June 5. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



533 



or their aid. I well know that he was looked upon 

 by the common sort of people with wonder, and 

 almost awe. The notion prevalent amongst them 

 was, that, being the seventh son of a seventh son, he 

 was endowed by nature with extraordinary heal- 

 ing powers. After a few months his fame, such as 

 it was, evaporated, and I have not heard of him 

 eince, nor have I read of any pretender acting like 

 him since then. Can any of your readers enlighten 

 my darkness on the above, or on any other seventh 

 of a seventh ? and is there any account or tradi- 

 tion of a similar impostor in any other county of 

 England ? Also, if ancient or modern history re- 

 cords any such wonderful attributes in reference 

 to a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter ? 



The above was written before I saw Mr.Coopeb's 

 ■allusion to the subject, in Vol. iii., p. 148. I hope 

 to be favoured with that gentleman's further no- 

 tice of the seventh son of a seventh son. 



I should esteem it a favour if some one of your 

 numerous and learned readers would inform me If 

 that word denoting seven, which Is In such fre- 

 quent use in the Old and New Testaments, is sus- 

 ceptible of being rendered " several," " many," or 

 some other indefinite quantity ? 



Seven appears also to be a favourite number In 

 modern days. I subjoin a few of the many In- 

 stances of Its popular adoption : — 



Seven ages. 



Seven Champions. 



Seven Churches. 



Seven days in a week. 



Seven days' notice. 



Seven Dials. 



Sevenfold. 



Seven Hills. 



Seven months' child. 



Seven penitential psalms. 



Seven senses. 



Seven-shilling piece. 



Seven Sisters. 



Seven Sleepers. 



Seven sons. 



Seventh son of the seventh 



Seven stars. 



Seven stages of life. 



Seven times. 



Seven limes seven years a 

 jubilee. 



Seven vk^ise men, 



A jury of seven matrons. 



Seven wonders of the world. 



Seven years' apprentice- 

 ship. 



Seven years, a change. 



Seven years' transportation. 



Seven years' Income-tax, 



Sevenpence in the pound 

 yearly ; and these last 

 are two of the 



Seven abominations, 



Henky Edwaeds. 

 35. Gifford Street, Kingsland Road. 



[The number seven has been a subject of particular 

 speculation with some old writers, and every depart- 

 ment of nature, science, literature, and art has been 

 ransacked for the purpose of discovering septenary 

 combinations. In the year 1502 there was printed at 

 Leipsic a work entitled Heptalogium Virgilii Salzhur- 

 gensis, in honour of the number seven. It consists of 

 seven parts, each consisting of seven divisions. But 

 the most curious work on the subject of numbers is 

 the following, the contents of which, as might be ex. 

 pected, are quite worthy of the title : The Secrets of 

 Numbers according to Theological, Arithmetical, Geo- 

 metrical, and Harmonical Computation ; drawn, for the 



better part, out of those Ancients, as well as Neoleriques. 

 Pleasing to read, prof table to understande, opening them- 

 selves to the capacities of both learned and unlearned ; being 

 no other than a key to lead men to any doctrinal know- 

 ledge whatsoever. By William Ingpen, Gent, Lon- 

 don, 1624. In chap, ix, the author has given many- 

 notable opinions from learned men, to prove the ex- 

 cellency of the number seven : — " First, it neither be- 

 gets nor is begotten, according to the saying of Philo. 

 Some numbers, indeed, within the compass of ten, 

 beget, but are not begotten ; and that is the unarie. 

 Others are begotten, but beget not ; as the octonarie. 

 Only the septenarie, having a prerogative above them 

 all, neither begetteth, nor is begotten, Tliis is its first 

 divinity or perfection. Secondly, this is an harmonical 

 number, and the well and fountain of that fair and 

 lovely Digramma, because it includeth within itself all 

 manner of harmony. Thirdly, it is a theological num- 

 ber, consisting of perfection, {See Cruden.') Fourthly, 

 because of its compositure: for it is compounded of 

 one and six ; two and five ; three and four. Now, 

 every one of these being excellent of themselves (as 

 hath been remonstrated), how can this number be but 

 far more excellent, consisting of them all, and partici- 

 pating, as it were, of all their excellent virtues."— Ed.] 



KOBKRT DEURT. 



The credit attachable to Madagascar: or Robert 

 Drurys Journal during fifteen Years' Captivity on 

 that Island, has always appeared to me a subject 

 worth a Note In your pages ; but more particularly 

 since the recent publication of Burton's Narratives 

 from the Criminal Trials of Scotland. 



In this latter work the author gives us an Inter- 

 esting account of the trial of Captain Green and 

 his associates, In Edinburgh, for the murder of one 

 Captain Drummond (a very memorable case, as it 

 bore upon the Union of the kingdoms, at the time 

 under discussion) ; and In course of his inquiries 

 Mr, Burton has brought forth Drury's Journal to 

 prove the existence of the said Captain Drury for 

 many years subsequent to Green's execution for 

 his murder ! 



It becomes, therefore, a serious question to 

 ascertain whether Drury was a real or a fictitious 

 character, and his book what it pretends to be, or 

 the speculation of some clever writer, envious of 

 the fame and profit derived by Defoe from the 

 publication of a similar work . I would not take the 

 subject out of such good hands as those of Me. 

 Crosslet, who has evidently something to offer us 

 thereon ; but would merely observe, by way of 

 Interesting your readers generally in the matter, 

 that Drury, by the old octavo of 1729, now before 

 me, did not flinch from Inquiry, as he announces 

 the book for sale " by the Author, at Old Tom's 

 Coffee House in Birchin Lane," where, he says, 

 " I am every day to be spoken with, and where I 

 shall be ready to gratify any Gentleman with a 

 further Account of any Thing herein contained ; 



