"Give your attention as you read,

And frequent pauses take;

Think seriously; and take good heed

That you no dog's-ears make.

On the fly-leaf of a Bible I find the following, which, however, is taken from The Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome, vol. ii. p. 198. No 15., dated Friday, Dec. 26, 1679:

A very common formula, in works of a devotional nature, is as follows:

We now come to some of a menacing description:

And again:

These last partake somewhat of the character of the diræ and anathemas which are sometimes found at the end of old MSS., and were prompted, doubtless, by the great scarcity and consequent value of books before the invention of printing.

Balliolensis.

FOLK LORE.

Baptismal Custom.—In many country parishes the child is invariably called by the name of the saint on whose day he happens to have been born.

I know one called Valentine, because he appeared in the world upon the 14th of February; and lately baptized a child myself by the name of Benjamin Simon Jude. Subsequently, on expressing some surprise at the strange conjunction, I was informed that he was born on the festival of SS. Simon and Jude, and that it was always very unlucky to take the day from a child.

Rt.

Warmington.

Subterranean Bells.—Hone, in his Year-Book, gives a letter from a correspondent in relation to a tradition in Raleigh, Nottinghamshire, which states that many centuries since the church and a whole village were swallowed up by an earthquake. Many villages and towns have certainly shared a similar fate, and we have never heard of them more.

But at Raleigh, they say, the old church-bells still ring at Christmas time, deep, deep in earth; and that it was a Christmas-morning custom for the people to go out into the valley, and put their ears to the ground to listen to the mysterious chimes of the subterranean temple. Is this a tradition peculiar to this locality? I fancy not, and seem to have a faint remembrance of a similar belief in other parts. Can any of your correspondents favour "N. & Q." with information hereon?

J. J. S.

Leicestershire Custom.—A custom exists in the town of Leicester, of rather a singular nature. The first time a new-born child pays a visit, it is presented with an egg, a pound of salt, and a bundle of matches. Can any of your correspondents explain this custom?

W. A.

Hooping Cough: Hedera Helix.—In addition to my former communications on this subject, I beg to forward the following:—

Drinking-cups made from the wood of the common ivy, and used by children affected with this complaint, for taking therefrom all they require to drink, is current in the county of Salop as an infallible remedy; and I once knew an old gentleman (now no more) who being fond of turning as an amusement, was accustomed to supply his neighbours with them, and whose brother always supplied him with the wood, cut from his own plantations. It is necessary, in order to be effective, that the ivy from which the cups are made should be cut at some particular change of the moon, or hour of the night, &c., which I am now unable to ascertain: but perhaps some of your readers could give you the exact period.

J. B. Whitborne.

Minor Notes.

The Aught and Forty Daugh.—The lordship of Strathbogie, now the property of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, was anciently known by this name. It is one of the toasts always drunk at the meetings of agricultural associations, the anniversary of his Grace's birthday, &c., in the district. The meaning has often puzzled newspaper readers at a distance. It was the original estate of the powerful family of Gordon in the north of Scotland. A daugh, or davach, contains 32 oxgates of 13 acres each, or 416 acres of arable land. At

this rate, the whole lordship was anciently estimated at 20,000 acres of arable land, and comprehends 120 square miles in whole.

Kirkwallensis.

Alliterative Pasquinade.—The following alliterative pasquinade on Convocation, which I have cut from one of the newspapers, is, I think, sufficiently clever to deserve preservation in the pages of "N. & Q.:"

"The Earl of Shaftesbury has given notice that he will call the attention of the House to the subject of Convocation after the recess. The exact terms of his lordship's motion have not as yet been announced; but it is understood that it will be in the form of an abstract resolution, somewhat to the following effect:—

"'That this House, considering the consanguinity and concordant consociation of Gog and Magog to be concludent to, and confirmatory of, a consimilar connatural conjunction and concatenation between Convocation and Confession with its concomitant contaminations, and conceiving the congregating, confabulating, and consulting of Convocation to be conducive to controversy and contention, and consequent conflicts, confusion and convulsion, concurs in the conviction that to convene, and to continue Convocation, is a contumacious contravention of the Constitution, and a contrivance for constraint of conscience, and that the contemptible conspiracy, concocted for concerting the constituting and conserving of the continuous concorporal consession and conciliar conference of Convocation, is to be contumeliously conculcated by the consentient and condign condemnation of this House.'"

Agrippa.

The Names "Bonaparte" and "Napoleon."—Among the many fabulous tales that have been published respecting the origin of the name of Bonaparte, there in one which, from its ingeniousness and romantic character, seems deserving of notice.

It is said that the "Man in the Iron Mask" was no other than the twin (and elder) brother of Louis XIV.; that his keeper's name was Bonpart; that that keeper had a daughter, with whom the Man in the Mask fell in love, and to whom he was privately married; that their children received their mother's name, and were secretly conveyed to Corsica, where the name was converted into Bonaparte or Buonaparte; and that one of those children was the ancestor of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was thus entitled to be recognised not only as of French origin, but as the direct descendant of the rightful heir to the throne of France.

The