similar curious place-names? One can readily guess at the meaning of the Roman Ghetto or London Jewry; but how are Little Ireland and Petty France explained? Perhaps some of my confrères in N. & Q.' can add to this scanty list and account for their additions. J. B. S. Manchester. P.S.-By an odd literary coincidence, I had just penned the above when I came across, whilst idly turning over the leaves of the bound volume of L'Intermédiaire for 1895, an interesting article headed Denominations Bizarres,' in which the writer gives many curious specimens of strange place-names in thirteen French territories, e. 9. (translating them): the New Tail of Villiers, the Strong Cow, the Old Dead Woman, the Lost Stocking, Deaf Woman's Hole, White Head, the Fountain of Pigs, Priests' Land, Goat's Beard, &c., all which bears out admirably my opening sentence. BURIAL AT CROSS-ROADS. (See 8th S. ix. 325.) "Interred with all the superstitious rites of our ancestors." Surely this expression of opinion ought not to be transferred to the pages of 'N. & Q' without a note of explanation. It is indefensible. Was not the mode of burial merely an indignity prescribed by the law, by way of discouraging suicide as far as possible? Whatever stories afterwards arose about preventing the spirit walking by means of the stake, surely the original meaning of the process was indignity and nothing else. And if a rite be a sacred ceremony, is it quite correct to refer to the ghastly process F. P. in this language of religion? THE STEAM CArriage for CoMMON ROADS.In searching the pages of that extraordinary publication the Town for another object, I came across the following paragraph, on p. 525, and of the date 1 Sept., 1838. It is such a remarkable anticipation of the motor-carriages of the present day that I send it to you for use in N. & Q.,' should it not already have been contributed thereto : "Sir James Anderson, who resides at Buttevant Castle, has devoted the whole of his life to scientific pursuits; his extraordinary talents have been mainly directed to the construction of a Steam Drag or Carriage for Common Roads. Sir James has expended no less a sum than 30,000. in his experiments, and so extraordinary has been his perseverance that he spent a fortune in building twenty-nine unsuccessful Carriages, to succeed in the thirtieth. Hear this, ye who boast of sacrifices and perseverance! The 'Drag,' or steam engine, is not like those hitherto attempted; it is a machine to do the work now done by horses, The vehicle, by which the passengers are conveyed, is to be attached to it, and thus in the remote cases of accident no injury can arise to the passengers. The Drag can be at once detached, and the carriage forwarded by horses. No noise is heard, no smoke, no unpleasant odour perceived, and the gallant panting steed can gallop to his journey's end untired and untiring. How admirable is this arrangement! Let us look a little forward and we shall see Bishop Berkeley's pro 66 of the JAMES SIMON.-Author of 'An Essay towards an Historical Account of Irish Coins, and of the Currency of Foreign Monies in Ireland,' 4to., Dublin, 1749, and a contributor to the Philosophical Transactions. He was elected F.R.S. on 17 Nov., 1748. In his certificate he is described as City of Dublin, merchant, a native of France [La Rochelle], who has communicated to the Society observations on Petrefactions of Lough Neagh and made a present of the same: he is now writing on the Coins of Ireland." Simon died in Dublin, in 1757, his death being announced at the anniversary meeting of the Society on 30 Nov. of that year. From the letters of administration granted in the P.C.C. on 21 March, 1757, it appears that he left a widow Susanna and a son Stuckey. GORDON GOODWIN. ST. UNCUMBER.-A female saint with this uncouth name is connected with St. Paul's. We read, in a note on p. 38 of 'Women under Monasticism,' by Lina Eckenstein : "Ellis, H., Original Letters,' Third Series, vol. iii, p. 194. quotes the following sentence from Michael Woddes. Dialogues,' 1554: If a wife were weary of her husband she offered Otes at Poules at London to St. Uncumber. This Uncumber is identified with Ontkommer or Kümmerniss. 'The peculiarity of the images of Ontkommer or Kümmerniss consists in this, that she is represented as crucified, and that the lower part of her face is covered by a beard, and her body in some instances by long shaggy fur. Her legend explains the presence of the beard and fur by telling us that it grew to protect the maiden from the persecutions of a lover, or the incestuous love of her father; such love is often mentioned in the legends of women pseudo saints.' 