Fête des Bonnes Gens" at his country seat, sent eight partridges to his parish priest in Paris, with instructions to distribute them among his poor parishioners. His reverence's reply merits, I think, a corner in "N. & Q." (Anecdotes Secrètes, à Londres, chez James Anderson. Paris, 1779):— Paris, le 23 Janvier, 1778. "J'ai reçu, Monsieur, les huit Perdrix rouges que vous m'avez adressées, afin d'en faire la distribution à mes pauvres. Vous me supposez, sans doute, le talent de notre poissons, nourrissoit des milliers d'hommes. Il ne faudivin Sauveur, qui, avec cinq pains et autant de chétifs droit moins qu'un prodige pareil pour repartir huit perdrix rouges entre vingt mille malheureux environ, que j'ai à soulager tous les jours. Il n'est pas d'anatomiste 66 qui pût faire cette dissection. D'ailleurs, que vous ne voulussiez me promettre de fournir souvent à mes pauvres une nourriture aussi succulente, ce seroit un mauvais service à leur rendre, que de les en faire tâter, et les remettre ensuite à un pain grossier et à une soupe peu substantielle. J'ai pris le parti, Monsieur, de faire servir votre gibier sur ma table, et d'y substituer huit écus que j'ai remis à la messe des aumônes. J'espère, Monsieur, que vous ne me ferez plus manger dorénavant de perdrix aussi chères. Réservez ce goût délicat, cette recherche ingénieuse qui vous caractérise, pour vos productions littéraires ou pour vos institutions sociales, et mettez plus de bonhomie dans vos charités. Permettezmoi, en qualité de votre Pasteur, de vous rappeler la maxime évangélique: Beati pauperes spiritu ! "J'ai l'honneur d'être, etc. etc." E. L. S. TOWN AND COLLEGE.-I see that Mr. Britton, in his very valuable Architectural Dictionary, speaks of the word town as denoting "any collection of houses too large to be termed a village." Local custom in my neighbourhood takes quite a different view of the word. Our own village is constantly called the "town,"-and I heard the name applied a few days ago to a neighbouring village containing only seventy inhabitants as its whole population. The word "college" is also curiously applied to any block or attached body of two or three cottages. But this is not so frequent. FRANCIS TRENCH. Islip Rectory. CONDUIT MEAD.- Conduit Mead was formerly an open field of twenty-seven acres, held in fee by the City of London. In 1666 a lease of it was granted to the Earl of Clarendon, for ninety-nine years, at 81. a-year; and further lease of one hundred years, to commence at the termination of the former, was given to Lord Mulgrave in 1694, of a little more than two acres-a parcel of the same lands. Upon it, in 1744, stood New Bond Street, Conduit, George, and other adjacent streets, numbering 429 houses besides stables, out-buildings, &c.; producing an annual rental computed at 14,2407. 158. Such description I found in an old pamphlet, published in the middle of the last century, complaining of the waste of the corporation property in the management of this important estate. Its value now must have enormously increased, and does the City of London still retain the ground rents, &c.? THOMAS E. WINNINGTON. THE THREE OLDEST TOWNS IN THE UNITED STATES.-St. Augustine, in Florida, founded by the Spaniards in 1565; Jamestown, in Virginia, founded by the English in 1607; and Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded also by the English under Governor Winthrop, in 1620. Malta. W. W. Queries. COLONEL JOHN VERNON. Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." give me some particulars respecting Colonel John Vernon, to whom were granted, in 1664 or 1665, lands in Antigua? He was an officer in the Royalist army, and died in 1689. I wish to ascertain the name of his first wife. His second wife was Elizabeth Everard, widow of Thomas Everard, Governor of the Leeward Islands. I wish also to ascertain the Christian name of his father, the name of his mother, and the name of his eldest son's wife. This son was also John Vernon, and died in 1704, at Golden Square, St. James's, Westminster; and was buried at St. Edmund's, Lombard Street, as was also his eldest son, the Hon. John Vernon (I believe a colonel in the army), who was a Privy Councillor for Antigua, and died in 1765; having married (1) Anne Lysons, daughter and heiress of George Lysons of Gloucestershire, by Magdalene, daughter of Sir Marmaduke Rawdon of Hoddesdon, Herts. Their son, James Vernon, took the estates after his father, but died in 1769 s. p., and was buried at St. Edmund's, Lombard Street. He married Margaret Gascoyne, daughter of Sir Crisp Gascoyne, Knt., of London, and sister of Bamber Gascoyne, M.P. for Truro, &c. The Hon. John Vernon married (2) Elizabeth Weston, who died in 1760, and was buried at Paddington Church, as were also her parents. (I should like to ascertain some particulars about the pedigree of this Weston family.) Their son, John Joseph James Vernon, born 1744, died 1823, took the estates on the death of his half-brother in 1769. He was a captain in the 4th Dragoons. He married (1) Mary, daughter and heiress of the Rev. Randal Andrews, Vicar of Preston, Lancashire. Their eldest son, John Vernon, born 1773, died 1859, took the estates. He was a lieut.colonel in the 18th Hussars. He married