402 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'xi S. No 98., Nov. 11. '57. 



the chur"ch of S. Maria degli Angell at Rome, 

 communicated by Scoxus, constitutes a chrono- 

 gram. Is the date 1721, which he mentions, to 

 be gathered from the not unusual expedient of 

 some letters being larger or taller than the rest ? 

 However that may be, it is obvious that the in- 

 scription is intended to commence, in the ordi- 

 nary way, with the king's name ; and that it is to 

 be read, " iacobds hi d. g. magnae britaniae 

 ET c. REX : where the letter c. will be found to 

 stand in the place of "fbanciae et hiberniae." 

 It is to be interpreted ceterorum (sc. regnorum). 



J. G. N. 



The Ottley Papers (2""^ S. iv, 331.)— These in- 

 teresting documents, so far as they refer to Shrop- 

 shire, were edited by Mr. George Morris of 

 Shrewsbury, in the Collectanea TopograpMca et 

 Genealogica, under the title of" Ottleiana; or Let- 

 ters, &c., relating to Shropshire, written during 

 and subsequent to the Civil War, chiefly addressed 

 to Sir Francis Ottley, and forming part of the 

 Ottley MSS." They will be found in vols, v., vi., 

 and vii., occupying, in the aggregate, 74 pages. 



J. G. Nichols. 



Brcehma or Brahm (2"'^ S. iv. 313.) — It ap- 

 pears to me that the names of Brahm, Vishnu, 

 and Siva are three forms of the one signification, 

 and that their roots yet exist in the Iberno-Phoe- 

 nician language. This may excite scorn in some of 

 your correspondents, but I trust that they will bear 

 in mind that there is nothing improbable in my sup- 

 position, when they reflect that these islands were 

 colonised by the Phoenicians, and that these were 

 people whose history dates from the most remote 

 period. The root of Brahm in Irish is b(tAU, pro- 

 nounced hrdh, and ^rrj is time, h[iv\r-5.n7> i- e. 

 Braham ; it would therefore signify " Everlast- 

 ing," or " Existing from all time." Vishnu is from 

 b}, life or existence, axidi &\.vtiiv, eternal, i.e. b]- 

 ]*ucui7, bi-suhun or Visuhun, " Eternal existence," 

 the b and v being commutable. Siva,Trom Sjcbe, 

 i. e. She-ve, '" the Everlasting." I merely give 

 these derivations, as they appeared to me to af- 

 ford a curious evidence of the connection that yet 

 remains between the Irish language, containing 

 as it does a large mixture of Phoenician, and the 

 mythology of the Hindoos. While my hand is in, I 

 may as well add Crishna and Kali ; the former is 

 from C tiof-pucai', Crios-suhun, i.e. "the Ever- 

 lasting Binder or Preserver," and the latter from 

 Ce^l, Kal, i.e. "Death," or "the Destroyer." 



Fhan. Ckossley. 



Sir John Powell (2"" S. iv. 329.)— The Sir John 

 Powell mentioned by your correspondent was a 

 descendant of Col. Powell, one of the officers, who, 

 having deserted from the Piu-liament, was taken 

 prisoner by Cromwell at the siege of Pembroke. 



His arms were (and they are probably those of 

 his descendants) : Sable, three roses argent, 

 barbed vert. Crest, on a wreath of the colours a 

 lion passant or, holding in the dexter paw a lance 

 sable. T. R. K. 



Milton s Life and Reign of King Charls (2"* 

 S. iv. p. 308.) — What is the authority for attri- 

 buting the authorship of this book to Milton ? It ^ 

 is in no list of his works that I have seen. 



Lethrediensis. 



[It is entered under Milton's name in the Bodleian 

 Catalogue.] 



Erasmus and Sir Thomas More (2"* S. iv. 248. 

 338.) — In D'Aubigne's History of the Reforma- 

 tion, book xi. ch. ix., the lines which Erasmus 

 wrote to Sir Thomas More are quoted as fol- 

 lows : — 



" Quod mihi dixisti nuper de corpore Christi, 

 Crede quod habes et habes ; 

 Hoc tibi rescribo tantum de tuo caballo, 

 Crede quod habes et habes." 



The authority quoted for these lines is Paravicini 

 Singularia, p. 71. ; and the story given is, that 

 More lent Erasmus one horse, which Erasmus took 

 with him to the Continent instead of returning it 

 to More. T. H. Plowman. 



Torquay. 



[Paravicinus's authority for the anecdote is Jenkin 

 Thomas, "Hsec ex relatione clariss. Jenkini Thomasii, 

 Angli."] 



My Ancestors, 8fc. (2°'* S. iv. 329.)— The lines 

 quoted by Mr. Greenwood are the commencement 

 of — England: a National Song, published by 

 Messrs. Duff" and Hodgson, as nearly as I can re- 

 collect about twelve or thirteen years ago. The 

 title of the publication states the words to be by 

 W. H. Bellamy, the music by J. W. Hobbs. 



Semibkeve. 



Mi^(eTinnea\i3, 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Mr. Foss has just issued the fifth and sixth volumes of 

 The Judges of England, with Sketches of their Lives and 

 Miscellaneous Notices connected loith the Courts at West- 

 minster. These volumes furnish us with Biographical 

 Notices of the legal worthies who flourished between the 

 accession of Henry VII. in 1485 to the close of the Inter- 

 regnum in 1660 — and with those Illustrations of the His- 

 tory of our Courts of Law, and the gradual changes which 

 have taken place in their form and practice, which give 

 additional interest and value to the book. If by the 

 industry and research displayed in his first four volumes 

 Mr. Foss earned for himself the reputation of a careful, 

 painstaking, and trustworthy biographer, there can be 

 no doubt that that reputation will ,be enhanced by an 

 examination of that portion of his great work which has 

 just been published. There c<an be as little doubt that 

 the merits of his earlier volumes will now be recognised 

 by many who before looked upon their author as one who 



