88 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 248. 



Eev. Lewis Lewis. — Can any of your readers 

 give me any information respecting the Rev. 

 Lewis Lewis, who was chaplain to the British 

 residents at Cronstadt or Petersburg some time in 

 the last century ? I have understood that he died 

 on his passage to England, and was buried at 

 Yarmouth. If so, is there any monument to him 

 in the church or churchyard there ? E. H. A. 



7m and Lily. — Will you or some of your cor- 

 respondents explain to me the origin of the con- 

 fusion between the iris and the lily in the shield 

 of France ? The fieur-de-lys is evidently designed 

 from the iris, which plant is commonly called 

 " Flower-de-luce." Old Gwillim says of the/ieur- 

 de-lys : 



" This flower is, in Latine, called Iris, for that it some- 

 what resembleth the colour of the rainebow. Some of the 

 French confound this with the lily," &c. 



We never hear of anything but the lilies of 

 France. It is not unusual, I believe, to draw the 

 fieur-de-lys as an emblem of the blessed Virgin, 

 where again it must be intended for a lily and not 

 an iris. 



Again, why is the iris called a "flower-de-luce ?" 

 Why is a pike called a " luce ?" Ieis. 



Daughter of O' Melachlin, King of Meath. — 

 Can any of your correspondents inform me of the 

 name of the daughter of O'Melachlin, King of 

 Meath ; who, in her rejection of the advances of 

 Turgesius the Dane, was instrumental in ridding 

 Ireland of the northern pirates who infested the 

 Country about the middle of the ninth century. 



EOGEB O'MOOBE. 



Dublin. 



•'.4 Dog with a bad Name." — The Com- 

 mentarii de Scriptorihus Britannicis, published 

 by Anthony Hall, from Leland's manuscript, 

 Oxford, 1709, 2 vols. 8vo., does not bear a 

 good character. The origin of this seems to be, 

 that Aubrey's Surrey (if such a figure of quota- 

 tion be admissible) says that it is full of gross 

 errors and omissions, and that the Biographia 

 Britannica quotes this opinion of Aubrey without 

 any remark. Has any one supported this criti- 

 cism by instances ? — that is, has any one pointed 

 out either error or omission, which must be 

 charged on Anthony Hall, and not on Leland 

 himself? M. 



Norfolk Superstition. — Having had three deaths 

 in my parish lately, I was gravely informed at the 

 last funeral that it was not to be wondered at, as 

 the first two corpses were quite limp till the time 

 of their burial. Can any of your readers inform 

 me whether the same opinion exists in other parts 

 of the country ? A. Sutton, 



Rector of West Tofts, Norfolk. 



Trail-baton. — Among the arbitrary measures 

 which were introduced into England in the reign 

 of Edward III., Hume (Hist, of England, vol. ii. 

 p. 490.) mentions " the renewal of the commission 

 of trail-baton." Will you kindly inform me what 

 is the meaning of " trail-baton ? " 



F. M. MlDDLETON. 



[Justices of trail-baston were magistrates appointed by 

 Edward T. during his absence in the Scotch and French 

 wars. They were so stj'led, saj'S Hollinshed, for trailing 

 or drawing the staff of justice ; or for their summary pro- 

 ceeding, according to Sir Edward Coke, who tells us they 

 were in a manner justices in eyre ; and it is said they had 

 a baston, or staff, delivered to them as the badge of their 

 oifice; so that whoever was brought before them was 

 traile ad baston, traditus ad baculum : whereupon they had 

 the name of justices de trail baston, or justiciarii ad tra- 

 liendum offendentes ad baculum vel baston. Their office was 

 to make inquisition through the kingdom on all officers 

 and others, touching extortion, briber}', and such-like 

 grievances ; of intruders into other men's lands, barretors, 

 robbers, and breakers of the peace, and divers other of- 

 fenders ; by means of which inquisitions some were 

 punished with death, many by ransom, and the rest 

 flj'ing the realm, the land was quieted, and the king 

 gained riches towards the support of his wars. — Matthew 

 of Westminster, anno 1305. See, farther, a paper by Mr. 

 Foss in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. 

 p. 312., who shows that the traile-bastons were outlaws so 

 designated, and that the justices of traile-baston were a 

 species of itinerant judges, whose office continued in this 

 country from 33 Edw. I., a.d. 1305, to 16 Rich. II., when 

 the commissions appointing such judges were discon- 

 tinued.] 



Saying of Voltaire. — Chancing to meet with 

 a late number of Eliza Cook's Journal, I read the 

 following in an editorial article : 



" ' Tour sermon,' said a great critic to a great preacher 

 (both were eloquent men) ' was very fine ; but had it 

 been only half the length, it would have produced twice 

 the impression.' 'You are quite right,' was the reply; 

 * but, the fact is, I received but sudden notice to preach, 

 and therefore / had not the time to make my sermon short' " 



I have seen this sentiment attributed to Vol- 

 taire, who is reported to have apologised for 

 writing a long letter on the ground that he had 

 not the time to write a short one. But are not 

 both these anecdotes borrowed from classical 

 literature ? Is not the " saying of Voltaire" to be 

 found in Pliny's Letters ? Cuthbert Bede, B.A. 



[Our correspondent is perfectly correct in his conjec- 

 ture ; a similar sentiment occurs in Pliny's Letters, lib. i. 

 epist. XX.: "Ex his apparet, ilium permulta dixisse; 

 quum ederet, omisisse ; . . . . ne dubitare possimus, quae 

 per plures dies, ut necesse erat, latius dixerit, postea re- 

 cisa ac purgata, in unum librum, grandem quidem, unum 

 tamen, coarctasse." — "From this it is evident that he 

 said very much ; but, when he was publishing, he omitted 

 very much ; .... so that we may not doubt that what 

 he said more diffusely, as he was at the time forced to do, 

 having afterwards retrenched and corrected, he condensed 

 into one single book ; " the condensation and revision re- 

 quiring more time and thought than the first production. 



