her hand the thirty-two were gone, but the other two, which had not been charmed, were still there. She subsequently tried to get rid of these two in the same manner; but the charm would seem to have been broken by her telling of it, and they remained where they were. As this circumstance happened in the family of a highly respectable London tradesman, at his country-house in one of the neighbouring villages, it seems to indicate that fifty years ago charms were in use in a class of society in which we should not now expect to find them. The Devonshire charm for a wart is to steal a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, rub it over the wart in secret, and throw it over a wall over your left shoulder. N. J. A. Rhymes on Winter Tempest. 1. "Winter's thunder, Poor man's death, rich man's hunger." 2. "Winter's thunder, Summer's wonder." What others exist? R. C. WARDE. In the autumn of 1780 James Mackintosh left the academy at Fortrose, and proceeded to Aberdeen College, the sum of twenty shillings being paid for his proportion of the chaise hire from Inverness to Aberdeen. At college his expenses were, of course, greatly increased, and some of his relatives hinted at "prodigality," a charge which he strenuously denied. The following affords some data for forming a conclusion on this point: "Note of Expenses laid out on Jamie Mackintosh, from 30th May, 1780. Cash at different times from that date to 5th July, 1781 · Cash from 31st October, 1781, to 16th April, 1782 £ s. d. 34 3 0 29 14 0 37 1 0 26 0 0 27 10 0 £154 8 0" Many of the students at Aberdeen College lived, and many still live, at less cost; but James Mackintosh was of the higher class of the youth attending the university. He was the son of an officer in the army, the heir to a small Highland estate (then valued at about 1607. per annum, and which he afterwards sold), and he was of social tastes and habits, as well as a great reader and collector. His future career is well known, -a career honourable alike to his great talents, his genuine benevolence, and simple dignity of chaR. CARRUTHERS. racter. Minor Notes. - The A Russian and an English Regiment. courage of an English army is the sum total of the courage which the individual soldiers bring with them to it, rather than of that which they derive from it. When I was at Naples, a Russian and an English regiment were drawn up together in the same square:- "See," said a Neapolitan to me, who had mistaken me for one of his countrymen, "there is but one face in that whole regiment; while in that (pointing to the English), every soldier has a face of his own." COLERIDGE'S FRIEND (J. M. O.) Epitaph on Richard Adlam. In the romantic village church of Kings Teignton, Devon, there is a tomb to the memory of Richard Adlam, whose epitaph, besides being a singular specimen of the style of the period, is so remarkable for the coincidence of the first line with Dr. Young's celebrated apostrophe to Death (Night Third) · "Insatiate archer! could not one suffice? "— that we might almost think he must have seen and had it in his mind when he wrote it. It is as fol lows: "Richardus Adlam hujus ecclesiæ Vicarius, obit Feb. 10, 1670, Apostrophe ad Mortem: "Damn'd tyrant! can't profaner blood suffice? And force this kill-priest to revere good laws!" Dalston. Earthenware Vessels found at St. Mary's Collegiate Church, Youghal, Ireland. In the progress of the restoration of the choir of this church during the autumn of this year, 1854, vases similar to those found at Fountains Abbey (Vol. x., p. 386.), and at St. Peter's Mancroft, Norwich (Vol. x., p. 434.), were discovered. They are ten in number, laid on their sides, the orifices not reaching to the surface of the walls in which they are imbedded, but communicating with the outside through circular perforations in a piece of limestone laid up to each. Five of these vases are in the north wall, and five directly opposite in the south, high up above the arches of the windows contiguous to the nave. They are all of brown earthenware, glazed within, but differ in shapes and dimensions. Some have narrow mouths, whence they gradually expand to the base. swell out, like Roman amphora, and like them are symmetrically tapered to the bottom. Some have wide mouths, narrow necks, and broad bases to stand on. Measurements of the largest four were as follows respectively, viz. 15 inches x 11; 15 x 11; 11 x 7; 93 × 9. May they not have been intended for acoustic purposes, according to Priestley's experiments? SAMUEL HAYMAN, Clk. South Abbey, Youghal. Some Schedone and Poussin. Great praise has been bestowed on Poussin for the pathetic episode introduced into one of his pastoral paintings; in which, amid the fleeting pleasures of the shepherd's life, a stone, the memorial of some departed shepherd, is seen bearing the well-known inscription, "Et ego in Arcadiâ fui." It is questionable whether Poussin did not borrow this idea. In the Sciarra Palace at Rome, there is a picture of Schedone, in which shepherds are in A Family of Six Children at a Birth. — The Dayton Gazette, published in Ohio, states on the authority of "a lady of character, who saw and counted the children, and had the mother's word that they were all hers at a single birth," that a German woman lately passed through Dayton with six children born at a birth. The woman was on her way to see her husband, who was sick at another place where he was at work. The children were carried in a basket, and were all of a size except the youngest, which was smaller than the others. It is said that Ambrose Paré, the French