166 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. X. Sept. 1. '60, 



In the note to Mr. Wright's translation, he 

 says : — 



« Some explain this text thus : five hundred, D ; ten, 

 X; five, V; saying that at this time will come a leader 

 (Dux) sent by Heaven, who will reduce all the world to 

 God. Others say an emperor was intended," &c. . 



Now it should be remembered that when the 

 lines were written, the empire was contested (in 

 1314) between Frederick III. of Austria and 

 Louis IV. of Bavaria; and Louis was, in 1322, 

 elected. Take the Greek numeral letters, and the 

 reader will get the name of Louis ; and with the 

 name, the interpretation of the verses : — 

 a ----- 1 

 A - - - - - 30 



V 400 



S 4 



V 50 



t 10 



K - - - - - 20 



515 

 " A Ludvik" [a AvdvLK^, as the Germans wrote 

 the name, is evidently the person alluded to, and 

 thus a simple interpretation is given to one of the 

 most contested passages of Dante. It is impossi- 

 ble the agreement of the numbers mentioned with 

 the Greek numerals can be accidental. It is true 

 few persons could have known Greek numerals 

 when Dante used them, but the ignorance which 

 prevailed respecting them created the mystery of 

 the passage. There is evidence that Dante had 

 turned his attention to the study of Greek. One 

 objection to the interpretation may be, that one 

 (un) is added to the five [cinque] ; but having 

 summed up the Greek numerals, the poet might 

 easily have neglected the exact manner in which 

 he obtained the total number, and thinking of the 

 name, make " un" a repetition. 



William Falconeb. 

 Usk. 



CURIOUS SMOKE-VENTS IN MILLOM CASTLE, 

 CUMBERLAND. 



On my last visit to the ruins of Millom 

 Castle, about half a mile from the estuary of the 

 Duddon, I observed (what had on several pre- 

 vious visits escaped my notice) a curious smoke- 

 vent in the room which had evidently been the 

 great hall, and which is entered from the small 

 court by a doorway surmounted by a beautiful 

 flamboyant arch. This vent is a hole of a shape 

 nearly elliptical, the vertical axis measuring 

 perhaps a foot, and the horizontal one about eight 

 inches (I speak from guess), cut through the 

 wall, which is there some five feet thick, at an 

 inclination of about 30° to the horizon. This hole 

 was so very much like what I have sometimes 

 seen in a village church, made to carry outside 



an iron tube passing from a stove, and then form- 

 ing a chimney, that I at first fancied this might 

 have been an early instance of this more useful 

 than ornamental contrivance. On examining the 

 outside, however, I found sufficient proof that this 

 was not the case. The hole itself has evidently 

 been the whole and sole chimney, as is proved by 

 its being there bordered by a frame of cut stone 

 surmounted by an ornamental finish (I fear my 

 architectural nomenclature is very imperfect), all 

 evidently of the same date with the building itself. 

 Do any of the numerous readers of " N. & Q." 

 know of any similar instance ? Perhaps some of 

 them may Avish to examine for themselves this 

 ancient smoke-vent, which I have attempted to 

 describe. If so, I think they will thank me for 

 pointing out the best way to get to the spot. If 

 the intending visitor will take a tourist ticket to 

 Coniston, such as are issued at the principal 

 stations of the London and North Western, the 

 Great Northern and the Midland Railways, avail- 

 able for a calendar month, at very moderate fares, 

 he will find that he is at liberty to stop on the 

 way at any of the stations between Caraforth and 

 Coniston, and afterwards resume his journey at 

 his pleasure. Let him then stop at Foxfield sta- 

 tion, and ask for a ticket for Green Road. Then 

 he will be directed to the Green, where he will 

 find an unpretending but very clean and com- 

 fortable village inn. From this he can proceed by 

 a very good road, affording views of most pictur- 

 esque and varied scenery, the lake mountains,. 

 Scawfell, the Old Man, High Street, Hill Bell, 

 &c. behind, the open sea in front, the Duddon 

 estuary on the left, and Black Comb on the right. 

 The distance is between two and three miles. 

 Having examined the ruins of the castle he will 

 proceed to. the church close by, which has been 

 lately restored in very creditable style, consider- 

 ing the small amount of funds. He will notice a 

 handsome Norman doorway now reopened, a pis- 

 cina window, a draAving of which appeared a year 

 or two ago in the Illustrated London News, and in 

 the interior some monuments of former Lords of 

 Millom, among which are two wooden effigies, 

 such as I have seen mentioned in the pages of 

 "N. & Q." There is a Druidical circle, nearly 

 perfect, about two miles and a half from the 

 Green in a different direction ; and the foot of 

 Black Comb (the view from which on a clear day 

 is said to be the most extensive in England, em- 

 bracing parts of Wales and Scotland, and the Isle 

 of Man, and occasionally, though rarely, of Ire- 

 land) is about three miles from the Green. 



Senescens, 



The Father of Mr. Secretary Nicholas. — 

 In occasional readings one frequently meets with 