'In the Tyrol the image of the saint is sometimes hung in the chief bedroom of the house in order to secure a fruitful marriage, but often it is hung in chapel and cloister in order to protect the dead. Images of the saint are preserved and venerated in a great number of churches in Bavaria and the Tyrol, but the ideas popularly associated with them have raised feeling in the church against their cult......Associations of a twofold character have also been attached to the term Kümmerniss. For in the Tryol Kümmerniss is venerated as a saint, but the word Kümmerniss in ordinary parlance is applied to immoral women.'"-P. 37. The conclusion the writer comes to is this, that the legends of this saint are really heathen legends, "and that she is heiress to a tribal goddess of the past." The like conclusion is come to for many of the early women saints; such is that of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins who were martyred at Köln. How the number of Ursula's companions amounted to eleven thousand is thus accounted for; it originated in the misreading of an inscription which refers to eleven martyred virgins, which was written thus, XI. M. V. History speaks of virgin martyrs at Köln at an early date (p. 283). I think Mr. Baring-Gould, in his Myths of the Middle Ages,' identifies St. Ursula and the eleven thousand as really the moon and stars, showing how heathen tradition was developed into Christian hagiology. One would like to know how St. Uncumber came to be connected with St. Paul's, and why oats were offered to her. Can DR. SPARROW SIMPSON enlighten us? E. LEATON-BLENKINSOPP. which is described by him as resembling the fiery carbuncle; and who is the first author of this absurd theory as to their origin? The last mention of them in medicine that I have come across is in Alleyne's 'Dispensatory' (1733), where they appear as "Thunderbolt: Belemnites, Lapis Lyncis," but without note or comment. C. C. B. inverted commas, 8th S. ix. 444: MISQUOTATION.-The following words appear in "Sed aliquando dormitat bonus Homerus." This is too bad. ungarbled quotation is well known : The Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. Horace, Ars Poetica,' 1, 359. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. Annual Register' of December, 1799, may be of PIUS VI. The following extract from the interest to many of your readers as an historical curiosity : THE GRANGE, BROOK GREEN.-Paragraphs have appeared lately in the newspapers of a misleading character with regard to Sir Henry Irving's house, The Grange, Brook Green, Hammersmith, which is about to be pulled down, its antiquity being greatly exaggerated. The house is a plain, substantial building, apparently not older than the time of Queen Anne, and has been so altered from ing that for six months past the body of Pius VI. has "30th. The Consuls of the French Republic, considertime to time as to have almost entirely lost its been lying in the City of Valence without baving had interest. Sir Henry made in 1884 extensive the honours of burial granted to it, have published a alterations and additions, which, although im- Decree, reciting-that, though this old man, respectable proving the building as a residence to some by his misfortunes, was for a moment the enemy of extent, destroyed its artistic character. The plan France, it was only when seduced, by the councils of men who surrounded his old age; that it became the of the house, however, remains unimpaired, and dignity of the French nation, and is conformable to the gives evidence of its antiquity, there being no sensibility of the National character, to bestow the marks passages, and the rooms being approached by going of consideration upon a man who occupied one of the from one room to another. In the course of carry-Minister of the Interior shall give orders that the body highest ranks upon earth; and, therefore, first, the ing out these alterations it was stated that evidences of former alterations to the building, dating probably from the early part of the reign of George II., were brought to light. The service accommodation being inadequate, it was found necessary to build out-offices at the back, together with a servants' hall. By removing a partition, and the addition of a bay window, the entrance hall was considerably enlarged, and the staircase was opened to view. The front next Brook Green was but little altered, but the ivy was removed in consequence of the damp. There is a plan of the house and a view of the back as altered in the Builder, 13 Sept., 1884. JNO. HEBB. BELEMNITES. - These fossils have been, and perhaps still are, popularly called thunder-stones. They had formerly a place in medicine, and were supposed to prevent abortion. In our old dispensatories they appear indifferently under