physician, gives an account of a similar family. Philadelphia. UNEDA. China, Conquest of. In the year 1758, Lord Clive, then Governor-General of India, proposed to conquer China, if parliament would supply him with a force of fifteen thousand men. I have no doubt so great a man knew well that he was able, humanly speaking, to accomplish what he proposed; and if his proposal had been accepted, what a mass of misery might have been prevented, by China and India being united under one great Christian government! The fanatical spirit of the present rebels against the Imperial government would now be turned, with fatal effect, against any foreign interference of a hostile nature; and nothing now remains for England, in her intercourse with China, but the most cautious, pacific, and prudent policy. Queries. ADDISON'S LETTERS. Δ. I am engaged in an edition of Addison's Works, which I at first intended should be a mere reprint of Bishop Hurd's, and form four volumes of my British Classics; but I have found occasion to alter my plan. Some autograph-collecting friends having placed at my disposal several unpublished letters of Addison, and called my attention to the existence of many others in both private and public collections, I commenced a diligent, and I am happy to say successful search. I have, in consequence, discovered more than fifty letters quite unknown to the literary world; all of which, together with a considerable number which have appeared in various printed collections, will come in a fifth volume of my edition. My object in addressing you is, to query whether any of your readers can and will help to increase my store, either by sale, loan, or transcript, or by promotive indications? To such, a debt of gratitude will be due from the public, and HENRY G. BOHN. JENNENS OR JENNINGS OF ACTON PLACE. In the Gent. Mag. for July, 1798, will be found an account of a very remarkable man, Wm. Jennens or Jennings of Acton Place, in the county of Suffolk, and of Grosvenor Square, London, who died on the 19th of June preceding, at the age of ninety-seven. He is there stated to have been the richest subject of the crown, and having died intestate and without issue, that his almost incalculable wealth would merge into three individuals previously possessing immense fortunes. An opinion afterwards very generally prevailed that his heirs could not be traced, and that the crown had interfered to protect the property for whomsoever should establish the claim; and it is believed that litigation took place on the subject even to a comparatively recent period. It was rumoured that a claimant had taken possession of Acton Place, and the notice of it in Shoberl's Beauties of England and Wales, published in 1813, vol. xiv., tit. Suffolk, would seem to sustain that statement: "On his decease the fine tapestry was torn from the walls, and sold with the furniture and other movables. This noble mansion having since that time been inhabited only by an old man and woman, now presents a deplorable spectacle of dilapidation, and the approach cannot be traced but by the colour and height of the grass which has grown over the gravel. The interior still exhibits some vestiges of its former splendour. The garden has fared even worse than the building, for it has been ploughed up, and has been now cultivated as a field.”— P. 159. Some mystery unquestionably hangs over this singular individual, and the vast property which he left behind him undisposed of, and which it is believed has never yet been the subject of final adjudication or distribution. In "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 424., date Nov. 29, 1851, an inquiry appears, whether the late Mr. Jenings of Acton Hall, Suffolk, was descended from a Yorkshire branch of the family, and where information as to pedigree could be obtained. In two subsequent Volumes, namely, Vol. vi., under October, 1852, and Vol. vii. for 1853, Queries also occur respecting the Jennings family; but I have not been able to trace any very accurate details respecting the rich Mr. Jenings. As the subject is to some extent one of historical interest, perhaps some of your numerous corre spondents may be able to afford some information as to his pedigree and connexions, and also as to the disposition of his money and estates, in whom they vested, and whether any portion yet remains for distribution. W. B. [It appears that William Jennens was a descendant of the family of Jennens of Gopsal Hall, co. Leicester, whose pedigree, and some account of the family, is given in Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 859. In Acton Church, Suffolk, is a monument with the following inscription: "To the memory of Robert Jennens of Acton Place, in the county of Suffolk, Esq., fourth son of Humphrey Jennens, of Warwickshire, Esq., who died the 25th of February, 1725-6, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, leaving one only son, William Jennens, by Anne his wife, only daughter and heir of Carew Guidott, of Hampshire, Esq. He purchased the estate, and began the house. This monument was erected by his wife, who also built this chapel. She died the 24th of December, 1761, aged eighty-five, and is deposited in the family vault, under the chancel adjoining to this chapel, with the remains of her said husband. The above-named William Jennens died the 19th of June, 1798, in the ninety-eighth year of his age: is buried in the same vault with his father and mother, and his memory thus perpetuated by his particular direction." From a statement in the Gent. Mag. for March, 1803, p. 287., it appears that a considerable part of the personal property of Mary, dowager Viscountess Andover, came to her as one of the heirs-at-law of William Jennens, whose death is noticed in the same work, vol. lxviii. pp. 627. 