Jan. 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



41 



acorns growing on long or short stalks {quercus 

 sessUiJiora or peduncvlata), they might tlirow 

 much light on the questions, Have we two distinct 

 English oaks ? and, if so, Which makes the largest 

 and best timber ? The timber used inside old 

 buildings, and erroneously often called chesnut, 

 is supposed to be the sessiliflora variety of oak, 

 placed inside because it is not so durable as the 

 quercus pedunculata. But I have been lately in- 

 formed this variety is in Sussex selected, as the 

 Jaest, for Portsmouth Dockyard ! 



In the year 1783 my grandfather first drew 

 attention to the two varieties of English oaks, in 

 the Gentleman s Magazine, p. 653. He was brother 

 of Gilbert White of Selborne, and an ecjually 

 acute observer of Nature. Loudon, in his Arbo- 

 retum, has collected much information, but has 

 left the question pretty much where it was seventy 

 years since. Surely it is time we knew precisely 

 what is the tree of which our wooden walls are 

 made. A. Holt White. 



Brighton. 



Frozen Sounds and Sir John Mandeville (Vol. iil-' 

 pp. 25. 71.). — Your correspondent M. A. Lower 

 says with truth, that the passage about frozen 

 voices was not to be found in the knight's published 

 ■work; but neither he nor any other of your contri- 

 butors seems to have found the original of it. In 

 the Tatler, No. 254., the illustrious Isaac Bicker- 

 stafF informs us that some manuscripts of Man- 

 deville's and of Ferdinand Mendis Pinto's, not 

 hitherto included in their published works, had 

 come into his hands, from which he purposed 

 making exti-acts from time to time ; and then 

 proceeds to give us the identical story which 

 your correspondent J. M. G. appears to have taken 

 for a real bit of Mandeville, in ignorance or for- 

 getfulness of its origin : for I cannot suppose any 

 one so dull as to take the passage in the Tatler 

 in sober earnest. Steele no doubt took the story 

 from Rabelais or Plutarch, and fathered it upon 

 one whose name (much better known than his 

 works) had become proverbial as that of a liar. 



J. S. Warden. 



Balica. 



Separation of Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.). 

 — In Christ Church, Birmingham, the males are 

 (or were) separated from the females, which gave 

 rise to the following lines, which I quote from 

 Allen's Guide to Birmingham : 

 ■" The churches and chapels we generally find, 

 Are the places where men unto women are join'd ; 

 But at Christ Church, it seems, they are more cruel- 

 hearted, 

 For men and their wives are brought there to be 

 parted." 



Este. 



Deep Wells (Vol. iv., p. 492.). — Besides streams 



and sunk wells, there is of course another source 



of water arising from natural springs ; and there 

 are some on both sides of the Banstead Down, 

 which are very considerable. The chief, probably, 

 is the source of the River Wandle, at Carshalton, 

 pronounced (with the same omission of the r which 

 P. M. M. notices) as if it was spelt Case-, or Cays- 

 horton. 



But there is a very strong one at Merstham. 

 These are both at the foot of the Chalk hills. 

 P. M. M. does not mention the geological causes 

 on which the relations between wells or springs 

 depend. About thirty- five years ago the spring 

 at Merstham, which feeds a considerable spring, 

 failed, and there was a great dispute whether it 

 was owing to excavations in the neighbourhood. 

 An action was brought, which decided that it was 

 not attributable to them ; upon which I believe 

 Mr. Webster and Mr. Phillips, eminent geological 

 authorities, were examined, and which led, per- 

 haps, to their respective accounts, in the Geological 

 Transactions, of the structure of that valley. The 

 story was, that, after having gained the cause, the 

 proprietor of the quarries said, " I think we may 

 let them have their water back again." Certain it 

 is that after some time the water did return. 



The Gait clay almost everywhere underlies 

 chalk: this at Merstham is 200 feet thick, and 

 upon the pitch and situation of it many apparently 

 strange phenomena of wells would depend, as is 

 noticed with regard to another clay stratum at 

 Norton St. Philips, near Bath, in Conybeare and 

 Phillips' Geology. 



There are very deep wells through the Lon- 

 don clay, and other beds below it, perhaps, at 

 Wimbledon and at Richmond Park. The deep 

 well at Carisbrook Castle is well known. That is 

 in the chalk ; and where, the chalk being thrown 

 into a vertical position, it may be still farther to 

 the bottom of it. C. B. 



Dictionary of Hachneyed Quotations (Vol. iv., 

 p.405.). — • I am glad to find, from the communication 

 by H. A. B., that a book of the above description 

 is likely to appear. The want of such a book has 

 long been felt, and its appearance will fill up a gap 

 in literature : how it could so long have escaped 

 the notice of publishers is a mystery. " Though 

 lost to sight, to memory dear," the author of which 

 H. A. B. inquires for, is, I think, not likely to be 

 found in any author. My impression is, that it 

 cannot be traced up to any definite source : I re- 

 member it only as a motto on a seal which was in 

 my possession nearly thirty years ago. 



Mancunium. 



Manchester. 



Macavlays Ballad of Nasehy (Vol. iv., p. 485.). 

 — It was reprinted by Charles Knight in the 

 last (or octavo) series of the Penny Magazine, 

 vol. ii. p. 223. With it is the companion called 

 "The Cavalier's March to London." It will not 



