Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851, page 9 by Various Authors
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l known among the old people of Lammermuir, yet they are equally so all over Scotland.
L. M. M. R.
On the Lingering of the Spirit.--Perhaps you may think the following story worthy of insertion in your paper.
There is a common belief among the poor, that the spirit will linger in the body of a child a long time when the parent refuses to part with it. I said to Mrs. B., "Poor little H. lingered a long time; I thought, when I saw him, that he must have died the same day, but he lingered on!"
"Yes," said Mrs. B., "it was a great shame of his mother. He wanted to die, and she would not let him die: she couldn't part with him. There she stood, fretting over him, and couldn't give him up; and so we said to her, 'He'll never die till you give him up.' And then she gave him up; and he died quite peaceably."
RICH. B. MACHELL.
Vicarage, Barrow-on-Humber, Jan. 13. 1851.
May Cats (Vol. iii., p. 20.).--In Hampshire, to this day, we always kill May kittens.
CX.
Mottos on Warming-Pans and Garters.--It seems to have been much the custom, about two centuries ago, to engrave more or less elaborately the brass lids of warming-pans with different devices, such as armorial bearings, &c., in the centre, and with an inscription or a motto surrounding the device. A friend of the writer has in his possession three such lids of warming-pans, one of which has engraven on the centre a hart passant, and above his back a shield, bearing the arms of Devereux, the whole surrounded by this inscription:--
"THE . EARLE . OF . ESSEX . HIS . ARMES."
Another bears the arms of the commonwealth, (as seen on the coins of the Protectorate,) encircled with an inscription, thus:--
"ENGLANDS . STATS . ARMES."
The third bears a talbot passant, with the date above its back, 1646, and the motto round:--
"IN . GOD . IS . ALL . MY . TRUST."
It appears to me that the first two, at least, belonged to inns,