the names Belemnites, Lapis lyncis, and Lyncurium; and in the 'Medico-Botanical Glossary' from the Bodleian MS. Selden B. 35, edited, under the name 'Alphita,' by Mr. J. L. G. Mowat, for the "Anecdota Oxoniensia "> series, they are credited with the same origin as the Lyncurium of Pliny. This is the article in the glossary referred to: "Lapis lincis dicunt quidem quod fit de urina lincis tempore petulancis, qui induratur et transit in lapidem." Are these fossils really the Lyncurium of Pliny, of Pius VI. be buried with the honours due to those of his rank. Second, that a simple monument be raised to him, on the place of his burial, expressing the dignity which he bore."" In 1801 his remains were transferred to St. Peter's, where his statue by Canova stands. Southsea. WILLIAM PAYNE. MIRACLES AT YORK.-Two interesting legends, concerning the sixteenth century persecution of Nonconforming Catholics, were related by the Rev. Philip Fletcher a few days ago to some pilgrims to York, who were made happy by his announcement that the Holy See had granted an Indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines to all those who made the pilgrimage and prayed for the conversion of England. He said (Yorkshire Herald, 11 June) : "In all the rolls of martyrdom other countries might be able to show, he doubted if one could show a record more helpful, more touching, and more beautiful than these islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. the history of the English, Irish, and Scotch martyrs o They saw the same pathway of suffering in York. The hand of Margaret Clitherow, which they were going to venerate, reminded them of a poor, feeble woman, who suffered martyrdom for harbouring a priest. Her hand first convent established after the Reformation, and was preserved in the convent near Micklegate Bar-the established with great danger and immense difficulty, One day the priest-hunters came to that convent and opened the chapel door. The candles were lighted, mass had only just been said, and the priest had ju t taken off his vestments, but the priest-hunters saw nothing Their eyes were blinded by a miracle, and they went their way. On another day an angry mob of citizens surrounded the convent, shouting Down with the nuns, down with the Pope,' and declaring their intention of setting fire to the building. Then the mob melted away quietly and slowly without any apparent cause. Some one had seen above the convent the figure of a heavenly horseman, which the nuns believed to be St. Michael, because they had been praying to St. Michael before a picture of him which stood above the door of the convent." ST. SWITHIN. "ST. SEPULCHRE."-In writing and talking of the churches dedicated to the memory of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, how often is it the practice to put "St. Sepulchre" instead of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ! The round church in Northampton, of this dedication, is universally spoken of in the town as "St. Sepulchre," although the notice-board of the church itself bears the correct designation. I was greatly horrified the other day, when passing Snow Hill, London, to find upon the notice-board of its church the heading as St. Sepulchre." Even worthy Stow and also Maitland, when treating of this church, mention it as "St. Sepulchre." Perhaps we shall find a future Butler attempting a life of this extraordinary ETHERT BRAND. saint. 93, Barry Road, Stonebridge Park, N. W. "To SLOP. A friend of mine had retired to his room somewhat early at a first-rate hotel in Manchester. He had scarcely done so when a knock came to the door, and opening it slightly he inquired who was there, and what was wanted. The chambermaid, for it was she, replied, "Please, sir, I want to slop the room." It is believed in well-informed quarters that she wished to empty the slops. But to slop the room! How does this compare with to sample customers, &c. TENEBRÆ. Briareus. See Homer's Iliad.' Pope, however, when translating Homer, neglected his original, and gave the wrong quantity. Dagon. The author says: "In profane history the name by which he is known is Derceto. He is represented," &c. Derceto, or Dercetis, is a female divinity, and is the same as Atergatis. Without doubt the two deities are similar; but the one is male, the other female. Holofernes. The author refers to the Scriptural Holofernes, to that mentioned by Rabelais, and to him of 'Love's Labour's Lost,' but he does not remark that Holofernes is also the name of the fire · king in the Hungarian folk-tale of Magic Helen' in the collection made by Count Mailath. Prince of Darkness. The author gives the title to Satan, and quotes Shakspeare and Walter Scott only. But Spenser used this expression before Shakspeare, and did not apply it to Satan :Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night. 