144 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 25. 1855. 



Cteniis (KrefoCs) of Strabo, " the same distance 

 from Balaclava (^vn06\a)y hlfj-evos) as it is from 

 raiv Xef>^ov7)(nT(Zv TruAecas" No place corresponds 

 with this distance but a spot marked on the 

 maps " Ruined Village Tombs," near the place 

 where the French troops disembarked last year. 

 There is an inaccuracy in Dr. E. D. Clarke's es- 

 timate of the stadium, which he roughly makes a 

 furlong ; for short distances the difference is im- 

 material, but for longer the error is magnified so 

 as to interfere with the long distances mentioned 

 by Strabo and Arrian. The furlong is 220 yards, 

 but the Greek stadium was a small fraction in 

 excess of 202 yards. The distance from Bala- 

 clava to Feodosia is about 1000 stadia, according 

 to Strabo (1. vii. c. 4. S/3.); it is just 100 miles 

 English. It is, however, only 871 stadia as the 

 crow flies, but will be about 1000 by sea. 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Lichfield. 



A Street Song. — The following parody on a 

 popular song I think you will agree with me is 

 too good to be lost, and at the present time may 

 well be enshrined in " N. & Q. ;" the paper I copy 

 it from bespeaks its having issued from the " Cat- 

 nach " press, but it may be a reprint possibly : 



" You have told us, Johnny Russell, 



When you on the hustings stood. 



That the laws you would bring forward 



Should do trade and commerce good. 



We returned you for the City, 



And we trusted to your row, 



Now you laugh at all your speeches ; 



Crikey, ain't we humbug'd now? 

 " Oh, Lord John, you always promise 



You'll be better by and bye ; 



But you soon forget that promise. 



When electors are not nigh. 



You are lukewarm, Johnny Russell ; 



Jews can't sit without a row ; 



Mind you do your best next session, 



Crikey, ain't we humbug'd now ? 



" You are keeping up the army. 

 Window-taxes still are on ; 

 Why did you not help Hungary ? 

 Has 'Nick' frighten'd you, Lord John? 

 When you come into the City, 

 Won't there be a precious row ; 

 We'll serve you like John Manners ; 

 Crikey, ain't we humbug'd now?" 



R. W. Hackwood. 

 Origin of Greenwich Park. — 

 " Please it unto the king our sovereign lord, that of his 

 special grace, and of the assent of his Lords spiritual and 

 temporal, and of the Commons in this present parliament, 

 being : To grant to Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, and 

 Eleanor his wife, a license to enclose 200 acres of their 

 land, pasture, wood, heath, virses, and gorse ; and thereof 

 to make a park in Greenwich : and by the same authority 

 to make towers there of stone and lime, after the form 

 and tenure of a schedule to this present bill annexed, 

 without fee or fine thereof to yon to be paid." — Petitiones 

 in Parliamento (15 Hen. VI.). 



No. 304.] J. W. 



" GESTA ROMANOBUM," AND WHO COMPILED IT ? 



I have just stumbled upon the following pas- 

 sage in Grasse's edition of the Gesta liomanorum, 

 Das Alteste Mixhrchen- und Legenden Buck des 

 Christlichen Mittelalters (Dresden and Leipsic, 

 1842), in which direct reference is made to its 

 compiler ; and I venture through your columns 

 to ask, whether the learned editor of the edition 

 published for the Roxburgh Society, Sir F. Mad- 

 den, has had his attention drawn to the passage in 

 question ; and if so, how far he considers the in- 

 formation satisfactory ? Dr. Grasse quotes (vol. ii. 

 p. 294.) the following extract from c. 68. of the 

 Dialogus Creaturarum : 



" Habebant enim antiqui principes affectum erga in- 

 feriores sicut luculenter exprimetur in eorum gestis. Unde 

 EUmandus in Gestis Ronianorum narrat de Trajano qui 

 cum adscendisset ad bellum festinanter, qusedam vidua 

 flebiliter occurrit dicens : obsecro, ut sanguinem filii mei 

 innocentis perempti vindicare digneris. Cumque Tra- 

 janus, si sanus reverteretur, vindicare testaretur, vidua 

 dixit : et quis mihi hoc prasstabit, si tu in proelio interibis. 

 Respondit, qui post me imperabit ; cui vidua : et tibi quid 

 proderit, si alter mihi justitiam fecerit? Et Trajauus: 

 utique nihil. Cui vidua: nonne, inquit, tibi melius est, 

 ut tu mihi justitiam facias et per hoc mercedem accipias, 

 quam alteri hanc transmittas. Tunc Trajanus pietate 

 commotus de equo descendit et innocentis sanguinem vin- 

 dicavit. Idem dum quidam filius Trajani per urbem 

 equitando nimis lascive discurreret, filium cujusdam 

 viduas interemet. Quod cum Trajano vidua lacrimabiliter 

 exponeret, ipsum suum filium, qui hoc fecerat, viduae loco 

 filii sui defuncti tradidit et magnifice ipsum dotabit." 



As I have no opportunity of again referring to 

 Sir F. Madden's valuable Preliminary Dissertation, 

 I trust he and you, Mr. Editor, will excuse my 

 asking the question through the columns of 

 " N. & Q." G. R. 



TURTLE, WHITEBAIT, AND MINISTERIAL WHITE- 

 BAIT DINNERS. 



As " N. & Q." has admitted articles on the 

 orthography of " Calipash " and " Calipee," may 

 I crave its assistance on one or two kindred 

 points ; and as gastronomy is supposed to walk 

 hand in hand with social progress ; and refine- 

 ment in the order, arrangement, and supply of the 

 table has been, and I believe rightly, considered 

 indicative of a high state of intellectual culture, 

 perhaps Queries on this point may be justified in 

 your columns. 



1. When was turtle first introduced into this 

 country ; and by what degrees did its preparation 

 for the table attain its present savoury excellence? 



2. How long has the fashion of going to Black- 

 wall or Greenwich to eat whitebait existed ? In 

 what did it take its rise ? What is the earliest 

 mention of whitebait as an article for the table ? 

 What is the meaning of the name? 



