9. 1850.
_New Year's Day Custom._--I shall be glad if any of your readers can
inform me of the origin and signification, of the custom of carrying
about decorated apples on New Year's Day, and presenting them to the
friends of the bearers. The apples have three skewers of wood stuck into
them so as to form a tripod foundation, and their sides are ornamented
with oat grains, while various evergreens and berries adorn the top. A
raisin is occasionally fastened on each oat grain, but this is, I
believe, and innovation.
SELEUCUS.
_Under the Rose._--That the English proverbial expression, _Under the
Rose_, is derived from the confessional, is, I believe, generally
admitted: but the authorship of the well-known Latin verses on this
subject is still, as far as I am aware, a _rexata quaestio_, and gives a
somewhat different and _tantaleau_[1] meaning to the adage:--
"Est Rosa flas Veneris, quem, quo sua furta laterent,
Harpoerati, Matris dona, dicavit Amor.
Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amicis,
Convivae ut sub ca dicta tacenda sciant."
Can any of your correspondents obligingly inform me to whom these not
inelegant or unclassical lines are to be attributed?
ARCHAEUS.
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