2nd S. No 98., Nov. 14. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



401 



thorlty at hand to refer to, but I think it is under 

 some of the Tithe Commutation Acts, by which 

 the portion of rent-charge is receivable by the 

 executor of a deceased to the date of his death ; 

 and the new incumbent, no matter when insti- 

 tuted, receives from the same date, and is charge- 

 able at once for all demands. Though I cannot 

 give a reference to the Act, I speak from experi- 

 ence in my own case. H. T. E., Hector. 



Guelph Family (2^^ S. iv. 189.)— Stylites, 

 assuming that the name of the royal family is 

 Guelph, observes, in effect, that this name will 

 not pass to the present Prince of Wales. Sty- 

 LiTES might have gone farther : for if Guelph was 

 the family name, would not her Majesty have 

 changed it at her marriage ? In either case it 

 might be asked. What is the family name that 

 would be derived from the Prince Consort ? 



Upon this point I beg to refer to the article 

 " Names, Proper," in the Penny Cyclopcedia, 

 where, after stating that an unchangeable sur- 

 name has never been adopted by the royal House 

 of England, the writer proceeds thus : 



" In this respect the House of Brunswick is like the 

 Houses of Saxe, Nassau, Bourbon, Orleans, and a few 

 others, springing from the persons who were of prime 

 note in that state of society when the rule was ' one per- 

 son, one word,' and being afterwards too conspicuous by 

 ranis and station to need any such ordinary mode of dis- 

 tinction," &c. 



I quote the passage, not so much for the pur- 

 pose of deciding the question, as in the hope that 

 if there is any doubt it may be cleared up. 



Meletes. 



Snake Charming (2"^ S. iv. 350.) — It seems 

 evident that the ancients were well aware that 

 serpents might be charmed and rendered harmless 

 by the influence of music. Virgil (^w. vii. 753.) 

 says of Umbro : 



" Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris 

 Spargere qui somnos can tuque manuque solebat, 

 Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat." 



Compare Virg. Eel. viii. 71. and Ovid, Amor. ii. 

 1. 25. Pliny {Hist. Nat. vii. 2. 2.), after mention- 

 ing the Ophiogenes, a people of Asia Minor, who 

 cured the bite of serpents, says : 



" Similis et in AfricS, gens Psyllorum fuit, ut Agathar- 

 chides scribit, a Psyllo rege dicta, cujus sepulcrum in parte 

 Syrtium majorum est. Horum corpori ingenitum fuit 

 virus, exitiale serpentibus et cujus odore sopirent eas." 



Lucan also gives an account of these Psylli in 

 Pharsulia, ix. 891—900. 



The earliest mention of snake-charming is, of 

 course, that in Psalm Iviii. 6. The practice is 

 also alluded to in Ecclesiastes x. 11., and in Jere- 

 miah viii. 17. See Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, 

 under \t>rhi where reference is made to Bochart, 

 vol. iii. pp. 385. et seq. In Ecclus. xii. 13. the Son 

 of Sirach usee iwaoiShs 6<{>i6SriKTos for " a charmer 



bitten by the serpent." In Kitto's Cyclopedia of 

 Biblical Literature, art. "Adder" (vol. i. p. 70.), it 

 is asserted that the magicians of Egypt employed 

 this art in converting their rods into serpents, as 

 narrated in Exodus vii. 12. : 



" We may infer that they used a real serpent as a rod — 

 namely the species now called haje — for their impo3« 

 ture ; since they no doubt did what the present serpent- 

 cliarmers perform with the same species, by means of the 

 temporary asphyxiation, or suspension of vitality, before 

 noticed, and producing restoration to active life by libe - 

 rating or throwing down." 



Resopinus. 



Bampfylde-Moore Carew (2"'^ S. iv. 330.)— To 

 settle the question proposed by J. P. O. may perhaps 

 be no easy undertaking. I do not venture to meddle 

 with it, resting satisfied with the reference given to 

 a former Note on the subject. As a contribution to 

 the bibliography of the Apology, however, I may 

 inform the inquirer that I have a copy now before 

 me, of which the imprint runs thus : — " Printed 

 by R. Goadby, and sold by iV. Owen, Bookseller, 

 at Temple Bar, London." It is without date, and 

 the preface also, unlike J. P. O.'s copy, is un- 

 dated. It has not the Gipsy Glossary, nor the 

 reference to Fielding, which J. P. O. mentions. 

 Pages 17, 18. form part of a description of the 

 natural productions of Maryland ; and pp. 35-38. 

 contain a portion of the political history of that 

 country. I consider the copy I am describing as 

 earlier than either of those cited in the columns 

 of " N. & Q." It is in 8vo,, and, besides the title 

 and preface, runs from A to T inclusive, in fours. 



F. S. Q. 



Bull Baiting (2""^ S. iv. 351.) — Mh. North in- 

 quires if there be any remains in towns indicating 

 the barbarous practice of bull-baiting having been 

 carried on. In the town of Tetbury, Gloucester- 

 shire, there was a regular bull-ring, and the spot 

 is still discernible in the middle of a large square, 

 called the Chipping *, where this diversion took 

 place, and however popular it may have been, 

 happily now, as Hamlet says — 



" it is a custom 

 More honour'd in the breach, than the observance." 



From a very old play. The Voio-Breaker, or the 

 Faire Maide of Clifton, by William Sampson, of 

 which I have seen a copy (London, 1636), it would 

 appear that Tetbury (olim Tedbury) was particu- 

 larised as a place where this recreation or pastime 

 flourished, for I find this passage in Act V. — 



" He'll keepe more stir with the Hobby Horse, than he 

 did with the Pipers at Tedbury Bull-running." 



Delta. 



Chronogram at Rome (2"'^ S. iv. 350.) — It is 

 not apparent in what manner the inscription in 



* This word, according to Bailey, is from the Saxon 

 " Cyppan, to cheapen ; quasi dictum, a market or market- 

 place. 



