Aug. 19. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



153 



and the philologist denies the existence of eternal 

 truth, I heartily sympathise with the Keids and 

 the Broughams who oppose them. 'AAieuf . 



Dublin. 



Canker or Briar-rose (Vol. vii., p. 500.). - — It 

 is a not uncommon belief that a scratch with a 

 thorn of this plant is peculiarly venomous ; and 

 indeed, from the liooked shape of the thorn, it is 

 not unlikely to be more severe than a prick from 

 the thorn of an ordinary rose. May not the fact 

 of its causing an inflamed and somewhat obstinate 

 sore have originally obtained for it the name of 

 canker ? Henbt T. Rilet. 



Hamony (Vol. vi., pp. 65. 275.). — With re- 

 ference to the plant so called, I observe in the 

 Monthly Packet (published by Mozleys, London, 

 1853), vol. v. p. 467., it is stated that the lemon- 

 scented Agrimony is sold in Bristol market as 

 Hajmony ; but what is the botanical name of the 

 lemon-scented Agrimony, I know not. Not having 

 your former volumes at hand, I cannot refer to 

 the volume and page in which the subject was 

 brought forward in the nascent state of a Query. 

 Nor can I be sure that the same information as I 

 now offer has not been already given by another 

 correspondent. Geo. E. Frere. 



Koydon Hall, Diss. 



Mantel-piece (Vol. ix., pp. 302. 385. 576.).— 

 The following is an extract from a work, called 

 Memoirs of the Life and Adventures of Colonel 

 Maceroni, late Aide-de-camp to Joachim Murat, 

 King of Naples: 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1838. In 

 vol. ii. p. 130., the author, speaking of the less 

 frequented roads of Champagne, by Troyes, &c., 

 says : 



"Another motive induces me to speak of a thing which 

 most readers ■will deem impertinent, which is — the desire 

 of giving a little bit of etymology. Around the spacious 

 cupola over the French and Italian fire-places, is a ledge 

 to which are affixed pegs, on which the postilions straight- 

 way proceeded to hang their wet cloaks to dry. We call 

 the stone or wooden shelf over our fire-places Mantel- 

 pieces, or Mantel-shelves; but we no longer hang owr 

 mantles upon them to dr3% In some of the old palaces 

 at Rome, 1 have seen similar Mantel-pieces applied to the 

 similar original purpose." 



^ Perhaps you will allow me to use this Mantel- 

 piece as a peg on which to hang the following 

 Queries. — Is there any account of Colonel Mace- 

 roni besides that which he has been pleased to 

 give of himself in the above-named memoirs ? He 

 has been praised in the Edinburgh, and abused in 

 the Quarterly Review. According to his own ac- 

 count, he was, at the time of writing his Memoirs, 

 in very reduced circumstances. Though passing 

 for an Italian, he was doubtless an Englishman ; 

 and the name " Maceroni," like that of " George 

 Psalmanager, " is of course fictitious. D. W. S. 



Story of Coleridge (VoL x., p. 57.). — A some- 

 what different, and perhaps more spirited version 

 of the anecdote related in Mr. Collier's interest- 

 ing papers on Coleridge's Lectures, is given in a 

 foot-note to p. 23. of M'Phun's Tourist^ s Guide to 

 the Falls of the Clyde, 8fc., Glasgow, 1852, as 

 follows : 



" A distinguished living poet was admiring this fall 

 (Corra), when he overheard a well-dressed man say to his 

 companion, ' It is a majestic waterfall ! ' The poet was so 

 delighted with the epithet, that he could not resist turning 

 round and saying : ' Yes, sir, it is majestic ; you have hit 

 the expression; it is better than sublime, or fiae, or 

 beautiful ! ' The unknown critic, flattered by the compli- 

 ment, pursued his strain of admiration thus : ' Yes ! I 

 really think it is the majestickest, prettiest thing of the kind 

 I ever saw !' " 



J. R. G. 



Dublin. 



Miscellaneous Manuscripts (Vol. x., p. 28.). — 

 By a note to De Sacy's " Memoire sur les Druzes," 

 in the third volume of the Mem. de VInstitut, 

 Classe d'Histoire, p. 121.,I see that theDruse MSS. 

 are now in the French Library, numbered as 

 1580, 1581, and 1582. They were brought from 

 Syria in 1700, and presented to the king of France, 

 July 25, 1700, by the person who brought them, 

 called there Nasr-allah hen Gilda. The MS. 

 mentioned by E. C. S. is very possibly by Petis 

 de la Croix, who was a professor of Arabic, and 

 attached to the Royal Library. He afterwards 

 translated these MSS., but his translation was 

 never published. M. De Sacy retranslated them, 

 and I believe, but cannot at present ascertain 

 how correctly, that he published a separate work 

 on the Druses. The memoir was very probably 

 drawn up to show the importance of the MSS., 

 and induce the king to purchase them. 



W. H. Scott. 



Edinburgh. 



Armorial (Vol. Ix., p. 398.). — On the tomb- 

 stone of John Selden, in the Temple Church, 

 were engraved the arms of the Bakers of Kent, of 

 which family his mother was an heiress. Selden 

 had no arms of his own, his father having been, 

 as Anthony a Wood informs us, " a sufficient ple- 

 beian," and he himself not having applied for a 

 grant. (JLthena Oxonienses, iii. 376.) CHEVERErj:.s. 



Water-cure in the last Century (Vol. x., p. 28.). 

 — It appears to have been practised at JNIalvern 

 very much according to the present system. 

 H. Walpole writes to Cole in 1775 : 



« At Malvern they certainly put patients into sheets just 

 dipped in the spring," &c. — Letters, vol. v. p. 419. 



Cheverells. 



Iris and Lily (Vol. x., p. 88.). — The fleur-de- 

 lys, in its heraldic form, triple-leaved, bears traces 

 of the ancient mediaeval symbolism, being essen- 



