162 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 120. 



death of a man, who, after leading a dissolute life, 

 ended his days in the workhouse of some town 

 either in SutFolic or Essex. On liis death-bed he 

 confessed that he was the brother of the law- 

 stationer, and that he had put the poison into the 

 pudding, by the eating of which liis brother and 

 family died, and for which crime Eliza Fenning 

 had suffered innocently. F. HH. 



With reference to the inquirer respecting Eliza- 

 beth Fenning, I would remarli, that I well remem- 

 ber that it was inserted in a provincial paper, 

 many years ago, that Turner, in whose family the 

 poisoning took place, had confessed before his 

 death that he himself was the guilty person. My 

 impression is, that it was inserted in an Ipswich 

 newspaper. There was great excitement in Lon- 

 don at the time of Eliza Fenning's execution, and 

 the house of Turner had to be protected from the 

 fury of the populace. Mr. Hone had several 

 pamphlets at his shop window on the circumstance. 

 I have heard Mr. llichard Taylor say she was the 

 last person condemned by Sir John Sylvester. 



Ghost Stories (Vol. iv., p. 5.; Vol. v., pp. 89. 

 136.). — I hope it will not be thought that I mean 

 to vouch for the truth of the stories after which I 

 am inquiring, if it should turn out that there really 

 are any; and also that I shall not be thought 

 captious if I am not satisfied with the substitutes 

 which are proposed. When your correspondent 

 says that Keichenbach's " system may be advan- 

 tageously applied to the explanation of corpse- 

 candles, illuminated churchyards, and other articles 

 of Welsh and English superstition," I can only 

 say that, as far as I understand the superstitions 

 referred to, nobody ever thought of connecting 

 them with ghosts. There may be stories of "illu- 

 minated churchyards," with ghosts in them, of 

 which I have not heard ; but no ghosts are men- 

 tioned by your correspondent. I am not laying 

 undue stress on a word. If the word ghost means 

 anything, it means a spirit; and 1 apprehend 

 that the enlightened Baron will not thank any 

 friend who would sink, or explain away, that 

 meaning. So, I presume, his translator Dr. Ash- 

 burner understood him, when he triumphantly ex- 

 claimed, "The glorious Reichenbach has, in this 

 treatise, done good service against the vile demon 

 of superstition," p. 180. These words would have 

 been too grand for the celebration of such a petty 

 triumph as snuffing out Welsh candles, and ex- 

 plaining one or two small superstitions of the 

 vulgar. I must therefore again, if you will allow 

 me, ask whether anybody knows of such stories as 

 would really meet what appears to be the meaning 

 of the author and translator. S. R. Maitland. 

 ^ Gloucester. 



Autographs of Weever and Fuller (Vol. iv., 

 pp. 474. 507.). — Upon reading the Query of 



A. E. C, I remembered to have seen some of 

 Weever's handwriting a year or two since, in the 

 copy of his Funerall Monuments in the library of 

 Queen's College, Cambridge, of which I was then 

 librarian. I have since written to a resident 

 member of the college, who has kindly sent me % 

 careful tracing of the MS. note ; it is as follows : 

 " To the learned and judicious View of 

 the Maister and Fellowes of 

 Queenes Colledge in Cannbridge 

 John Weever 

 Presents these his imperfect labours." 

 The tracing, the accuracy of which may be 

 relied upon, I shall be very happy to lend to 

 A. E. C, if it will be of any service to him. Ful- 

 ler's autograph has not yet been discovered in the 

 library, but, I have reason to believe, will be 

 found in the President's lodge. 



W. Sparbow Simpson, B.A. 

 14. Grove Road, North Brixton, Surrey. 



Lines on the Bible (Vol. iv., p. 473. ; Vol. v., 

 p. 66.). — It has been already shown that these 

 lines are not Byron's, but are to be found in the 

 12th chapter of Sir W. Scott's Monastery. I write 

 now for the purpose of noting, that in a similar 

 collection, almost exclusively of the Evangelical 

 school, called Sacred Poetry., and published by 

 Oliphant of (I think) Edinburgh, Byron's lines 

 from The Giaour, beginning — 



" Yes ! Love indeed is light from heaven ; 

 A spark of that immortal fire. 

 With angels shared, by Allah given. 



To lift from Earth each low desire," &c. — 



are printed with the "Allah" of the third line 

 simply changed into " Jesus !" And so a passage, 

 applicable solely to the earthly Eros, is made to 

 do duty as descriptive of another love of which 

 the noble poet had, I fear, remarkably little notion. 

 The editors have had the grace not to append 

 Byron's name as the author. How far is thi^ 

 mode of " improving" a passage honest ? 



Harby Leboy Templb, 



Hell-rake (Vol. iv., pp. 192. 260.). — I cannot 

 dispossess my mind of the impression that, like 

 the theological word hell., so the agricultural term 

 hell-rake is derived from the well-known Saxon 

 word signifying to cover. 



Every Devonshire vestryman or mason well 

 enough knows what is meant by the " helling," or 

 "heleing," or "heeling," of a church, viz. the co- 

 vering of the roof; and every farmer or labourer 

 in the west will tell you, that the second-helling of 

 potatoes is the covering them with earth a second 

 time. Query : Was not the hell-rake originally 

 an implement used in husbandry for the purpose 

 of covering the broad-cast seed, and for other 

 kindred purposes ? J. Sansom, 



Family Likenesses (Vol. v., p. 7.). — The remark- 

 able preservation of a family likeness is the subject 



