366 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2" S. NO 71., Mat 9. '57. 



Compare Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2. : 



« Hamlet. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in 

 shape of a camel. 

 Polonius. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. 

 Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel. 

 Fol. It is backed like a weasel. 

 Ham. Or like a whale ? 

 Pol. Very like a whale." 



Is this passage in Hamlet original, or did Shak- 

 speare imitate Aristophanes ? T. W. Fakeee. 



Balzac and Gaudentius. — An anecdote of a 

 conversation between Balzac and a thief has lately 

 been going the round of the press, which bears so 

 striking a resemblance to the following extract 

 from Gaudentii Jocosi dodce Nugce, that I think 

 the circumstance worthy of a Note : 



" Nobilis quidam Placentinus, consumptis ferfc omnibus 

 fortunis, in magna paupertate vitam sustentabat. Is noctu 

 fures quosdam in domo sua deprehendens, ' Quid vos,' 

 inquit, 'stulti homines! hie noctu aliquid inventurum 

 putatis, ubi ego interdiu nihil invenire possum ? ' " 



DUNELMENSIS, 



Scott dictating " Ivanhoe." — Lockhart says that 

 Sir Walter Scott dictated the greater part of the 

 Bride of Lammermoor, the Legend of Montrose, 

 and Ivmihoe to William Laidlaw and John Ballan- 

 tyne : 



" Good Laidlaw," he adds, " entered with such keen 

 zest into the interest of the story, as it flowed from the 

 author's lips, that he could not suppress exclamations of 

 surprise and delight : ' Gude keep us a' ! — the like o' that 

 —eh Sirs! eh Sirs!'" 



Mr. Laidlaw used to shake his head at this pas- 

 sage of Lockhart : — 



" I remember," he said, " being so much Inter- 

 ested in a part of Ivunhoe relating to Rebecca, 

 the Jewess, that I exclaimed, ' That is fine, Mr. 

 Scott ! get on — get on.' He laughed, and re- 

 plied : ' Ay, Willie, but recollect I have to make 

 the story.' I have more than once heard Mr. 

 Laidlaw relate this anecdote; adding, that Sir 

 W^alter was highly pleased himself with his cha- 

 racter of Rebecca, saying, 'I shall make some- 

 thing of my Jewess ! ' " Cs. 



Authorship of the Church Catechism. — 



" The late Mr. Brand informed me, that in a copy of 

 Bishop Beveridge on the Church Catechism, 1705, is the 

 following note by Dr. Ellison, vicar of Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, dated 1708: — 'Dr. Alexander Nowell, Dean of 

 St. Paul's, composed the Church Catechism as far as the 

 article on the Sacraments, which article was drawn up bj' 

 Bishop Overall, Dr. Nowell's successor in the Deanerj'.' " 

 — Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 184. n. 



E. H. A. 



Darkness at Mid-Day. — A phenomenon of this 

 extraordinary nature occurred at Bolton-le-Moors 

 and the neighbourhood, about noon on Monday, 

 March 23, 1857. The wind during the morning 

 had been north-east, with a little snow ; at twelve 



o'clock the air became quite still, and a deep 

 gloom overspread the heavens, increasing so ra- 

 pidly, that in ten minutes it was not possible to 

 read, or distinguish the features of any person a 

 few yards off. This was the more singular from 

 there being no fog at the time, though snow in 

 very minute particles was falling. The extreme 

 darkness continued about eight minutes, when the 

 horizon at two or three points assumed a lurid 

 yellow appearance, as though from conflagrations 

 a few miles distant ; within a quarter of an hour 

 from this time the darkness was dispelled ; but 

 such was the alarm caused by the phenomenon, 

 that many persons supposed the world at an end, 

 not a few were made ill by intense nervous ex- 

 citement, and all were more or less impressed with 

 a feeling of awe. Poultry went to roost, instinct 

 being stronger than habit. Can any of your cor- 

 respondents explain the cause of this phenomenon, 

 or record any similar occurrences ? G. (1.) 



Singidar Epitaph. — The following is an inscrip- 

 tion on the tomb of John White, surveyor to the 

 New River Company, in Enfield churchyard : 

 " Here lies John White, who day by day, "i 

 On river works did use much clay, >- 



Is now himself turning that way : J 



If not to clay, yet dust will come. 

 Which, to preserve, takes little room. 

 Although inclosed in this great tomb. 

 " I served the New River Company as surveyor from 

 Lady-day, 1691, to Midsummer, 1723." 



He died in 1741. Notsa. 



} 



Lundhill Colliery Explosion. — Any of your 

 readers who can compute the enormous loss in 

 value (irrespective of the greater value of life) 

 sustained by the country from the destruction of 

 189 powerful, able-bodied, and producing men, 

 and will relate the same through " N. & Q.," I 

 think will do a service to that useful class of 

 labourers. The amount of value will be found so 

 staggering, as to cause a deep interest in finding a 

 prevention to such explosions in future. R. S. 



©uerfei. 



GEAVESTONES AND CHUECH EEPAIES. 



It is much to be regretted that the clergy are, in 

 their dealings with all family memorials, whether 

 gravestones or tablets, in their keen desire for 

 church renovation, too often forgetful of their 

 use, value, and importance. What I want to ask 

 you or your legal correspondents is, whether there 

 is no law which at all restrains this mode of pro- 

 ceeding, so utterly subversive as it is to the disco- 

 very of family "links," and respect to the memory 

 of ancestors ? On visiting lately the burial-place 

 of the elder branch of my family, I could find no 

 indication of the existence of the family vault ; 



