2'«» S. X. Nov. 24. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUfiKIES. 



411 



ferred to was performed, is described by the poet 

 Churchyard as being capable of containing 10,000 

 spectators. Who was master of the school at the 

 time of this performance, and was the said master 

 the author of the play ? When was the last occa- 

 sion on which plays were performed at " The 

 Quarry?" X. Y. 



Knights of Malta. — Where can I find the 

 best account of the present condition and consti- 

 tution of the English branch of the Order of St. 

 John of Jerusalem ? Constant Keader. 



Different Degrees of Poets Laureate. — 

 Gibber, in the Life of John Gower (vol. i. p. 20. 

 ed. 1753) say^s: — 



"Bale makes him Equitem Auratum, et Poetam Lau- 

 reatum, but Winstanly says that he was neither laureated 

 nor hederated, but only rosated, having a chaplet of four 

 roses about his head in his monumental stone erected in 

 St. Mary's Overy, Southwark." 



No doubt the classic allusions to the laurel of 

 Apollo, the wig of Bacchus, and the rose of Venus, 

 point to the three classes of poetry. Epic, Ana- 

 creontic, and Erotic ; but is it known that the 

 kings in that day ranked their poets thus, or had 

 one poet to pass through the subordinate steps 

 before he won the laurel crown ? I certainly never 

 heard of Poets Hederate or Poets Roseate before, 

 and should be much obliged by any information 

 relative to such appellations. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Suffocation of Persons labouring under 

 Hydrophobia. — This practice was discussed in 

 " N. & Q." (1" S. V. 10., and subsequently) with- 

 out any determinate result, or proof, of its having 

 been un fait accompli. The late much-esteemed 

 Lord Braybrooke, to whom we are indebted for the 

 valuable Diary of Samuel Pepys, stated in your 

 publication, that when at school at Eton there was 

 an account circulated there and believed by all the 

 boys, that the ostler of the " Christopher Inn" being 

 in a hopeless state of that disease, was smothered 

 between two feather-beds by his attendants. Will 

 you permit me to recur to the subject, which an 

 entertaining work I am now perusing has revived 

 to my recollection ? — in the Personal Sketches of 

 his own Times, by Sir Jonah Barrington, in 3 vols., 

 London, 1 827-32 (vol. iii. pp. 42—48.) Having 

 premised that the Irish "did not regard it as a 

 murder, but absolutely as a legal and meritorious 

 act, to smother any person who had arrived at an 

 advanced stage of hydrophobia" : and they con- 

 ceived that "by law" "the remedy^' should be 

 administered by smothering the patient between 

 "two feather-beds" ; one of which was to be laid 

 " cleverly " over him, and a sufficient number of 

 the neighbours lying on it till he was "out of 

 danger." The author then proceeds to detail the 

 case of Dan. Dempsey of Rushall turnpike, in the 

 Queen's County, who was subjected to this pro- 



cess in 1781, under the sanction of Mr. Palmer, a 

 magistrate ; and the sufferer having undergone 

 this doom, a Mr. Calcut, coroner, held an inquest, 

 when a verdict was declared that " Daniel Demp- 

 sey died in consequence of a mad dog." For an 

 account so circumstantially given, there may be 

 persons living who can vouch, and probably some 

 reader of " N. & Q." can confirm, or otherwise, 

 this curious statement as to correctness. 2. 2. 



MuRAT, King of Naples. — In the Welcome 

 Guest (Nov. 10th) is a story respecting Murat, to 

 the effect that, after his execution, the head was 

 severed from the body, preserved in spirits of 

 wine, and kept in a closet in Ferdinand's bed- 

 room till the day of his death. Is this a fact, or 

 a romance ? S. 



Haddiscoe Font. — In the church of Haddis- 

 coe, made familiar by Bloxham to most readers 

 on architectural remains, is a mural vestige of 

 some former rite, probably unnoticed by writers 

 on mediaeval subjects, and of which the use must 

 be left solely to conjecture. The font, of the lat- 

 ter part of the fifteenth century, is placed on the 

 east side of one of the large Norman piers which 

 support the north aisle, and at the west end of 

 the church. The far from uncommon raised 

 stand for the convenience of the priest is be- 

 tween the pier and the font. Immediately above 

 this stand, and at the height of about four feet, 

 are two trefoil-headed recesses, not exceeding ten 

 inches in height, four in width, and about the 

 same in depth. The size and situation of this 

 rare appendage are alone left to suggest the pur- 

 pose for which it was constructed. From these 

 it is reasonable to infer they were receptacles for 

 the vessels containing the unconsecrated oil, or 

 " unction of the mystical oil ; " and the unction 

 used after baptism, being a mixed or compound 

 " unguent." This mere speculative opinion is 

 only suggested to assist the inquiry which it is 

 desirable this description may promote. 



And it is farther requested, should the like ap- 

 pendage be familiar to any of the readers of 

 " N. & Q.," that they will communicate the same 

 through your pages. H. D'Aveney. 



Signs of the Zodiac, — Wanted those few 

 astronomical lines commencing 



" Sol in the Ram in March begins, 

 Then passes thro' the Bull and Twins," 



for to me ccetera desunt. H. M. 



Sheep and Mutton. — We all know the origin 

 of this distinction, according to the explanation 

 given by the learned : the one, we are told, is Saxon, 

 and the other Norman — the one given by the 

 Saxon farmer, the other by the Norman citizen. 

 Will you, or any of your correspondents, oblig- 

 ingly explain the passage in the will of the Earl 

 of Salisbury, the natural son of Henry IL, wherein 



