2»d s. No 100., Nov. 28. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



4»9 



a mountain named Macistus in Eubcea, because a 

 native of Macistus in Elis colonised Eretria in 

 Eubcea is founded in error. The words of Strabo 

 are, " 'Eperpiav 5'oi fji.eu airh Ma/CiVrou Ttjs Tpi(pv\las 

 airoiKKrOrjvai (paffiu, vw' 'Eperptews, ot S airh rrjs 'Ad-fj- 

 vr\(nv 'Eperpias, ^ vvv effriv 'Xyopd " (x. p. 447.) ; 

 from which it appears that Eretria was held by 

 some to have been colonised as above stated, but, 

 according to others, by the Athenians from Ere- 

 tria in Attica. The inference is that Smith, 

 Eschenberg, the Penny Cyclopcedia, and Hero- 

 dotus are correct in considering the first colonis- 

 ation to be Athenian before the siege of Troy, 

 whilst the last, by a Macistlan, was five centuries 

 after its capture, and during the Peloponnesian 

 war, when Eubcea placed itself under the pro- 

 tection of Lacedaemon, Eretria being then rebuilt 

 south of the site of the old town. Strabo is there- 

 fore right in both statements, but Blomfield has 

 committed an anachronism. The suggestion that 

 Eschylus may have boldly personified the moun- 

 tain appears to me to be opposed to the practice 

 of the Greek dramatists, and to the dictum of 

 Aristotle (JPoet. xv. 67.), which requires the man- 

 ners, narrative, and combination of incidents to 

 be either necessary or probable, for both conditions 

 would be violated on this suggestion. It is an error 

 to say that the Scholiast reads ixaKla-rrj vevKr], his 

 words being ixiyicrri) nevKri, in explanation of the 

 word l(Txvs, to show that fir-wood chiefly caused the 

 brilliancy of the light. Dirphossus (now Delphi) 

 in Euboea, with an elevation of 7266 feet, Is the 

 only geographical point for a beacon light between 

 Athos and Messapius. In addition to the autho- 

 rities already furnished for the ancient use of bea- 

 con lights, I will cite one from the Talmud (Rosh 

 Hashanah, ii.), where it Is stated that for the pur- 

 pose of announcing to the captives at Babylon the 

 commencement of the year by notifying the ap- 

 pearance of the new moon at Jerusalem — more 

 than twice the distance from Troy to Mycenae : — 



" Formerly fires were lighted on the tops of the moun- 

 tains ; but when the Samaritans led the nation into error " 

 [by lighting them at wrong times], " it was ordained 

 that messengers should be sent out. In what manner 

 were these mountain-fires lighted? They brought long 

 staves of cedar-wood, canes and branches of the olive- 

 tree, also the coarse threads or refuse of flax, which were 

 tied on the top of them with twine; with these they 

 went to the top of the mountain and lighted them, and 

 kept waving them to and fro, upward and downward, till 

 they could perceive the same repeated by another person 

 on the next mountain, and thus on the third mountain, 

 and so on. Whence did these mountain fires commence? 

 From the Mount of Olives to Sartaba, from Sartaba to 

 Grophinah, from Grophinah to Hoveran, from Hoveran 

 to Beth Baltin ; they did not cease to wave the flaming 

 brands at Beth Baltin to and fro, upward and downward, 

 until the whole country of the captivity [Babylon] ap- 

 peared like a blazing fire " [as every Jew used to go on 

 his roof waving a blazing torch]. (De Sola and Maphall, 

 p. 159.) 



It appears from Jeremiah (vi. 1.) that this 



method of signaling was well known to the Jews 

 of that age (b. c. 629 — 588), and from the book 

 of Judges (xx. 38 — 40.) even as early as b. c. 

 1406, five centuries before the siege of Troy. 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Lichfield. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORBESPONDENCE. 



Photographs of the Reveley Drawings. — If there be one 

 branch of Photography of which the successful applica- 

 tion must supersede every other attempt to produce the 

 same effect, it must be in the production of copies of ori- 

 ginal drawings by the Great Masters. Those who saw 

 the copies of the Raffaelle drawings in the Royal Collec- 

 tion, which adorned the walls of the last Exhibition of the 

 Photographic Society, must have felt this. The lens, re- 

 producing as it does to the most minute degree every 

 touch of the Master, excels in its imitative power the 

 most perfect copyist. Mr. Delamotte and Professor Hard- 

 wick have just given further proof of this in the first num- 

 ber of a series of masterly Photographs of The Reveley 

 Collection of Drawings. 



This collection of Original Drawings was first formed 

 nearly a century since by the late Mr. Reveley, author of 

 a work entitled, Notices illustrative of the Drawings and 

 Sketches of some of the most distinguislied Masters in all the 

 principal Schools of Design, and has long been known to 

 connoisseurs. By the liberalitj' of his grandson, the pre- 

 sent possessor, a selection of seventy of the most impor- 

 tant drawings have been reproduced by the gentlemen 

 we have named, and are to be issued in Monthly Parts. 

 The Contents of Part I. are : — 1. His Own Portrait, b}' 

 Leonardo da Vinci. 2. Sketch for a Painting, by Raf- 

 faelle. 3. The Mocking of Christ, by Albert Durer." 4. A 

 Holy Family, by Cangiasi. 5. His Wife's Portrait, hy 

 Guido. 6. His Wife and Child, by Rubens. 7. The Pri- 

 soner, by Guercino. 8. The Agony in the Garden, by 

 Vandyke. 9. Head of the Virgin, by Carlo Dolci. 10. 

 Tobit blessing Tobias, by Rembrandt. 



It is difficult to believe that these are Photographs, and 

 not the originals — so marvellously is the peculiar manner 

 of each artist preserved in the copj' of his work. Guido's 

 Portrait of his Wife, and Rubens' Portraits of his Wife 

 and Child, are alone worth the whole cost of the part. 



We ought to add that the Photographs having been 

 printed under the immediate superintendence of Professor 

 Hardwick, the purchaser may rest assured that they will 

 be as permanent as the beautiful drawings from which 

 they have been copied. 



aa^iiItcjS to Minax cEu^rtc^. 



Scott of Dunrod, Renfrewshire (2°^ S. iii. 289.) 

 — The four lines quoted by W. B. C. are not part 

 of any ballad. They are complete of themselves, 

 and belong to The Popular Rhymes of Scotland. 

 I would refer W. B. C. to The Popular Rhymes 

 of Scotland, by Robert Chambers, and to Craw- 

 ford^ s History of Renfrewshire. S. Wmson. 



Church Leases (2"* S. Iv. 361.)— What are 

 commonly termed Sir Isaac Newton's tables were 

 made by — Mabbot, manciple of King's College, 

 Cambridge. They were first published at Cam- 

 bridge, 1686, with Mr., afterwards Sir Isaac New- 



