58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2na s. No 29., July 19. '56. 



crime was their priesthood, and among whom, if I 

 remember well, there was one bishop. D. Rock. 

 Newick, Uckfield. 



Sir Edward Coke (2"" S. ii. 19.) — The great 

 lawyer's autograph will, I presume, be deemed a 

 better authority for the correct mode of spelling 

 his name than the " Epistle Dedicatorie " cited by 

 your correspondent G. N. I have in my posses- 

 sion a case for counsel's opinion referred to Sir 

 Edward, who subscribes it thus : 



" I am of opinion the 

 retorne is good. 



Edw. Coke." 



This surely is decisive on the question at issue. 



L. B. L. 



Martin the French Peasant- Prophet, 8fc. (2°"^ S. 

 i. 490.) — The most authentic and complete ac- 

 count of the extraordinary mission of Thomas 

 Martin to the French King Louis XVIII., is con- 

 tained in a work, entitled Le Passe et VAvenir, 

 published at Paris in 1832, and containing a 

 Declaration signed by Martin, that the events are 

 faithfully related in this book, and that it contains 

 the only correct account. In relating Martin's 

 interview with the king, the following is the ac- 

 count given of the point on which W. H. particu- 

 larly requests information. Martin says : 



" Apres cela, je lui dis : Prenez garde de vous faire 

 sacrer ; car si vous le tentiez, vous seriez frappe de mort 

 dans la ceremonie du sacre." 



Upon this the editor makes the following note : 



*• Toutes les personnes attach^es alors a la cour, tant 

 soit peu, au courant des choses peuvent attester comme 

 un fait notoire que Ton avait dejk fait, par ordre du roi, de 

 grands preparatifs pour son sacre, avant son entrevue 

 avec Martin, et qu'aprfes cette entrevue, le roi contre- 

 manda tous ses (ces) preparatifs." 



This work not only gives the fullest details of 

 the extraordinary mission of Martin ; but enters 

 calmly* into the proofs of its supernatural cha- 

 I'acter; and afterwards devotes a chapter to an- 

 swering objections against it. It was published in 

 1832 ; and continues the history of Martin, and 

 his subsequent revelations, to the year before the 

 publication. One very curious prophecy con- 

 tained in a note deserves attention at the present 

 time. The note does not refer to Martin, but to 

 certain predictions of several religious persons 

 wTiose names are given, and who all [agreed upon 

 the two following points: 1st, That France was 

 threatened with great calamities ; and 2ndly, the 

 unexpected appearance of a great monarch who 

 should restore order, and under whose reign Reli- 

 gion and France should again see days of pros- 

 perity. I copy this from a work which I have 

 had in my own possession since 1833. Certainly 

 the present state of France verifies this prediction 

 to the letter. F. C. H. 



Oermination of Seeds long buried (2"*^ S. ii. 10.) 



— As one instance, where plants have been no- 

 ticed to grow from seeds that had been long 

 buried, I may mention, for the information of 

 your correspondent E. M., Oxford, that some 

 years ago I observed upon the slopes of a deep 

 embankment of the Ulster Railway, near Lambeg, 

 within a mile of the town of Lisburn, a large 

 number of turnip plants that had sprung from 

 seed that had long been buried in a bank of gravel, 

 sand, and boulder stones, which had been removed 

 to fill up a deep hollow in the ground, and which 

 formed the embankment referred to. I was 

 present when the navvies were removing the 

 gravel bank, and next year I saw the plants grow- 

 ing on the slopes of the embankment as described ; 

 and again, on revisiting the place last year (1855), 

 I still observed a number of turnip plants growing 

 at the same place. The plants were of the true 

 turnip, having large expanded leaves, covered on 

 their upper surface with minute speculas. The 

 roots were long and strong, but exhibited no ten- 

 dency to enlarge into bulb, like the cultivated 

 turnip. The turnip being a rare plant in that 

 part of the country at that time, its appearance 

 under the circumstances was regarded by the 

 work-people as a remarkable phenomenon. 



Henry Stephens. 



Morgan O'Doherty (1" S. x. 96.) — Since none 

 of your correspondents have fixed the identity of 

 Morgan O'Doherty, I presume I may still say, as 

 I said before, that it was Captain Hamilton. No 

 doubt he received assistance from Maginn and 

 others, as mentioned by R. P. (P* S. x. 150.), but 

 that he was the originator of the character there 

 can be no doubt, and he must have been its con- 

 tinuator also, since he lived years after the with- 

 drawal of Morgan's name from the pages of Maga. 

 North received assistance in his Noctes from Lock- 

 hart and others, but it is a curious thing that 

 Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, himself could never 

 write a Noctes that was acceptable or was ac- 

 cepted. S. 



Person referred to by Pascal (2"^ S. i. 412. 500.) 



— However ingenious the interpretation of C. H. 

 S., I cannot help thinking but that Pascal had 

 some definite person in his view when he brought 

 forward the instance in question. His words in 

 the original — 



" Qui aurait eu I'amiti^ du Roi d'Angleterre, du Roi de 

 Pologne, et de la Reine de Sufede, aurait-il cru pouvoir 

 manquer de retraite et d'asile au monde ? " 



may be well enough translated of some person who 

 might have had the friendship of the three kingly 

 powers, but to his disappointment found himself 

 so far reduced as to be unable to obtain evea 

 common shelter. The circumstances of the con- 

 temporary sovereigns mentioned were certainly 



