312 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 259. 



and the mention of him is followed 'by a most 

 remarkable instance of forgetfulness of what he 

 had done for philosophy. 



" Je porte," proceeds M. Guizot in the next sentence, 

 *' mes regards siir les temps de la plus grande activite in- 

 tellectuelle de i'Angleterre, sur les epoques oii il semble 

 que les idees, le mouvement des esprits, aient teuu le plus 

 de place dans son histoire ; je prends la crise politique et 

 religieuse des xvi^ et xvii" siecles. Personne n'ignore 

 quel prodigieux mouvement a travaille alors I'Angleterre. 

 Quelqu'un pourrait-il me dire quel grand systfeme philoso- 

 phique, quelles grandes doctrines generales, et devenues 

 europeennes, ce mouvement a enfantes? II n'a gufere 

 ^eve ni agrandi, directement du moins, I'horizon de 

 I'esprit humain ; il n'a point allume un de ces grands 

 flambeaux intellectuels qui eclaii-eut toute une epoque." — 

 P. 10. 



And this is said by a philosophical writer, cer- 

 tainly not unfriendly to our nation, of the state of 

 philosophy in England in the days of Bacon and 

 Newton ! 



I beg leave to thank M. H. (Vol. x., p. 194.) for 

 correcting the error in my last communication 

 (Vol. X., p. 152.), which gave 1580 as the date of 

 the death of Henry II. of France. It had escaped 

 my observation, when writing with Le Noir 

 (planche iii.) before me, where '■'•mort en 1580" is 

 engraved. His next plate, representing the sar- 

 cophagus and recumbent statue of his widow, 

 Catharine de Medici, has the same date engraved 

 upon it as that of her death, who lived till Janu- 

 ary, 1588-9. 



I had thought that C. T. was unacquainted with 

 Le Noir's Musee des Mon. Franq., from his using 

 the language of uncertainty, and arguing from 

 mere probabilities, when he wished to prove that 

 a certain description of sepulchral effigies were 

 intended to represent dead corpses, upon which 

 question the series of monuments preserved by 

 Le Noir is incontestably decisive ; though the 

 effigy of Catharine de INIedici on her husband's 

 tomb is a very remarkable exception. 



Henry Walter. 



Hasilbury Bryan. 



THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND AND THE GRECIAN 

 ARCHIPELAGO. 



(Vol.x., p. 180.) 



Probably many links of connexion might be 

 found between Britain and Greece. In the first 

 peopling of countries, it is observable that the 

 tendency of emigration or progress is to the 

 south, south-east, south-west, and that the offsets 

 branched southward. 



Where we find a northward shoot, we may ge- 

 nerally suppose it impelled by antagonistic force, 

 and obliged to seek refuge in a mountainous and 

 less agreeable region, whence, having gained 

 strength and hardihood, it bursts forth at the ap- 



pointed time. This appears to me a useful rule, 

 though of course it has exceptions. 



Our first race of S(!ythians seem to have passed 

 westward along the northern coast of the Euxine, 

 bringing with them the sheep and goats of the 

 Caucasus, and the horses of Cappadocia-Tagarmah. 

 From this stream the first inhabitants of Mace- 

 donia, Thrace, Thessaly, probably parted off; 

 giving rise to fables, concealing much truth, about 

 the Centaurs and others. These people, like their 

 parent stock, were shepherds, following the rule 

 of the Old World, by passing through the shep- 

 herd state before tilling the earth ; and even in 

 Herodotus' time the latter occupation was thought 

 derogatory. 



I expect Caranus belongs to a shepherd race 

 passing from Plirygia along a more southern 

 latitude ; a royal race, the time later, and the 

 race more civilised. Thus, perhaps, Greece re- 

 ceived the horse and the olive. 



Abaris, the Hyperborean, acknowle^lged the 

 connexion of his country, Ireland, with Northern 

 Greece, by bringing first-fruits to Dodona, to be 

 forwarded thence to Delos ; and of course the 

 same connexion existed with Scotland. 



Dr. E. D, Clarke, vol. iv. p. 382., says, quoting 

 Stephanus : 



"Bormiscus is mentioned as a town of Macedonia, 

 where Euripides was lacerated by a kind of dogs, called 

 in the Macedonian tongue Esterices. It would be curious 

 to ascertain whether an etymology for this name exists 

 in any appellation given to a peculiar breed of dogs 

 among the northern nations of Europe." 



Adding in a note : 



" It comes nearest to the French word terrier, said to 

 be derived from the Latin terra; but the French word 

 may be the older of the two." 



Can the root of the word be found in Celtic ? 

 and the origin of the breed in Scotland ? Has 

 any traveller seen Scotch terriers in Turkey ? 



Again, when Xerxes, previous to the battle of 

 Thermopylae, sent to reconnoitre the Spartan 

 troops, they were seen performing gymnastics, 

 and combing their hair by a fountain. This re- 

 minds us of the old Scotch ballad, 



" Where fair Gyl Morice sat alone, 



And careless combed his yellow hair." 



An investigation of head ornaments might, I . 

 think, elucidate many ancient relationships. 



I have somewhere read of Druidical remains in 

 Thrace, but made no note ; I should be very 

 thankful for a reference. I do not mean that I 

 should consider such remains any proof of con- 

 nexion between the two countries, for I believe 

 Druidism too general to be so ; the link was 

 formed before the purer form of worship had de- 

 generated into any of the later systems, tiie growth 

 of extraneous circumstances. 



I venture on this note in the hope that it may 



