Oct. 28. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



343 



" Don Quixote." — The reason why the real 

 chai'acters of Don Quixote have remained so long 

 concealed, is to be attributed to our reading the 

 book only for aumsement before the age of mature 

 reflection. That such keen and unrivalled satire 

 was intended for some ruling folly of the day, 

 there can be no doubt ; and many thinkers ap- 

 prove of the following remarks. History tells us 

 that Ignatius Loyola died when Cervantes was a 

 youth, and that the foundation of Jesuitism was 

 the dominant mania of that time ; but Cervantes 

 dared not to expose the real intention of his im- 

 mortal work. Recent travellers in Spain tell us 

 that every kind of crime and vice, even now, in 

 that counti-y, is hallowed by a few Ave Marias; and 

 so Don Quixote, who personified Ignatius Loyola, 

 appeased the wrath of Heaven on his adventures 

 by appealing to the all-powerful protection of the 

 Virgin Mary, in the name of Dulcinea del Toboso. 

 The domestic establishment of Don Quixote cor- 

 responded with those of the present priests in 

 Spain, viz., a very old man, or a very old woman, 

 and a niece ; almost every page confirms the 

 opinion advanced, and may be verified by any 

 reader. J. B. P. 



Colours burnt hy the Common 



Regimental 

 Hangman. — 



" Fourteen rebel colours taken at CuUoden were brought 

 to Edinburgh on the 31st of May (174G), and lodged in 

 the Castle. On Wednesday the 4th of June, at noon, 

 they were brought down to the Cross, the Pretender's 

 own standard carried by the hangman, and the rest by 

 chimney-sweepers, escorted by a detachment of Lee's 

 regiment. The sheriffs, attended by the heralds, purse- 

 vauts, trumpets, city constables, &c., and escorted by the 

 city guard, walked out from the parliament close to the 

 Cross, where proclamation was made by the eldest herald, 

 that the colours belonging to the rebels were ordered by 

 the Duke (of Cuniberhxnd) to be burnt by the hands of 

 the common hangman. The Pretender's own standard 

 was then put into a fire prepared for the purpose, and 

 afterwards all the rest one by one, a herald always pro- 

 claiming to whom each belonged, the trumpets sounding, 

 and the populace, of which there was a great number as- 

 sembled, huzzaing. A fifteenth standard was burnt at 

 Edinburgh with like solemnity, and another at Glasgow 

 on the 25th. We liave not heard that the device of a 

 crown and a coffin, or the motto ' Tandem Triumphans,' 

 was upon way of these, and it is doubted if ever there was 

 any such standard, though it was currently so reported." 

 — Scots^ Magazine for June, 174G, vol. viii. p. 288. 



G.N. 



"An old bird not to be caught with chaff." — It 

 has been recently stated in an American journal, 

 that this common adage is not always correct. To 

 verify the statement, it is recorded that an old 

 man of seventy-three years has recently married 

 Mrs. Sophia Chaff, a buxom widow of thirty. 



W. W. 



Malta. 



Typography. — The following extract from a 

 letter of Maestlinus to Kepler, written from Tu- 



bingen in 1596, shows a state of things which has 

 long been amended. Any compositor would now 

 throw tables into type as well as the calculator 

 could show him how to do it. 



" Tabularum autem descriptio mihi valde laborlosa est, 

 quia non scripta; fuerunt h. verum typographicarum perito. 

 Hinc nuUus typothetarum operi manus admovere potest : 

 ipse cogor typothetam agere." 



M. 



Sinope. — The Siege of Sinope ; a Tragedy, by 

 Mrs. Brooke, London, 178L The following verses 

 are from the conclusion of the tragedy : 



" Power Supreme ! 

 Great Universal Lord! from this fair hour 

 Let Cappadocia's sons, with Pontus join'd, 

 Beneath a milder sway forget their toils ! 

 Though long divided "by the arts of Rome [Eussia now], 

 Whose wild ambition sets the world in arms. 

 The kindred nations in each other's blood 

 Their frantic swords imbrued. Do thou inspire 

 The gentler purpose! And, amid the joys 

 Of sacred peace, a firm, united band. 

 Be it their glory to obey the laws 

 Fram'd for the general good ; and ours to find 

 The wreathe of conquest in our people's love." 



SCOTUS. 



Shai'p Practice. — The following instance of 

 sharp practice is so extraordinary if true, that it 

 is perhaps worthy of being preserved in " N. & Q." 

 The extract is from the London Chronicle, Jan. 

 11—13, 1781 : 



"An attornej- in Dublin, having dined by invitation 

 with his client several daj'S, pending a suit, charged 

 6s. 8d. for each attendance, which was allowed by the 

 Master on taxing costs. In return for this, the client 

 furnished the master-attorney with a bill for his eating 

 and drinking; which the attorney refusing to pay, the 

 client brought his action and recovered the amount of his 

 charge. But he did not long exult in his victory ; for, 

 in a few days after, the attorney lodged an information 

 against him before Commissioners of Excise, for retailing 

 wine without a licence ; and not being able to controvert 

 the fact, to avoid an increase of costs he submitted by 

 advice of counsel to pay the penalty, a great part of which 

 went to the attorney as informer." 



Fras, Brent. 



Sandgate. 



The Crimea and the 23rd Regiment. — Thirty 

 centuries since the Crimea was the hunting- 

 ground of the Cimmerioi, a people who, on the 

 invasion of their country by the Scythians, fought 

 a desperate battle among themselves on the ques- 

 tion of resistance or non-resistance ; and then, 

 having very probably become hors de combat, 

 abandoned the land to the invaders. This cir- 

 cumstance in itself seems sufficient to identify the 

 Cimmeiioi with the Celta5, whose valour was so 

 often and so fatally expended on internal quarrels. 

 This was ever the great error of the Cymry, or 

 AVelsh, who thus appear to be one in name and 

 manners with the ancient Cimmerioi. The tra- 

 ditions of the Cyniry point to the Gwlad yr Haf 



