HALLEY'S COMET 501 



" He was a man of good learning for those times ; of mature 

 age ; and, in his early youth, had hazarded an attempt of 

 singular temerity ; he had by some contrivance fastened wings 

 to his hands and feet, in order that, looking upon the fable 

 as true, he might fly like Daedalus, and collecting the air on the 

 summit of a tower, had flown for more than the distance of 

 a furlong ; but agitated by the violence of the wind and a 

 current of air, as well as by the consciousness of his rash 

 attempt, he fell and broke his legs, and was lame ever after. 

 He used to relate as the cause of his failure that he had for- 

 gotten to provide himself with a tail." 



The remaining contemporary evidence is to be found in 

 the Bayeux tapestry, that marvellous piece of work which has 

 been aptly termed " a priceless relic of antiquity." Here, after 

 portraying the death and burial of Edward, the designer (see fig.) 

 pictures some men in an attitude of amazement looking and point- 

 ing at a wondrous star, with the legend over the picture " isti 

 mirant stella" (" These men marvel at the star"). The artist 

 has produced in the sky a marvellous and fearsome object which 

 is intended to represent the comet. Although it bears little 

 resemblance to our notions of the figure of a comet, yet there 

 are to be seen photographs of comets which appeared as recently 

 as 1905, 1907 and 1908 which, except in the matter of detail, are 

 not very unlike the figure in the tapestry. As to the " three, 

 long rays," perhaps considerations of space have compelled the 

 artist to curtail these, and by way of compensation he has 

 presented us with eight short ones. 1 



Objection has been taken to the form of the legend, and it 

 is pointed out that this should run " isti mirantur stellam." 

 With regard to " stellam," an examination of the original 

 tapestry, or, failing that, of the photograph of the tapestry in 

 the South Kensington Museum, discloses the existence of a 

 line signifying abbreviation over the a of stella, and determining 

 the reading as " stellam." Unfortunately, the English artist 

 who, early in the last century, was commissioned to make a 

 copy of the tapestry, failed to reproduce this abbreviation sign ; 

 and nearly, if not quite, all of the reproductions of this scene 



1 The church of St. John, Horselydown, plainly visible on the river side of the 

 railway about half a mile out of London Bridge Station, boasts of a weathercock 

 probably unique in design. It is not unlike the figure in the tapestry, and must 

 undoubtedly be intended to represent a comet (perhaps even Halley's comet), 

 though the pew-opener inclines to the opinion that it represents a louse. 



