and near the mountain, and they were so convinced of the truth of this story, that whenever they saw the wool of a sheep's side tinged with yellow, they thought it had acquired that colour from having lain above the gold of the mine. A great many years ago a ghost made its appearance on the spot, supposed to be laden with the secret of the mine, and Chambers proceeds to tell the story of a shepherd who plucked up courage to accost it, and received the following reply to his demand to learn the reason of the spectre's presence :— If Auchindownie cock disna craw, I'll tell ye where the gowd mine is in Largo Law. Not a cock was left alive at the farm of Auchindownie, but man was more difficult to control, for just as the ghost appeared, ready to divulge the secret, Tammie Norrie, the cow-herd of Balmain, heedless of all injunctions to the contrary, "blew a blast both loud and dread," on which the ghost immediately vanished, after exclaiming : Woe to the man who blew the horn, specified by A FOLK-LORIST. At any rate, Man and elsewhere will be found in Principal Town Hall, Cardiff. monly numbered by thousands, the "mese MANX WORDS (9th S. viii. 83).-According to Jamieson's 'Scottish Dictionary' “maze is a term applied to herrings, denoting the number of five hundred. Under "mese of herring," ibid., several derivations are given. For out of the spot he shall ne'er be borne. Skene is quoted as of the opinion that, as In fulfilment of this denunciation the un-herrings are so numerous that they are comfortunate horn-blower was struck dead upon the spot, and it being found impossible to remove his body, which seemed, as it were, pinned to the earth, a cairn of stones was raised over it, which, grown into a green hillock, was denominated Norrie's Law (A.-S. hlow, a tumulus or barrow), and for long was regarded as uncanny by the common people. But it appears that in 1819 a man digging sand at Norrie's Law found a cist or stone coffin containing a suit of scale-armour, with shield, sword-handle, and scabbard, all of silver. This discovery was recorded by Chambers in later editions of his work, in which it is further stated that the finder kept the secret until nearly the whole of the pieces had been disposed of to a silversmith at Cupar; but on one of the few that remain it is remarkable to find the "spectacle ornament," crossed by the so-called "broken sceptre," thus indicating a great though uncertain antiquity. Further details will be found in Dr. John Stuart's book on 'The Sculptured Stones of Scotland.' In this case, as in the Bryn-yr-Ellyllon one, we have not only a long-standing tradition of the burial of one of the precious metals, for the conversion of silver into gold would offer no difficulties to the popular imagination, but also of a spectre which apparently filled the office of guardian of the treasure; and the question would seem to present the same difficulties of solution as those that are THE TRYSTING OAK IN 'IVANHOE' (9th S. viii. 42).-Concerning the identity of the "trysting tree" in Ivanhoe' there is in this district a great difference of opinion, and this has existed for many years. There were two large oaks in Harthill Walk, one in the vicarage garden at Todwick, the other at some distance from it-the one, in fact, which Mr. Mosey, the present agent of the Duke of Leeds, claims as Scott's trysting oak. As far as I know, the oldest inhabitants have for years considered the tree at Todwick to be the one mentioned in 'Ivanhoe,' and they have ever looked upon it with pride. The portion of Harthill Walk at Todwick is now a private road, and the tree is a very fine one, worthy of the belief with which it is invested. Mr. Mosey has long been engaged in seeking information, and he pins his faith to the trunk which he has had taken down and transferred to the grounds of his residence; but it will require some strong proofs to shake the local belief that the real with fish, and who marvels at their resourcetrysting tree" is still standing at Todwick. fulness in cooking it, which she longs to There is also a considerable difference of imitate, but is prevented. Deliverance comes opinion as to the position of the castle which with the arrival of the military and the Scott calls "Torquilstone," and many stoutly burning of the cottage. claim that the site of the old castle at WhitTHOMAS J. JEAKES. well, in Derbyshire, best of all meets the If a rather little-known second (or third) description which Scott gives of "Torquil-rate novel is reckoned as literature, there THOS. RATCLIFFE. will be found in 'Queen of the Moor,' by Frederick Adye (Macmillan & Co., 1897), very pleasantly written studies of a French general on parole, also of officer and soldier servant, prisoners in Princetown, Dartmoor, at the beginning of last century. F. J. O. stone. Worksop. BELL INSCRIPTION AT PUNCKNOWLE, DORSET (9th S. vii. 365; viii. 22).