Chapter C: B. d'O

_Tin_ (Vol. viii., p. 593.).--The suggestions of your correspondent S. G. C. are ingenious respecting the etymology of _Cassiteros_, but a slight examination will show they are erroneous. The Cassi was only one of the many tribes inhabiting Britain in the time of Cæsar, and it is by no means probable that it was able to confer its name upon the entire country, to the exclusion of all the rest; such as the Iceni, the Trinobanti, the Coritani, the Belgæ, and various others too numerous to mention. We must bear in mind that the Phoenicians gave the name of Cassiterides to the British Isles; and that in naming places they invariably called them after some known or supposed quality possessed by them, or from some natural appearance which first arrested their notice: and such was the case in this instance. We learn that it was the common belief in ancient times, that the islands to the west of Europe were shrouded in almost perpetual gloom and darkness; hence the British Isles were called Cassiterides, from _Ceas_, pronounced _Kass_, i. e. gloom, darkness, obscurity; and _tir_, i. e. lands, plural _Ceasiterides_, i. e. "the islands of darkness." And the tin which the Phoenicians procured from them received the appropriate name of Cassiteros, _i. e._ the metal from the islands of darkness.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

_John Waugh_ (Vol. viii, pp. 271. 400. 525.; Vol. ix, p. 20.).--The Rev. John Waugh was of Broomsgrove, Worcester, and died unmarried and intestate. Letters of administration of his estate in the province of York were granted Oct. 28, 1777, to his five sisters and co-heiresses, Judith, Isabella, Elizabeth, Mary, and Margaret, spinsters, who all were living at Carlisle; and were unmarried in August, 1792.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

_Rev. Joshua Brooks_ (Vol. viii., p. 639.).--_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ for March, 1821, contains a paper entitled a "Brief Sketch of the Rev. Josiah Streamlet." Under this _sobriquet_, a few incidents in the life of the Rev. Joshua Brooks are related, which may interest C. (1).

G. D. R.

_Hour-glass Stand_ (Vol. viii., p. 454.).--There is an hour-glass stand attached to the pulpit at Nassington Church, Northants. Nassington is about six miles frown the town of Oundle.

G. R. M.

There is an hour-glass stand in Bishampton Church, Worcestershire.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

_Teeth Superstition_ (Vol. viii., p 382.).--My wife, who is a Yorkshire woman, tells me that, whenever she lost a tooth as a child, her nurse used to exhort her to keep her tongue away from the cavity, and then she would have a golden tooth. She speaks of it as a superstition with which she has always been familiar.

OXONIENSIS.

Walthamstow.

_Dog-whipping Day in Hull_ (Vol. viii., p. 409.).--This custom obtains, or used to do, in York on St. Luke's Day, Oct. 18, which is there known by the name of "Whip-dog Day." Drake considers the origin of it uncertain and though he is of opinion that it is a very old custom, he does not {65} agree with those who date it as far back as the Romans.

In the _History of York_, vol. i. p. 306., respecting the author of which a Query has appeared in "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 125., the traditional account of its origin is given:

"That in times of Popery, a priest celebrating mass at the festival in
some church in York, unfortunately dropped the pix after consecration,
which was snatched up suddenly and swallowed by a dog that lay under
the table. The profanation of this high mystery occasioned the death of
the dog; and a persecution began, and has since continued on this day
(St. Luke's), to be severely carried on against all the species in the
city."

A very curious whipping custom prevails at Leicester, known by the name of "Whipping Toms," on the afternoon of Shrove Tuesday. It is thus described in Hone's _Year Book_, p. 539.:

"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--

"The _Beech Marten_ does sometimes, in the Highlands of Scotland, where
it is common, and called _Tuggin_, take to killing lambs, and makes sad
havoc. Luckily, however, it is nearly exterminated in the south of that
country. In Selkirkshire, it has been observed to descend to the shore
at night time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large Basket
Mussel (_Mytilus modiolus_). But the ordinary prey of both this and the
Pine Marten appears to the hares, rabbits, squirrels, moles, rats,
_mice_; game birds; turkeys, pigeons, and other domestic poultry, and
also the wild singing birds."--P. 109.

In the above work Mr. Fennell has given many other interesting zoological elucidations of Shakspeare, and of various other ancient poets.

G. TENNYSON.

Rickmansworth.

