2»4 S. VII. Feb. 19. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



became obnoxious to the revolutionary party, and 

 was beheaded April, 1794. His aide-de-camp was 

 Mr. Lattin, afterwardi so well known in the 

 fashionable and literary circles of Paris and Lon- 

 don. Col. Dillon was the grandson of Arthur, 

 Count Dillon, who followed the fortunes of James 

 II. into France. His brother Theobald was 

 also a distinguished officer, and known at the 

 court of Marie Antoinette as Le Beau Dillon ; he 

 was murdered in the streets of Lille during the 

 Revolution. Col. Arthur Dillon married a cousin 

 of the Empress Josephine, and their daughter was 

 the Countess Bertram], who, with her husband, 

 followed the fortunes of Napoleon to St. Helena. 



A. 



Age of Tropical Trees (2'^ S. vi. 325. 402.) — 

 Will J. M. B. kindly explain how it is " there is 

 only one period of rest analogous to winter " on 

 the equator? It appears to my humble judgment 

 the contrary must be the case, if there be. any 

 period of rest at all. Take a map of the world, 

 and look along the line of the equator, and mark 

 Borneo, Sumatra, or the upper part of Peru, in 

 all of which places we hear of these huge trees. 

 At the end of March the sun is vertical there, and 

 at noon-day pours his hottest rays upon them. At 

 Midsummer he has passed twenty-three degrees to 

 the northward, and is vertical to Calcutta, Canton, 

 and Florida. His rays must then strike on 

 Borneo, at Midsummer at the angle of the greatest 

 distance. In fact they will be as far from the sun 

 southward as Lyons, Venice, the Crimea, or Mon- 

 treal are to the northward. If there be any 

 period of rest this must be one of them. At 

 Michaelmas the sun comes back, and is vertical 

 again, and of course there must be a second hot 

 season. At Christmas he passes away to his 

 greatest distance north, and is vertical to Rio 

 Janeiro, and the middle of Australia. There 

 must be then another cool season, analogous 

 (though the climate still be warm) to a winter. 

 If it be still too hot, so that there be no period of 

 rest, how comes it any rings are deposited at all 

 in the trunks of the trees ? If there be, why 

 should it not occur twice in the year, as exactly 

 the same change, exactly the same operations of 

 nature, take place twice in every year as once ? 

 If my supposition be correct, and if a ring is de- 

 posited twice a year instead of once, it will bring 

 these more than Methusalah trees within a reason- 

 able age : if it be not, what is the cause that dis- 

 turbs what one would suppose to be an inevitable 

 law of nature ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Bird's- Eye Views of Cities (2"^ S. v. 130.) --' 

 I have a very good series of French lithographic 

 bird's-eye views of Italian cities, entitled L'ltalie a 

 vol (TOiseau (forty-two in number), and illustrat- 

 ing all the principal cities and seaports in Italy 



and Sicily. They were published by Hauser, are 

 all views of the actual places, executed within the 

 last ten years, and, in most instances, give a very 

 correct idea of the various localities. The draw- 

 ings are by an artist named Guesdon, and seem 

 projected from plans of the cities, aided by careful 

 studies on the spot. Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and 

 Verona are amongst the best. I have seen also 

 similar views of London. J. M. L. 



Churchwardens' Accounts: Smoke-Farthings (P' 

 S. ix.5I3.) — In an extract from the accounts of the 

 churchwardens of the parish of Minchinhampton in 

 the county of Gloucester (communicated by John 

 Bruce, Esq. to the Society of Antiquaries), ap- 

 pears the following Item, under date a.d. 1575 : — 



" Expendyd at the Byshoppes vysytacion to the sum- 

 ner for Peter- pence or smoke- farthings, some tyme due 

 to the Anthecriste of roome, xd." (^Archceohgla, xxx\-. 

 430.) 



Smoke-farthings or smoke-money was anciently 

 paid as " a composition for offerings made in 

 Whitsun-week by every man who occupied a 

 house with a chimney, to the Cathedral of the 

 diocese in which he lived. (Audley's Companion to 

 the Almanac, p. 76.) And we learn from Sir 

 Roger Twisden {Historical Vindication of the 

 Church of England, c. iv. p. 77.) that Peter's-pence 

 were abolished by King Henry VIII., a.d. 153i^; 

 but on the grant of those monasteries to whom 

 they had by custom become payable, they con- 

 tinued payable as appendant to the manors, &c., of 

 the persons to whom granted, " by the name of 

 smoke-money.^^ 



This will explain the reason why the church- 

 wardens of Minchinhampton spoke of their pay- 

 ment as Peter's-pence or smoke-farthings. But it 

 will thence also appear that when "the Anthecriste 

 of roome" had ceased to enjoy the Peters-pence or 

 smoke-farthings payable by that parish, they failed 

 not to find a claimant and receiver in the Pi otes- 

 tant church which succeeded him in authority 

 here. 



In the same accounts of the churchwardens of 

 Minchinhampton is the following item : — 



" Payed to John Mayowe and John Lyth, for pullyng 

 downe, dystroyenge, and throwinge out of the churche 

 sundrye superstycyous thinges tendinge to the maynten- 

 ance of idolatrye, vjs. viiid." 



In the previous year the Popish ceremonies 

 were observed in this parish as far as might be, so 

 that the parishioners were rather slow in adopting 

 the doctrines of the Reformation. P. H. F. 



Rev. Timothy Sheppard {not Shepherd) (2"' 

 S. vii. 90.) — He died young, in 1733, and was 

 the subject of Ford's funeral sermon (p. 90. 

 note). His father, Thomas Sheppard, of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge (B.A. 1684, M.A 1688), was 

 Instituted, 6th Jan. 1690, to the vicarage of St. 

 Neots in Huntingdonshire, on the presentation of 