—This inscription has been a puzzle to bell-hunters for the last forty years. With regard to the solution | propounded by MR. HESLOP, "lather" is not a Dorset equivalent for "ladder," nor (were that otherwise) does there seem much verisimilitude in this reading. Beneath the distich are the date 1629 and the initials "R. N," which latter are probably those of Robert Napper. LOBUC. ་ PRISONERS OF WAR IN OUR LITERATURE (9th S. vii. 469; viii. 46).-The following extract from the Annual Register' for 1812, though not exactly coming within the scope of the topic immediately to hand, may yet prove of interest, the rather that at the present moment the treatment (and behaviour) of "prisoners of war" has assumed the aspect of a "burning question": "Jan. 2. Six French prisoners, who lately escaped from the castle of Edinburgh, have been retaken to their old place of confinement. On Friday last information was given to the Commandant of Linlithgow Local Militia, that a number of foreigners had been seen skulking among Lord Hopetoun's plantations: a party was immediately sent out, which descried them at some distance in the fields. On seeing the party they all separated, taking different directions; six of them, however, were taken, after considerable fatigue, four of them hid among the whins, and two of them in the hollow of a stack in a barn yard. On their escape they had made for the sea......finding a boat they sailed up the Firth, till opposite Hopetoun house, where they landed......They had subsisted for three days on raw turnips. On being taken they were carried to Linlithgow jail, fed and clothed, and conducted to Edinburgh on Saturday last." HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane. Borrow's reference to them has already been quoted. At pp. 53-8, 88-94, vol. iii. of Household Words a most interesting article, commencing with a reference to them, and dealing with the expected landing of " Bony," is buried under the (for our purpose) unmeaning title of 'The Marsh Fog and the Sea Breeze. It purports to be written by a quondam fisher-girl child, who, with her brother and mother, supplies the prisoners UGO FOSCOLO IN LONDON (9th S. vi. 326; vii. 150, 318, 476; viii. 92).-Let me quote an instance which does not admit of doubt of the preservation of a human body after a long inhumation. It is that of Napoleon I., whose coffin was exhumed in 1840 after a nineteen years' burial at St. Helena, and was thence transferred to the Invalides at Paris. The body was found perfect, though the epaulettes were a little tarnished, and mould lay on the boots; upon them the heart in a It was exleaden case had been deposited. posed to view only for a few moments for necessary identification, and General Bertrand, who had been with Napoleon in his exile up to his death in 1821, gazed on the features of his great commander. Unless my memory is at fault, there was an engraving of the scene in the Pictorial Times some years later, perhaps in 1843. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. When Ugo Foscolo's remains were removed from Chiswick Churchyard by the Italian Government, and were transferred to the church of Santa Croce, the Westminster Abbey of Florence, where the illustrious poet reposes with Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo and other scholars who enjoyed the sunshine of favour in the palace of Cosmo de' Medici, the modest tomb placed over the grave of the poet by Hudson Turner, M.P., one of his admirers, was removed, and a pretentious polished - granite cenotaph with a long inscription substituted. This inscription is now nearly illegible, the iron railing round the tomb is rusted, and the whole structure is becoming dilapidated. It is a curious fact that granite, which is practically imperishable in the rainless climate of Egypt, rapidly deteriorates in our humid atmosphere, and the huge mass of stone which marks Foscolo's grave will probably gradually become a formless mass unless something is done to arrest the disintegrating effect of the London climate. I have called the attention of the Italian ambassador to the condition of the cenotaph, but without avail. JNO. HEBB. it is so marked on Roque's large map of "ZAREBA" (9th S. vii. 224). It may be noted that the use of this word is being revived in a curious fashion, Capt. Robert Marshall having brought it into two of his comedies, 'The Noble Lord' and 'The Second in Command,' both produced in London in 1900. Its employment in the former, indeed, was considered by some of the "first THE CORONATION STONE (9th S. viii. 63).COL. RIVETT-CARNAC will find an account of the above stone in 'Crowns and Coronations, by William Jones. It gives not only the legendary origin, but a geological description and the dimensions. As to the marks, it says there is a rectangular groove or indent on the upper surface into which a metal plate, in-nighters" to furnish internal evidence that scribed with a legend, might have been fixed and at one corner of the groove is a small cross slightly cut. It also refers the reader to an article in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, by Dr. W. F. Skene and Dr. John Stuart, and 'The Coronation Stone,' by the former, published by Edmonstone & Douglas. JOHN RADCLIFFE. BARBICAN WATCH TOWER (9th S. viii. 83).