Minor Notes.
The Day of the Month.
—Many persons might help themselves, as some do, by remembering throughout the year on what day the 1st of January fell, and by permanently remembering the first day of each month, which agrees with the first day of the year. Thus, this present year began on Wednesday, and the 6th of August is therefore Wednesday, as are the 13th, 20th, 27th. By the following lines the key to the months may be kept in mind:—
The first day of October, you'll find if you try,
The second of April, as well as July,
The third of September, which rhymes to December,}
The fourth day of June, and no other, remember,}
The fifth of the leap-month, of March, and November,}
The sixth day of August, and seventh of May,
Show the first of the year in the name of the day;
But in leap-year, when leap-month has duly been reckoned,
These month-dates will show, not the first, but the second.
M.
Foreign English.
—The specimens given in "NOTES AND QUERIES" have reminded me of one which seems worthy to accompany them; in fact, to have rather a peculiar claim.
I believe the facts of the case to have been these. When it was known that Louis XVIII. was to be restored to the throne of France, a report was circulated (whether on any good authority I do not know) that the then Duke of Clarence would take the command of the vessel which was to convey the returning monarch to Calais. At all events the people of Calais expected it; and inferring that the English royal duke would pass at least one night in their town, and of course go to the play, they deemed that it would be proper to perform the English national anthem at their theatre. It was obvious, however, that "God save the King" was so very appropriate to their own circumstances, that, notwithstanding its Anglicism, it left less of compliment and congratulation for the illustrious foreigner than they really intended to offer. So that happy people, who can do everything in no time, forthwith prepared an additional verse. This being quite new, and of course unknown, they printed on the playbill, from which I learned it. If you give his lines a place in your pages, I will not say that the French poet's labour was thrown away; but for the time it was so, as the English duke did not accompany the French king. I believe that the additional verse was as follows:—
"God save noble Clarénce
Who brings our king to France,
God save Clarénce;
He maintains the glorý
Of the British navý,
Oh! God, make him happý,
God save Clarénce."
I am sorry that I can only speak from memory of the contents of a document which I have not seen for so many years; but if I may have made any mistake, perhaps some reader may be able to correct me.
S. R. M.
Birds' Care for the Dead.
—It is not uncommon to find in poets of all ages some allusion to the pious care of particular birds for the bodies of the dead. Is there any truth in the idea? for certainly the old ballad of "The Children in the Wood" has made many a kind friend for the Robin Redbreast by the affecting lines:
"No burial this pretty pair
Of any man receives,
Till Robin Redbreast piously
Did cover them with leaves."
Herrick also alludes to the same tradition in his verses "upon Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, under the name of Amarillis." (Works, vol i. pp. 62-3.: Edin. 1823)
"Sweet Amarillis, by a spring's
Soft and soule-melting murmurings,
Slept; and thus sleeping, thither flew,
A Robin Redbreast; who at view,
Not seeing her at all to stir,
Brought leaves and moss to cover her;
But while he, perking, there did prie
About the arch of either eye,
The lid began to let out day,
At which poor Robin flew away;
And seeing her not dead, but all disleav'd,
He chirpt for joy, to see himself disceav'd."
In the earlier editions of Gray's Elegy, before the Epitaph, the following exquisite lines were inserted:
"There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found:
The Redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground."
And about the same time Collin's "Dirge in Cymbeline" had adorned the "fair Fidele's grassy tomb" with the same honour:
"The Redbreast oft, at evening hours,
Shall kindly lend his little aid,
With hoary moss, and gather'd flowers,
To deck the ground where thou art laid."
RT.
Warmington, Aug. 9. 1851.
Snake's Antipathy to Fire.
—There is in Brazil a very common poisonous snake, the Surucucu (Trigonocephalus rhombeatus), respecting which the Matutos and Sertanejos, the inhabitants of the interior, relate the following facts. They say that such is the antipathy of this reptile to fire, that when fires are made in the clearing away of woods, they rush into it, scattering it with their tails till it is extinguished, even becoming half roasted in the attempt; and that when an individual is passing at night with a torch, they pass and repass him, lashing him with their tales till he drop it, and the snake is immediately found closely coiled round the extinguished torch. The greatest enemy of this snake is an immense Lacertian, five and six feet long, the Tiju-açu (the great lizard—its name in the Lingoa geral): it is said that when the snake succeeds in effecting a bite, the lizard rushes into the wood, eats some herb, and returns to the conflict, which almost invariable terminates in its favour.
JOHN MANLEY.
Pernambucco, June 30. 1851.
Aldgate, London. (A Note for London Antiquaries)
—After this gate was taken down in 1760, Sir Walter Blackett, of Wallington, Northumberland, obtained some of the ornamental stone (part of the City arms, heads and wings of dragons, apparently cut in Portland stone, and probably set up when the gate was rebuilt in 1606), and used them in decorating Rothley Castle, an eye-trap which he erected on the crags of that name, near Wallington.
W. C. TREVELYAN.
Wallington Aug. 11. 1851.
Erroneous Scripture Quotations.
—Some of your correspondents have done good service by drawing attention to these things. Has it ever occurred to you that the apple is a fruit never connected in Scripture with the fall of man;—that Eve was not Adam's helpmate, but merely a help meet for him;—and that Absalom's long hair, of which he was so proud, and which as consequently so often served "to point a moral and adorn a tale," had nothing to do with his death, his head itself, and not the hair upon it, having been caught in the boughs of the tree?
P. P.