755. See also the Gent. Mag. for July 1852, p. 85., and August 1852, p. 114., for an account of a falsely rumoured settlement of this long litigated case. The noble structure of Acton Hall, containing fifty-four apartments, was demolished in 1825 by order of Earl Howe, heir-at-law of the late parsimonious proprietor: see the advertisements for its sale in the Ipswich Journal, March 5, 1825, and April 30, 1825.] I should be glad to receive a critical notice of the common phrases ultimo, instant, and proximo. From what source have these terms flowed into our language, and why is it that they refer to months only and not to days? The received meaning seems to be as follows. If I, writing on the 20th of November, speak of the 10th ultimo, it means decimo die, ultimo mense, or the 10th of October. If I speak of the 10th instant, it means decimo die, instanti mense, or the 10th of November. If of the 10th proximo, it means by a similar construction the 10th December. Now as I cannot find in books of reference, such as dictionaries, any explanation except that subjoined of these phrases, it is very easy to fall into error concerning them, especially as Dr. Johnson, our great authority in questions of philology, attributes in his dictionary a substantive meaning to the word instant, used in this sense, which he says is used "in low and commercial language for a day of the present or current month." This definition seems to be incorrect and imperfect when we analyse the phrase, because I have shown that "instant" hath an adjective signification referring to the month itself, and not to the day. I am not ashamed to confess that until very lately I attributed a wrong meaning to these three words, conceiving that each and all of them applied to the day itself whose date stands prefixed, in which case the 10th ultimo would mean the 10th of November, and the 10th instant would mean the 10th of December-decimo die instanti, or the tenth day next at hand. It appears, however, that this construction is undoubtedly erroneous, and upon consideration it is evident that where days are numbered, they are numbered solely with reference to the months in which they occur. Still, in the use of common terms the mind is seldom applied critically to the consideration of their meaning, and therefore it might be desirable that all these words, although two of them be not actually English, should find a place in our English dictionaries and books of reference, since perhaps not one person out of a hundred may take the trouble to inform himself of the accurate meaning of words which he is in the daily habit of writing. A BORDERER. Minor Queries. Canons of York.-There is, in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, an account of Mason the poet in a note in the second vol. p. 241., which ends thus : "The appointment of the four canon residentiaries of York cathedral is in the gift of the dean, who is obliged, by statute, to give the vacant canonry to the first man he sees, after the vacancy, capable of taking it. Mr. Markham was his first sight on the death of Mr. Mason." I should be glad to know if this statement is correct; and if so, what is the date of the statute which thus compels the dean so to dispose of the canonry ? C. DE D. Philadelphia. Cummin. UNEDA. In The whole Art and Trade of Husbandrie, translated from the German by Barnaby Googe, is this sentence, when speaking of the above herb: "It is sowed best (as they thinke) with curses and execrations, that it may prosper the better." Is there any old superstition respecting this herb? Some seed was found a few years since, I think, in the coffin of William D'Albini, or in that of his wife, at Wymondham in Norfolk. Was it often placed in coffins? Why? The seed thus found germinated, I believe; but Barnaby Googe does not mention it among those which "are the older Diss. The Episcopal Wig - Life of Bishop Porteus. In the Life of Bishop Porteus, by a Lay Member of Merton College, Oxford (London, 8vo., 1810), is the following passage (p. 90.) : "It is a short time since all Oxford was thrown into a ferment by the refusal of their newly appointed bishop, Dr. Randolph, to abandon a comfortable head of hair for an episcopal wig." Dr. Randolph was appointed Bishop of Oxford, 1799, translated to Bangor, 1806, and to London, 1809. I believe he ultimately conformed to the established usage as regards the episcopal wig. Who was the first modern bishop who abandoned the wig? I should also be glad to know the name of the lay member of Merton College who wrote the above-mentioned Life of Bishop Porteus? C. H. COOPER. Cambridge. King John's Charter granted to Youghal. — The Report of the Commissioners on the Municipal Corporations of Ireland, 1835, alludes to a charter of incorporation granted to the above town by King John, a copy of which, the commissioners proceed to say, is believed to be in the British Museum. Will any contributor to "N. & Q." kindly set the question at rest by informing me whether such a document is in the Museum or not? SAMUEL HAYMAN, Clk. South Abbey, Youghal. Le Moine's "Praises of Modesty."