"In this space (the Newark) several (I think three) men called 'Whipping Toms,' each being armed with a large waggon whip, and attended by another man carrying a bell, claim the right of flogging every person whom they can catch while their attendant bell-man can keep ringing his bell."
Perhaps some one of your correspondents will be able to afford an origin for this odd usage.
R. W. Elliot.
Clifton.
A Spanish lady now resident in England, a member of the Latin Church, mentioned to me, some months since, a custom prevailing in her native land similar to that in Hull described by Mr. Richardson. It arose on this wise: Once upon a time, on a high festival of the Church, when there was an exposition of the blessed Sacrament, a dog rushed into the church when the altar was unguarded, and carried off the Host. This deed of the sacrilegious animal filled the Spaniards with such horror, that ever after, on the anniversary of that day, all dogs were beaten and stoned that showed themselves in the streets.
Edward Peacock.
Bottesford Moors.
Mousehunt (Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.).—I think the inquiry relative to this animal may be satisfactorily answered by the following quotation from a very excellent and learned work, entitled A Natural History of British and Foreign Quadrupeds, containing many Original Observations and Anecdotes, by James H. Fennell, 8vo., London, 1841:
"The Beech Marten is the Martes foina of modern zoologists, the Martes Fagorum of Ray, the Martes Saxorum of Klein, the Mustela Martes of Linnæus, and the Mustela foina of Gmelin. Its English synonymes are not less numerous; for, besides Beech Marten, it is called Stone Marten, Martern, Marteron, Martlett, and Mousehunt. The last name I insert on the authority of Henley, thee dramatic commentator, who says it is the animal to which 'charming Willie Shakspeare' thus alludes in Romeo and Juliet:
'Capulet. I have watch'd ere now
All night——
Lady Capulet. Ay, thou have been a mouse-hunt in
your time.'—Act IV. Sc. 4.
"In Knight's Pictorial Edition of Romeo and Juliet (1839), this and many other terms equally requiring explanation are left quite unelucidated; though one picture of this said mouse-hunt would doubtless have been more assistant to the professed object of the work than the two unnecessary pictures it contains of certain winged monstrosities called Cupids."—P. 106.
Mr. Fennell goes on to state, that the Beech Marten (alias Mousehunt) inhabits the woods and forests of most parts of Europe, seldom quitting them except in its nocturnal excursions; and he adds that—