2'"» S. VIII. Sbpt. 10. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



213 



I8th Century, I met with a solution of a Query 

 which I made, and to which, since its appearance in 

 1854, no reply has been inserted, respecting the 

 gentleman mentioned above. The following ex- 

 tract is from vol. vi. pp. 47, 48. of the Illustra- 

 tions : — 



" The Rev. Peter Cunningham. — The ensufcg let- 

 ters [not those mentioned by me in my Queiy-] were 

 addressed by the Rev. Peter Cunningham, Curate of 

 Eyara, near the Peak in Derbj'sbire, to the Rector of that 

 place, the Rev. Thomas Seward, father of the poetess. I 

 can add but few particulars of Mr. Cunningham to those 

 which will be found in these letters. It will be perceived 

 by them that he was the son of a naval officer (at Deal), 

 and, adopting the clerical profession rather from his own 

 studious predilections than from his father's choice, had 

 no University education ; but having been under the 

 tuition of a respectable clergyman, was ordained in 1772 

 by Archbishop Drummond, and for the first two or three 

 years after was Curate of Almondbury, near Huddersfield ; 

 where he was honoured by the notice of the Earl of 

 Dartmouth, who resided at Woodsome Hall in that popu- 

 lous parish. In 1775, he became Mr. Seward's Curate at 

 Eyam (celebrated as the scene of Christian heroism dis- 

 played bj' the Rev. William Mompesson during a great 

 plague which raged there in 1666), and soon after ad- 

 dressed to him the letters now printed. How long he 

 continued at Eyam I cannot say ; but the Eulogium pro- 

 nounced on him from the pulpit by Mr. Seward, and 

 printed hereafter, seems to have promised a long con- 

 nexion. It is surely a very singular document. Mr. 

 Cunningham's name does not occur in any of the editions 

 of Living Authors; but a poem entitled Britannia's Naval 

 Trimnph was the offspring of his pen. In the latter years 

 of his life he was Curate of Chertsey, in Surrey ; and he 

 died there at his apartments in that town in July, 1805, 

 having been a few minutes before suddenly attacked Avith 

 illness while dining with the Chertsey Friendly Society, 

 to which he had been in the habit of delivering an an- 

 nual discourse." 



The "Eulogium" is too long for "N. & Q.;" 

 but a more beautiful tribute of praise to the cha- 

 racter of a good parish clergyman, in the person 

 of Mr. Cunningham, will not easily be found. 



The writer of the commendatory note, inserted 

 in the MS. volume of letters mentioned by me, 

 was the Rev. Robert Finch, formerly of Balliol 

 College, who died about the year 1830. 



J. Maceay. 



SKELETONS WITH WAX HEADS AT CUM^. 



(2°" S. viii. 170.) 



I have very much pleasure In replying to your 

 correspondent, but must really express my surprise 

 that any respectable English archaeological paper 

 should publish such an idea. In Italy everything 

 dug up is supposed in some way to be connected 

 with a saint or a martyr that has any trace or 

 emblem that can be so construed ; but in this 

 case there was no mark, nor vestige of anything 

 Christian about the tomb or bodies whatever. 

 The only thing that existed which could be tor- 

 tured into such a supposition was that a small 



brass coin of Diocletian was found in the tomb. 

 That emperor was a persecutor, — ergo, they were 

 martyrs. A small bottle was found containing 

 some dark dried-up substance, — ergo, that was the 

 blood collected at the time of the execution by 

 sorrowing friends. Now, first of all, it seems most 

 improbable that the Christians should place a coin 

 of their murderer along with the bodies of the 

 murdered. In fact, the very existence of this 

 coin in such a place seemed to infer that it was 

 the ordinary naulus, or coin, to be given to 

 Charon as the passage-money across the Styx, 

 and therefore that the body was Pagan. Again ; 

 how* came their bodies to be buried in a Pagan 

 cemetery If they were Christians ? We know the 

 horror they had of interments among the altar- 

 sacrifices and other rites of the heathen. At 

 that period their burials were almost universally 

 In catacombs, and not In such tombs as these. 

 Again, the wax heads represented the persons as 

 living, and having their eyes open : if Christian 

 martyrs, surely they would have been represented 

 with their eyes closed in the sleep of death. 

 Again, near the female skeleton were all the ob- 

 jects of the lady's toilette, glass scent vases, a 

 coffer, the fan, the necklace, hair-pins, and even 

 a mirror. Surely no Christian was ever interred 

 surrounded by such vanities of the world, though 

 it was a common practice with the heathen. Be- 

 sides this, we have the negative evidence of the 

 absence of any token either of Christianity or of 

 martyrdom ; — no cross, palm, or holy lamb ; no 

 emblem of Immortality, nor of the resurrection, 

 in any shape or form, was found on or about the 

 bodies. 



As to the ink, supposed to have been blood, the 

 analysis was made by the celebrated SIg. Luigi 

 del Grosso. Here it is in his own words, as given 

 me by Professor Minervini : — " Gallato e tannato 

 di ferro sospesi nella viscoslta di un' allungata 

 soluzione di gomma arabica ; con nero dl fumo, 

 che ha dovuto sciogliersi nell' alcool." This may 

 be translated, " Gallate and tannate of iron held 

 in suspension by a weak solution- of gum arable ; 

 with wood soot, which is separable in alcohol." 

 Professor Guarini discovered traces of copper, 

 which might be due to the bronze vessel in which 

 it was found. He did not find the gallic acid, 

 but he had but half a drachm to experiment upon. 

 In other respects he fully agreed with Del Grosso 

 that It was inl^gpot blood. 



If your correspondent wishes to refer to any 

 i published authorities, I would direct him to the 

 j numbers of the BuUetino Archeologia NapoUtano, 

 1 1853 to 1855, edited by Garucci and Minervini; 

 I the Monumenti Cumani, by Florelli, Naples, 1853 ; 

 \ and Gli Scheletri Cerocefali of the celebrated 

 Quaranta, also published at Naples. I cannot, 

 however, refrain from again expressing my sur- 

 ' prise that an English archteologlst should adhere 



