446 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N» 75., June 6. '57, 



gate streate ; the virtue of it is verry soverraigne to miti- 

 gate anie payne ; y t will for a tyme laj' a man ia a sweete 

 trans, as Dr- Parry told me he tryed in a fever and his 

 sister Mrs. Turner in her childbirth." — MS. Diary, 

 Octob. 1601. 



Oil,. HOPFER. 



Curious Label Termination. — The label of one 

 of the windows of. High Wycombe Church is ter- 

 minated, on either side, by rough carvings of 

 workmen, their tools (as far as I could identify 

 them), the mallet and chisel in their hands, and, 

 in the grasp of one figure, the material on which 

 he is employed. 



We have heard often of so-called " Apprentices' 

 Columns : " can these roughly-carved, but ex- 

 tremely expressive, faces be portraits of two of 

 the carvers engaged on the church, to which, after 

 the fashion of benefactors, they thus presented, 

 and through which they immortalised, their own 

 features ? The church seems to have been 

 erected in two distinct periods, the first Pointed, 

 and Perpendicular, and in neither period was the 

 edifice finished : the bloclis, for the label termina- 

 tion and other ornamentations, were in many 

 cases left in rough, and so remain to this day. 

 The characteristic pride of the good knight of 

 those parts has, as in many other instances, con- 

 siderably injured the beauty of the interior, by 

 erecting a grand pew, raised on columns, and 

 forcibly reminding one of the " royal box " at a 

 theatre ; which glorious example of the early 

 " churchwarden " period of architecture hangs 

 between chancel and nave, totally regardless of 

 the " vulgar herd," who, sitting afar off, have of 

 course no care to see what goes on in the chancel. 



It is to be hoped, however, that the better 

 taste of our century will ere long vote it away. 



T. Hakwood Pattison. 



^utviti. 



THE SALAMANDER. 



Has the belief which formerly prevailed re- 

 specting the incombustibility of this creature any 

 foundation in fact ? I have always looked upon 

 the statement as a myth, and should not have 

 thought of propounding a Query on the subject, 

 had I not found, in turning over the pages of that 

 charming book. The Autobiography of Benvenuto 

 Cellini, the following extraordinary passage. The 

 old metallurgist says : 



"When I was about five years of age, my father hap- 

 pened to be in a little room in which they had been 

 washing, and where there was a good fire burning : with 

 a fiddle in his hand he sang and played near the fire, the 

 weather being exceedingly cold. Looking into the fire, 

 he saw a little animal resembling a lizard, which lived 

 and enjoyed itself in the hottest flames. Instantly per- 

 ceiving what it was, he called for my sister, and after he 

 had shown us the creature, he gave me a box on the ear : 



I fell a-crying, while he, soothing me with his caresses, 

 said, ' My dear child, I don't give you that blow for any 

 fault you have committed, but that j'ou may remember 

 that the little lizard which you see in the fire is a sala- 

 mander ; a creature which no one that I have heard of 

 ever beheld before.' So saying, he embraced me, and 

 gave me some money." 



In that erudite and entertaining work. The 

 Academy of Armory and Blazon, by Randle 

 Holme, we have the following statement respect- 

 ing the salamander : 



" The salamander is a creature with four short feet like 

 the lizard, withoult ears, with a pale white belly, one part 

 of their skin exceeding black, the other yellowish green, 

 both very splendent and glittering; with a black line 

 going all along the back, having upon it little spots like 

 eyes ; (and from hence it cometh to be called a stellion, a 

 creature full of stars,) the skin is rough and bald ; they 

 are said to be so cold that thej' can go through the fire, 

 nay, abide in it, and extinguish it, rather than burn. I 

 have some of the hair, or down, of the salamander, which 

 I have several times put in the fire, and made it red-hot, 

 and after taken it out, which being cold, yet remained 

 perfect wool, or fine downy hair." 



Unfortunately for the marvellous statement of 

 Randle Holme, modern chemistry tells us that 

 the terms " salamander's hair " and " salamander's 

 wool " were applied to fibrous asbestus, from its 

 incombustibility. John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



;^{n0r <SucrtcS. 



Burton's " Philosophaster." — In a Note to the 

 Anat. Mel. parti, s. 2. m. 3. s. 15., Burton, while 

 attacking (in Latin) many of the blemishes which 

 in his day disfigured the system of education at 

 Oxford, refers to a Latin Comedy written by him, 

 under this name, and exhibited at Christchurch, 

 Feb. 16, 1617. Has this play ever been printed ; 

 and if not, is the MS. known to be still in ex- 

 istence ? Henry T. Riley. 



Porpoises. — That porpoises were caught in 

 numbers for the table in this country is clear. 

 What plan was followed by the fishermen ? Sir 

 Amyas Poulett, Governor of Jersey, refers in a 

 letter to a glorious catch of porpoises, but does 

 not state the means used. G. R. L. 



Pachyngton Tomkyns, Esq. — Died at Bucken- 

 hill Park, co. Hereford, Packyngton Tomkyns, 

 Esq., J. P. for the county of Hereford. Can any 

 of your west-country correspondents inform me 

 of the position of the said park ? and also whether 

 the family of Tomkyns still exists in the county ? 



" The Etymologist" — Who is the author of 

 the following : 



"The Etymologist, a Comedj% in Three Acts, 8vo., 

 1785. Most humbly dedicated to the late Dr. Samuel 

 Johnson's negro servant j to the august and learned body 



