Lines on Nymph sleeping, 89. 78, 84,90. 28. Milliton Family noticed, 99. Noon-day lines with Violets, 71. Braikenrio%e, George Weare, 11. Haydn, Joseph, 7. Martin, John, of Froxfield, 2. Miciiewicz, Adam, Polish Poet, 7, Mitchell, translator of Camoens, Thierry, Augustine, 52. Omens and portents dire, 102. Oxfordshire Parochial Memoranda, 41. to heraldic honours, 97. Peers for Life, 17. Prelaticul figures on Tombs? 94. Presidential hammer? 87. Prior's cross, by hook and crook, 83. Prior, Matthew, inedited letter, 67. Public libraries, 64. Quaint early rhymes, 100. Quaint Epitaphs, 56, 68. Raleigh's widow, injustice to her, 9n. Ramsay, Allan, inedited letters, 62. Reedwater minstrel, 5,15. Rice family enquiiy, 102 Richard III., bedstead? 42; reply, •Rob Roy's grave, 81. Rogers' rare Marc Antonios, 54. Ross monument, 94. Rump-steuk Club, 65. Russia subsidized by England, 8. Russian treachery, 25. Russian translations, 6, Seeppe, the word explained, 6. Schiller's works prohibited, 12. Scott, Sir Walter, alterations in manu- Scott, inedited letters, 4,14,21, 45, Scott, Border Antiquities, 21. •Selkirk relics, 73, 74, 96. Archdeacon of Bangor, 8. Biblical Quotations, 40. Sign-board Civility, 79. Snuff-taking in Churoh reprehended, Sobieski family weapons, 93. Veitch, extraordinary optical mecha- SUPER/OR SECOND-RAWD BOOKS ANCIENT AND MODERN, IN ALL CLASSES OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS, IN PERFECT LIBRARY CONDITION, TO WHICH ARE ADDED % lurt nf "Am f Minlhm CURRENT NOTES FOR THE MONTH, A SERIES OP Original tfaprrsf on ftfttrarg anH antiquarian &nt>jrcts. G. Willis moat respectfully informs his Customers and the Public, that finding the accommodation afforded by his Covent Garden establishment insufficient for the requirements of a large and increasing trade, his business is now removed to very extensive and centrally situated premises, No. 136, Strand, which probably form the largest and most convenient establishment of the kind in England. At the same time he has entered into partnership with Me. Henby Sotheban of Tower Street and the Strand, whose abilities as a Bookseller, and valuable collection of books, have been long known to the public. As the Proprietors, from their long experience and known resources, possess unusual opportunities for conducting with success and on the most extensive scale, both at home and abroad, every department of their business, they will be enabled to oiler to their customers, on the most favourable terms, such an assortment of the best Books, in every branch of Literature and the Fine Arts, as has never hitherto been brought together in a single establishment. The Old And Second-hand Book Depaetment will embrace an unrivalled collection of the best Standard Works, in all Languages, also Bare and Curious Books, Manuscripts, etc. To the New Book Depabtment will be added every work of reputation as soon as published; thus combining, what to the Book-buyer has hitherto been a desideratum, the advantages of an emporium both for Old and New Books. In addition to a large collection of Books Suitable Foe Peizes And Peesents there will constantly be kept on hand an extensive assortment of works of a superior character adapted to the wants of Liteeaet Institutions and Public Libeaeies, estimates for. which will be forwarded on application. The Monthly Catalogue And Peice Cueeent Of Liteeatuee, which has been published regularly for many years, will appear as heretofore on the 25tb of each month. In conclusion, G. Willis, while gratefully acknowledging the extensive patronage which has been bestowed on him individually for upwards of twenty years, trusts that the combined and increased exertions of himself and partner will secure its continuance, and that the confidence hitherto reposed in him will be extended to the new firm of WILLIS AND SOTHEKAN, 13 6, STRAND, Formerly in the occupation cf Messrs. Smith and Son, the Book and Neics Agents to the Railways, NEXT WELLINGTON STREET, WATERLOO BRIDGE. HEREFORDSHIRE NEW-YEAR CUSTOMS. A comparison of the many diversified customs in the English Counties at various periods of the year presents much interest, and as customs, are peculiarly gratifying to many persons who arc not strictly observers themselves of these interminable occasions for displaying our native character, arising from traditions of which time is fast obliterating all record. Whilst spending Christmas-tide at Bromyard, a snug little self-satisfied town, about fourteen miles from Hereford, I noted the following curious observances, which possibly are not confined to this one of our western counties. On New-Year's Eve, as the hour of twelve drew near, within doors a pleasurable excitement became visible in the face of each person, then seated about the Christmas log; and without, the chanting of the last new carol broke upon the sti'lness of the night in discordant sounds with no very harmonious effect. So soon as the clock had struck twelve, there was a rush out of doors to the nearest spring of water, with this object; WhoeveT first brought in " the cream of the well,'" was deemed fortunate, and those who first tasted of it had also the prospective good fortune of luck following at their heels throughout the whole of the ensuing year. Meanwhile in the street, borne upon the night air, was heard the incoherent noise of the ribald laugh and the joyous song, lustily shouted by many sturdy labourers, who, though usually steady, "only this once" in the year, had made a rather long sitting at "the Lion," or "the Plough,'' and were then wending their homeward course at the friendly intimation of Boniface, who had warned them of the hour when sober men should be in bed. With these, happy souls, the custom is called the ■ burying Old Tom," i.e., the assisting at the departure | of the old year, and in jocund exultations welcoming in that of the new. After the noise and uproar of the funeral obsequies of Old Tom have ceased, the street is in its turn the scene of a tumultuous