Sept. 1. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



167 



and George and his family were all burned to 

 death. L ntC A. H. 



Stoke Newington. - ^^<^ p- '2-5?' 



Will o' the Wisp. — Has any reader of " N. & 

 Q." ever seen that kind of light which is popularly 

 designated as the " Will o' the wisp ?" or is it only 

 existing in the poetical traditions, and truly an 

 ignis fatuus f W. 



" A fair field and no faooiir." — What is the 

 origin of this expression ? Is it to be traced to 

 Livy, XXV. 9., where Hannibal, when on the point 

 of entering Tarentum, and being in correspon- 

 dence with some traitors inside the city, orders his 

 cavalry to halt, " Ut, quo res postulet, occurrere 

 libero campo possent?" Perhaps some of your 

 readers can furnish me with a parallel passage. 



K. J. A. 



Turkey and Rome. — In Dr. Watts's Reliquies 

 Juveniles, Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and 

 Verse, ^c. (4th edit. 12mo., 1752), I find, at p. 73., 

 an article headed " Babjlon Destroyed, or the 

 137th Psalm translated," from which I extract the 

 following passage : 



" This particular Psalm could not well be converted 

 into Christianity, and therefore it appears here in its 

 Jewish form. The vengeance denounced against Babylon, 

 in the close of it, shall be executed (said a great divine) 

 upon Anti- Christian Kome; but he was persuaded the 

 Turks must do it ; for Protestant hearts, said he, have too 

 much compassion in them to embrue their hands in such 

 a bloody and terrible execution." 



What divine is here referred to, and where is 

 the opinion given ? In the same volume, I find 

 the idea of a Crystal Palace. An article on " The 

 Temple of the Sun" (p. 45.) thus commences : 



" If I were an idolater, and would build a Temple for 

 the Sun, I should make the whole fabrick to consist of 

 glass ; the walls and roof of it should be all over trans- 

 parent, and it should need no other windows. Thus I 

 might every where behold the glorv of the god that I 

 worship, and feel his heat, and rejoice in his light, and 

 partake of the vital influences of that illustrious star in 

 every part of his temple." 



H. Martin. 



Halifax. 



Abdias of Babylon. — When was the Historia 

 Ceriaminis Apostolici written ? Was Abdias Ba- 

 bylonicus its author ? Where can I find its genu- 

 ineness discussed? My copy is dated 1571, and 

 was printed at Paris, B. H. C. 



[Beausobre {Histoire Critique de Manichee et du Mani- 

 cheisme, pt. ii. liv. ii. ch. 6.), who has critically examined 

 this History of the Martyrdom of the Apostles, considers it 

 as a forgery of the sixth or, at the soonest, of the end of 

 the fifth century. Of the real history of the writer of 

 this apocryphal work nothing seems to be known. It 

 does not profess to be the original work of Abdias, but 



No, 305.] 



has this inscription in Latin subjoined in the MS. dis- 

 covered at Ossjach about 1549 : " Abdias, Bishop of 

 Babylon, who was ordained by the apostles themselves, 

 wrote these actions of the Holy Apostles in Hebrew, the 

 whole of which was translated by Eutropius into Greek j, 

 and into Latin by Africanus, who arranged them in ten 

 books." Lazius, Jo. Gerh. Vossius, Bayle, and others, 

 speak of Abdias as having been, or having professed to 

 be, one of the seventy disciples : but, as Fabricius ob- 

 serves, there is no statement to this effect in the work 

 itself. Consult Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testa- 

 rnenti, where the work is given ; Bayle, Dictionnaire ; 

 Chaufepie, Supplement au Diet, de Bayle ; Cave, Scriptor. 

 Ecclesiast. Mist. Lit. ; Casparus Heunischius, jEtates pa- 

 trum prcecipuorum, 1G77 ; and Biographical Dictionary of 

 the Useful Knowledge Societ}', art. Abdias.] 



Dr. Edward Ash and " The Speculator." — Can 

 you give me any information regarding Edward 

 Ash, M.D., author of The Speculator, published 

 in weekly numbers, 8vo., 1790? Could you alsa 

 inform me whether he is the sole author of this 

 periodical ? R, J. 



[Edward Ash, M.D., F.R.S., was born at Birmingham 

 in 1764, and was nephew to Dr. John Ash of that place. 

 He was appointed Physician Extraordinary to George III., 

 and died at his house in Foley Place, March 29, 1829, 

 aged sixty -five. The Speculator, consisting of twenty-six 

 weekl}' numbers, was the joint production of Nathan 

 Drake, M.D., and Dr. Edward Ash.] 



G. Felle, Dominiquain. — "Who was G. Felle, 

 Dominiquain, Doct. en Theol. et Aumonier de 

 Jean III. of Poland ? I have a Catechisme Na- 

 turel by him, Hamburg, 1678. The author says 

 this was his twentieth book, and his age thirty- 

 four. He dedicates it to the Princess of Orange, 

 and subscribes himself "Le Dernier des Domi- 

 niquains." What does this mean ? B. H. C. 



[Guil. Felle, a Dominican, of Dieppe, in Normandy, be- 

 came a member of that Order at Metz in 1660 ; travelled 

 in Africa, Asia, and the whole of Europe ; was Doctor of 

 Theolog}' and King's Almoner in Poland under John III., 

 and died in 1710. He is the author of the well-known 

 work, " Resolutissima ac profundissima omnium diffici- 

 lium argumentorum, quae contra B. Virginis cultum af- 

 ferri possunt, solutio; brevissimum fidei propugnaculum; 

 fel jesuiticum ; lapis theologorum ; la ruina del Quietismo 

 e dell' amor puro ; " in three parts. His other writings, 

 not so generally known, amount to about thirty in num- 

 ber. — Jocher," Gekhrten- Lex icon, vol. ii. p. 553. The. 

 expression, "Le Dernier des Dominiquains," imports that 

 the Doctor was the last of thfe Dominican friars.] 



Domisellus and JSques Auratus. 

 exact meaning of these titles ? 



-What is the 

 J. 



[Domisellus has four difi^erent meanings. 1. Generally 

 it signifies an attendant on a prince, abbot, or other great 

 personage; in modern pai'lance, a young gentleman in 

 waiting. Those chosen for this honourable post were 

 youths of high birth: "Domicelli et Domicellse dicuntur, 

 quando pulchri juvenes magnatum sunt sicut servientes," 

 is the explanation of Du Cange in his Glossary. 2. The 

 term was also, applied to the sons of kings and barons, 

 when in a state of tutelage. Accordingly, Froissart styles 

 Richard II. when a minor, " Le jeune Damoisel Richart " 

 (vol. i. ch. 325.). 3. But especially this honourable title 

 was given to the sons of knights, before they were of an age 



