Oct. 21. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



323 



fully two miles from the sea. At one period it 

 was partially surrounded by what is called a loch, 

 now drained. This error is surpassed by Miss 

 Strickland, Avho, not knowing the French designa- 

 tion of the Scottish capital, imagines Lislebourgh 

 and Edinburgh to be separate cities. 



Vol. ii. p. 359. " From his daughter Margaret 

 are descended the family of Montacute or Mon- 

 tague, the present Earls of Salisbury." The Cecils 

 have been Earls of Salisbury for at least two 

 centuries. 



Vol. iii. p. 113. "]\Iock king John Baliol." 

 In what way was Baliol a mock king ? He was 

 the lawful heir of the crown, and was as much 

 king of Scotland as his successor King Robert 

 the Bruce, or his predecessor Alexander III. 



J.M. 



Edinburgh. 



Scottish Ruins. — As some solace to the wounded 

 feelings of Rhadamanthus, and of others who 

 think as he does on the subject of the neglect 

 shown to the national antiquities and ruined 

 palaces of Scotland, I beg to send you the fol- 

 lowing extract from the English Churchman of 

 August 31. I believe there is a recently-formed 

 Scottish Architectural Society, which is labouring 

 in the cause that Rhadamanthus has so much at 

 heart. 



" Holyrood Palace. — Sir William Moleswortb, Chief 

 Commissioner of Her Majesty's Works, &c., has visited 

 Edinburgh, and inspected the palace of Holyrood and tlie 

 other public buildings, with a view to various improve- 

 ments being carried out." 



SCOTUS. 



Alchjmical Riddle of the sixteenth Century. — 



" In a place where I was, 

 I saw [a] person made of glasse, 

 And in that person were persones three, 

 And tliey were clothed all in Blacke : 

 Tiie persons dore was made of bread. 

 And yet for hunger they were all dead. 

 Tell me nowc for the love of me. 

 What manner of persons these should be." 



Ashm. 3fS. No. 1480. 



Z. z. 



Philological Ingenuity. — The following is a 

 curious example of philological ingenuity, in the 

 application of an idiomatic phrase to convey a 

 meaning, for which the language contains no pre- 

 cise or definite words. 



" Sgeol abada boita " means, in Irish, an exag- 

 gerated or boastful story, literally " news upon 

 stilts." The Galway peasantry apply this expres- 

 sion to designate the electric telegraph. 



J. Locke. 



Dublin. 



" Talented.'" — It may be worth noting as a 

 parallel case to the word " starvation," that the 

 adjective " talented," now so commonly used to 



express genius or ability, is not to be found in 

 Todd's JohnsorCs, Sheridan s. Walker s, or in any of 

 the old dictionaries. Richardson merely remarks 

 that it is given by JtsToah Webster, on turning to 

 whose American dictionary I find it with a re- 

 ference to the Ch. Spectator, which I cannot just 

 now verify. J. R. G. 



©ucrtei. 



burning} or THE JESUITICAL BOOKS. 



On April 23, 1768, Junius, under the signature 

 Bifrons, wrote : 



" I remember seeing Busembaum, Suarez, Molina, and 

 a score of other Jesuitical books, burnt at Paris, for their 

 sound casuistry, by the hands of the common hangman." 



On this, the Quarterly Review, in its article pub- 

 lished in January, 1852, endeavouring to prove 

 Thomas, Lord Lyttleton, to have been Junius, 



says : 



" We maj' assume that this took place in 1764, as it 

 was in that year that Choiseul suppressed the Jesuits." 



In " N". & Q.," Vol. v., p. 56., Mr. II. Merivalb' 



says; 



" The orders of the parliament of Paris against the 

 Jesuits, one of which condemned some thirty of their 

 books to be burnt, were issued three years before the sup- 

 pression of their order in France, viz. in the early part 

 and summer of 17C1." 



And the Ed. " !N". & Q." remarks in a note, that 

 the burning "took place on August 7, 1761 ;" and 

 refers to " a very curious note on the subject " in 

 Bohn's edition o^ Junius. 



If Mr. Merivale, and the Ed. " IST. & Q.," will 

 refer to a little book, published a few months ago, 

 by Trlibner & Co., Paternoster Row, under the 

 title Junius Discovered, by Frederick Griffin, 

 pp. 175. to 181., they will find unquestionable 

 proof that the burning could not have taken place 

 until after August 6, 1762. Can any reader of 

 " N. & Q." furnish the precise date ? And also, 

 were there any subsequent public burnings of 

 Jesuitical books, by order of the parliament of 

 Paris, save the one mentioned by Mr. Griffin as 

 having occurred on January 21, 1764, and which 

 he has shown could not have been the burning 

 alluded to by Junius ? If the extract from Mr. 

 Griffin's essay were not too long, its publication in 

 " N. & Q." would be desirable. 



With reference to the Junius " Miscellaneous 

 Letter XX." which immediately precedes the 

 letter of Bifrons, it may not be inopportune to 

 remove some of the odium attached to the moral 

 character of the Lord Bute of the days of Junius, 

 by an incorrect filling up of a blank. The Letter, 

 as originally published in the Public Advertiser, 

 snid : "And even Lord B e prefers the sim- 

 plicity of seduction, to the poignant pleasure of a 



