2-JdS. N0 27., Julys. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



19 



cause is. So far we are obliged to him, and we shall be 

 farther obliged to him to add, in the next journal he pub- 

 lishes after the receipt of our paper of to-day, that there 

 was not one word of truth in his assertion." 



This contradiction was not regarded as conclu- 

 sive or satisfactory by many of the contemporary 

 prints. The Antigallican said : 



" It is no easy matter to discover whether the charge 

 or reply be the more correct, but thus much we have 

 had an opportunity of knowing, that the Governments of 

 France have had English Journalists in their pay since 

 the Revolution. Indeed those persons who were in the 

 hiibit of reading the Courier last summer, must have seen 

 that that paper was not very friendly to the Bourbons ; 

 now, however, it is suddenly changed, as if touched with 

 a magic wand. 



" Not long since a charge of a similar kind was pre- 

 ferred against a Morning Paper, viz. of 10,000/. having 

 been received by its proprietor from Blacas." 



It would be curious to elicit accurate informa- 

 tion on this subject. 



William John Fitz-Patrick. 



The Silver Greyhound (2"'^ S. i. 493.) — About 

 seventy years ago the king's messengers always 

 wore this badge when on duty, and it is one of 

 these officers whom Sir Walter Scott, in his tale 

 of " Aunt Margaret's Mirror," calls the man with 

 the silver greyhound on his sleeve. J. de W. 



Sir JEdivard Coke (P' ^.'iv. passim.) — The cor- 

 rect spelling of the surname of this great lawyer 

 is to be found in an " Epistle Dedicatorie " to him 

 of,- 



"A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft, so 

 farre forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest 

 by true experience. Framed and Delivered by Mr. 

 William Perkins, in his ordinarie course of Preaching, 

 &c. Printed by Cantrell Legge, Printer to the Univer- 

 sitie of Cambridge, 1613," 



namely, — 



" To the Right Honourable Sir Edward Cooke, Knight, 

 Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Common 

 Pleas, Grace and Peace,'' &c. 



The author discusses the subject of witchcraft 

 with considerable ingenuity, as it prevailed in 

 England at that date; and with a zealous sincerity, 

 in A Resolution to the Countryman, proving it 

 utterly unlawfull to buie or use our yearely Prog- 

 nostications, he endeavours to put down what had 

 been the almanacks in circulation. G. N. 



Order of St. John of Jerusalem (2"'> S. i. 197. 

 264. 461.) — To W. W., who informs me that " all 

 masonic degrees are separate and distinct," I beg 

 to reply that I am quite aware of this ; but they 

 are occasionally united in the same services, and 

 under the same laws and regulations. I gave two 

 instances, the latter being from a book of Laws 

 and Regulations, of which the first article provides 



that the five orders of masonic knighthood in 



be united under one general administration, and 



subject to one code of laws. I need not repeat 

 the names of these five orders, having specified 

 them in a former communication. F. C. H. 



Poniatowski Gems (2°'^ S. i. 471.) — About ten 

 or twelve years ago these gems were in the pos- 

 session of a gentleman named Tyrrell, then re- 

 siding in Craven Street, Strand, and he employed 

 an Irish scholar named Pendergast to compile a 

 Catalogue JRaisonnee of his treasure. At Mr. 

 Tyrrell's house I saw, I think, the whole work, 

 but certainly a part, in print. If it was completed, 

 and was published, otherwise than privately, I 

 need not tell Mr. Gantillon that it will be found 

 at the British Museum. If it is not there on 

 either the one ground or the other, I think I 

 could possibly ascertain Mr. Tyrrell's address for 

 Mr. Gantillon. " James Knowles. 



[We cannot find a copy of this Catalogue Raisonnee in 

 the British Museum.] 



The Image of Diana at Ephesxis — Aerolite 

 Worship (2"'' S. i. 410.) — I recollect once hear- 

 ing an eminent classic and D.D.- of this University 

 assert as his opinion, that this image was formed 

 of a meteoric stone or aerolite. There is no 

 doubt that aerolite worship was common in the 

 East ; and that it is so still may be seen by the 

 following extracts from Lieut. Burton's Pilgi'i- 

 mage to El Medinah and Meccah : 



" At Jagannath thej' worship a pyramidal black stone, 

 fabled to have fallen from heaven, or miraculously to 

 have presented itself on the place where the temple now 

 stands." — Vol. iii. p. 159. 



" While kissing it (the celebrated black stone at 

 Meccah), and rubbing forehead and hands upon it, I nar- 

 rowly observed it, and came away persuaded that it is a 

 big aerolite." — Vol. iii. p. 210. 



This would seem to favour the idea that the 

 image of the ^reat Diana was composed of a 

 similar substance. I may add, that I have in my 

 possession a perforated bead, probably Druidical, 

 evidently formed out of a meteoric stone. 



NoRRis Deck. 



Cambridge. 



Black Letter (2"'^ S. i. 472.) — Though the 

 Query of A. L. B. is addressed to another tran- 

 scriber of black letter books, I may be permitted, 

 as one who has had much practice in that way, to 

 inform him that I find the best kind of pen for the 

 purpose to be one made from a swan's quill, with 

 a short slit and a very broad nib. There are 

 metal pens sold for the purpose, but they have the 

 great disadvantage of getting soon clogged up 

 with the fine powder which they scratch up from 

 the vellum. F. C. H. 



Bui-ning of Books (2°^ S. i. 397.) —The greatest 

 Vandalism perpetrated in more modern times is 

 that of the Austrian Government, which, after the 

 battle of the Weisse Berg, 1621, sent a number of 



