Jan. 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



89 



spondent wishes for a transcript I shall be happy 

 to supply liim with one. Jas. Crossley. 



Boyal Library (Vol. iv., p. 446.). — I cannot 

 let Gkiffin's observation on my contradiction of 

 the fable about an intended sale of the library to 

 Kussia pass unanswered, as it might seem as if I 

 acquiesce<l in his criticism, and so leave a doubt 

 on the point. He asks, " Must the story be false 

 because the Princess de Lieven never heard of it ? 

 that is, must a whole story be untrue if a part of 

 it is?" To which I answer. Yes, when the part 

 refuted is the sole evidence for the rest. The 

 story of the sale to Russia stood on the sole al- 

 leged evidence of the Princess de Lieven. I had 

 myself good reason to believe that the story was 

 false, but I delayed contradicting it on general 

 grounds, till I had obtained the direct testimony 

 of the Princess that she had not only not said or 

 done what had been imputed to her, but that she 

 had never before heard of any such proposition. 

 Those who know anything of the English Court 

 and Russian Embassy of those days, will acknow- 

 ledge that this is also a complete refutation of 

 Griffin's new, but still more vague, version, that 

 perhaps it was " the Russian ambassador, or some 

 distinguished Russian" that was engaged in the 

 matter. I believe that I know as much about it 

 as any one now alive, and though I cannot trust 

 my memory to state all the details, I can venture 

 to assert that I never heard of any Russian pro- 

 position, and that I am confident that there never 

 was one. C. 



ReichenbaeKs Ghosts (Vol. Iv., p. 5.). — Dr. 

 Maitland asked what "thousands of ghost-stories" 

 Reichenbach thought he had disproved. Certainly 

 those by which it is said " the spirits of the de-* ■ 

 parted wander over their graves" (Ashburner's 

 Reichenbach, p. 177.). He shows that superstition 

 to be popular in Germany. The weakness of the 

 Baron's tirade (a bad style, in which he rarely 

 indulges,) lies in this, that the best class of ghosts 

 is an entirely different class. So that enlighten- 

 ment and freedom, superstition and ignorance, 

 have not yet wound up their accounts. See 

 Gregory's Letters to a Candid Enquire?; p. 277., 

 where enlightenment and freedom get a slap on 

 the face. He maintains that even grave-lights are 

 (probably) humaniform apparitions ; and that all 

 other ghost-stories, not connected with the place 

 of interment, equally belong to bi-od or animal 

 magnetism. A. N. 



Marriage Tithe in Wales (Vol. v., p. 29.). — It 

 is well known to your readers that the whole of the 

 tithes in England and Wales have recently been 

 commuted for rent-charges ; and the present writer 

 can confidently affirm that, throughout the com- 

 mutation, no titlic of marriage goods has been 

 admitted to be valid, nor does he believe that any 



such tithe has been claimed. Tithes in Wales 

 have not differed In any material respect from 

 those payable in England : an excessive subdivision 

 of ownership being the only circumstance which Is 

 remarkable in regard to them. As each article of 

 titheable produce is capable of becoming a separate 

 property, and this property may again become 

 divided amongst an indefinite number of owners, 

 the complexity occasioned by such minute Interests 

 may be imagined. The bee, for instance, produces 

 three distinct titheable articles, — honey, wax, and 

 swarms, — and a case actually occurred In Wales, 

 In which the honey belonged to one class of owners, 

 and the wax and swarms to another class, one of 

 the classes owning in undivided eighty-eighth parts. 

 There have also been some curious cases of modus 

 In Wales, of which the following may be taken as 

 a specimen : — In a parish on the sea-coast in Pem- 

 brokeshire, an estate was exempt from tithes by a 

 modus of a cup of ale and an egg, rendered by 

 way of refreshment to the parson, whenever, In 

 consequence of the state of the tide, he was com- 

 pelled to pass the house of the landowner on his 

 way to perform divine service in the parish church. 



H. P. 



Paul Hoste (Vol. Iv., p. 474.). — I would recom- 

 mend your correspondent iEoROTUs to examine the 

 new edition of P. Paul Hoste's Treatise on Naval 

 Tactics, translated with Notes and Illustrations, by 

 Captain J. Donaldson Boswall, a 4to. vol. pub- 

 lished in 1834, when, I have no doubt, he will 

 there find the Information he is In quest of. 



T.G.S. 



Edinburgh. 



John of Halifax (Vol. HI., p. 389. ; Vol. v., p. 42.). 

 — Since every country has its Holywood, and de 

 Sa'cf'oiiesco ^oes not distinguish Holytcood from 

 Halifax, John of Halifax has been claimed both 

 by Ireland and Scotland, and, If I remember right, 

 by some foreign countries. The manuscripts of his 

 works, as well as the earlier printed editions, call 

 him Anglus or Anglicus ; and he lived in a time at 

 which the natives of the three countries were as 

 distinct as Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians. 

 Bale, quoting Leland, calls him Halifax ; as does 

 Tanner : Pits gives his birth to Halifax. He was 

 buried In the Maturin convent at Paris, where his 

 epitaph existed in the sixteenth century. Pits 

 implies that It appears from the epitaph that he 

 died in 1256 : Msestlinus expressly affirms that it 

 can be collected from the epitaph, In the Ad Lec- 

 torem of his Epitome Astronomies. All the autho- 

 rities believe him to be English ; and Leland 

 thought he traced him as a student at Oxford- 

 But had the manuscripts called him anything but 

 English, the other evidence would not have weighed 

 them down ; for there are plenty of Holywoods, 

 and there was, notoriously, a press of foreign 

 students to Oxford in the thirteenth century^ 