'Faerie Queen,' bk. i. of Tasso and he of Ariosto are the same man. But Rinaldo. The author supposes that the Rinaldo the one was of the time of Charlemagne, and the other was a Crusader. Raminagrobis. The author mentions Rabelais, but not La Fontaine, who gives the name to a cat. Rübezahl. The author says that the origin of the name is obscure. But Rübezahl in German means counter of turnips, or Number (tur) Nip, and has reference to Rübezahl's chief adventure. It is, however, said that Museus invented the legend in order to account for the name. E. YARDLEY. Milton makes the a long in Briareus: "Briareos or Titan" (Par. Lost,' i. 199).] Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. readers THE BROOM DANCE.-Can any of your impart information as to the history and antiquity of this singular exercise? It has been performed publicly at a flower show here, and recently at Newton Abbot, but, on inquiry, 66 nobody doänt know nothen about et," and, though I have resided here for over thirty summers, I never heard before of this startling variation on beer and skittles. A stalwart young labourer grasps with both hands a broom-handle, which he proceeds to twirl, thus causing the head to rise and fall. There are two movements, one a sideling motion from one foot to the other, striking the heels together, like gutter children to an organ, but this passes into throwing the thighs alternately over the broomstick-the dancer during both movements advancing and retiring. The tune 'The Keel Row' was played on the accordion, and is said to "belong" to it. The performers were three males, and none of the women from whom the broom was borrowed came out to look on, although work was over and it was 9 P.M. on a sweet, soft June gloaming in a hamlet below Paignton Beacon. The performance is thus a "household" one, for no women no broom-and yet in spite of the lively music, not often heard in dull cottage life, the women kept aloof; it is a dance also more suitable for a loose robe and sandalled or bare feet than fustian trousers and hob. nailed boots, as in the present case. The air, too, is a nautical one. My own theory (and it is on this I submit my query) is that the dance is distinctly "Phallic" and a survival of Semitic colonization. This ancient village is full of such instances -the venerable preaching cross has a dragon's claw carved on the four corners of its pedestal, as if serpent worship were dominant and had to be conciliated. There was a dragon's well at Jerusalem, which Nehemiah dare not touch. The name of Bal occurs over a hundred times in names of closes, fields, and fountains, while in the village five names live side by side: Easter brook, Ishtar bruch, blessed of Ashtaroth; Maddicott, Mardukh yad, Merodach is my help; Balhatchet, Baalachad, Baal only or Baal first; Amory, Amori, the Amorite; Symons, Eshman, Esculapius. any of your readers know of any similar dances? W. G. THORPE, F.S.A. Do Ipplepen, Newton Abbot. = favours of this kind...... One or two passages I do Il est plus haut, plus pur, plus grand que nous ne sommes; I "Et l'on croit de Titan voir l'effrayante larve: render this, 'And one thinks one sees the frightful phantom of Prometheus.' Is this correct?" What do your readers think? "Crinière de glaçons digne du lion Pôle. La cime, pour savoir lequel a plus d'amour, I cannot make sense of this. Will you please interpret." 66 SAUNDERS CROMPTON.-I want the marriage Victor Hugo is almost at his best on the mounregister of Rev. John Saunders to Dorothy Cromp-tains; I say almost," because he is perhaps still ton, said, on a monument in Ashborne Church, to be greater when amongst the stars (see 'La Découverte daughter of John Crompton, of Stone Hall, esquire, du Titan' and 'Abime,' both in "La Légende des Staffs. This register has been vainly sought in Siècles"). Mr. Swinburne, in his 'Study of Victor Colton, of which the Rev. John Saunders was rector Hugo, says: "It can hardly be said that he who from 1651 till his death in 1682; also in Stone, knows the Pyrenees has read Victor Hugo; but Checkley, Chebsey, Cheadle. Dorothy Saunders certainly it may be said that he who knows Victor née Crompton, was buried at Colton 1667. Her Hugo has seen the Pyrenees." In this respect the eldest son was born 1647/8. Wanted, register of Alpine Désintéressement' is a worthy pendant of his and her baptism and details of the early life and the Pyrenean Masferrer.' Would that the great descent of her husband, said in 'Fasti Oxonienses' poet could have flashed the light of his genius on to be son of William Saunders, of Colton, Staffs, the Andes! So far as I am aware, he has not Pleb. Was he connected with Samuel Sanders, done so ; but although I have read much of Victor A.M., admitted 9 Aug., 1601, Prebendary of Lich Hugo's poetry, I have not read all of it. field Cathedral; and was this Samuel descended from Laurence Saunders, martyred 1555? Family tradition says that the Rev. John Saunders, of Colton, was descended from Laurence Saunders, who was of the Saunderses of Shankton, Leicestershire. C. S. L. VICTOR HUGO'S DESINTÉRESSEMENT.'