jollity, caused by bands of boys, chanting in the loudest possible note, and with an indisputable contempt for the Queen's English or Murray's Grammar, the following hearty good wishes, to those whose munificence may be excited by the plenitude of their unbiassed, yet plaintive benevolence. I wish you a merry Christinas, And a happy New Year; And a cellar full of beer; VOL. VI. On the outside of the building, the length is twentyfive feet; the breadth, sixteen feet; the walls are two feet in thickness. The altar stone, marked A, is five feet ten inches in length, two feet seven inches wide, and in height above the level of the floor, two feet ten inches. The cavity or socket, marked B, where a cross, or the image of the patron saint, St. Maternus, may have been placed, is nine inches by eight. C is a row of stones forming a step which divides the chancel from the nave. E E indicate the remains of the stone benches or seats. D, the doorway, facing directly north, is two feet wide at the entrance, gradually extending to two feet eight inches tfithin. An excavation, G, in the south-west corner, appears to have been used as a font, the water being supplied from the well aliove, and for which purpose there is an inlet in the wall at F. The drain marked H served to carry off the waste water. There are still some remains of the outer wall that enclosed the building when Catholicism w as the national religion. The woodcuts have been kindly forwarded by Mr. J. F. Blight, of Penzance, in whose work on the Crosses and Antiquities of West Cornwall, to be published in the ensiling month, they arc part of its illustrations. To the antiquarian readers of Current Notes, it is respectfully commended to their notice. H. A. C, in Current Notes, 1855, p. .93, states that "many County and Local Historians allude to the poem written by Bishop Hall, entitled the Mysterie of Godlincsse, describing the miraculous cure of the poor cripple through the agency of the waters of Madron Well." Unless H. A. C. has misquoted the County and Local Historians, he has been greatly misled by them, for,— Firstly, Bishop Hall did not write any poem on the Great Mysterie of Godlinesse; that tract is in prose. Secondly, Bishop Hall did not describe the miraculous cure of the poor cripple in his tract on 'the Great Mystery of Godlinesse,' nor did he therein make any allusion to it. I gave the passage in Current Notes, p. .93, from the treatise of the good Bishop, in which the description of the Madron cripple does occur, from 'the Invisible World, edit. Lond. 1808,' 8vo., Book I., sect, viii. p. 465; but this tract is also in prose. I observe that Lysons, Cornwall, p. cci., makes this mistake of citing 'the Mystery of Godliness' for 'the Invisible World;' he, however, does not cite it as a poem, but a publication. Probably he also, like H. A. C, copied from preceding writers, instead of going to the original, and thus errors become perpetuated. May I ask H. A. C, whether, from his own observation, he has ascertained that the door of the Chapel, near Cape Cornwall, in St. Just parish,' faces the north,' as that "in Madron does? I believe there arc now no remains of that building in Park-an-Chapel enclosure. Borla.se, in some manuscript notes, speaks of it, in his time; and the Rev. J. Buller says the remains were, in 18+2, still to be seen. Account of St. Just, p. 45. I did not see them while I was incumbent of that parish, from 1846 to 1850. Brampford Speke, Dec. 31. G. C. Goriiam. Mr. John Martin, F.L.S , died at Froxfield, Bedfordshire, Dec. 30, in his sixty-fifth year. He was formerly of the firm of Rodwell and Martin, booksellers, 46, New Bond Street, and the author or compiler of a "Bibliographical Catalogue of Privately Printed Books, 1834," pp.564, 8vo. On the decease of Mr. Wiffen, the librarian at Woburn Abbey, the late Duke of Bedford thought so favourably of this volume, that he unsolicited appointed Mr. Martin, as his successor.—The Bibliographical Catalogue was recently reprinted. The passage (A) from the outer to the inner door, is called the but-a-house, and in some cases is still partly occupied by the cow. Occasionally in cold weather I have seen a pig kept in it. The main apartment (B) is the only one having a fireplace (a); it serves the inmates For kitchen, for parlour and hall; and has a dresser (Fr. dressoir), or bink (old German, binhe), opposite to the window, stored with crockery of all sorts. Two beds, large wooden boxes, with sliding panels in front, are placed (e e) across the cottage, nearly in the centre of its length, and a door or curtain occupies the space between them, to screen the entrance to the ben-a-house (C), which is used as a miscellaneous store-room, and generally containing a bed in which the eldest son or daughter, or the bondager or hired servant sleeps. So ' gang ben the house,' is to enter this inner apartment; and to 'gang but the house,' i3 to move towards the door. 'Ben i' the room,' and 'but i' the kitchen,' arc pfirascs quite common among farm servants. But and ben are the Dutch buiten and binnen; and buitcn of binnen gaan, is to go out and in, with the affix by. 'In by' and 'out by' are phrases heard everywhere. The ben-a-house is the Latin pen-us or penctral; the Hebrew penimah (DD'OD), the benmost, innermost, or most retired, or private part of the house, peculiarly consecrated to the Penates or household gods. South Shields. William Brockie. GRAVE OP SIR ROBERT STRANGE. In the recently published Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange, Knight, Engraver; and of his brother-inlaw Andrew Lumisden, Private Secretary to the Stuart Princes, by James Dennistoun, of Dennistoun; are embodied much that will interest the reader, but there is occasionally a deficiency of minutire, which the author might easily have avoided, and the following Notes arc submitted in the hope of partially supplying that defect. Robert Strange was born at Pomona, in the Orkneys, July 14, 1721. He served as an apprentice to Cooper |
