See" The Araignment of John Selman, &c., London, Printed by W. H. for Thomas Archer, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Pallace, 1612," of which there is a copy in the British Museum (C. 27, k. 2); from which this account is taken.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

"POCHIVATED."-This term occurs in a letter of Sir Jerome Horsey (flourished 1573-1627) quoted in the account of him given in the 'D.N.B.,' vol. xxvii. p. 379. He having set out for Russia on April 5, 1586, on his arrival the Czar "semed glad of my return pochivated and made me merrie.”

The word (or the verb to pochivate) does not occur in the N.E.D.' I suppose it to be a sort of academical slang and to derive from the Latin poculum, meaning that the Czar toasted him or drank to his health. Is this its significance ?

HUGH SADLER.

MEWS OR MEWYS FAMILY.-Could any of MRS. CHARLES KEAN AND CATHCART.- your readers throw light upon this family, Messrs. Maggs have magnanimously pre-from which the St. John-Mildmays descend sented me with the most interesting and cleverly compiled catalogue of autographs I have ever read, "No. 343, Spring, 1916." The particular object with which I send this note has reference to a letter therein of Mrs. Charles Kean's, while on tour in the United States in 1866, in which she says she will never act Lady Macbeth again to Cathcart's Macduff. What brought this

about is thus related :

"Cathcart is at his low tricks again, and was last night called on in Macduff after the scene had changed to my sleeping scene-and I was assailed by cries of Cathcart, we want Cathcart,' with yells and shouts.

"I made a halt and surveyed the house. We want Cathcart.' I made a solemn courtsey and retired, saying to the Prompter, Send Mr. Cathcart on and change the scene, I shall not go on again.' Nor did I; and I do not care one jot about this while we are here; but I could not stand this in England.

"It has annoyed your Papa more than I can tell you, for of course it was a great insult to me."

Your contributor MR. WILLIAM DOUGLAS points out to me that the fault was Mrs. Kean's own. When the call came she should not have gone on the stage, but should have allowed Cathcart to take it, and then have gone on after he had answered the call. The curious thing, however, is that Cathcart (this was James Fawcit, not his brother Rolleston) continued with the Keans on their return, and for seven years after! This may have been unknown to the loguer, as he does not explain it. RALPH THOMAS.

in the male line? The earliest trace of their branch which I have, so far, been able to find, comes with Ellis Mews of StourtonCaundle, circa 1550, who heads the Mews pedigree in the Visitation of Hampshire of 1686, and whose grandson, Ellis Mews, married Christian St. John, while his greatgrandson, Ellis Mews, married Frances St. John (heiress) and took the surname of St. John by Act of Parliament.

It would appear that the Mews family is a very old Hampshire family, indeed-as old, almost, as the St. Johns and the Mildmays in their respective counties.

There is a famous brass at Kingston in the Isle of Wight to a Mewys, dated 1535. Kingston appears to have been the family base. The arms shown in the Hampshire Visitation are those borne by Meux. is little doubt that the families Meulx, Meux, Mewys, Mewes, and Mews are all one in origin. They all bear the same arms, I believe.

There

Meux is pronounced as though spelt "Mews." As your readers doubtless know, The Bishop of Winchester (Peter Mews) was, no doubt, one of the clan. Any information will be gratefully received.

S. GREEN.

The Gate House, King Henry's Stairs, E.

TIDE-WEATHER.-In Leicestershire and Rutland, when unseasonable darkness or dull cloudy weather prevails, they say: "It is cata-tide-weather." Does this mean Whitsuntide" weather, or weather influenced by the tide-of-the-sea ? G. C. TICKENCOTE.

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PERCUSSION CAP.-In 1909 I contributed FAIRFIELD AND RATHBONE, ARTISTS.--I an article on the history of the percussion have a panel picture by these artists at the cap to the special volume on 'The Rise and back of which is the following inscription : Progress of the British Explosives Industry Landscape by Rathbone, Figures by issued by the Explosives Section of the Fairfield. Sold by C. A. Sturgeon, number Seventh International Congress of Applied 125 Strand." The writing on the label is Chemistry. The history of this invention evidently early nineteenth-century. Apcentres largely upon the classical paper ofparently, there is very little known about Goode Wright of Hereford in the Phil. Mag., these artists. Rathbone was born in vol. lxii., 1823. Wright asserts that his Cheshire about 1750, and died in 1807. He experiments were due to the stimulus of was known as the Manchester Wilson.' Murray's lectures on chemistry delivered at Bryan says that many of his pictures are Hereford in the previous year. I now draw embellished with figures by Morland, Ibbetattention to the fact that this Murray is son, and other contemporary artists. Charles John Murray, F.S.A., F.L.S., and not John Fairfield, who painted the figures in my Murray, M.D., and that the lectures referred picture, died at Brompton, aged 45, in 1804. to were issued in book-form under the title Bryan says that he made excellent copies of of 'A Manual of Experiments illustrative of Dutch paintings. Chemical Science,' second edition, Longmans, 1828. On p. 85 of this edition Murray states that fulminating mercury will be found superior to what is called percussion gunpowder; it is safe, certain and unaffected by damp." I shall be glad to know where a copy of the first edition is to be found. Failing that, perhaps Messrs. Longmans could give the date of its publication. The earliest edition in the British Museum appears to be the fourth.

E. WYNDHAM HULME.

IRISH LEGEND OF THE TWO ISLES.According to an ancient Irish legend, there were two isles of yore, the people of one of them being full of life and joy, whilst the inhabitants of the neighbouring other isle were steeped in death and silence. At last the living people, having grown weary of their joyful life, longed to join the state of their neighbours, and settle upon the shore to share their fate. Perhaps one of your readers can kindly refer me to a complete printed text where this Irish legend may be found. INQUIRER.

