Minor Notes.
Rhymes connected with Places.
—There are many villages in England, the names of which have old traditionary couplets attached to them, illustrating some natural or other peculiarity; some such have already incidentally found their way into the pages of "N. & Q." Might not a complete collection be easily made, and would it not be an interesting one? I send, as a beginning, two Staffordshire villages in my immediate neighbourhood, which are very characteristically described. One is—
"Wootton under Weaver,
Where God came never,"
being very lonely, and out-of-the-way; and the other—
"Stanton on the stones,
Where the Devil broke his bones,"
which explains itself.
W. FRASER.
French Dates.
—I annex a singular connexion between the dates of some of the most important occurrences in the history of France, which was mentioned to me by a French lady, with whom I had the pleasure of travelling from Soissons to Paris the day after the melancholy death of the Duke of Orleans, in July 1842. By following out the same principle of addition, the next great national event appears to be in store for the year 1857. Of course the superstitious reader must shut his eyes on 1848.
1794 - Period of Robespierre.
1
7
9
4
——
1815 - Waterloo.
1
8
1
5
——
1830 - Revolution.
1
8
3
0
——
1842 - Death of the Duke of Orleans.
E. N.
"Black Book of Scone."
—The Black Book of Scone, containing the history of Scotland from Fergus I., was in Sir Robert Spottiswood's library, and was given by Lewis Cant (a Covenanting minister) to Major-General Lambert, and by Lambert to Col. Fairfax; which book Charles I. had ransomed from Rome by a considerable sum of money: and it is certain Archbishop Spottiswood had it and the Black Book of Paisley, signed by three abbots, when he compiled his History, which, with the famous Red Book of Pluscardine, Buchanan says he had, and frequently cites.—Sir George Mackenzie's Defence of the Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland; and also Lives of Scotch Writers.
The fate of the Black Book of Scone may be a clue to the inquirer after the Black Book of Paisley. It is not now in the library at Spottiswood; and most of Sir Robert Spottiswood's property was pillaged and ransacked during his imprisonment.
L. M. M. R.
Cracked Glass.
—Some years ago, being a schoolboy at the time, I spent my Christmas holidays at my grandfather's house in Somersetshire. The members of the family were assembled for evening prayer, when suddenly music, resembling that of an Æolian harp, was heard, produced apparently by some person upon the lawn immediately beneath the window. As soon as the prayers were concluded I opened the hall door, and was greatly surprised to find the musician had departed. On returning to the drawing-room I was informed that the moment I had left the room the music ceased. Believing that some village friend had come to serenade us, we drew our chairs round the fire in expectation of his return. A few minutes only elapsed when the music was again distinctly heard. A second visit was made to the hall door, but with no better success. It was then resolved to open the shutters, which was no sooner done than the mystery was clearly explained. During the day a pane of glass had been cracked, and the music was produced by the two pieces of glass vibrating against each other. We found, from repeated experiments, that it required the atmosphere of the room to be at rather a high temperature to produce the effect, for the moment the door, or one of the other windows, was opened, the vibration ceased. I have only to add that the music was very pleasing to the ear, and consisted of rapid cadences. I have often mentioned the circumstance, but I never found any one who had met with a similar musical fracture.
M. A.
Spanish Verses on the Invasion of England.
—I carry in my memory the following verses. Are they to be found in any Spanish canzonero? I certainly have not invented them.
"Mi hermano Bartolo
Va in Inglatierra
A mater et Draque
Y a tomar la reyna.
Y de los Luteranos
De la banda-messa
Tiene a traer mi
A mi de la guerra
Un Luteranico
Con una cadena
Y una Luterana."
. . . .
Here my memory fails me.
L. H. J. T.