1 - Aug. 26. 1854.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



159 



to the first 5 is indubitable. There was then every 

 appearance of Christophori Clavii, 1556. The most 

 doubtful point was the quantity of space left for 

 the V. Seeing, in the establishment of this signa- 

 ture, an illustration of a point worth illustrating, I 

 had the case brought before some members of the 

 order of Jesuits in London : and these gentlemen, 

 knowing that manuscripts of Clavius are pre- 

 served in the archives of their order at Rome, had 

 the kindness to procure a tracing, whicli was for- 

 warded to me. It is as follows : " Vidi tabulas 

 stellarum fixarum a P. Christophoro Grienbergen 

 calculatas, easq' iudico dignos, quae imprimantur. 

 Christophorus Clauius." Grienbergen's Tabulce 

 pectdiares (the earliest work in which the gno- 

 monic projection of the sphere was systematically 

 treated) was published in 1612 : probably, then, 

 Clavius (born 1538, died 1612) was upwards of 

 seventy when the above paragraph was written. 

 If the writing in the book be his, he was not more 

 than eighteen (or twenty, at the utmost,) when he 

 bought the book. 



The writing and the tracing agree remarkably, 

 both in character and detail. In both, the s is 

 joined to the top of the /, which is crossed very 

 low down : the h is hooked at the top, and the r 

 is of precisely the same form in both ; and so on. 

 There is somewhat, more flourish in the written 

 than in the traced signature, being the sort of 

 difference we expect between the hand of youth 

 and that of age : and in particular, the C which 

 commences Clauivs in the tracing cannot be called 

 a capital letter. The u which is written instead of 

 r, in the middle of the surname, seems to explain the 

 superabundant space which made me doubt when 

 I first examined it. The resemblance is so great, 

 that if the two writings were known to be of one 

 man, and the times only were in question, it would 

 be difficult to believe that one signature was 

 written at eighteen, and the other at seventy. 

 !N'ot to be too hasty, I put both the writings aside, 

 in order to examine them repeatedly before allow- 

 ing myself to come to a final decision : and I find, 

 after four years, that I am thoroughly convinced 

 my first suspicion is correct. 



In 1555, Clavius entered the Jesuits' College'at 

 Eome : in 1577, or shortly after, he was appointed 

 a member of the commission for regulating the 

 details of the reformation of the calendar ; and 

 of this commission he is known to have been the 

 working member. It appears then, that he was 

 not selected only as a learned commentator on 

 astronomical writings, but as a person who had 

 made the calendar his special study. 



It seems to me, on examining the work of 

 Pighius, that there are curious agreements be- 

 tween him and Clavius, both in tone and thought, 

 and, in certain cases, even of expression. But to 

 develope this point would take too much room. 



A. Db Morgan. 



IiEGENSS OF THE COUNTY CLABE. 



About half a mile from the lake of Inchiquin 

 (some legends of which have already appeared 

 in "N. & Q.") is situated the small lake of 

 Ziermacbran ; high lime stone cliffs nearly sur- 

 round it, one of which is ,,crowned with the 

 picturesque ruins of an old castle, while the cliff 

 immediately opposite has been occupied by the 

 eyry of a falcon for many years: no stream ap- 

 pears to flow into or out of the lake. A solitary 

 coot may generally be seen floating motionless in 

 the dark sullen water, and a hawk hangs poised in 

 mid air over it, or slowly circles round, uttering a 

 harsh scream from time to time: altogether, a 

 more eerie spot could not be easily found. The 

 lake is popularly believed to be unfathomable, and 

 though supposed to contain fish of fabulous size, 

 it would not be easy to tempt the most zealous 

 disciple of Izaak "Walton among the peasantry to 

 cast a line upon the sullen waters. The following 

 legend accounts for the awe with which the lake is 

 regarded. — Once upon a time Fuenvicouil (Fin- 

 gall) went out with his attendant chieftains to 

 hunt upon the heath-covered sides of Mount Cal- 

 law, famous as being the burial-place of Conan, 

 whose monument with its Oghden inscription is 

 still extant ; a noble hart, snow-white, whose hoofs 

 and horns shone like gold, was soon started, and 

 eagerly did the chieftains urge their hounds in 

 pursuit. Hour after hour passed on, and still the 

 deer sped on with unabated vigour, while one by 

 one hunter and hound dropped exhausted from the 

 chace — till none were left but Fuenvicouil and 

 his matchless hound, the snow-white Bran ; and 

 now, as the sun was fast declining, the wondrous 

 hart reached the cliff over the lake where the ruins 

 of the old castle now stand. A moment's pause, 

 and it plunged into the lake, followed almost in- 

 stantaneously by the gallant hound : the moment 

 the deer touched the water it vanished, while 

 instead appeared a beautiful lady seated on the 

 rippling waves, and as the noble dog rose to the 

 surface from his plunge she laid her hand on his 

 head and submerged him for ever ! and then dis- 

 appeared. Some relate in addition that she in- 

 flicted a curse on Fuenvicouil. In memory of the 

 event the cliff from which the dog sprung is called 

 " Cregg y Bran ;" while the lake and castle are 

 called by the name of " Ziernach Bran," — '.' the 

 lordship of Bran," corrupted in conversation to 

 "Ziermacbran." It is a curious fact that the 

 " machinery " of this legend is so peculiarly that 

 of the metrical romances (see Partenopex of Blois, 

 Sec). Somewhat different versions of it are given in 

 Miss Brooke's Translations of Irish Poetry, and in 

 the spirited translations by Dr. Drummond ; but 

 as in Clare alone have the lake and cliff obtained 

 names from the event, we may claim the legend 

 as peculiar to that county. The old castle, once 