MADAME E. L. LE BRUN, FRENCH ARTIST. Is anything known of a French artist of this name? I shall be grateful for any information respecting her.

Essex Lodge, Ewell.

LEONARD C. PRICE.

[Is our correspondent thinking of Marie Anne Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun? If so, he will find the outline of her life (1755-1842) in any work of reference, while her own Souvenirs" form the best extended biography. An English edition was brought out in New York in 1903 by Lionel Strachey, and there is also a Life by C. Pillet. In addition, Mr. W. H. Helm has just brought out through Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. an illustrated volume entitled Vigée-Lebrun: her Life, Work, and Friendships."]

I should be obliged if any reader of N. & Q.' could give me more information about these artists, and where their work may be seen. I should also like to know something about Sturgeon, as none of the dealers to whom I have referred have ever heard his name before. JOHN LANE.

The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W.

REMIREMONT HAILSTONES, MAY, 1907.It is said that after a hailstorm at Remiremont in the Vosges, on a May Sunday in 1907, many of the hailstones which fell were found split in two, with a representation on each half of a statue of Our Lady known as Notre Dame de Trésor. This is said to have been put beyond question by an investigation set on foot by the Bishop of St. Dié. A scientific explanation of this apparent miracle is also said to have been given at the time by one Professeur de Lapparent. Can any one refer me to any literature on this subject? Where is the statue of Notre Dame de Trésor ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

DARVELL GADARN.-A great image called by this name from North Wales was used for the burning of the Franciscan, Blessed John Forest, May 22, 1538.

Of what saint was it the image, and from what church did it come ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. [See 8 S. xi. 407, 450; xii. 57, and the authorities there mentioned.]

IN THE LION'S JAWS.-It is commonly stated that a person mauled by a lion or tiger does not feel pain or fear at the time. What justification is there for this belief? It seems to be based on an experience of Dr. Livingstone, related in his 'Life.'

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

but the figure placed there eventually is credited
with being a representation of our national saint."
Is not the statue always taken to be that of
King George II.? Certainly, the books of
reference say so, and generally quote the
four familiar lines, of which the last is:-
Instead of the Church, made him head of the
steeple.

The cost of the statue was said to have been borne by a loyal brewer and M.P.; and I think the ascription to St. George of W. B. H. England will be new to most.

Replies.

THE WITCHES OF WARBOYS.

(12 S. i. 283, 304, 414.)

AT the last reference (414) Hotten's Handbook to the Typography [&c.] of England and Wales' [1863], is an incorrect description. It was a Handbook of Topography.' Hotten's item No. 2190:

"WARBOYS WITCHES of 1593. Nicholson (Rev. Isaac), against Witchcraft. Account of Anne Izzard, witch of WARBOYS, 8vo, scarce, 1808," is, I think, also an incorrect description.

I have four copies of Nicholson's book before me. The full title is :

A SERMON against | WITCHCRAFT, preached in the PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT PAXTON, | in the County of Huntingdon, July 17, 1808, | with a brief account of the circumstances which led to Two atrocious attacks on the Person of Ann Izzard, as a reputed witch. By the Reverend Isaac Nicholson, A.M. | Curate..... London: | Printed for J. Mawman, Poultry, | 1808.

One of the copies is without the title-page, and was, I am told, Hotten's copy. There is a preface of ix pp. which commences :

A brief Account of the Attack on the Person of

Ann Izzard, and the Circumstances which led to it "In the year 1593, an indelible mark of infamy was stamped upon the inhabitants of Warboys, in the County of Huntingdon, for their folly and wickedness in carrying to trial, and afterwards to execution, three of their unfortunate parishioners, for the alleged offence of witchcraft......but the following statement of facts, will convince them of their mistake, and, allowing for the difference of science and civilization, will shew that Great Paxton, in the same county, is more than upon a level with Warboys for ignorance, credulity, and barbarity."

I conjecture from this that Hotten may have seen only these few introductory lines, The and so wrongly entered it in his list. 'D.N.B.' calls the 'Handbook' "this most laborious and best known compilation," and Hotten, having SO many hundreds of pamphlets, &c., to record, may not in a

of

GREAT PAXTON
in the

County of Huntingdon,

on the 8th and 9th of May, 1808,
under the pretence of her being
A WITCH.

By Isaac Nicholson, A.M., Curate.
London:

Printed for J. Mawman, Poultry.
1810.

The sermon was reviewed in The Monthly Repository, vol. iii. No. xxxv. November, 1808. Chap. xviii. in Saunders's' Legends and Traditions of Huntingdonshire,' 1888, is devoted to the circumstances; and Wrycroft's Almanac for 1903 reprints most of the sermon, and gives a photograph of Paxton Hill, where the incident happened.

The Rev. Isaac Nicholson was curate of Great Paxton, Little Paxton, and Toseland from about 1799 to 1825, and vicar 1825. A M.I. in Great Paxton Church records that he Died Dec. 27, 1839, in the 59th year of his age."

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He wrote several sermons and books, &c., which I possess, but none, so far as I know, about the Witches of Warboys, the only reference to them being the few lines quoted in the preface to the sermon, so I concluded Hotten was mistaken in his item 2190 and did not include it in my bibliographical note.

In turning over an early volume of 'N. & Q.' I notice that Dr. Johnson referred to the Witches of Warbois in his edition of Shakespeare (5 S. xii. 8). Cirencester.

HERBERT E. NORRIS.