The modern editor of the book, Justin Lovill, gives a history of the magazine & often adds some context & extra information to the entries. It's the perfect book to dip into in an idle moment. I kept it beside my reading chair & read a few entries every day as well as looking through the table of contents to find entries that piqued my curiosity. Who wouldn't be intrigued by entries such as
BOILING TO DEATH : A punishment for cooks?
BYRON'S BRAIN : How much did it weigh?
CUSTARD : Why did the Puritans abominate it?
DEAD MEN'S HEADS : Unusual attachment to
LIVERS, WHITE : A sign of murderers and cowards?
MELANCHOLY : Does it cause waistcoat-bursting?
SWEARING : An Act of Parliament against
I found it fascinating that people could write in with their queries & someone fossicking in their library would come up with an answer or a reference to the original account of a legend or the derivation of a word or phrase. The book is illustrated with woodcuts & other pictures of the time. As Justin Lovill explains, Notes and Queries was the first magazine almost entirely written by the contributors & readers & can be compared with internet communities like Wikipedia. The contributors used pseudonyms such as Bookworm, Mr Blink, Dryasdust & Old Fogie to protect their anonymity so they weren't without a sense of humour. Lovill has picked the plums from the original volumes of Notes and Queries & if you're at all interested in history, the etymology of words & phrases or even just about the kinds of subjects that interested the 19th century scholar, this book has a lot to offer.
Sounds fascinating. In fact, though neither a fussy antiquarian nor a clergyman, I once had something published in Notes and Queries. I can't now remember exactly what it was, but it certainly wasn't as interesting or amusing as these pieces sound to have been!
ReplyDeleteThere is something satisfying about the thought of all those men rootling away in their libraries looking for an elusive reference, isn't there? Googling just doesn't give you the same sense of achievement.
DeleteThis is going on my list, I love this sort of dip-into book.
ReplyDeleteIt was very addictive. I thought I'd just read an entry each evening but sometimes I'd just keep reading. It's also amazing to see what exercised the educated gentleman's mind in the 19th century.
DeleteOh, that sounds fascinating. But I really, really want to know about ringing church bells to ward off thunder, because I'm phobic about thunder and lightning.Presumably you don't ring them during a storm... I can't go upstairs in a storm, let alone a church tower, and metal is a no-no, and bells are metal...
ReplyDeleteIt seems to have been a custom to ring the bells when a storm was approaching to head it off, so to speak. One of the respondents to the question does raise the issue of lightning & bells & there are recorded cases of bell ringers being hit by lightning. Banging brass cymbals or objects together to ward off evil spirits was known in Roman times & as thunder & lightning must have seemed like a supernatural phenomenon in the past, this may be where the idea comes from. I'd just stick my head under a blanket instead!
DeleteThe blanket is a quieter option - I might get complaints from the neighbours if I start banging cymbals about!I've never heard of it before, so thanks for the information.
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