2nd s. No 42., Oct. 18. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



307 



faulty construction, let us henceforth exclaim, 

 " Hail Colombia ! " J. Lotskt. 



15. Gower Street. 



Extraordinary Births. — There is a woman now 

 living in Chester, the wife of a tavern-keeper, who 

 has had twenty- six children in sixteen years. 

 This has been accomplished by a plentiful sprink- 

 ling of twins among the ordinary births. Several 

 of "the children are still living, but the parents 

 have filled three graves in St. Oswald's church- 

 yard with the defunct issue of their marriage. 



T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



" Coot'' — In looking over Skelton's Phylyp 

 Sparowe, I noticed the line : 



" And also the mad coote." 



This recalled to my memory a proverbial saying 

 in the west of Cornwall, "As mad as a coot:" 

 meaning, that the person was excessively angry. 

 Is there anything in the habits of the bird war- 

 ranting the character here given it? 



J. H. A. Bone. 



Oldest Australian Colonist. — 



" The Melbourne papers report the death of one Henry 

 Waller, aged 62, the oldest Australian emigrant, he 

 having resided in that colony 37 years. It is melancholy 

 to find that Waller died suddenly from a heart disease, 

 induced by excessive tippling." — Times, Aug. IG, 1856. 



E,. W. Hackwood. 



" As deep as the North Star : " "^.s deep as Gar- 

 richr — These are two degrees of comparison for 

 intensified cunning in common use amongst the 

 lower classes in this town and neighbourhood. 

 The relevancy of the former expression is not very 

 apparent, yet there must be a reason for it ; and 

 the latter is remarkable as showing that the genius 

 of the modern Roscius was something beyond the 

 mere fivme which attaches itself to the actor of an 

 age. In this case, although the term " deep " has 

 been wrested from its original signification of 

 tragic intensity, and the name of Garrick has been 

 corrupted into " Garratt," the existence of such a 

 proverb amongst a people who can have scarcely 

 heard of Garrick shows how widely spread the 

 fame of that great actor must have been, and how 

 transcendant that art which could so simulate 

 nature as to pass into a by-word. 



John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Font Inscription. — The following inscription is 

 cut on the stone base of the fine Norman font in 

 Radley Church, Berks : 



" Vas sacrum antiquissimum, diu apud rusticos in pago 

 neglectum tandem denuo inter res sacras servandum 

 curavit Johannes Radcliffe hujus ecclesise vicarius, a.d. 



MDCCCXL." 



W. J. Beknhabd Smith. 



Temple. 



Duplicates. — In the Kaiserliches Zeughaus, in 

 Vienna, I have seen the balloon in which Marshal 

 Jourdan ascended to reconnoitre the Austrian 

 army at Fleurus. Last summer, in the riding- 

 school at Metz, I also saw the balloon in which the 

 marshal made his ascent. The one is unlike the 

 other. Did the French commander go up in two 

 balloons ? Or did the Austrians manufacture the 

 trophy, like the Russians the flag of the Tiger, to 

 humour the natives ? J. Doran. 



The Amalfitan Tahle — The Defenders of the 

 Faith ! — Mr. H. Flanders's treatise on Maritime 

 Law (Boston, U. S., 1852, 8vo.) contains the fol- 

 lowing remarkable passage, which we copy ad 

 litteram : 



" The earliest code of modem sea laws was compiled 

 for the free and trading Republic of Amalfi ... to- 

 wards the end of the eleventh centurj'. The laws known 

 as the Amalfitan Table are entirely lost. No fragment of 

 them has floated down to us. And yet they are men- 

 tioned by authors who wrote so recently as the sixteenth 

 century, as still in existence, and possessing more au- 

 thority than any other code. . . . The naval power 

 of Anialfi was as superior to that of her neighbours, as wa.s 

 her jurisprudence ; and it rendered important services to 

 Christendom, by aiding the pontiffs to repulse the Sa- 

 racens. Leo IV. conferred on (the Republic of) Amalfi 

 the title of Defender of the Faith. But nations, like in- 

 dividuals, have their periods. The sun ascends to the 

 meridian, and then sinks beneath the horizon. Such is 

 nature's law." 



J. LOTSKY. 



15. Gower Street. 



Minav Queries. 



Fowlers of Staffordshire. — Perhaps some of 

 your readers could give me the crest and arms of 

 the Fowlers of Staffordshire, and inform me 

 whether there is any pedigree of the family to be 

 procured ? Wilfeed. 



" The Blister.'" — Who is the author of a piece 

 with the following curious title, The Blister, or a 

 Little Piece to Draw, a petit burletta in one act, 

 London, 8vo., 1814. B. J- 



Wm. Cooper, B. A. — Can you give me any in- 

 formation regarding W. Cooper, B.A., author of 

 The Student of Jena, a German romance, pub- 

 lished at Norwich in 1842. R. J. 



Brilley Church and Funeral Stone, Hereford- 

 shire. — On the fly-leaf of a book in my posses- 

 sion is pasted the following account of a very 

 singular custom ; it is printed on a narrow slip of 

 paper, and does not appear to be cut out of a 

 newspaper. I send it for preservation in your 

 valuable columns, should you think it worthy of 

 insertion : 



"There are to be found in highly favoured Britain 

 many relics of druidical and popish supcrstitioii ; and 