-It does not seem quite clear from MR. WRIGHT'S note whether he is referring to the old Roman watch tower, or to the watch house, which was at a later period erected on or near to the site of the watch tower. Stow himself, in the last edition of his 'Survey' published in his lifetime, viz., in 1603, does not mention this later watch house. He only tells us that the old Roman watch tower was destroyed by Henry III. in 1267, when he reoccupied the City of London after his struggle with the barons, and that its site was subsequently given by Edward III. to Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, in 1336 (Stow's 'Survey,' ed. 1603, p. 71). If this statement is correct, it is improbable that there would have come down to us any trustworthy representation of the old Roman watch tower. Such a remark, however, does not apply to the later watch house, of which we find a description in Strype's edition of Stow's 'Survey' published in 1720, vol. i., book iii., p. 93. This watch house, Strype tells us, was erected on the site of the old watch tower, fronting Red Cross Street, and the piece had been written some years before, when, because of the long struggle against the Mahdi, "zareba" was as frequently to be seen in the newspapers as "laager" is now. ALFRED F. ROBBINS. Rowland Davies, of the Hereford family, CHAPLAIN TO WILLIAM III. (9th S. viii. 83). was appointed chaplain to one of the regi ments that accompanied King William III. to Ireland, and arrived there 11 May, 1690. See his journal in the volume of the Camden Society for 1857. F. R. DAVIES. Hawthorn, Black Rock. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WAnted (9th S. viii. 85). So nigh is grandeur to our dust, When Duty whispers low, "Thou must," 'Voluntaries,' Ralph Waldo Emerson, He is oft the wisest man 'The Oak and the Broom,' Wordsworth. Is not "Have communion with few," &c., merely an amplification of the proverb "Have but few friends, though many acquaintances," in Spanish "Conocidos muchos, amigos pocos"? But a modern house motto in a slightly different form, namely :Doulton "specimen" jug in my possession has this Have communion with all, J. H. MACMICHAEL Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. means 'seal-eater" ("History of the New World,' ii. 350). An excellent reproduction of the presentation portrait of the author which belongs to Christ's College, Cambridge, forms a pleasing frontispiece Notes on English Etymology. By the Rev. W. W. to the volume. We learn with satisfaction that he has material in hand which will furnish forth a Skeat, Litt.D. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) PROF. SKEAT has judged rightly in believing that a their mother tongue will be prepared to give it a similar issue, and can assure him that all lovers of collection of his papers on etymological subjects, hearty reception. There is no writer of the day to which are scattered through various publications, whom they are under deeper obligations. would be welcome to all who are interested in the study of English. Most of the Notes' included in Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Edited by W. Rhys the present volume have appeared in the Transactions of the Philological Society during the last twenty Roberts. (Cambridge, University Press.) years, and a few in the more recent numbers of PROF. ROBERTS has edited the Greek text of the N. & Q. The papers on words imported from three critical letters of Dionysius, and provided an South America and the West Indies are complete English translation of them, a glossary of rhetorical monographs on the subjects with which they deal, terms, and ample introductory matter. The book is and a copious hand-list of early Anglo-French words a companion volume to his edition of Longinus on will be found convenient and useful for reference. the Sublime' in 1899, and is one which deserves a The chief value, however, of the book lies in the warm meed of praise. We are always glad to see series of detached notes in which points of un- such thorough, well-equipped editions as this prosettled etymology are submitted to a fuller and ceeding from the University Presses; they do not more complete discussion than was possible even in come too often, and the outside world is apt to be the author's large dictionary. These, as embody- scornful