The meaning given to it was, that cutting horn was a kind of work, and therefore a breach of the Sabbath and that cutting hair on the Friday was, like a hundred other things, thought unlucky on a Friday, from some obscure reference to the great sacrifice of Good Friday. Sir Thomas Browne shows that this was perhaps the continuation of ancient superstition; and it is peculiarly remarkable that amongst the Romans the Dies Veneris (Friday) should have been thought unlucky for hair-cutting. His reference to the crime of Manasses, "of observing times," enters into no detail, and the text is evidently a general condemnation of superstitious observances. I may as well here remark that Browne's reference to Manasses, 1 Chron. xxxv., in my edition (1686), is erroneous: it should be 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6.
C.
Meaning of Gig-Hill (Vol. iii., pp. 222. 283.).
—Your correspondent N. B., p. 283., has doubtless aptly illustrated Shakspeare's use of the word gig, but not as a local name, where "there is no indication of anything in the land to warrant it;" but if your querist K., p. 222., will refer to Bailey's Dictionary, article "Gig Mill," "a mill for the fulling of woollen cloth," he will find the key to the local name; and full information as to the illegality and injurious tendency of Gig Mills, with an order for their suppression, &c., will be found in the statute 5 & 6 Edward VI., c. 22, intitled, "An Act for the putting down of Gig Mills." The presence of such mills previous to the suppression would give the name to the sites now known as "Gig's Hills."
BLOWEN.
The Mistletoe on the Oak (Vol. ii., pp. 163. 214.; Vol. iii., pp. 192.226.).
—MR. BUCKMAN calls the Poplar and Lime native, and the Sycamore and Robinia foreign trees, and adds that the two latter are comparatively recently introduced.
Without doubt, all four are foreign, except the Asp among Poplars, which is a native tree. And the Sycamore was introduced into England long before the Lombardy, and I think before any of the Poplar tribe.
I have seen the Mistletoe propagated by seed inserted, with an upward cut of a knife, under the bark of an apple-tree.
On the Oak I have never seen the Mistletoe. The late Mr. Loudon, when shown it on an oak on the estate of the late Miss Woods, of Shopwyke, near Chichester, said he had only seen it in one other instance.