2»a S. No 33., Aug. 16. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



131 



to settle the point conclusively. Query, has this 

 fact been ere now noticed ? James Graves, Clk. 

 Kilkenny. 



The Great Heat. — I am told that twenty years 

 ago there was a similar drought in the country to 

 the present. The heat was, as it now is, intense ; 

 farmers suffered considerably ; the corn stalk was 

 hut a foot high, and, instead of being cut, was 

 plucked. 



Can any correspondent of " N. & Q." give a 

 more detailed account of the above facts ? Karl. 



Hev. Mr. Simmons. — Is anything known of the 

 Rev. Mr. Simmons, to whom the witty sermon in 

 the Cripplegate Morning Exercises, " How may 

 we get rid of Spiritual Sloth," is attributed. Ca- 

 lamy inserts his name in the list of those ministers 

 who preached occasionally when the Act of Uni- 

 formity passed. W. G. L. 



Westbourne Grove. 



George Liddell. — Can any Scottish poetical 

 antiquary furnish a Note about " George Liddell 

 of Edinburgh," who wrote The Swans Song, or 

 Pleasant Meditations on the Way, the tenth edition 

 corrected ; Lond., printed for the Author, and sold 

 by Lillias Liddell in Edin. 1710, 12mo. pp. 48 ? 



Mr. Liddell seems to have been the poet of the 

 religious million ; and besides this piece of dog- 

 grel, our illustrious obscure announces " These 

 books following, by the same author, are sold by 

 him and his daughter Lillias Liddell, in Edin.," 

 viz. 1. A Garden of Spiritual Flowers; 2. The 

 Travellers Sovg ; 3. Good Company ; 4. Manna 

 Gathered; 5. Canaan's Grapes; 6. Apples of 

 Gold ; and 7. The Honey Comb. Presuming these 

 to be also in verse, and judging from the popu- 

 larity of the Swans Song, Mr. Liddell would ap- 

 pear to have obtained some notoriety as a small 

 poet. J. O. 



Rubens' Pictures: Antwerp Cathedral. — With 

 reference to the celebrated " Descent from the 

 Cross," which, as every one knows, consists of five 

 pictures, can any of your readers say whether the 

 painting at the back of one of the doors, repre- 

 senting, according to Murray, a hermit with a 

 lantern, is not, in fact, intended as a fifth repre- 

 sentation of St. Christopher, under the form of a 

 priest carrying the viaticum ? The presumption 

 is in favour of this hypothesis, since the four re- 

 maining pictures all symbolise St. Christopher in 

 some form or other, and it is well-known that they 

 were painted for the Guild of Cross- bowmen, of 

 whom that saint is the patron. The idea that such 

 was Rubens' intention is suggested by the author 

 of a recently-published work entitled Flemish In- 

 teriors, and seems to me a very appropriate one. 



My attention has been further drawn to the 

 subject by a smart correspondence carried on for 



the last three^ weeks in the Weekly Register, 

 giving expression to contending opinions on the 

 passage in question of the above-mentioned vo- 

 lume. QU-aEBENS. 



" Round about our Coal Fire, or Christmas En- 

 tertainments'^ — What is the date of the earliest 

 edition of an interesting pamphlet so called ? 

 Halliwell, in his Catalogue of Chap- Boohs, p. 148,, 

 mentions an edition in 12mo., 1796, which he calls 

 " A very curious tract, composed at the end of 

 the seventeenth, or very early in the following 

 century." My own copy, dated 1734, is called 

 " The Fourth Edition, with great Additions." It 

 is dedicated " To the Worshipful Mr. Lun, Com- 

 pleat Witch-maker of England, and Conjurer- 

 General of the Universe, at his Great House in 

 Covent-garden." Edward F. Rimbault. 



Com Measures. — I am desirous of obtaining 

 correct information as to the difference between 

 the proportions of the Winchester bushel and the 

 imperial bushel (established by the "Act of 

 Uniformity," which took effect from Jan. 1, 1826) ; 

 this last contains 22 18^ cubic inches, and I have 

 one table stating the Winchester bushel to have 

 contained 2178 cubic inches, and another that it 

 was -^^ part larger than the imperial. Wm. M. 

 Tring. 



" Bishop Burnet's Solution of Two Cases of 

 Conscience." — Miss Strickland aflirms that two 

 treatises under the above title, one on " Poly- 

 gamy," and the other on " Divorce," were " ex- 

 punged " from Bishop Burnet's works. May I beg 

 the favour of a reference, if any correspondent 

 can give one, to any edition of Burnet's works 

 containing these treatises ; or any good grounds 

 for supposing that he ever wrote them ? As to 

 Miss Strickland's testimony, she must write in a 

 more unbiassed spirit before her evidence reckons 

 for anything more than Jacobite gossip. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



[These two Treatises are noticed by Bevil Higgons in 

 his Historical and Critical Remarks on Bishop Bumefs 

 History of his Own Time, 2nd edit. 1727, p. 158., who has 

 given the whole of the bishop's resolution to the second 

 question, " Is polygamy in any case lawful under the 

 Gospel ? " His reason for omitting the bishop's resolu- 

 tion on Barrenness was owing to some expressions in it 

 so indecent as would oiFend the fair sex. John Macky, 

 however, has not been so delicately sensitive : for, as an 

 admirer of the bishop, he has inserted both papers injthe 

 Appendix to his Memoirs of the Secret Services, edit. 1733, 

 pp. xxiv. to xxxiii., and reproaches the bishop's son for 

 suppressing them. " These papers," says Macky, " Bur- 

 net put into the hands of Lord Lauderdale and others, 

 with an intent to farther the design of divorcing His 

 Majesty, and thereby of providing, by a re-marriage, 

 heirs to the crown, and excluding the Duke of York. 



