2"^ S. N» 101., Ukc. 5. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



inner walls of Welch churches, are, I imagine, a 

 very usual arrangement throughout the Prin- 

 cipality. I noticed them, with dates ranging 

 through a century, in the little islet church of 

 Llandisilio, near the Menai Bridge, and in walking 

 from Holyhead to Amlwch, atLanynghendi, more 

 in the interior of Anglesea ; also at the mountain 

 church of Llanrhychwyn, near Llanrwst, in Car- 

 narvonshire. R. L. 



Runnymead (2""' S. iv. 412.) — I have little doubt 

 that this simply means the " bushy-meadow," from 

 the Icelandic runn^ or hrunn, a bu.sh. Rutin oc- 

 curs in this sense in the Icelandic Testament 

 (Mark xii. 26., Luke xx. 37., Acts vii. 35.). Meet- 

 ing with the word in one of these passages, it at 

 once struck me that it must be the etymology of 

 llunbam (perhaps originally Runholm), in Flegg 

 Deanery in Norfolk, a parish surrounded by vil- 

 lages whose names have the Scandinavian ter- 

 mination " -%." Probably Runhall and Runton, 

 in Norfolk, have the same derivation. At Run- 

 ham there are still a Scow lane and Scow field, — 

 Scow being doubtlessly the Danish skov ; English 

 .s/iaw, or thicket. In one of the Record Commis- 

 sioners' ])ublications, too, I find mention made of 

 " quadraginta acras bosci" at Runham, though no 

 wood or thicket is to be found there now. 



Jamieson (Stot. Diet.) has Ro7ie, Ron, 1. a 

 shrub; 2. brushwood. And Halllwell (Arch. 

 Diet.) has Ronez in the same senses ; as well as 

 " Ruin, a woodman's term, signifying a pole of 

 four falls standing." The Anglo-Sax. Rune, in 

 the sense of (1.) A letter, magical character, mys- 

 tery ; (2.) A council, seems to be derived from this, 

 as the Anglo-Sax. boc-stcef, and Ger. buck stabe, 

 are connected with the word "stall'." In the 

 Gaelic all the letters of the alphabet seem to bear 

 the names of trees : thus, B is the birch-tree j D 

 the oak, &c. 



The Penny Cyclopaedia says of Runic letters : — 



" The characters consist almost invariably of straight 

 lines in the shape of little sticks, either singly or put 



together Hence also the word buch stabe, the 



German name for letter, which signifies a stick of a 

 beech-tree." 



Do not these circumstances seem to counten- 

 ance a supposition that the Keltic-Scandinavian 

 alphabets may be of independent origin distinct 

 from that of the Hebrew and Greek ? E. G. R. 



John Spilsbury (2°'^ S. iv. 308. 397.) — Thanks 

 to your correspondent for his reference. Tyndal's 

 Sermon evidently belongs to one of this family, of 

 whom there is no mention in Chambers's Biogra- 

 phical Illustrations of Worcestershire. The John 

 Spilsbury who died at Kidderminster, in 1727, 

 had been a dissenting minister in that town lor 

 thirty-four years. He is buried in the parish 

 church, where there is a monument to his me- 



mory. He was nephew to Dr. John Hall, Bishop 

 of Bristol. A handsomely- carved chair, once the 

 property of this bishop, is preserved in the vestry 

 of the Unitarian chapel at Kidderminster, side by 

 side with Baxter's pulpit, and is shown in my 

 copper-plate etching of " Baxter's Pulpit," pub- 

 lished in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 



1854. CUTHBERT BeBB. 



Epigram quoted by Gibbon (2°* S. iv. 367.) — 

 The original thought is contained in the epigram 

 by Demodocus (Anthologia Grceca, ed. Edwards, 

 No. DCXLiv.) : 



" KaTrnaSoKrfV nor' ex^Sva KaKJi SaKCv' aWa KoX aVTij 

 Kdrdave, yevcrajiteVi) ac/xaros io/36Aov." 



Zeus. 

 "Busirin fugiens (2"'' S. iv. 412.) — Please to 

 inform J. T. C. that the reading inurnatam is no 

 doubt correct, and that the hexameters are a 

 translation of a stanza (in the imitation of Laura 

 Matilda by one of the Smiths) in the Rejected Ad' 

 dresses : ■ 



" Fan beheld Patroclus dying, 

 Nox to Niobe was turn'd ; 

 From Busiris Bacchus fl.ving, 

 Saw his Semele inurn'd." 



But by whom they were written 



Haud Equidem Scio. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



There are few episodes in England's history which can 

 compare for romantic interest with the story of Charles's 

 escaj)e after the battle of Worcester, and well might the 

 late learned Bishop of Llandatf echo Clarendon's regret, 

 " that it is a great pity there never was a journal made 

 of that miraculous deliverance," and stimulate his friend 

 Mr. Hughes to undertake that amusing volume The Bos- 

 cobel Tracts relating to the Escape of Charles the Second 

 after the Battle of Worcester, and his subsequent Adven- 

 tures, of which the second edition is now before us. The 

 subject alone is sutficient to recommend the' book to all 

 historical students. Those who may not hitherto have 

 become acquainted with the nature of Mr. Hughes's la- 

 bours will thank us for specifying the contents of this 

 most useful and interesting volume. These are : — 1. A 

 Diary of the King's Proceedings, compiled by the Editor. 

 2. Extract from Lord Clarendon. 3. Letter from a Pri- 

 soner at Chester. 4. The King's Narrative, edited by 

 Pepvs. 5. and 6. Boscobel, Parts I. and II. 7. Mr. 

 Whitgreave's Narrative. 8. Mr. Ellesdon's Letter. 9. 

 Mrs. Anne Wyndham's " Claustrura Regale Reseratum." 

 And lastly, an Appendix of Genealogical and other Illus- 

 trations. When we add that these varied materials are 

 illustrated and explained in various curious Notes by the 

 Editor, and by several maps, views, &c., we shall have 

 made sufficiently clear the nature of Mr. Hughes's con- 

 tribution to the romance of English History. 



Books of detached thoughts, embodying, as they oftea 

 do, the most brilliant fancies, the deepest reflections, the 

 wittiest apothegms, the most profound speculations, and 

 the most suggestive ideas, of the good, great, and wise 

 who have lived among us, have always found favour with 