_St. Paul's School Library_ (Vol. viii., p. 641.).--A catalogue of the library was privately printed in 1836, 8vo. It is nominally under the care of the captain of the school, who, having his own duties to attend to, cannot be expected to pay much attention to it: this readily accounts for the disorder said to prevail.

It is believed to contain the copy of _Vegetius de re militari_, the perusal of which by Marlborough, when a pupil at the school, imbued him with that love for military science he in after-life so successfully cultivated.

It would be a good deed on the part of the wealthy company, the trustees of Colet's noble foundation, to enlarge the library and pay a salary to a librarian; it might thus become a useful appendage to the school, and under certain regulations be made accessible to the vicinity.

W. A.

_German Tree_ (Vol. viii., p. 619.).--In answer to the inquiry of ZEUS, who wishes to be informed whether this custom was known in England previous to 1836, I beg to refer him to Coleridge's _Friend_, second landing-place, essay iii. (vol. ii. {66} p. 249.), entitled "Christmas within doors in the north of Germany." The passage (apparently from Coleridge's journal) is dated "Ratzeburg, 1799." It is, I think, also extracted in Knight's _Half-hours with the best Authors_. Coleridge went to Germany in 1798 (_Biog. Lit._, vol. i. p. 211. note); but I imagine the passage I refer to did not appear till 1818, when _The Friend_ was published in three volumes (_Biog. Lit._, vol. ii. p. 420.). As the book is so common, I do not think it worth while to copy out the account. ZEUS has by this time, I hope, had a Christmas Yggdrasil in his Olympus.

ERYX.

_Derivation of the Word "Cash"_ (Vol. viii., p. 386.).--May not the word _cash_ be connected with the Chinese coin bearing that name, which Mr. Martin, in his work on China (vol. i. p. 176.), describes as being--

"The smallest coin in the world, there being about 1000 to 1500 (cash)
in a dollar, _i. e._ one-fifth to one-seventh of a farthing."

If I am not mistaken, the coin in question is perforated in the centre to permit numbers of the pieces being strung together, payments being made in so many strings of cash.

W. W. E. T.

66. Warwick Square, Belgravia.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

_The Poetical Works of John Dryden_, edited by Robert Bell, Vol. I., is the first of what is proposed to be a revised and carefully annotated edition of the English Poets, which is intended to supply what the publisher believes to be an existing want, namely, "a Complete Body of English Poetry, edited throughout with judgment and integrity, and combining those features of research, typographical elegance, and economy of price, which the present age demands." Certainly, half-a-crown a volume fulfils the latter requirement in an extraordinary manner; and there can be little doubt that if the other essentials be as strictly fulfilled, and the collection embraces, as it is intended, not only the works of several poets who have been entirely omitted from previous collections, but those stores of lyrical and ballad poetry in which our literature is so preeminently rich, _The Annotated Edition of the English Poets_ will meet with that extensive sale to which alone the publisher can look for remuneration.

_The Museum of Science and Art_, edited by Dr. Lardner, is intended to supply a collection of instructive tracts and essays, composed in a popular and amusing style, and in easy language, on the leading discoveries in the Physical Sciences: so that persons, whose occupations exclude the possibility of systematic study, may in their short hours of leisure obtain a considerable amount of information on subjects of the highest interest. This design is extremely well carried out in the first four numbers, which are devoted to--I. and II. The Planets: Are they Inhabited Worlds? III. Weather Prognostics; and IV. Popular Fallacies. The introduction of details and incidents, which could not with propriety be introduced into works of a purely scientific character, give great variety and interest to the different papers.

BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Journal of Sacred Literature_, New Series, No. X., contains, in addition to its notes, correspondence, &c., no less than twelve papers of varied interest to the peculiar class of readers to whom this periodical expressly addresses itself.--Mr. Bohn has just added to his _Standard Library_ a collection of the _Novels and Tales of Göthe_, comprising his _Elective Affinities; The Sorrows of Werther; German Emigrants; Good Women; and a Nouvelette_: and in his _Classical Library_ he has commenced a revised edition of the Oxford translation of _Tacitus_. The Ninth Part of Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography_, which extends from the conclusion of the article _Germania_ to _Hytanis_, concludes the first volume of this admirable addition to Dr. Smith's series of Classical Dictionaries.--_Cyclopædia Bibliographica_, Part XVI., from _Platina_ to _Rivet_. Every additional Part confirms our opinion of the great utility of this indispensable library companion.

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