J.R.N.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Feltham's Works (Vol. ii., p. 133.).—In addition to the works enumerated by E.N.W., Feltham wrote A Discourse upon Ecclesiastes ii. 11.; A Discourse upon St. Luke xiv. 20.; and A Form of Prayer composed for the Family of the Right Honourable the Countess of Thomond. These two lists, I believe, comprise the whole of his writings. The meaning of the passage in his Remarks on the Low Countries, appears to be this, that a person "courtly or gentle" would receive as little kindness from the inhabitants, and show as great a contrast to their boorishness, as the handsome and docile merlin (which is the smallest of the falcon tribe, anciently denominated "noble"), among a crowd of noisy, cunning, thievish crows; neither remarkable for their beauty nor their politeness. The words "after Michaelmas" are used because "the merlin does not breed here, but visits us in October." Bewick's British Birds, vol. i. p. 43.
T.H. KERSLEY.
King William's College, Isle of Man.
Harefinder (Vol. ii., p. 216.).—The following lines from Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 23., sufficiently illustrates this term:—
"The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport
The Finder sendeth out, to seeke out nimble Wat,—
Which crosseth in the field, each furlong every flat,