NOTES AND QUERlEa 



[2'"l S. VII. Jan. 8. '69. 



and would be invaluable to those who have not 

 access to many authorities. At a glance they 

 would show more clearly than a long memoir what 

 portions of the country were chiefly occupied, 

 and indeed, to some extent, in what way they 

 were occupied by the successive inhabitants or in- 

 vaders. I need not enlarge on the advantages to 

 archaeological, and even to ethnographical, science, 

 which would result from the execution of the pro- 

 posed map. H. P. 



Retreat for Invalided Literary Men. — In this age 

 of active Christian charity, and more comprehen- 

 sive appreciation of the benefits conferred on the 

 community by literature, and by those who cul- 

 tivate it as a profession, it seems to indicate rather 

 a want of reflection on the subject than want of 

 will on the part of a generous public, that there 

 should be no places of refuge and retirement for 

 the men who have devoted their life-long energies 

 to the intellectual elevation and improvement of 

 society, but who have failed to derive adequate 

 advantage from their talents to guard them against 

 want and poverty in their old age. I trust it will 

 not be thought a hopeless aim to propose that 

 means should be devised to remedy such a lament- 

 able state of things, and to provide a permanent 

 channel for the benevolent bounty of the wealthy 

 and the considerate, — a channel which we see 

 existing around us in such comfortable and praise- 

 worthy profusion for the support of other de- 

 cayed members of our active trading community. 

 Perhaps the Editor of " N. & Q.," who is so 

 highly esteemed in the literary world, would not 

 object to receive communications intended to 

 promote so laudable a design, and to bring it more 

 eflFectually before the world than the present 

 writer can do, whose attention has been strongly 

 directed to the subject by a recent instance of 

 need of such assistance in old age, in the case of 

 a learned and worthy individual. Cum Deo ! 



Rabelais, — In the seventh chapter of Pantagruel 

 we have, amongst the "choice books in the library 

 of St. Victor," one called La Mommerie des Ra- 

 hatz et Lutins. In commenting on this. Menage 

 tells us (^Dict. Etym., mot, Rabater), that the Fran- 

 ciscans of Amboise had a custom, towards the 

 end of Lent, to place a number of small flint 

 stones on boards over the timber ceiling of 

 their church, and on Ash- Wednesday, as soon as 

 the deacon had pronounced those words of the 

 Saviour's Passion at which all fall upon their 

 faces, the Novices moved the boards on which the 

 stones were placed, and thus caused the rumbling 

 called the " rabast des Cordeliers." Should not 

 the Ash-Wednesday be struck out, and Spy- 

 Wednesday be substituted ? Certainly the sounds 



referred to must have been such as are still made 

 by sharply clapping the Prayer-books on Good 

 Friday. There is no such thing on Ash- Wednes- 

 day. J. P. Yabeum. 

 Dublin. 



Southey's " The Holly Tree."" — Most persons 

 are acquainted with his poem on the Holly Tree, 

 commencing — 



" Reader ! hast thou e'er chanced to see 

 A Holly Tree?" &c., 



but I have never seen it noticed that the circum- 

 stance there mentioned is utterly without founda- 

 tion. The poet asserts, that, by a wonderful dis- 

 play of Providence, the holly only bears prickly 

 leaves where within the reach of cattle browsing. 

 Any person may soon satisfy himself of the utter 

 groundlessness of this statement. Southey must 

 have been a very superficial observer not to have 

 seen that the old leaves are everywhere sharp- 

 pointed and hard. The young leaves are all soft 

 and tender ; but equally so at the bottom as at 

 the top of the tree. E. K. 



Martinmas Summer. — It appears, from an in- 

 teresting letter on the climate of November, 

 which has recently appeared in The Times, that 

 this month is frequently distinguished by a few 

 days of severe cold, such as might occur in Janu- 

 ary. The cold season of November in the present 

 year [1858] was of unusual length and severity ; 

 exceeding in this respect every November for the 

 last forty-three years. It rarely happens, however, 

 that, whatever may be the depression of the ther- 

 mometer, snow falls to any extent in November. 

 The month of November is likewise almost in- 

 variably distinguished by a few days of bright, 

 warm, genial weather, which, from their often 

 falling about Martinmas (the 11th), are known 

 by the name of "Martinmas summer;" in French, 

 " le petit etc de St. Martin." This year the Mar- 

 tinmas summer was delayed till near the end of 

 the month. L. 



Window Poetry. — Many of your readers will 

 remember an epigram, which was said to have 

 been written on the window of an inn about the 

 time of her present Majesty's accession, whom 

 God long preserve ! It deserves conservation at 

 your hands : — 



" * The Queen's with us,' the Whigs exulting say, 

 ' For, when she found us in, she let us stay.' 

 It may be so ; but give me leave to doubt 

 How long she'll keep you, when she finds you out." 



C. W. B. 



Pilate's " What is truth ?" — In Donne's Sermon, 

 cxxxv. (vol. V. p. 418., in Alford's edition), occurs 

 the following : — 



" Pilate asked Christ, Quid Veritas, What was truth ? 

 and he might have known if he would have stayed : but, 

 Exivit, aaya the text there, He went out, out to the Jews, 



