MINOR NOTES
Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper.—Two centuries ago furs were so rare, and therefore so highly valued, that the wearing of them was restricted by several sumptuary laws to kings and princes. Sable, in those laws called vair, was the subject of countless regulations: the exact quality permitted to be worn by persons of different grades, and the articles of dress to which it might be applied, were defined most strictly. Perrault's tale of Cinderella originally marked the dignity conferred on her by the fairy by her wearing a slipper of vair, a privilege then confined to the highest rank of princesses. An error of the press, now become inveterate, changed vair into verre, and the slipper of sable was suddenly converted into a glass slipper.
Jarltzberg.
Mistletoe on Oaks.—In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the extreme rarity of mistletoe on oaks, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny; and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in the Gardeners' Chronicle, I communicated to the latter journal, last week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.
I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I previously appended as likely to be interesting to the archæologist of Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a moated mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beachley adjacent, and of Llanllowell.
George Ormerod.
Sedbury Park, Chepstow.
Omnibuses.—It may be interesting to your readers at a future time to know when these vehicles, the use of which is daily extending, were introduced into this country; perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to state how the fact is. Mr. C. Knight, in his Volume of Varieties, p. 178., observes:
"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four horses and six wheels; but we refused to accept it in any shape till we imported the fashion from Paris in 1830."
And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he
"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having originated and established the Omnibus in England."—Report, p. 124., 8vo. ed.
Arun.
Havock.—Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of Richard II, art. x.:
"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir la teste coupe."
This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the Admiralty, has this passage:
"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis ... and his body in prison at the king's will."
And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare combines both senses:
"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."
In a copy of Johnson's Dictionary before me, I find
"HAVOCK (haroc, Sax.), waste; wide and general devastation." Spenser.
"HAVOCK, interj, a word of encouragement to slaughter." Shakspeare.
"TO HAVOCK, v. a., to waste; to destroy; to lay waste." Spenser.
Jarltzberg.
Schlegel on Church Property in England.—Fr. Schlegel, in his Philosophy of History, says, p. 403., "in England and Sweden church property remained inviolate:" what the case may be in Sweden I do not know, but it appears strange that a man of such general knowledge as F. Schlegel should make such an assertion as regards England.
S.N.