76 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



12"^ S. No 30., July 26. '5G. 



elements being placed on the credence table ; with 

 a view to their being publicly tasted (before con- 

 secration) by a person appointed for that purpose, 

 whenever the monarch was about to communicate, 

 lest poison intended to destroy the monarch 

 should be mixed with the bread or wine. 



JUVEEKA. 



Benjamin Franklin (2"'' S. i. 305.) — Some 

 curious particulars connected with the life of the 

 philosopher are given in — 



" History of a French Louse, or the Spy of a New 

 Species in France and England, &c. A Key to the chief 

 Events of the Year 1779, and those which are to happen 

 in 1780. London : printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, Strand, 

 1779." 



Franklin had been, at this time, the minister- 

 plenipotentiary from the Ainerican Congress to 

 the Court of London, and had not escaped the 

 satire of the English pamphleteers. From the 

 rather scurrilous nature of the publication, what 

 is stated may be expected to be a little over- 

 charged, yet not inconsistent with the information 

 we have through other channels of the Doctor's 

 habits. One extract as a specimen of his economy 

 may suffice : 



" He then quitted his master, and lived privately, sub- 

 sisting for mauy years upon fourpence a-day. I cannot 

 conceive how he did it : to me it seems impossible. And 

 yet nothing is more easy; it requires onlj' resolution: his 

 method was to purchase for three pence a quantity of 

 potatoes, which served him for bread and meat both, and 

 of which there was sufficient to subsist on a whole week. 

 A baker roasted them for a halfpenny; and he bought 

 from a milk-woman, daily, a halfpenny worth of milk ; 

 all this amounted to no more than sevenpence a week. 

 He gave a penny a daj' for his lodgings in a garret, be- 

 cause he liked neatness and convenience, otherwise he 

 might have accommodated himself at a cheaper rate. He 

 drank small beer mixed with water, and this cost him 

 twopence a week. The remainder he laid by for dress and 

 pocket -money : for he employed nobody to wash for him, 

 or to mend his linen and stockings. Now let us calculate, 

 and you will be convinced that it is not impossible to live 

 upon this sum. Fourpence a day makes twenty-eight 

 pence a week : 



His potatoes, the dressing of them, and his milk, 



cost him every week . . . - . 7c/, 



His lodging ...... --7 



And his beer ........ 2 



Total 



16 



Thus, out of eight-and-twenty pence a week, there re- 

 mained twelve to make a figure with." 



In the Universal Asylum and Columbian Maga- 

 zine for April 1790, printed at "Philadelphia by 

 William Young" (who emigrated from Paisley), 

 will be found a very interesting notice of " the 

 order of procession " at the Doctor's funeral ; and 

 a " short account of his last illness by his attend- 

 ing physician." G. N. 



Umbrella or Parasol (2"'^ S. i. 503.)— Jos. G. 

 says, " If it be an umbrella, it certainly is a some- 



what ancient discovery." Why not ? When, for 

 aught we know, the Chinese, Burmese, and natives 

 of India, have used umbrellas from time imme- 

 morial. The umbrellas referred to in the Nine- 

 vite sculptures are facsimiles of the " chattas " 

 still in use among the Burmese and Indians. 



E. E. Byng. 

 Surnames (2'"i S. i. 213. 396. 522.) — It may 

 further establish the fact, that Rand is a local 

 name, if I mention that the eighth Abbat of 

 Bardney, who was deposed in 1214, bore the name 

 of Ralf de Band. See Leland's Collectanea, vi. 

 216., Lond., 1770, 8vo. J. Sansom. 



Hengist and Horsa (2"'' S. i. 439.) — J. M. K. 



says : 



" There is no reason to believe the Frisian heroes 

 Hengist and Horsa to be a bit more genuine than Cad- 

 nms or Romulus; they merely adumbrate in the usual 

 way the historical fact that Kent was peopled by Frisian 

 tribes." 



If they are but myths, how is their descent 

 actually registered in the old chronicles quoted 

 by Mac Cabe in his Catholic History of England? 

 At p. 96., he says : " Tliey were the sons of Wicht- 

 gisius, the son of Wecta, whose father was 

 Woden." For this genealogy he gives Beda as 

 his authority. Then (p. 97.) he transcribes from 

 Roger de Wendover and Geoffry of Monmouth a 

 conversation between Hengist and the British 

 king Vortigern. In a note (p. 98.), he quotes 

 from Sir F. Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the 

 English Commonwealth, and says : 



" The learned author remarks, as to Hengist and HorSiJ, 

 that, 'the names bestowed upon the sons of Wightgils 

 seem to be poetical epithets, rather than veal denomina- 

 tions; botli have the same meaning, and both only de- 

 signate the snow-white steed, from whom their ancestors 

 sought the omen before they entered the conflict, and 

 whose form, still constituting the heraldry of Kent, 

 adorned the standard which led them forth to victory.' " 



At p. 101., he mentions "the daughter of Hen- 

 gist," quoting William of Malmesbury and Poly- 

 dore Vergil. By Geoffry of Monmouth she is called 

 " lionwen ;" and by Nennius, " Romwena." The 

 same authorities describe the death of Horsa, and 

 his being succeeded by Hengist. In a note 

 (p. 108.), Mac Cabe says : "Horsa is believed to 

 have been buried at Horstead in Kent;" adding, 

 in inverted commas, " jVIonumentum suo nomine 

 insigne." In the note following the above, he 

 quotes from the Saxon Chronicle, a. d. 455 : 

 "And aefter tham feng llengest to rice." Tlie 

 return of Hengist to England in 461 is there re- 

 lated (p. 111.), with his subsequent acts, till his 

 sentence by Eldad, Bishop of Gloucester, in the 

 Council of Conisborough, to be beheaded. Geof. 

 Mon., Rog. de Wend., and Matt. Westm., all agree 

 in this account of his death. 



Could so many^ac^s have been recorded of two 

 heroes who bad no personal existence whatever ? 