about the amount of work in the shape of ing the final conclusions, retractations, and amend solid contributions to thought and the literature ments of a scholar in a field where he is facile of learning which has been given to us of late by princeps, carry the utmost weight and importance. our greater universities. There is perhaps some Indeed, to our thinking, no fairy tale can compare reason for these complaints, crude as they are. in interest with these fossilized histories, as they Dionysius as a literary critic cannot compare in yield up their secret meaning and origin under ability or originality with the author of the treatise the magic wand of the analytical etymologist. In on the sublime, be he Longinus or another, but his many instances stubborn vocables now reveal them- remarks are always worth reading. He belongs to selves for the first time in their true colours, and the careful rather than the original type of scholar, with surprising results-e.g., calf, crease, darn, and the merits of the first class are apt to be undergallop, &c. In other instances Prof. Skeat's dis- estimated to-day. He is happiest in his estimates coveries have been more or less anticipated by other of authors who show elaboration of style, though investigators. A very similar account of bronze, he appreciates Lysias, a model of lucidity whom e.g., will be found in Schrader's 'Prehistoric Anti-Thucydidean students do not read sufficiently. quities of the Aryan Peoples,' p. 200, the English Vexing to the modern reader is his depreciation of translation of which appeared in 1890. We notice the style of Plato, the divine master of grace and also some cases where etymologies advanced in ease in language. This same ease is more the gift Dr. Palmer's 'Folk- Etymology,' 1883, are now of Oxford than Cambridge, but it is pleasant to adopted. The account of scour, to traverse hastily, find that Prof. Roberts's translation is not lacking there given (p. 648), separating it from scour, to in so essential a quality, and not shackled by the cleanse, and deriving it through the Old French claims of those who want a mere "crib." Somefrom Lat. excurrere, is thus accepted by Prof. Skeat. times we differ from him as to the best rendering His note on Glory, Hand of,' agrees closely with of a word, but always he seems to have thought Palmer's Hand of Glory' (p. 161). Unconscious over the solution of the difficulty and found a cerebration will no doubt often reproduce in this way out of it. Thus voia of a patriot is better way what one has formerly read and forgotten. rendered, we think, by "partiality" than "enthuSimilarly the explanation of the Shakespearian siasm," and devòs of Thucydides is more poßepòc crux, We may deliver our supplications in the than "clever." We do not hold with such a quill" (2 Hen. VI.,' I. iii. 4), as meaning "col- phrase as "when he elects to write." It is surely fectedly," " "all together" (Fr. en cueill-ette), had recent, Transatlantic, undesirable English. Despite already been given in the Folk-Etymology,' p. 310, his pedantry, Dionysius has some of the supreme though spoilt there by an alternative suggestion Greek talent for seeing the right thing, A criticism nihil ad rem. of his on Thucydides we saw echoed the other day by the latest of critics on the newest of Greek histories. "Of all literary virtues, the most impor tant is propriety." We fancy moderns without the Greek will imagine that this refers to what is called unexceptionable morality," whereas "propriety" is only rò рέжоV. The whole discussion on Thucydides is interesting, more arresting than we had thought it; but we still lack an adequate reason for his extraordinary style-a better reason than that he invented it to give Greek grammarians a living. There is something pleasing in the serene spectacle of Dionysius criticizing his Plato and Demosthenes in letters to a friend in an age when The origin of blot is not a little curious, coming as it does from p'lot, pelote (O.F. blote)=a pellet or ball of earth or dirt. The similar contraction in platoon from peloton might have been referred to. A parallel is afforded also by the surname Pratt (formerly Prott), which, if we mistake not, is a contraction of Perrot. The explanation of the word Esquimaux, which Prof. Skeat takes from Tylor (given also in Taylor's 'Names and Places'), has been discredited by more recent writers. Our most learned authority on res Americana, Mr. E. J. Payne, shows that the name is taken from the Algonquin askik-amo, which 66 everything was being shaken by the decadence of imperial Rome, and the greatest change the world of thought has ever seen was close at hand. THREE articles in the Edinburgh Review will remain of permanent value as an index of the state of knowledge and feeling at the beginning of the century. In Greece and Asia' are