Shape of Coffins (Vol. viii., p. 104.).—As bearing somewhat upon Mr. Ellacombe's Query, allow me to remark that when travelling a few years since in the United States, having about an hour's delay in the city of Rochester, N. Y., I entered one of the churches during a funeral service. When the ceremony (at which a considerable number of persons attended) was concluded, the congregation left their seats and walked in very orderly procession towards the reading-desk, in front of which was placed the coffin, without any pall or covering. They then slowly walked round it, in order, as I afterwards found, to take their last look at the departed. This they were enabled to do without the removal of the lid, by raising the upper or head portion of it, which was hinged a square of glass beneath allowing the face to be seen. This strange custom, which, for my own part, I think would be "more honoured by the breach than the observance," as the recollection of the living face to me is far preferable to that of death, I do not remember to have seen noticed by any of our many travellers in America, though I afterwards found it to be general. The coffins, which are somewhat differently shaped to ours, sloping towards the feet, are rarely covered with cloth; but are generally made of some hard wood such as walnut, highly polished.
Robert Wright.
Old Fogies (Vol. viii., p. 154.).—There may be too much of even a good thing, and I wish some of the writers in "N. & Q." would study compression a little. A short paragraph which I wrote, more in jest than earnest, on the above phrase, has drawn down on me no less than two columns from J. L. But this comes of meddling with Scotland.
One might fancy that J. L. was the Irish, not the Scottish advocate, for he proves the prior claim of Scotland by showing that the word which I had stated to have been in use in Dublin in the first half of the last century, was known in Edinburgh in the last half of it. He must also excuse my saying that he does not seem ever to have studied etymology, one of the rules of which is, that if a probable origin of a word can be found in the language to which it belongs, we should not seek elsewhere. Now fogie (i.e. folkie, the Dutch volkje) comes as surely from folk, as lassie from lass, or any other diminutive from its primitive. I now have done with the subject.
Thos. Keightley.
Swan-marks (Vol. viii., p 62.).—W. Collyn's remark on swan-marks may mislead; therefore it is worth noting that "the swan with two necks" is not "a corruption of the private mark of the owner of the swans, viz. two nicks made by cutting the neck feathers close in two places." The nicks were made in the beak; and the privilege of having swan-marks was by grant from the crown.
The Vintners' Company's mark for their swans on the Thames was two nicks; hence a two-nicked swan was a very appropriate sign for a tavern. The royal swans are marked with five nicks, two lengthwise, and three across the bill (See Hone's Every-day Book, 1827, p. 963; Yarrell's British Birds; Jardine's Nat. Lib.; Penny Cyclop., art. "Swan.") It is to be noted, however, that Hone is in error in saying the two nicks are the royal swan-mark.
Eden Warwick.
Birmingham.
Limerick, Dublin, and Cork (Vol. viii., p. 102.).—I should think the author of this doggrel couplet, if we are to consider it as a fair specimen of his poetic genius, may safely be permitted to remain in obscurity. Be that as it may, the lines are by no means new, nor are they confined to the sister isle alone. In the Prophecies of Nixon, the Cheshire Merlin, who lived nobody knows when, except that it was certainly a "long time ago," we are given to understand that: