Wood is, in fact, so expensive in these localities that the ordinary fuel throughout the country consists of dried oxdung.

were

When in Natal for a short visit I was informed that the reason the natives (at that time wearing the scantiest of clothing) so immune from snake bite, when traversing the dense tropical jungle in the south of the colony, was that they were far keener-sighted than Europeans, and that they always had their knobkerrie along with them in case of need.

As to what I said of the python in Bechuanaland devouring oxen, I should have mentioned that it was only hearsay; but coming as it did to me on several occasions from transport riders, I had no cause to doubt its accuracy. A fact which may explain this better is to be found, perhaps, in the size of the Mashona breed, which from the specimens I saw were decidedly smaller than either Highland or Kerry cattle, and certainly no larger than some of the wellgrown antelopes that are known to fall victims to these formidable creatures.

Philadelphia.

N. W. HILL.

66 TAPING SHOOS (10 S. vii. 206).-MR. HEMS's note must not be uncontradicted, for the sake of future readers. The parish church of St. Stephen at Treleigh, Cornwall, is not of fifteenth-century date. The parish (which was not even a chapelry before) was formed in 1846 out of Redruth (London Gazette, 9 Jan., 1846). The foundation stone of this "fifteenth-century parish church" was laid in 1865, and the building consecrated 26 Sept., 1866. It contains no such chest or document as that referred to.

I may say that a cobbler in Redruth draws a distinction between tapping and soleing." The former means adding leather over the whole or part of the surface of a worn sole; the latter, replacing the worn sole by a new one.

YGREC.

The Poetical Works of William Strode (1600-1645). Now first collected from Manuscript and Printed Sources. To which is added The Floating Island: a Tragi-Comedy,' now first reprinted. Edited by Bertram Dobell. (Dobell.)

FOR the first time William Strode takes the place to which he is entitled in the hierarchy of the English poets. Of him it cannot be said, as of Thomas Traherne, that his editor is also his discoverer. To Mr. Dobell is due, if not proof of his. existence, at least his accessibility. Traces of N. & Q.' and The Gentleman's Magazine, and his his work are to be found in such repositories as claim to literary recognition is accorded him not only by Anthony à Wood and in the Biographia Dramatica' of Baker, Reed, and Jones, but in an established authority such as the 'Dictionary of National Biography," where he receives a consider moment those to whom his work is known, they are able measure of space. Few as are at the present numerous indeed compared to what they would have been without Mr. Dobell's republication. That Strode should be best known as a dramatist

rather than as a lyrist is in the nature of things. Apart from his academic distinction, the period of the appearance of The Floating Island and the conditions under which it was avowedly written were such as to attract to it a large amount of public attention. Among the places in which references to it are found is not only Fleay's History of the Stage,' in which it is given among University plays in English, but also the tenth volume of Genest's Some Account of the English by the statement also recorded, with something Stage.' Wherever it is mentioned, it is accompanied almost like a protest, by Mr. Dobell-that it is on the whole, though parts are well written, very dull. The dramatis persona depose Prudentius, their lawful king, and institute Fancy as their queen. noticeable. His poems are mostly hidden in misIt is, however, as a lyrist that Strode is chiefly cellanies of the first half of the seventeenth century 'Wit Restored,' 'Musarum Deliciæ,' Parnassus Biceps,' and the like. From these, and from MS. compilations, they have been assiduously collected by Mr. Dobell, one of whose tasks has been judging of the value of their ascription to Strode. This is sometimes a serious matter, since, if

we take Mr. Dobell's word, Fletcher must be deprived of the credit of the lines to Melancholy which inspired Milton, and which, with little hesitation, are assigned to Strode. Their appearance in The Nice Valour' cannot be held as establishing any indefeasible claim on behalf of Fletcher. So far as can be judged, Mr. Dobell's conjectures are admirably sane, and his introduction constitutes a very sound and valuable piece of scholarship. A few poems are given with some dubiety. One thing at least is certain: the book forms a notable addition to our stores of English poetry and an added claim upon scholarship on the part of Mr. Dobell, whose services to English poetry are not easily acknowledged.

Northern Notes and Queries: a Quarterly Magazine devoted to the Antiquities of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham. Edited by Henry Reginald Leighton. Vol. I. No. 5. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, M. S. Dodds.) Northern Notes and Queries makes steady progress. We welcome each succeeding number with in.creasing satisfaction. The most widely interesting paper will, we think, be found to be A Newcastle Lady at St. James's,' for it contains a letter recording the appearance of a ghost which is either a most cunningly devised fable, or one of those truths which it was once the fashion to reject without examination as impossible. We have in a letter written at Queen Charlotte's request by a Lieut. Stewart, the original of which is yet in existence, a narrative of what occurred, in the island of Dominica. Therein we read that a gentleman, named Bomberg, of German extraction, who had married a Miss Laing, was a subaltern in the same regiment as the writer. Bomberg had one child, soon after whose birth the mother died. When the little boy was about two years old his father was ordered to Dominica, and took the little fellow with him. About nine months after he had been stationed in the island Bomberg received orders, it would seem, to take a rather long journey. There were no barracks at this time in the island, so the officers were quartered in the Governor's residence, in rooms having in them two beds each. A few nights after Bomberg had gone on his journey and Lieut. Stewart had been in bed a quarter of an hour, he heard some one enter the room, come towards his bed, and draw back the curtain. It was Bomberg. Stewart, no little surprised at his early return, asked him when he arrived. The reply was that he had died that very night, and in a most pathetic manner he recommended his child to the lieutenant's protection and then departed. Calling to an officer who slept in the other bed, Stewart asked if he had heard any one enter the room. The reply was yes, and he thought it was Bomberg. He heard him speak also, but could not catch what he said. The next morning Stewart related what had occurred, and was of course made fun of by his companions, but in the evening news arrived that Bomberg was really dead. The rest of the paper, though interesting on other grounds, has no psychological or folk-lore value.

The Three Family Histories' here continued, gathered from the Halmote records of the Bishops of Durham, furnish facts which cannot but be of importance to future genealogists. It is much to be desired that these valuable papers should find safety in print-if not in extenso, at least in abstract.

A Note upon the Family of Dale of Monkwearmouth' supplies materials for a pedigree of the family from the reign of Charles I. to that of George II. It is compiled from records of the Court of Chancery which give details of a most embarrassing character.

The father of Akenside the poet was a butcher at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He entered memoranda as to the births and deaths of his children, not, as was the custom, in the family Bible, but in the English version of Diodati's 'Annotations.' These have been copied by some one into the register of the Nonconformist chapel where the Akensides were accustomed to worship, and are now, we believe, printed for the first time.

The charters of Crosthwaite, Cumberland, are concluded. They are valuable not only as throwing light on places and place-names, but also as giving evidence as to the intimate connexion between religious houses far apart. One of these is a report to the Abbot of Citeaux and others assembled in chapter as to a dispute between the Abbots of Furness and Fountains, dated at Boston in Lincolnshire in 1302. A charter of King John is printed confirming to the Abbot and monks of Fountains certain lands which Alicia de Rumilly had given to them. It is dated 13 Sept., 1212, and, strange to say, has not been found entered on the Close, Charter, or Patent Rolls.

The family notices from The Newcastle Weekly Courant embrace parts of the years 1747-8. The laudatory terms used regarding both the living and the dead will sometimes cause the modern reader to smile.

WE have received from 1, Mitre Court Buildings, Temple, E.C., a pamphlet concerning The Manorial Society: its Aims and Objects.' A recent Report of the Parliamentary Local Records Committee indicated the expediency of preserving and examining records of national as well as local importance, and the present Society seems well fitted by its constitution to give organized attention to manorial records and institutions, on which admirable work has been done by scholars like Mary Bateson. The Council of the Society already includes representatives of about 340 manors in England. We hope it will be possible for the Society to include in its publications not only facsimiles of records, but also illustrations of some of the fine manor houses in this country, such as, for instance, the beautiful house at Cranborne.

Notices to Correspondents.

H. HEMS ("Netting-mokes"). Halliwell says that moke is the mesh of a net, and that hence the word is applied to any wickerwork.

L. P. (Paris). Contributions will be welcome, and be printed as space permits.

W. M.-Kingsley's words were inquired for-not Burke's as suggested by you.

NOTICE.

Editorial communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publishers" at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.