gathered in narrow compass the prominent facts relating to the early Hellenic civilization. It is a difficult subject whereon to write-one, indeed, on which few persons think clearly. We have been so accustomed to believe, in spite of the evidence that has always existed to the contrary, that our progress has been solely due to the influences of Semitic and Greek thought, that it will come as something like a shock to many good people to learn how much Hellas was in its beginnings indebted to races regarded as in every way inferior to the Aryans. We do not feel called upon to question this self-satisfying piece of optimism, but must draw attention to the facts that the alphabet itself has probably come from Hittite rather than Phoenician sources, and that true alphabets, as distinguished from cuneiform and hieratic, were the work of busy merchantmen and traders rather than of grave and thoughtful students struggling after logical simplicity. The sum of the matter is here said to be "that Greek civilization was mainly derived from the non-Aryan population of Asia Minor, and thus indirectly from the Mongol race in Babylonia, which first established art and a written character in Cappadocia." "Temporary Stars' has gathered up all that is at present known, or which rests on a wide basis of probability, regarding those strange suns which burst upon the sight for a short time, and then, so far as human vision is concerned, sink into nothingness or become mere points of light. Until the spectroscope came into use nothing was known regarding these phenomena beyond their mere presence and that almost all of them had been seen among the great nebula of the Milky Way. Now their chemical nature is to a great degree ascertained, and an important step has been taken towards solving the mystery of planet formation. We imagine that The Time-Spirit of the Nineteenth Century' will furnish many texts for controversy. With its main outlines we are in full sympathy, but on such a subject no two persons capable of abstract thought can be found who are in absolute agreement. The estimates of the survivors from the eighteenth century, several of whom continued to our own time, are especially good, as are also the remarks on the revived scholasticism which has been a distinctive character istic of these latter days. The review of Mr. Corbett's books on Drake furnishes pleasant and instructive reading. The hero has been so long the victim of romance that it is delightful to have the truth, or what is a very near approach thereto, set before us in a form which will attract readers. The notice of Tolstoi is written with feeling by one who understands his subject. It is at present, however, far too early to come to definite conclusions. PROF. MAITLAND has contributed to the English Historical Review an excellent memoir of the late Bishop of Oxford. It must give pleasure to every one who has a genuine love of knowledge, as distinguished from the vague generalizations which pass current among those who feel aggrieved if they do not find in the histories they read the excitement which a novel gives them. We have heard such misguided people say that the late bishop's writings are dull, a statement indicating that they are not only devoid of the historical instinct, but also are deficient in power of appreciating a style remarkable for excellence. teenth Century,' by Mr. W. Miller, is an instructive Europe and the Ottoman Power before the Ninebe found in English. It is not easy to account for paper, as it contains information not elsewhere to the decay of a great military power which was for does not endeavour to do this, but he furnishes so long a terror to the Christian West. The writer some details which may be helpful to any one who writes on the New Forest, and shows, as we believe ventures upon this intricate subject. Mr. F. Baring conclusively, that the cruelty of William the Norman in clearing that region for the purpose of making it think, indeed, he might have gone further in the a great game preserve has been exaggerated. We way of extenuation. The removal of rural populaMiddle Ages a great hardship, certainly not so tions from one site to another was not in the cruel as the clearances in the Scottish Highlands which have in recent days met with ardent defenders. We wish Mr. Baring would devote his attention to William's devastations in the north of England. Have they also been exaggerated by chroniclers and historians? Mr. C. Bonnier gives from a Douce MS. a list of English towns with what he calls their attributes, which he regards as more complete than the others which are known to have with a similar catalogue which appeared in our come down to us. We believe it to be identical pages some years ago (6th S. viii. 223). THE LATE DR. 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