302 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Oct. 20. 1855. 



Door Inscriptions. — The inscription over the 

 singer Caffarelli's door was — 



" Amphion Thebas ego domum." 

 Over Mr- Macauley's house-door in co. Antrim 

 was the motto — 



" Dalce Periculum boots and spurs." 

 Over a small wine-house at Florence ^- 



. " Al buon vino non bisogna frasca." 

 This motto was above the mausoleum at Com. 

 Chardin — 



" Whoever easts up his eyes, loses the idea of Paradise." 

 Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Church. — The earliest example I have found 

 of the Greek original of this word, as applied to 

 the place in which Christians worship, is in Euse- 

 bius, Eccles. Hist., b. ix. ch. v. His words are, 

 " And that in the very churches they do unseemly 

 things," — " 'E*' auTois re tois KvpiaKots" k. t. A.. 



B. H. C. 



Pharaoh. — This word is Egyptian, and without 

 the definite article is the Coptic ovpo, king ; but 

 with the article tt prefixed it is wovpo or (povpo, 

 where the <j) is an aspirated p, but not equivalent 

 to the English y. (See Josephus, Ant. viii. 6. 2. ; 

 La Crozii, Lex. Copt., p. 70. ; Senionis, Onouvast., 

 p. 7.). The Talmudic pronunciation of this word 

 is par-how by the German, and par-ho by Spanish 

 Jews. T. J. IBucKTON. 



Lichfield. 



Note for Naturalists. — I send you the record of 

 two sleepless nights in the year 1851, which I 

 have accidentally found among some papers. Your 

 naturalist readers may not think it altogether un- 

 worthy of preservation : 



" May 9, 1851, Rainy morning. 

 One rook cawed at 3-35 A.m. 

 One blackbird began to whistle at 340 a.m. 



In about five minutes afterwards, other blackbirds joined 

 him ; and the thrushes also commenced their song. Very 

 shortly, the cuckoo chimed in. 



" May 25, 1851. Fine morning. 

 Rooks at 2 "45 a.m. 

 Lesser birds at 2'55 A.m. 

 Thrushes at 3-2 a.m." 



C. W. B. 

 Saints and Flowers. — Your readers who are 

 collecting the literary curiosities which have re- 

 ference to flowers, will find a vast number of 

 illustrations in the three volumes of Mediceval 

 Hymns lately edited by Mone, and generally in 

 the devotional and religious poetry of the Church 

 of Rome. The poetry of flowers is also very fre- 

 quent in the Scriptures; and in the writings of 

 Persian, Arabic, and other oriental poets. I am 

 unwilling to fill your pages with illustrations, they 

 are so plentiful, any one may obtain them. There 

 No. 312.] 



are many very beautiful associations of saints and 

 flowers, to mention which I make this Note ; and 

 refer to the volumes above named, as a field where 

 a rich harvest may be reaped. B. H. C. 



Derivation of " Westmorland.^'' — It seems to be 

 a disputed question whether we should look for 

 the derivation of the middle syllable in moor or 

 mere. Perhaps the following instances of the way 

 in which the word Avas formerly spelled will set 

 the matter at rest : — 



Westm.erlandia, in an order of Edward II. made 

 about 1312, relating to the lands of the Knights 

 Templars in England, printed in the Appendix to 

 the first volume of Vertot's Histoire des Cheva- 

 liers Hospitallers. 



Westmorland, in the fix'st edition of the Nut 

 JBrown Maid, circa 1521. 



Westmerlande, in the return of the prisoners 

 taken at Sollom Moss, 1542. State Papers. 



The Ayres that ivere sung and played at 

 Brougham Castle in Westmerland, 8fc., a volume 

 printed in 1618. 



Westmerland, in the inscription on Barden 

 Tower, Yorkshire, 1659. 



Can any of your readers adduce other instances 

 from old books or MSS. ? 



James Yate Johnson. 



another massacre of sinope. 



Will some kind oculist undertake the cure of 

 the eye {ic^) of Sinope? By so doing, he will 

 greatly oblige, as well as enlighten, a corresponding 

 pupil. What is the quantity of its penultima ? I 

 remember to have heard a rigid orthoepist (?) 

 commit a curious Russo-classic outrage on this 

 unfortunate name, by making short work of that 

 syllable ; either because he was unwilling to part 

 with what had become, from long usage, a eupho- 

 nious pronunciation, or, on the Nicholaic prin- 

 ciple, which warrants the brief disposal of an ill- 

 used nominal member, very " near its end." A 

 casual mispronunciation is what few pedants quar- 

 rel about, and, least of all, with those who profess 

 no acquaintance with the classical pedigree of 

 words, but a cold-blooded false quantity, persisted 

 in (in defiance of repeated challenges) by one 

 who plumes himself on his corrective capabilities, 

 one too anointed with the oil of impeccability, is a 

 species of classical delinquency which can scarcely 

 be overlooked even by peccable scholars. For 

 such an offender (if he be not too far advanced 

 for correction), a low form in some classico- 

 reformafory school would be perhaps the best seat 

 of learning. Will one of your correspondents 

 place this point beyond dispute, for the satisfac- 

 tion of a 7«CMfZy-orthoepical friend, Avho may be 