E. G. Casamajor, daughter of Justinian Casamajor of Potterells, Herts. Their three sons-John, Justinian (captain, 15th Hussars), and George James (captain, 8th Hussars)—all died s. p. Captain Vernon married (2) Hannah Mason, daughter of Miles Mason of Westhouse, Dent, Yorkshire; and their eldest son, W. J. J. J. Vernon, in holy orders, and formerly Vicar of Littlehampton and Patcham, Sussex, is now the head of the family, and I am his eldest son. I cannot find the will of Colonel John Vernon (ob. 1689) at Doctors' Commons. I think he must have died at Antigua. The executors of the will of John Vernon (ob. 1704) were Sir William Mathew, K.B., Colonel Rowland Williams, Colonel Edward Byam (of Antigua), Major Edmund Nott, Archibald Hutchinson, and Nathaniel Carpenter. The executors of the will of the Hon. John Vernon (ob. 1765) were Sir Edmund Thomas, Bart., of Wendoe Castle, Glamorganshire; Rev. Martin Madan, and Charles Spooner, Esq., of St. Christopher's, W. Indies; and W. Brown of Cursitor Street, Middlesex. An official account (in Heralds' College, I believe) of the funeral of John Vernon (ob. 1704) states that he was a cousin of the Right Hon. James Vernon, Secretary of State to King William III.; and that the funeral was attended by Secretary Vernon, Mr. Vernon "of the Exchequer," Lord Radnor (Chas. B. Robartes), Sir Charles Hedges, and Mr. Constantine Phipps "of the Temple." I believe some or all of the following families were related to the Vernons of Antigua, viz.: Boyle, Berkeley, Carew, Clifford, Robartes, Hedges, Phipps, St. John, Moore, Duncombe, Oxenden, Hurst, Philpott, Bethell, Tipping. Manning and Bray, in their History of Surrey, mention a place near Egham, as "formerly the seat of the Vernons," but they give no details. I have found among family papers a letter, dated from Antigua, and signed "Duncan Grant' (Mr. Grant was father-in-law to Mr. Justinian Casamajor), and directed to "James Vernon, Esq., Little Foster Hall, near Egham." This James Vernon was the above-named J. Vernon who married M. Gascoyne, and he was my great uncle. Mr. Grant was his agent in Antigua. "Little Foster Hall" is now "Egham Lodge." The arms of this family are: Or, on a fesse azure, 3 garbs or. Crest. On a wreath or, a demi-figure of Ceres, habited azure, crined or, holding a garb or in the sinister arm, and a reaping-hook in the dexter hand. Motto. "Ver non semper viret." Arms precisely similar to these were granted in 1583, by Flower, to a John Vernon of Cheshire. (Vide Gwillim's Display of Heraldry.) I should feel much obliged to any of your correspondents who could assist me in my inquiries. The references to the pedigrees of the London and Surrey Vernons, in the British Museum, are as follows: Vernon (London), from Derby and Hunts (Add. MS., 5533, p. 81). fol. 102 b). Vernon (London), from Middlewich (1096, Vernon of Camberwell, Surrey (Add. MS., 5533, fol. 272 B). Vernon of Farnham, Surrey (Add. MS., 5533, fol. 278). W. J. VERNON. Leek, Staffordshire. APHORISMS.—I think it is Bacon who says that, amongst all nations the primitive form of philosophy is that of aphorisms and proverbial phrases, and that in the most advanced stage of philosophy men will perhaps discard the cumbrous impedimenta of many words and many books, and return to the brevity and condensation of the primitive form. I should be glad to recover the passage I have in mind. Q. Q. BUNS.-When did this term come into ordinary tions" a kind of hard-crusted bread, whose loaves use in England? Cotgrave, in v. "Pain," mendoe somewhat resemble the Dutch bunnes of our Rheinish-wine house." This allusion would appear to show that the buns of the seventeenth century were different in character to the articles now so called. J. O. HALLIWELL. - CAMPBELL'S "HOHENLINDEN." — Is there any truth in the following story relative to Campbell's poem of the "Battle of Hohenlinden?" It was told to me when a boy, by an old tutor:What gave Campbell the first idea of writing the poem was, one night he was returning from a dinner-party, having freely partaken of the good things of this world. On his way he had to pass a sentinel, who challenged him with, "Who goes there?" To which Campbell replied, "I, sir, rolling rapidly!" G. S. R. FITZRALPH BRASS.-In Pebmarsh church, Essex, is a brass, c. 1320, commemorating a member of the Fitzralph family. Wanted, any particulars respecting the family, and the name of the person whose brass is in the above church? JOHN PIGGOT, Jus. HARVEST HOME.-What authority have we for supposing this festival to have been observed by the Greeks and Romans? A. E. D. H. L. W. — In the Christian Observer, about the year 1835 or 1836, there were several poems of a religious kind, having the signature of "H. L. W.": one a hymn, "God is my shepherd, tender, kind," &c.; also some poetry, having the title "Scenes in Heaven." Can any reader inform me as to the authorship? I think the editor at that time was the Rev. S. C. Wilks, at present rector of Nursling, Hants. R. I. key-cold given by MR. SKEAT (3rd S. xi. 171), KEY-COLD: KEY: QUAY.-To the instances of may phrase some time after Shakspeare, from Drybe added one showing that it was a familiar den's Sir Martin Marall, Act III. Sc. 2 (produced in 1667): |