2<«» S. No 62., Mar. 7. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



185 



hraunches and bowes frysed with golde, spredynge on every 

 side over the mountayne teith roses and pomegarnettes. The 

 •whiclie mountayne was with vices (screws) brought up 

 towards the kj'nge ; and out of the same came a ladj'e 

 apparelled in cloth of golde, and the chyldren of honor 

 called the henchmen, whiche were fresh disguised, and 

 danced a morice before the Kyng; and that done, re- 

 entred the mountaine, and then it was drawen backe, the 

 wassail or bankit brought in, and so brake up Christmas." 

 — Vide Loseley 3ISS. 



Cl. Hopper, 



Epitaph at Durham. — The following curious 

 epitaph, of one who was organist of the cathedral 

 from 1557 to 1576, and is buried in the Galilee at 

 Durham, is quaint and original : 



" John Brimleis body here doth ly, 

 Who praysed God with hand and voice ; 

 By mvsickes heavenly harmonie 

 Dvll myndes he maid in God rejoice. 

 His sovl into the heavens is lyft. 

 To prayse Him still that gave the gyft." 



DUNEXMENSIS. 



Marriage in Scotland. — Mr. Napier, Q. C, 

 counsel on part of the plaintiff in error in the ex- 

 traordinary case of Beamish v. Beamish, lately 

 arguing for the necessity of witnesses in the case 

 of a marriage " per verba de prsesenti," made the 

 following statement : 



" It is a curious thing in the law of Scotland, as given 

 in evidence by Mr. Graham Bell in the Mountgarrett 

 case, that if two parties came before the thirteen Judges 

 of the Session in Scotland, and acknowledged themselves 

 to be man and wife, and if before the parties got down 

 stairs twelve of the thirteen died, the evidence of the re- 

 maining one would not be sufficient to substantiate that 

 marriage." 



A very improbable, but not impossible, case. 



R. C. 



Cork. 



Itepi-esentations of the Trinity. — Since sending 

 my notes on the curious carving in the Musee at 

 Ypres, I noticed a similar representation of the 

 Trinity in M. Didron's " Christian Iconography." 

 The example given by the French archseologist is 

 taken from a panel painting in the church of St. 

 Requier. With the exception of a crown to the 

 Father, and greater fulness of robe, this concep- 

 tion seems to resemble almost exactly that in the 

 Ypres Musee. In this instance, however, the 

 bird is, as M. Didron remarks, " completely sacri- 

 ficed." The bird hangs with folded wings and 

 claws, by which he is nailed to the upper part of 

 the cross, instead of simply resting on it. This is 

 probably a later example than that at Ypres, and 

 of the two certainly the most irreverend. 



There are other renderings of the same subject, 

 where the wings of the dove connect the other 

 two persons of the Trinity, full notice of which 

 may be found in M. Didron's volume. 



T. Harwood Pattison. 



Augustine's sermons. 



In one of Augustine's Sermons (the 37th), ,S'<?r* 

 mones ad Fratres in Eremo, we find him positively 

 aflfirming that he had seen in ^Ethiopia many men 

 and women having no heads, but large eyes fixed 

 in their breasts — in other respects like himself — 

 and also men that had a single eye, and that in 

 the forehead. His words are, 



" Ecce ego jam episcopus Hipponensis eram et cum 

 quibusdam Servis Christi ad ^thiopiam perrexi ut eis 

 Sanctum Christi evangelium prsdicarem ; et vidimus ibi 

 multos homines ac mulieres capita non habentes, sed ocu- 

 los grossos fixes in pectore, csetera membra aequalia nobis 

 habentes .... Vidimus et in inferioribus partibus 

 ^thiopiiE homines unum oculum tantum in fronte ha- 

 bentes," &c. 



Of course this marvellous statement could not 

 fail to remind one of old Maundeville, who, how- 

 ever, does not profess to have seen those whom 

 he describes as living on some island of the Ja- 

 panese Sea. He says, 



" In one of theise yles ben folk of gret stature as geauntes, 

 and thei ben hidouse for to loke upon, and they ban but 

 on eye, and that is in the myddylle of the front . . . 

 And in another yle, toward the southe, duellen folk of 

 foule stature and of cursed kynde that han no hedes, and 

 here ej^en ben in here scholdres." 



Maundeville, of course, sends us back to Pliny, 

 whose amusing fables respecting the Arimaspians, 

 who dwelt near the " Cave of the North Wind," 

 and whose single eye was in their forehead, and 

 the Blemmyans, whose mouth and eyes adorned 

 their breasts, remind us in their turn of the pas- 

 sages in Herodotus, where he cites Aristeas of Pro- 

 connesus as his authority for the story of the Ari- 

 maspians and the Grifiins. Here I believe we come 

 to a stop, but not to a conclusion ; until we draw 

 attention to the remarkable fact that Augustine 

 appears to be the only credible witness who speaks 

 from his own observation. Now, may I inquire, 

 1 st. Whether there is any other passage in Augus- 

 tine's works bearing on the one I have quoted? 

 2nd, Whether there is anything in the character 

 and mental constitution of Augustine to induce 

 him to state as fact what was not fact ? 3rd, Sup- 

 posing the statement to be made in good faith, 

 how is the illusion to be accounted for ? 



Lethrediensis. 



OLD ST. PAUL S AND BISHOP BRATBROOK. 



In the library of James West, Esq., Pres. R.S., 

 sold by auction by Messrs. Langford in 1773, 

 (Lot 4362.), was a copy of Dugdale's History of 

 St. Paid's Cathedral (fol. 1716.), accompanied 

 by — 



"A very curious Account in 5 Fol. Pages, MS. by 

 Lord Coleraine, of the Ancestry of Sir Rob. Braybrook, 

 Bp. of London, and of Sir Gerard his nephew ; occasioned 



