Jan. 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



43 



Age of Trees (Vol. iv., pp.401. 448.). — Since 

 the note on the age of trees appeared, my atten- 

 tion has been called to a discussion of the subject 

 in an article on Decandolle's Vegetable Physiology, 

 written I believe by Prof. Henslovv, in the Foreign 

 Quarterly Review, vol. xi. p. 368-71. With respect 

 to the yew near Fountains Abbey, he remarks as 

 follows : 



" In the first of these examples, we have the tesfimony 

 of history for knowing that this tree was in existence, 

 and must have been of considerable size, in the year 

 1133, it being recorded that the monks took shelter 

 under itwhilst they were rebuilding Fountains Abbey." 

 — p. 369. 



Query : Where is this historical testimony to be 

 found? Nothing is said on the subject in the 

 account of Fountains Abbey in Dugdale's Monas- 

 ticon, vol. V. p. 286. ed. 18'25. 



With respect to the Shelton Oak (Vol. iv., 

 p. 402.) the movements of Owen Glendower, at 

 the time of the battle of Shrewsbury, are accti- 

 rately detailed in the life of him inserted in 

 Pennant's Tours in Wales, vol. iii. p. .355. (ed. 

 1810); and the account there given is inconsist- 

 ent with the story of his having ascended a tree 

 in order to count Percy's troops. It appears that 

 at the time of the battle he was at Oswestry, at 

 the head of 12,000 men. 



Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chief Jus- 

 tices, describes the suicide of Sir William Hank- 

 ford, Ciiief Justice in the reigns of Plenry V. and 

 VI., who is said to have contrived to get himself 

 shot at night by his own keeper. Lord Campbell 

 quotes Piince, the author of the Worthies of 

 Devon, p. 362. as stating that — 



" This story is authenticated by several writers, and 

 the constant traditions of the neighbourhood ; and I, 

 myself, have been shown tiie rotten stump of an old 

 oak under which he is said to have fallen, and it is 

 called Hankfords Oak to this day." — See Lives of the 

 Chief Justices, vol. i. c. 4. p. 140. 



L. 



Grimes-dylie (Vol. iv. p. 454.) — Your corre- 

 spondents appear to have overlooked Offandic, 

 Wodnesdic (so often mentioned in the Saxon char- 

 ters), and Esendike — doubtless so named in 

 memory of Esa, the progenitor of the kings of 

 Bernicia — and Gitgedike,-v{\\\c\\ I suspect is an 

 old British form for Gog's dike (Fr. Yagiouge), 

 as well as Grimanledh (Wood of Horrors), and 

 Grimanhyl. It is true we find the Grimsetane- 

 gemaero in Worcestershire (Cod. DipL, No. 561.) ; 

 but we also find Wudnesheorg {Id. No. 1035.). 

 Allow me to give you the substance of a remark of 

 Professor li. Leo of Halle on this subject. {Ang. 

 Siich. Ortsnamen, p. 5.) 



" Wild, dismal places are coupled with the names of 

 grim, fal)ulous creatures : thus, in Charter 957, King 

 Eadwig presented to Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, 



a territorial property at ' Hel-ig ' (on the Islet of 

 Helas). A morass is cited which is called, after the 

 ancient mythological hero, Grindles-mere ; a pit, 

 Grindles-pytt ; a small islet surrounded with water — 

 which was to an Anglo-Saxon a "locus terrihilis" — 

 was called T/rorn-ei (the thorn tree being of ill omen). 

 And thus, in order to express the ordinary associations 

 connected with neighbourhood, recourse was had rather 

 to mythic personages, than to abstract expressions." 



I would here observe that the Ortsnamen has 

 been for some time in course of translation, with 

 the Professor's sanction and assistance, with a view- 

 to its publication in England. B. Williams. 



Hillingdon. 



Petition respecting the Duke of Wellington 

 (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 477.).— E. N. W. is assured that 

 the petition for the recall of the Duke of Wel- 

 lington was presented. Being too ill to travel 

 several miles to a public library, I can only refer 

 to works in which a reference to it will be found. 

 In No XIX. of the late British and Foreign 

 Quarterly, published by Messrs. Taylor, Red Lion 

 C(mrt, Fleet Street, is an extract from the ad- 

 mirable letter of his Grace to Lord Liverpool on 

 the subject ; and in Colonel Gurwood's edition of 

 the Wellington Dispatches, on which the article 

 alluded to is written, and which contains much 

 interesting matter relating to his Grace not to be 

 found any where else, is the whole dispatch. I 

 asked for information relative to the petition, be- 

 cause I had heard that it had been destroyed, and 

 it was too droll a document to be allowed to be 

 lost. jEgeotus. 



Countess of Desmond (Vol. iv., pp.305. 426.).— 

 Tour in Scotland, fourth edition of Pennant's works. 

 Mine was Dr. Latham's copy. 



Description of print of Catherine, Countess 

 of Desmond, quite correct as to face, hair, and 

 cloak. There is no button, but over the breast 

 it is laced. In the inside of the black hood is a 

 damask pattern waved with flowers. C. J. W. 



Woman torn to pieces by Wild Cats as a Punish- 

 ment for Infanticide (Vol. iii., p. 91.). — In the 

 Wonders of the Universe, or Curiosities of Nature 

 and Art, vol. ii. p. 555., will be found the account 

 of this affair. The culprit was named Louise 

 Mabree, a midwife in Paris ; the corpses of no less 

 than sixty-two infants were found in and about 

 her house : she was sentenced to be shut up in an 

 iron cage with sixteen wild cats, and suspended 

 over a slow fire. When the cats became infuriated 

 with heat and pain, they turned their rage upon 

 her ; and after thirty-five minutes of the most 

 horrible suflTerings, put an end to her existence, — 

 the whole of the cats dying at the same time, or 

 within two minutes after. This occurred in 1673. 



J. S. Warden. 



Balica, Oct. 1851. 



