416 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 47., Nov. 22. '56. 



PAGAN PHILOSOPHER ! 

 LEAGUE 



AUTHOR OF SIR SIMON 

 BABIGER. 



(2"'> S. ii. 150.) 



" AittTi Sri o5j' avTO? fiev 6 ravra Sptov 6i5(i>\oiroib$ avi)p iav 

 Tov a(^i)j(ri. (SeA-Ttova o;'Ta koX ck fieKrioviov yeyovora' rots Se 

 ai//uxots eiSwXois, xat (xovr; rp ejj.<l>a.(TeL Tr)s ^co^s eTriTrveoftefots, 

 apixovia T6 €)ri(r»c6ua<rT)7 Koi TroAveiSei (rvreyofieVoi! eluOev, e<f>e- 

 /uepoif T€ aT«x'"*S oJo'ii', aTroTricTTeuwi' Aatcerat ; Trorepoi' toi" 

 yy^criov Kttl aAijfles iv avrai? vrrapx^i ; a\A' ovSec tcov iiirb av- 

 OpajTriVijs Te'xi'ijs (Tv/aTrAaTTO/ueVo)!'. eiAiKpii'es etrri Kal KaOapov." 



— Jamblichus de 3Iysteriis, cxxix. p. 99., ed. Gail, Oxon., 

 1678. 



If the author had read the whole of this short 

 and curious chapter, he would have found that by 

 cj'ScJAa the " Pagan Philosopher " did not mean 

 graven images, but the magical phantasms pro- 

 duced by fumigation, which, he says, are less 

 durable than the reflections in a mirror, and are 

 lost as the smoke is diffused. 



I have not been at Upsala, but I know Utrecht 

 and its cathedral. In Murray's Handbook for 

 Holland and No7-thern Germany it is said : 



" The lofty choir is a fragment of a noble Gothic edi- 

 fice, the finest church in Holland; but it has suffered 

 mucli from fanatic iconoclasts and modern pewing, and 

 high wood-work, in the conventicle style, which hides its 

 beautifully-clustered Gothic pillars of great height and 

 lightness. They have, too, been sadlj'' cut away to admit 

 tlie upper seats, which are arranged like those of a lecture 

 theatre." 



The author of The Enquiry^ Sfc, perhaps thinks 

 this not enough ; but the music which I heard 

 there might have satisfied Knox, if taken as a 

 protest against harmony and melody. The cathe- 

 dral was well filled, and the congregation sung 

 from their psalm-books, with no particular atten- 

 tion to the organ. Those who had finished the 

 line courteously waited for those who had not, 

 before beginning the next. All opened their 

 mouths to the fullest stretch, and each roared as 

 if he felt that beating the organ depended on his 

 individual exertions. The organist slipped in a 

 few notes between the lines. He and his instru- 

 ment were out of place. A railway whistle or a 

 bagpipe might have suited such a choir, and have 

 satisfied the tastes and consciences of those who 

 mistake bare walls and bad psalmody for signs of 

 Protestantism. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



Basheit, Baskett, De la Beche (2"" S. i. 457.) — 

 It is possible that your correspondent may find 

 some clue to the origin of this name by consult- 

 ing Section 4. of the Laws of Edward the Con- 

 fessor, re-enacted by William the Conqueror. On 

 i-eferring to the three copies of these laws, as given 

 by Selden in his Notes to Eadmer (including the 

 one from Ingulph's Chronicle), we find it enacted 

 that an offender guilty of larceny " shall restore 



the chattel for which he was arrested, and shall 

 pay twenty solidi for his head, four denarii to the 

 keeper of the prison {al ceper\ and one maille or 

 obolus, pur la besche." 



It seems pretty evident that the last words bear 

 reference to some officer, connected with the 

 prison, and of inferior rank to le ceper, the go- 

 vernor of the prison, and this too in England in 

 the time of Edward the Confessor. The only 

 question is what the nature of this office was, and 

 in quest of this information I have consulted Du 

 Cange and other authorities in vain. Neither 

 Selden nor Sir F. Palgrave attempts an explana- 

 tion. My own impression is, that La besche was 

 the name given to the spade-man of the prison, or, 

 in other words, the gardener, who would have 

 the more unpleasant duty, occasionally, o( grave- 

 digger to perform. In later times La besche 

 would be transformed into £>e la beche, and the 

 name, on being Latinized, would assume the form 

 of Baschatus, whence probably the present names 

 Bashett and Baskett. 



Perhaps some of your readers will kindly favour 

 me with their opinion as to the office meant by 

 La besche. Henry T. Hiley. 



Kemeys Family (2'^'^ S. ii. 249.) — G. S. S. may 

 wish to learn that an Edward Kemeys was com- 

 mander of an army under Dru de Baladun, at the 

 conquest of Upper Gwent ; and that from him the 

 still existing church of Kemeys, in Monmouth- 

 shire, is supposed to be called " Kemeys Com- 

 mander." An early branch of the same family 

 was the Martins, Lords of Kemeys in 1215, at the 

 Castle at Newport in Pembrokeshire. C. G. 



Paddington. 



LepeWs Regiment (P' S. vii. 501.) —The fol- 

 lowing extract from a letter of the famous Sarah 

 Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, may not 

 prove uninteresting to J. K. : 



" What I am going to say I am sure is as true as if I 

 had been a transactor in it iflyself, and I will begin the 

 relation with IVIr. Lepell, my Lord Fanny's wife's father, 

 having made her a cornet in his regiment as soon as she 

 was born ; and she was i)aid many years after she was a 

 Maid of Honour. She was extreme forward and pert, and 

 my Lord Sunderland got her a pension from George I., 

 it being too ridiculous to continue her any longer an 

 officer in the army." 



The lady referred to was the celebrated Mary 

 Lepell, daughter of Brigadier-General Lepell. 

 Her husband was John Lord Hervey, author of 

 the Memoirs, well known by his nickname at 

 Court of Lord Fanny. Buriensis. 



Bandalore : Robespierre (2"'^ S. ii. 350.) — If 

 Mr. Eiley had stated the date of the " almanack " 

 he refers to, it might have facilitated the solution 

 of his question ; but, as it is, I think I may venture 

 to say that Robespierre no more invented this toy 

 than gunpowder, and I regret that Mr. Riley has 



