Kov. 24. 1865.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



418 



their very late arrival. There was a nest with 

 four very young birds in it, in the corner of a 

 window at Ford, in this parisli, as lute as Oct. 20th, 

 the old birds having left with their companions. 



The extraordinary increase of all the insect and 

 caterpillar tribe is the conseciuence of the scarcity 

 of these useful birds ; the brassica tribe of J;>lants 

 has suffered most severely. At Paignton, the 

 staple trade of which is the sale of spring cabbage 

 plants, all have been quite destroyed by the catei-- 

 pillar. Wm. Coi.lyns. 



Swallows. — In " N". & Q." (Vol. xii., p., 331.), 

 there is a Note on the accidental mortality of 

 these "harbingers of spring," if so the Hirundines 

 may be called, which is not only interesting, but 

 affecting : for, next to the redbreast, the swallow 

 seems to possess a sort of hereditary claim to 

 houseless sympathy. But my main design is to 

 offer a Query: — An intelligent lady assures me, 

 that on a fine day in autumn, about two years 

 since, she saw a number of swallows successively 

 dive, and not emerge again, in a well-known river 

 in the north of England. Her conviction is, that 

 their object was sub-aqueous hybernation, accord- 

 ing to an old theory. I need not disclaim par- 

 ticipation in this notion ; but I am anxious to 

 know whether this diving of swallows, i\\Q fact of 

 which I fully admit on her testimony, has been 

 observed by others. W. 



Conversations with Wordsworth, Coleindge, dfc. 

 (Vol. xii., p. 346.). — The title of the book is 

 Conversations at Cambridge, published by Parker, 

 Strand, 1836. S. Mackies. 



In the Liberal, vol. ii., London, Hunt, 1823, is 

 a very interesting article, headed " My first Ac- 

 (juaintance with Poets," sighed W. H., giving 

 some graphic sketches of Coleridge's piersonal ap- 

 pearance, manners, and conversation, and con- 

 taining a record of a visit paid by the writer to 

 Coleridge at Nether Stowey, in Somersetshire, 

 where he met Wordsworth, of whom many traits 

 are preserved, and an account given of an excur- 

 sion, containing abundant scraps of Coleridge and i 

 Wordsworth's ways and words. This is not the 

 book inquired after by your querist, but I thought 

 it might not be known to him, and may perhaps 

 contain something worth the trouble of picking 

 "P- " C. D. Lamoht. 



This, I have no doubt, is a small book entitled 

 Conversations at Cambridge. The conversations 

 profess to be with Coleridge, Kirke White, Words- 

 worth, Moultrie, &c. I have a copy, which, if 

 it be the book Mb. iNGLEur requires, I shall be 

 happy to give him, if he will favour me with his (- 

 address. E. G. R. 



Satire on Scotland (Vol. xii., p. 247.). — It is 

 remarkable that the writer of the note on this 

 No. 317.] 



work should not have been aware, thstt in the two 

 curious and not uncommon volumes, edited by 

 Sir Walter Scott, and entitled The Secret History 

 of the Court of King Jamc.s, it has been printed 

 as the undoubted work of Sir Anthony Weldon. 



Since this publication, and after the demise of 

 Sir Walter Scott, a discovery was made by James 

 Macdonald, Escj., advocate (editor of the Analecta 

 Scotica, Scottish Peerage, Laws, j^'c), of a IMS. in 

 the Balfour Collection ; containing not only the 

 original satire, dated June, 1617, but, what was 

 more interesting, an answer to it. These he in- 

 cluded in the privately printed volume, entitled 

 The Abbottsford Miscellany, with a long disserta- 

 tion on thb subject of the authorship, which will 

 be found to contain almost everything on the sub- 

 ject then known. That Thomas Kirke may have 

 been the author, is not impossible ; but it would 

 be desirable to know the grounds on which his 

 claim can be maintained. Two things arc certain : 

 1. That (front the date, 1617,) James Howel 

 could hot be the author ; and 2n(l, that about the 

 date assigned in the Balfour MS., Sir Anthony 

 Weldon did write a bitter satire on Scotland of a 

 similar description. J. M. 



Edinburgh. 



Advertisements in Cipher (Vol. xii., pp. 42. 112. 

 305.). — Being of rather an inquisitive natui*e, I 

 have had many " a dig " at the " S Impi " adver- 

 tisements noticed by Mr. Ingleby, but hitherto, 

 like himself, without success, and as I see the 

 specimen he sends you ends with " of hipO," words 

 which a very slight change wbuld render Photo- 

 graphic. I expect he has not been " floored " 

 very easily, but I fancy that in this case none of 

 the usual methods of deciphering by transposition 

 of letters will be of any avail, as every word (if 

 they are words) in the composition appears to 

 consist only of two, three, or four letters at most, 

 besides those ominous capitals, both of which seem 

 to point to a regular " code " arranged between 

 the " corresponding parties." R. W. Hackwood. 



Red Slippers (Vol. xii., p. 205.). — I have not 

 the passage referred to lay F. M. E. by me, but 

 perhaps the following may be of some^ service 

 towards expounding it : 



" The most characteristic feature of dress at Ooustanti- 

 noplc is the slipper, the colour of which was formerly 

 regulated b}' government, the Turks wearing yello\r, the 

 Armenians red, atid the Jews blue. On mounting the 

 ottoman, it is the invariable custom to leave the slippers 

 on the floor, and before entering a mosque, or house, to 

 remove them, and not, as we should, the turban," 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Single-speech Hamilton (Vol. xii., p. 306.). -- 

 Is there not some mistake in saying that " this 

 gentleman made a solitary speech," which obtained 

 him the sobriquet of "Single-speech?" Upon 

 looking into his work, entitled Parliam,entary 



