^^6 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 88., Sept. 20. '56. 



their crypts and catacombs originated to prevent the con- 

 sequences that might otherwise have ensued from the 

 corruption of the flesli when they were engaged in their 

 religious meetings in those places. 



" On the Gth of April, 1833, I. was present at the open- 

 ing of a mummy at the Charing Cross Hospital by Mr. 

 Pettigrew and assistants. It was No. — in the Egyptian 

 sale at Sotheby's, March, 1833, and cost £ — . 



" It was taken from a rude coffin of sycamore wood, 

 and was enwrapped in many linen or cotton folds 

 and bandages, that caused much trouble in removing. 

 Tlie body was in a dried state, with much of the flesh in 

 a shrivelled state, and extremely perfect and free from 

 any dislocation of the limbs. The mixed materials of 

 asphaltum and linen had several fragments of gold leaf 

 very finely beaten. On the feet and head were spots of 

 gold leaf, but it had not been gilt all over, as Mr. P. 

 seemed to think had been the case. The flesh had be- 

 come black. Nothing was found in the mummy, at least 

 during the process of opening. There were present Sir 

 Henry Halford, Ottley, Hawkins and Barnwell of the 

 British Museum, Dr. Richardson, Mr. Gage. Mr. Petti- 

 grew delivered a very appropriate lecture on the occasion, 

 chiefl}' extracted from Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, &c. 

 He stated, but erroneouslj-, that coins were found i!i the 

 mouths of mummies. This could not be, previously at 

 least to the Greek dynasty in Egypt. The coin of 

 Hadrian, said to have been found in a mummy, and of 

 which Schlegel has given some account, is of a very 

 doubtful nature. Pieces of gold have been found in the 

 mouths of mummies, and Coxe had a gold idol which he 

 was told had been so found." 



Notes by F. Douee In his copy of S. Gregory's 

 Dialogues translate de Latin en Prancoys, printed 

 by Pierre Leber, 4to. Par. : 



" See what Mr. Turner has said of these dialogues in 

 his Saxon History, vol. ii. p. 317., and see particularly 

 Davies's Icon libellorum, p. 184. 



" There is a very fine MS. of Gregory's Homilies and 

 Dialogues in the French language in Bibl. Reg. 15 D. v. 



" Reasons for supposing that this work was not written 

 by S. Gregory, the Great, but by a later pope of that 

 name. See Archbp. Abbot's Description of the World, 

 p. 217. 



" More on these dialogues in Fabricii, Bibl. Med. JEtat. 

 iii. 250. 



" In the cathedral library at Autun is a Merovingian 

 MS. of S. Gregory's dialogues, whence Millin justly in- 

 fers that they were written by Gregory himself. See his 

 Voyage dans les Departemens du Midi, tom. i. p. 329." 



Notes by F. Douce in his copy of Abrege des 

 Dome Livres Olympiades, composez par le S, 

 Jehan Vander Noot, Patrice d'Anvers, fol. : Anvers, 

 1579 : — 



" In Balthazar's Genealogies des Conies de Flandres, 

 Antwerp, 1598, folio, are verses addressed to the reader, 

 in French, by ' Jean Vander Noot, patrice d' Anvers.' 



" He was in London in the reign of Eliz., where, in 

 1569, he published A Theatre wherein be represented as 

 wet the Miseries and Calamities that follow the Voluptuous 

 Worldlings, 8fc., 12", with many very curious cuts and 

 sonnets. The work is ded. to Queen Eliz. From this 

 dedication it appears that he had, in company with manj' 

 of his countrymen, taken refuge in England to avoid 

 the persecutions for religion in Holland and the Low 

 Countries. The work consists of Petrarch's Visions, as 

 in Spenser; of Du Bella^-'s sonnets (in blank verse, and 

 nearly in the same words as Spenser's rimes) : ' the 

 ftttthors declaration upon his Visions, &c, Transl. out of 



French into English by Theodore Roest.' Q. therefore, 

 who wrote the above ' Visions' and ' Sonnets '? 



" In his Olympiades, 1579, he calls himself ' Patrice 

 d' Anvers.' In this is a good portrait of him in copper. 



" Another work by him is Hymne de Braband, 1580, 

 folio. With his portrait in wood. 



" Another, Divers (Euvres poeiiques, 1581, folio. With 

 his portrait in wood. 



" I conceive the copper cuts in this very rare volume 

 to have been done by Coornhaert. — F. D." 



W. D. M. 



^tU0r |2otcS. 



Extraordinary Births. — The foUowring ap- 

 peared in many papers ;* I take it from The Globe 

 of April 16, 1856 : 



" Sundav Morning, the 13th April, between the hours 

 of 8 and 10, Mrs. E. Phinn, the wife of Edward Pliinn, a 

 guard in the service of the London and North Western 

 Railwa}' Company, residing at 144. Scofield Street, 

 Bloomsbury, Birmingham, was safely delivered of five 

 children, three boys, born alive and doing well, and two 

 girls born dead." 



The following is a cutting from the Sunday 

 Times of August 17, 1856 : 



" A Doubtful Story. — The Journal des Annonces of 

 Lisle announces that a married woman, residing in a com- 

 mune near that town, and who has twice been brought to 

 bed of twins, has just been safely delivered of five chil- 

 dren, three boj-s and two girls. All the children are well 

 formed, but small, and are in good health. A singular 

 particularity is stated by the journal to have attended 

 the pregnancy of this woman. During the last two 

 months all the objects before her eyes appeared to be 

 several times repeated, but since her delivery her sight 

 has returned to its natural state." 



Perhaps the detail of the woman's sight in the 

 last would not succeed in giving credit to the 

 " doubtful story ; " but I fear that the extreme 

 circumstantial detail of the first case has induced 

 many readers to yield their belief to that narra- 

 tive. Fortunately I have had the opportunity of 

 testing its truth, and I find that the account is 

 perfectly trustworthy in all respects, except the 

 matter of the five children ! Mrs. Phinn had 

 only three children at one birth, and all three 

 were born dead. As a rule, all extraordinary 

 stories in newspapers may be taken as fact, except 

 in their extraordinary details. 



C. Mansfield Ingleby. 

 Birmingham. 



The Charter Oak of Connecticut. — The follow- 

 ing from The Times of Sept. 9, 1856, ought to be 

 preserved in " N. & Q." 



" The old ' Charter Oak ' of Connecticut, which stood 

 near the city of Hartford, was blown down on the 21st by 

 a gale of wind, to the great regret of the inhabitants. In 

 1686 James II. dissolved the government of the colony, 

 and demanded the surrender of the original charter 

 granted by Charles II. in 1662 — a very liberal one, so 

 much so that it would never have passed through the 

 ' proper department ' of a much more recent age. When 



