July 28. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



61 



"N.B. To the expense of the bells the parish raised and 

 paid 40/., but 20Z. thereof being assessed upon the bene- 

 factor's tenants, he was forced to make several abatements 

 to them, and great part also being spent by the church- 

 trardens in junquetting, and great allowances being 

 made by them to the parish clerk for oyl and finding 

 bell-ropes, &c., scarce half thereof was regularly applyed 

 to the uses mentioned above. 



" Paid to Hanns of Aylesbury for making chimes £ s. d. 

 to go on the said eight bells to the 113 Psalm 

 tune, and gave to the man that put them up, 

 and for brasses to the two trebles, and car- 

 riage of them to and from Aylesbury - 10 10 

 Gave to Kitchener of Olney for tuning the bells 2 



" The old bells weighed only forty-three hundred and 

 seven pounds, so these are about twenty-six hundred and 

 a half heavier: and the great tener is within a few 

 pounds heavier than the old tener and treble both added 

 together. 



" Inscriptions on the 1st and 2nd bells cast after the six 

 biggest, only the bellfounder's, &c. names, but on the six 

 biggest these verses : 



1. 

 2. 



3. ' Quod sit Sacra dies, primo denuncio mane.' 



4. 'Ad Templum Populus per me properare monetur.' 



5. ' Pulsa voco Plebem tractare negotia villa.' 



6. ' Est Campanarum sine me Symphonia nulla.' 



7. 'Conjugium, Partus, Hysteria, Festa decoro.' 



8. ' Me resonare jubent Hominura mors, Concio, Funus.' " 



Sense versus Sound. — A town in the United 

 States having been called Franklin, a friend 

 wrote to the doctor stating that it had been done 

 in compliment to him ; and added, that as the 

 townspeople were building a church, perhaps he 

 would kindly give them a bell. Franklin an- 

 swered, that as he presumed the good people pre- 

 ferred sense to sound, he declined giving the bell, 

 but would gladly give them books. A reply so 

 characteristic of the man should be remembered. 

 It need only be added that Franklin kept his 

 promise, and that his library js still in very good 

 condition. " W. W. 



Malta. 



The Founder of the Rtissian Monarchy a War- 

 wickshire Man. — A Warwick historian claims for 

 that town the origin of Rurick's name. It is 



No. 300.] 



almost certain that Rurick was a Dane, and he 

 may have taken part with the Danes against 

 Alfred.* This part of English history is exces- 

 sively obscure. The Baltic freebooter (Rurick = 

 Warwick), a. d. 839, was called in by the inhabit- 

 ants of Novgorod to defend them against their 

 neighbours, who, having made himself master of 

 great part of the country, founded a dynasty which 

 ruled uninterruptedly till A. d. 1598, and which, 

 prior to a.d. 1044, had made four naval attacks on 

 Constantinople. Warwick was ruined in the 

 early wars of the Danes, and restored by Ethel- 

 fleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, and governot 

 of Mercia, who built a fort there a. d. 913. Alfred 

 destroyed the Danish power in England a.d. 893, 

 after it had existed 106 years. We may con- 

 jecture that Kurick's engagement to Russia left 

 the Danish power in England so reduced as to 

 favour Alfred's views. The etymology of War- 

 wick shows its roots to be Guarth -f Wick = Gar- 

 rison on the bend of a river (see Camden's Brit.^ 

 p. 425.). The origin of the name of the Corsair, 

 called Bapifyoi by Codinus, Bipc^ry" by Ducanges 

 and Varagians or Varangians by Gibbon, was 

 probably from Varangar Fiord, on the coast of 

 Sweden in the extreme north, adjoining Norway, 

 and ceded to Russia in 1815. f The Varangians 

 are described at first as mixt Danish and Swedish, 

 next as mixt Danish and English. (Gibbon, 

 vol. X. c. 55.) T. J. BucKTON. 



Lichfield. 



Ladies and TFi're*. — Twenty years ago every 

 new-born infant was announced as born of " the 

 lady of ." At that time one or two per- 

 sons began to see that this mode of proclamation 

 neither said nor implied anything about the wed- 

 ding-ring; and the example they set was gradually 

 followed. Now, almost every mother who has 



not a title of rank is "the wife of ," or " Mrs. 



." But still, once in every two or three 



times (or Timeses), a " lady of" makes her appear- 

 ance. When the change was exciting discussion, 

 the following anecdote was very effective, which, 

 being good enough to be true, of course was true. 

 A lady presented herself at some place which was 

 not open except by tickets, in some cathedral 

 town. To the demur of the doorkeeper she said, 

 " Do you know that I am the bishop's lady ? " To 

 which the doorkeeper answered, " Madam, if you 

 had been the Bishop's wi/e, I could not have ad- 

 mitted you without a ticket." 



* Danes = Norsemen = Normans = Normanni were pro- 

 perly Teutones of the Baltic coasts, including Norwegians, 

 and had a literature. The Poems of Ossian are conceived 

 in the spirit of this people, who have so much influenced 

 European civilisation. . . ^„ 



\ They are called ^araegers by Milller (^Untv. Hist^y 

 vol. ii. B. 14. s. 18.), which differs little from Warwickers 

 in sound. 