-I lately sent this splendid Alpine poem -one of "La Légende des Siècles" series-to a friend, who may say of himself, "Io anche poeta." He says, in reply, "These are truly magnificent verses of Victor Hugo's that you have sent me. I do not think I have received so much pleasure from any of your I hope there is no harm in my saying that a few weeks ago I sent my friend Victor Hugo's charming little poem beginning Jeune fille, la grâce emplit tes dix-sept ans, in 'Les Contemplations,' suggesting that he should translate it into English verse. He did so; and he then sent it on to his son, a lad of sixteen, at school. The latter has translated it also; and very well he has done it. When one thinks what most boys of sixteen are, or were in my time, I think that a lad of this age who is able not only to read Victor Hugo, but to translate him into more than creditable English verse, may certainly be described, EDWARD LOFTHOUSE. I should be much obliged if any correspondent of N. & Q.' would kindly give me information about the antecedents of Edward Lofthouse, of Swineshead, co. York, father of the Rev. Adam Lofthouse, who in 1562 was Archbishop of Armagh, and in 1578 "Lord High Chancellor of Ireland" (Adam was a very great favourite of Queen Elizabeth; her Majesty first met him at some revels at Cambridge, and much admired him for his graces both of mind and body), and an ancestor of Arthur, Dake of Wellington; of Charles Tottenham, M.P. (80 well known as "Tottenham in his boots"), whose grandson subsequently became Marquis of Ely; and also of John Toler, Earl of Norbury. engraved "Schlaat Nit Schla," which may be old Dutch. The works, although barely three and a half inches high, engraved also, comprise arrangements for a fine-toned striker, repeater, and alarum, like kettle-drums. The clock sounds the hours, half-hours, and quarters with clearness and precision. There is no pendulum, but a spring, like that of a watch. Can any one translate the Dutch motto, which was, perhaps, engraved during the king's exile in Holland? CURIOSITY. 'AUCHTERMUCHTY DOG."-Reading in a weekly an article on How Pepsin is procured in Chicago,' I came across the following sentence: "Here fill in the horrors of starvation, squealing, &c., and imagine that the pig becomes in appearance a veritable Auchtermuchty dog, a shadowy thing buttoned up the back." What is "a veritable Auchtermuchty dog," the "shadowy thing buttoned up the back"? What is its history? R. HEDGER WALLACE. PETRUCCIO UBALDINO'S 'ACCOUNT OF ENGLAND.'-Has this book ever been printed or transThe full title of the MS. before me lated? (apparently a contemporary copy, if not the original) is :— "Relatione delle cose del regno d'Inghilterra, nella quale si contengano per capi, come nella tavola appare, tutti gli ordini più degni di cognitione politici, militari, et ecclesiastici. Il governo politico, et il familiar della corti, et de' nobili et popolari, l'attione di alcuni ultimi ré. Il modo della coronatione di quelli. Entrate et spese ordinarie politiche et iconomiche, et altre cose non meno utili che piacevoli da intendere, scritta TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL.It has been said per Petruccio Ubaldino cittadin fiorentino. L' anno MDLXXVJ in Londra." Clapham, S. W. HENRY GERALD HOPE, that the line of Virgil (' Æn.,' ii. 104),— Hoc Ithacus velit et magno mercentur Atridæ, has been translated,— Intestine quarrels place an obvious lever In every hand of every unbeliever. Which translator of Virgil was this? G. as to CLOCK.-I should be glad of any information "Godft Poy, London.' This signature is engraved on the back of a small gilt clock, said to have been made for King Charles II. when Prince of Wales, which seems likely, as the key forms the plumes and crown of a Prince of Wales. Also the Tudor rose, and (the old standard of the Stuarts I am told) the fringed banner of St. George, a cross only, extending to the edge of the flag, occurs among the ornamentations, which are very elaborate and beautifully done-flags, guns, trumpets, cannon-balls, and much scroll work. The dials are silver, and on the small top dial is In what capacity did Ubaldino visit England? Is anything further known of him? Q. V. |