-Where can I find (in some accessible work) a copy of the Père Le Moine's poem, entitled Praises of Modesty, from the seventh book of his Moral Portraits? Pascal alludes to it in his eleventh Provincial Letter. Perhaps some correspondent would kindly supply me with a copy of the verses, if there are A. CHALLSTETH. not many of them. Sea Spiders. I should be much obliged if any of your correspondents conversant with Natural History would inform me whether the insects popularly called" Sea Spiders" are commonly met with in the waters of this country. They belong, I believe, in scientific phrase, to the family of the Pycnogonida. A friend of mine, who resides in Scotland, found them adhering to the small shells and sea-weeds on his yacht mooring-barrel, P. S. in fifteen fathoms of sea-water. Ribands of Recruiting Sergeants. - Why are they worn? RUSSELL GOLE. Skilful Sergeant Corderoy.-Can MR. Foss or any of your legal antiquarian correspondents inform me who this gentleman was, mentioned in the note at the foot of p. 133. of Athena Oxo Anecdote of Canning.-During the time when the Right Hon. George Canning was in the administration, and on the breaking up of a meeting of the council, he the Right Hon. George Canning, I think it was, who undertook to tell any of those present that he would guess their thoughts in less than twenty-one questions. One of the party thought of the wand of office. The first question was: Was it celestial or terrestrial? Ans. Terrestrial. Second, Was it animal or vegetable? Ans. Vegetable, &c. &c. I have read the above in some work, and do not know where I can procure a copy. I thought you would be enabled to let me know what work it was in, and where I might obtain a copy. E. P. S. Comedy at the Coronation of Edward VI. - In the Rev. Joseph Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent (8vo., London, 1834), he quotes, from a MS. collection in his possession, an extract from a letter, dated March 8, 1547, addressed to Monsignore Verallo by Cardinal Farnese, in which it is stated that, at the coronation of Edward VI., plays were performed in dishonour and vituperation of the Pope and the cardinals. The passage is as follows (p. 113. note). The cardinal is speaking delle cose d'Inghilterra, and proceeds thus: "E quanto alla dispositione di quelle anime perdute, ditornar all' union' della Chiesa, et ubedienza della Sede Apostolica, fin qui non si comprende cosa buona, ma si vede tutto l' opposito per alcune commedie, che sono state recitate nella coronatione del nuovo Tirannetto, in disonor e vituperio del Papa, e delli Cardinali." Is this statement of Cardinal Farnese's a historical fact? if so, what are the plays referred to? J. M. B. Work on the Reality of the Devil.-In the Hamburgische Zeitschrift, Aug. 1778, a work by Professor Link, of Giessen, Über die Besessener, is reviewed; and called "one of the many works about which the public is so curious as to the personal reality of the Devil." Another is mentioned under the title, Man muss auch den Teufel nicht zu viel aufbürden. The controversy is treated as one of great interest, and Dr. Johan Semler is frequently referred to. Can any of your readers give me the title of Semler's book, or any others, on the controversy carried on in Germany at that time? N. E. B. Death of Sir Thomas Prendergast.-The following extract is from an obituary notice which appears in The Illustrated London News of Saturday, Dec. 23, 1854: "Few of the Anglo-Norman families in Ireland have held a more honourable and enduring position than that of Prendergast, seated for centuries at Newcastle, in the county of Tipperary. One of the descendants (Sir Thos. Prendergast, Bart.) was an eminent soldier of the reign of Queen Anne, and a participator in the victories of Marlborough. The mysterious warning that foretold his death, forms a most curious and well-authenticated anecdote in family romance.' I have no doubt that many of your readers can testify to the annoyance of a reference to "the well-known anecdote" which one does not know, and as I happen to stand in that predicament in the present case, I shall be thankful to anybody who will give me the particulars of the "wellauthenticated anecdote" here referred to. G. TAYLOR. Reading. True Cross, Relic of, in the Tower.-From certain original letters in the possession of a relative of mine, I am led to believe that, as late as the reigns of James I. and Charles I., there was preserved in the Tower of London, among the crown jewels, a relic, supposed to be a portion of the true Cross. Can any of your correspondents enlighten me upon this subject, and give any information as to the previous history of this relic, and what became of it? J. A. D. Prussic Acid from Blood.-In Niebuhr's Lectures on Ancient History, translated by Dr. Schmitz (3 vols. 8vo., London, 1852), the following passage occurs with reference to the story current in antiquity, that Themistocles poisoned himself with bull's blood (see Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. v. p. 386.): "It is generally acknowledged that the statement of his having killed himself by drinking ox-blood is a mere fiction; for no quadruped has poisonous blood. There are, however, several cases in which men are said by the ancients to have killed themselves with the blood of oxen. We know indeed that this is impossible; but the prussic acid of modern times was at first (about ninety or one hundred years ago) prepared from blood; and is it not possible that the ancients (of whose chemical knowledge we form much too low an estimate) knew how to prepare it, though perhaps in an impure and imperfect state, and thus extracted the deadliest of all poisons from blood? Such an explanation seems to me by no means forced; and how should such a tradition have become established in Greece, had there not been an occasion for 1 |