2"* S. No 103., Dec. 19, '37.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



Wooden Bells. — Victor Hugo, in his novel of 

 The Hunchhach of Notre Dame, mentions a wooden 

 hell accustomed to be rung before Easter Eve, 

 about the year 1482. Is this the only instance of 

 a wooden bell, or is the case altogether fictitious ? 

 Jos. Lloyd Phelps. 

 Edgbaston. 



Bev. Philip Hornech — Was he son of the cele- 

 brated Dr. Horneck? Evelyn mentions some- 

 where going to hear a son of this celebrated man, 

 but does not give his Christian name ; most pro- 

 bably this is the same person. Is anything known 

 of him as an author or preacher ? H. G. D. 



Sod. Berg. Soc. — In an anonymous letter, 

 written in 1783, and addressed to a scholar of 

 some celebrity, the writer signs himself " Clericus, 

 Medicinie Doctor, et Soc'. Berg. Soc." I wish to 

 ascertain the meaning of the last-named title, if 

 such it was. F. R. R. 



Armorial. — Dexter : A fesse guttee, between 

 three pheons ; impaling, sinister. Quarterly, 1. 

 On a bend, three stags' heads (apparently) ca- 

 bosed ; 2. A fesse between three shovelers (qu. 

 Herle) ; 3. On a bend three anchors, between two 

 cinquefoils ; 4. A crescent, on a chief three cross- 

 lets fitchy. 



The coat is on an old silver seal — two hundred 

 or more years old, if one may judge from the 

 shape of the shield. There is no attempt to give 

 the colours and metals. Mr. Papworth's forth- 

 coming work will prove very valuable in settling 

 such points as those here stated. Jaytee. 



" An Account of the Quarrel between the K — of 

 F— and M. de V—. London, 1758." — I do not 

 know why the author put initials only in the title- 

 page, as he prints " The King of Prussia " and 

 " M. de Voltaire " throughout the pamphlet. He 

 gives some very stupid and doubtful anecdotes of 

 the rude things they said and did, amongst which 

 is : — 



" The king ridiculed the ghost of Nimis, and told Vol- 

 taire that a poet would have chosen the night for its ap- 

 pearance, but the courtier introduced it in broad daj', out 

 of compliment to the ghost which one morning shook the 

 Dauphin in the presence of the King and the ladies." — 

 P. 15. 



Whose ghost shook the Dauphin, and when ? 



0. P. 



The Ant said never to Sleep. — 



" The instincts of the ant are very unimportant consi- 

 dered as the ant's ; but the moment a ray of relation is 

 seen to extend from it to man, and the little drudge is 

 seen to be a monitor — a little body with a mighty heart 

 — then all its habits, even that said to be recently ob- 

 served, that it never sleeps, become sublime." — Emerson, 

 Nature : an Essay, chap. iv. : Language. 



Can any of your readers refer me to Mr. Emer- 

 son's authority, or inform me by whom and how 



it was first observed that the ant " never sleeps ! " 

 and, briefly, by what experiments the truth of- 

 this strange discovery in natural history was 

 tested and confirmed ? C. Fokbes. 



Temple. 



Iriscriptions at the Crown Inn, Ilockerill. — The 

 following inscriptions were copied from an old 

 pane of glass in a window at the " Crown Inn," 

 Hockerill, supposed to be written by three differ- 

 ent persons at different times. 



The old inn was used as the half-way house 

 between London and Cambridge, and much fre- 

 quented by Cantabs. Can any of the correspon- 

 dents of "N. & Q." say who ivas the celebrated 

 man that wrote one of these inscriptions, and 

 which f The old pane of glass has been within 

 these few years removed : — 



1. " To die is standing on some silent shore 



Where billows never break nor tempests roar." 



2. " Mori placidum est adire littus 



Ubi fluctus nunquam nunquam strepunt." 



3. " Die curnam ? sed minus placidum est aut adire 

 littus possibile ignem infernum aut nullum littus." 



R. R. F. 



Kaiserlicher gekronter Dichter. — In German 

 books of the 17th and the early part of the 18th 

 centuries, the title "Gekronter Dichter" fre- 

 quently occurs, and sometimes "Kaiserlicher ge- 

 kronter Dichter." The dictionaries say " Poet 

 Ijaureate." By whom, and how were these hon- 

 ours conferred ? H. B. C. 



United University Club. 



" Courtnay, Eai'l of Devonshire.'" — Who is the 

 author of Courtnay, Earl of Devonshire, or the 

 Troubles of the Princess Elizabeth, a tragedy in 

 4to. ? No date. The play seems to have been 

 published about the time of Queen Anne. It is 

 dedicated to the Duke of Devonshire. R. Ingx-is. 



" Precedents and Prixiileges.'^ — Who wrote a 

 pamphlet published about the year 1808, entitled 

 Precedents and Privileges ? There is another work ' 

 by the same author (seemingly political), called 

 The Acts of the Apostles. R. Inglis. 



Coal Clubs in Agricultural Districts. — Can any 

 of your correspondents inform me where a good 

 code of laws is to be found for the conduct of 

 one of these societies ? Probably some of the in- 

 stitutions that profess to attend generally to the 

 comforts of the poor may have paid some regard 

 to their winter supply of coal. 



Having lately rescued from misappropriation an 

 annual income of about sixty pounds, I am desir- 

 ous of applying it to its legitimate object, of sup- 

 plying the parish poor with fuel in such manner 

 as shall teach them the advantages of making 

 some provision for themselves in the summer, 

 and purchasing at summer prices, with their own 



