2»d S. No 82., July 25. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



6T 



holes to receive the first joint of the finger in the 

 lower half: the upper half being now let down 

 presses the knuckles flat, producing great pain, 

 and completely imprisoning the euflerer. Pre- 

 suming that the account of this instrument of 

 torture may be interesting to some of your 

 Scottish readers, I submit it to your approval. 



John Cbemestba. 

 Hull. 



" Saving one's Bacon." — I know not whether 

 the origin of this phrase has ever been discussed 

 in " N. & Q. :" * if so, I am induced to reopen the 

 subject. A few days since I was talking to an 

 elderly friend, and saying that I purposed inviting 

 your aid to solve the mystery, when he volunteered 

 the following solution. In the time of the last 

 French war evil-disposed persons would for a 

 freak alarm the county (Devon) by firing the 

 signal beacons ; on this a crier was ordered to pro- 

 claim the punishment awarded by law to such 

 offenders : instead of using the words " firing the 

 beacon," he is reported to have distorted it into 

 " frying any bacon." Hence, so my friend informs 

 me, arose the expression " Saving one's bacon." 

 Can any of your numerous readers give a better 

 solution ? J. B. S. 



Collumpton. 



Queen KatJierine Parr: Poly dare Virgil. — From 

 a copy of Joannes Ball's Catalogus Scriptorum 

 Illust?-ium, abounding with marginal MS. notes of 

 the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seven- 

 teenth centuries, I extract the following, which 

 may not have appeared in print : 



" Catherina Latimera vel Parra. — Shee was told by an 

 astrologer that did calculate her nativitie that she was 

 borne to sett in the highest state of impiall majestic: 

 which became most true. Shee hadd all the eminent 

 Starrs and planetts in her house : this did worke suche 

 a loftie conceite in her that her mother cowld never make 

 her sewe or doe any small worke, sayinge her handes were 

 ordayned to touch crownea and scepters, not needles and 

 thymbles." 



" Polydorus Vergilius, — that most rascall dogge knave 

 of the -vvorlde, an Englishe man by byrth, but he had 

 Italian parents: he had the randsackinge of all the 

 Englishe lybraryes, and when he had extracted what he 

 pleased he burnt those famous velome manuscripts, and 

 made himself father to other men's workes — felony in the 

 highest degree ; he deserved not heaven, for that was to 

 good for him, neither will I be so uncharitable as to judge 

 him to hell, yet I thinke that he deserved to be hanged 

 between both." 



Cjc. Hoppeb. 



©uerfejJ. 



SONG ON PUGIn's IDEA THAT THERE WAS NO 

 CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE BUT GOTHIC. 



The following little jeu cCesp7-it was written 

 about the time of the publication of A. W. 



[♦ See 1»» S. ii. 424. 499.] 



Pugin's Contrasts. It was privately circulated, 

 and made some little noise : can any of your 

 readers give me an idea who was its author, or 

 any information about him ? 



" Oh ! have you seen the work just out 

 By Pugin the great Builder ? 

 ' Architectural Contrasts ' he's made out 

 Poor Protistants to bewilder. 



" The Catholic Church, she never knew 

 Till Mr. Pugin taught her, 

 That Orthodoxy had to do 

 At all with bricks and mortar. 



" But now, 'tis clear to me and all, 

 Since he's published his lecture, 

 No church is Catholic at all 

 Without Gothic Architecture ! 



" In fact he quite turns up his nose 

 At any style that's racent ; 

 The Gracian, too, he plainly shows 

 Is wicked, and undacent. 



" There's not a bit of pious taste 

 Iver since the Reformation ; 

 'Twas Harry th' eighth, the nasty baste. 

 That introduced the Gracian. 



" When they denied the Truth outright 

 Of Papal Domination ; 

 They threw in the ' Composite ' — 

 That great Abomination. 



" Next thing their friends to build 'dozing pens ' * 

 In the most sj^stematic way go : 

 They'd be kilt, they say, the other way. 

 With rheumatics, or lumbago. 



" Some raise a front up to the street, 

 Like ould Westminster Abbey ; 

 But thin they think the Lord to cheat. 

 And build the back part shabby. 



" For stuccoed bricks, and sich-like tricks, 

 At present all the rage is : 

 They took no one in, those fine ould mini ! 

 In the ' pious ' middle ages ! ! ! " 



F. S. A. 



Minax <h\itxiti. 



Description of our Saviour. — I find on a 

 blank leaf pasted into an old Bible, a quaint de- 

 scription of the person of Jesus Christ. It is en- 

 titled : 



" The excellent Epistle of Publius Lentulus, the Roman 

 Proconsul : In which the Person of our blessed Saviour is 

 most accurately described ; the very words being faith- 

 fully interpreted, which he sent to the Senate and People 

 of Rome, during his abode in Jerusalem: according to 

 Eutropius." 



Another MS. I have gives a different transla- 

 tion of the Epistle, but the substance of it is 

 nearly the same. It is headed : 



" A description of our blessed Saviour's Person, now in 

 the French King's Library ; sent by Publius Lentulus, 

 President of Judea, to the Senate at Rome, when the fame 

 of Jesus began to spread abroad in the World." 



In a Catalogue of MBS. s old by Messrs. Sotheby 

 * f ews, 



