April 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



405 



Lines on English History (Vol. iii., p. 168.). — 

 The lines on English History, beginning 

 " William the Norman conquers England's State," &c. 

 were not from the pen of any Catholic gentleman 

 of the name of Chaloner, but were composed by a 

 Protestant. Some of the lines were subsequently 

 altered by a Catholic lady, the late Mrs. Cholmely, 

 of Brandsby Hall, near York, and I believe the 

 whole verses were printed at her private expense. 

 The line on Mary of England was, in the original, 

 anything but complimentary to the memory of 

 that queen. Mrs. Cholmely's daughter, the late 

 Mrs. Charlton, of Hesleyside in Northumberland, 

 had the verses printed again at Newcastle, about 

 twenty-five years ago. I have no doubt that I 

 could procure a copy for An English Mother. 



Edwakd Charlton. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Suicides buried in Cross Roads (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 

 212. 329.). — 111 the fifth chapter of the most re- 

 markable Saga of Thorfiiin Karlsefne, we find 

 some curious customs to have been prevalent in 

 Greenland relative to the burial of the dead in 

 unconsecrated ground. Thorstein Erikson, the 

 second husband of Gudrida, died of a sore sickness. 

 Many of the household had previously been carried 

 off by the same malady, and the ghost of each 

 corpse joined its fellows in tormenting and ter- 

 rifying the survivors. The night after Tliorstein's 

 death, liis corpse rose up in the bed and called for 

 Gudrid his wife. With reluctance and terror the 

 widow approached the body of her husband. — 



" Now when Gudrid arose and went to Thorstein, it 

 seemed to her as thoucrh he wept. And he whispered 

 some words to her which none could hear, but these 

 other words he spoke in a loud voice, so that all were 

 aware thereof. ' Tlity that keep the truth shall be 

 saved, but many here in Greenland hold badly to this 

 command. For it is no Christian way as here is 

 practised, since the universal faith was brought to 

 Greenland, to lay a corpse in unblessed earth, "and to 

 sing but little over it. It had been the custom in 

 Greenland, after Christianity was brought in, that 

 the dead should be buried on the lauds where they 

 died, in unhallowed earth, and that a stake should be set 

 up over the breast of the dead (skyldisetjastaurupp 

 af brjosti hinum dauda); and when the priest af- 

 terwardscame, the stake was pulled up, and holy water 

 was poured into the hole, and they sang over the body 

 even though it was long after.' And Thornstein's body 

 was carried to the church in Eriksfiord, and there it 

 was sung over by the priests (yfirsbngvar af Ken- 

 nimbunum.") 



May not this custom, which prevailed in Green- 

 land in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have 

 been derived from the Scandinavian north, and 

 there have been applied to the suicide buried in 

 the cross road ? Was the idea of burying these 

 outcasts in such a place, the hopelul one of placing 

 ttvem at least under the shadow as it were of the 



cross, though they were denied a resting-place in 

 consecrated ground. That the old Northerns re- 

 garded suicide with horror, we know from the 

 "Eyrbiggia Saga," p. 530. of Mr, Blackwell's 

 edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 



Edward Charlton, 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Th' Man i' th' Almanack (Vol, v., p. 320.) In 



old almanacks the sun is represented by a man's 

 face inclosed in a ring, from which externally 

 points or rays, indicating flames, appear to pro- 

 ceed. An Oldham recruit, billeted at the sign of 

 the Sun, in writing home to his friends, described 

 the sign as "th" man's face seta' round we shivers.*" 

 Robert Eawlinson, 



Olaus Magnus (Vol. iii., p. 370.).— I have before 

 me an English version of this most singular writer, 

 by J. S., printed by J. Streater, London, 1658, 

 1 vol. folio, pp. 342. The marvellous description 

 of the sea serpent by Olaus Magnus is well known, 

 but during the controversy recently raised as to 

 the reappearance of this monster to the ofEcexs ot 

 the Daedalus, the following testimony to its ex- 

 istence in later times was perhaps overlooked. It 

 is extracted from the notes of Frederick Faber, 

 the celebrated Iceland ornithologist, describing a 

 zoological expedition to the islands in the Cat- 

 tegat, and published in Oken's Isis for 1829, p. 885. : 



" As I was returning in a boat from Endelave to 

 Horsens, the old helmsman, observing that I took 

 great interest in natural history, asked me if I had 

 ever seen the sea serpent. On my replying in the 

 negative, he told me that about two years ago, while 

 he and his companion were fishing near Thunoe, they 

 observed the head of a large creature lying quite on 

 the surface of the water, and in close proximity to their 

 boat. The head was like that of a seal, though they 

 immediately perceived that it belonged to no animal 

 of that kind. A gull flew towards the monster, and 

 made a pounce upon him, when the huge creature 

 raised its body at least three fathoms high into the 

 air, and made a snap at the bird, which flew away in 

 terror. They had time, before it disa|)peared, to 

 notice that the monster had a red throat, and that its 

 body was about twice the thickness of a boat's mast." 

 Edward Charlton. 



The Word " Couch" (Vol, v., p. 298.). — The 

 word is French : coucher par ecrit. Menage says, 

 coucher, in its common sense, is derived from col- 

 locare in Latin, of which he gives instances as 

 early as Catullus; he might have gone back to 

 Terence. Hence, says he, " coucher bien par 

 ecrit, pour dire ecriie avec ordre :" and quotes 

 Salmasius, to show that coucher par ecrit answered 

 to digerere, in the sense of writin"f a digest. 



Ihe sense is the same as our expression " lay 

 down," " lay down the law," &c., but we do not 

 confine that to writing. C. B, 



'•' Skivers, skewers or pins. 



