July 14. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



29 



Can any of your readers state the name of the 

 authoress ? In her " advertisement," by way of 

 preface, she says : 



" These poems are the genuine fruits of retirement and 

 leisure, and were occasioned by such a series of adverse 

 events as led the author to a peculiar habit of contem- 

 plating the ways of an all-wise, over-ruling Providence, 

 and to the experience of that solid happiness in the pre- 

 sent life which often begins when worldly prosperity 

 ends." 



The poems are mostly of a religious character, 

 and in some of them I think I can trace the hand 

 of the author of the Olney Hymns. 



J. Penntcook Bbown. 

 Islington. 



Charlotte Humboldt. — There was a volume of 

 poems published under the following title, Co- 

 rinth, a Tragedy, and other Poems, by Charlotte 

 Humboldt, 1838. Can you inform me whether 

 the authoress was a niece of the celebrated Miss 

 Carter? In the Gentlemaiis Magazine for 1813, 

 I observed the marriage of Henry de Humboldt, 

 only son of Baron von Humboldt, of Schweidnitz, 

 in Silesia, to Charlotte Carter, daughter of 

 J. Carter, Deal, and niece of Miss E. Carter. 



R.J. 

 Glasgow. 



Officers killed at Preston Pans. — Robert Cham- 

 bers states, in his History of the Rebellion in 1745, 

 that five officers in the royalist army were killed 

 at the battle of Preston Pans. 



Can any of your readers supply me with the 

 names of those officers, and the regiments to which 

 they belonged ? A. B. C. 



" Vesica Piscis." — Can any of your correspon- 

 dents inform me when the term vesica piscis was 

 first used ? And if there are any examples of it 

 earlier than the tenth century ? J. C. J. 



Harp. — When was the harp first used as the 

 arms of Ireland, and when introduced in the 

 royal achievement as such ? Z. Z. 



Method of taking out Ink. — Can some of your 

 correspondents inform me of a means of taking 

 writing from paper without making a serious 

 blemish in it ? Any plan which would make a 

 slight blemish would still be useful in the frequent 

 case of old books having the title or other pages 

 scored with names, &c. J,°P. 



James Campbell. — Can you, or any of your 

 readers, give me any account of James Campbell, 

 author of The Judgment of Babylon, the Siege of 

 Masada, and other Poems, 12mo., 1826? This 

 little volume of poetry was dedicated to the Rev. 

 Dr. Styles, a dissenting minister, who died a few 

 years ago. E. J. 



Glasgow. 



No. 298.] 



" Ossian and Ferdousee." — Was there any ver- 

 sion of the " Shah Nameh" existing before the 

 publication of Ossian, or was there any means by 

 which Macpherson (who had not then visited 

 India) could have become acquainted with the 

 former poem ? The question is suggested by the 

 striking resemblance of the Ossianic poem of 

 Carthon to the episode of Sohrab and Rustum, 

 lately versified by Mr. Matthew Arnold. The cir- 

 cumstances are almost exactly the same through- 

 out, even to the chivalrous refusal of the senior 

 warriors to declare their names when their so 

 doing would have averted the fatal issue. That 

 two writers so far asunder in age and place should, 

 without any knowledge of each other, have written 

 tales so identical, would hardly be less wonderful 

 than that the whole circumstances of the combat 

 between the Horatii and Curiatii should, without 

 the slightest variation in any point, have re- 

 occui'red in Greece about five hundred years 

 later. J. S. Warden. 



Roman Villa. — Can you inform me which is 

 the best method of laying open a Roman pave- 

 ment, bath, &c. ? I conclude that in this, as in 

 most other cases, " a master's eye is worth two 

 pair of hands." 



Are Roman villas (or rather I should say their 

 foundations) usually built upon one and the same 

 plan ? 



Once more, can you tell me if any book in 

 which I can find a satisfactory account of these 

 interesting buildings ? Centurion. 



[Having submitted this Query to a gentleman quali- 

 fied to speak with the highest authority upon this sub- 

 ject, he answers, " Tell your correspondent that to clear 

 out a Roman villa he must always be present, or employ 

 a competent overseer ; that he must as much as possible 

 interdict the use of pick-axes, and have the shovel em- 

 ploj'ed, and that carefully, or the painted plaster of the 

 walls is sure to be lost. Pick-axes are sad destroyers of 

 tesselated pavements. As to the plan of Roman houses 

 and villas, there is a pretty general agreement, varied 

 according to site and means ; but the Pompeian House in 

 the Crystal Palace gives the best notion of what is 

 generally found in all. The best books on the subject 

 are Lysons' Account of the Roman Antiquities discovered 

 at Woodchesier ; and Buckman and Newmarch's Illustra- 

 tions of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the site 

 of ancient Corinium."^ 



Jones'' "Botanical Tour through Cornwall and 

 Devon." — This book was not published in London. 

 Can you name the place of publication ? An early 

 reply will greatly oblige, as it is wanted for con- 

 sultation during a short visit to the seaside of 

 Cornwall. Tempera et Scribe. 



[This work is by the Rev. J. P. Jones, one of the editors 

 of Flora Devoniensis. It was printed at Exeter in 1820, 

 and we suspect only for private circulation, as it is not to 

 be found in our public libraries.^ 



