Dec. 30. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



525 



^'^ Huntingdon Sturgeon." — In Rider's British 



Merlin, — 



" Bedeckt with many delightful Varieties and useful 

 Verities, fitting the Longitude and Latitude of all Capa- 

 cities within the Islands of Great Brittanes Monarchy, and 

 Chronologicall Observations of- principal Jsote to this 

 Year 1658,"— 



amongst the " Chronologicall Observations " is the 

 following curious entry, thirty-four years since : 



" The Bailiffs, and York the Constable of Huntingdon, 

 seized Sir Robert Osborn's ragged colt for a sturgeon." 



Can you give any information of this extraor- 

 dinary seizure ? Does it mean that the " ragged 

 colt" was seized and sold for payment of a fine 

 for not sending the fish to the king, or the lord of 

 the manor, which in many places the takers of a 

 sturgeon were bound to do ? C. db D. 



[The sturgeon is a privileged royal fish, as stated in 

 17 Edw. II. St. 1. c. 11. ; but our correspondent's quota- 

 tion seems to have some reference to the following anec- 

 dote, noticed in Pepys's Diary, Ma}- 22, 1667 : " During 

 a very high flood in the meadows between Huntingdon 

 and Godmanchester, something was seen floating, which 

 the Godmanchester people thought was a black pig, and 

 the Huntingdon folks declared was a sturgeon ; when 

 rescued from the waters, it proved to be a young donkey. 

 This mistake led to the one partj' being stjded ' Godman- 

 chester black pigs,' and the other 'Huntingdon sturgeons,' 

 terms not altogether forgotten at this day." This ap- 

 pears as a note by the noble editor to the following entry 

 by Pepys: "This day coming from Westminster with 

 W. Batten, we saw at Whitehall Stairs a fisher-boat with 

 a sturgeon, that he had newly catched in the river, which 

 I saw, but it was but a little one ; but big enough to 

 prevent my mistake of that for a colt, if ever I become 

 Mayor of Huntingdon."] 



" Orbis Miraculvm." — I have recently seen a 

 work bearing the title of Orbis Miracvlum ; or the 

 Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by Scripture Light : 

 London : printed by John Streater, for Thomas 

 Basset, 1659. 



May I ask if this is a rare volume, and what 

 may be known of its author, Samuel Lee ? 



W. W. 



Malta. 



[A long account of Samuel Lee and his numerous works 

 is given in Wood's Athena (Bliss), vol. iv. p. 345. Ca- 

 lamy, in his Ejected Ministers, Continuation, p. 54., says, 

 " Lee was a considerable general scholar, understood the 

 learned languages well, spoke Latin fluently and elegantly, 

 was well versed in all the liberal arts and sciences, was a 

 great master in phj^sic and alchymy, and no stranger to 

 any part of polite and useful learning."] 



Well Chapel. — In the parish of St. Cleather, 

 Cornwall, and on the granite- sprinkled banks of 

 the Innay, lie the ruins of a well chapel. The 

 spring of water flows from under the altar, which 

 is marked with four crosses. The chapel goes by 

 the name of Basil's Well. What tourist, if any, 

 gives an account of it ? Donheoed. 



[This well is noticed in Carew's Cornwall, p. 41. ; and 

 in Gilbert's Parochial History of Cornwall, vol. i. p. 199.] 



'T^e Modem Athens: a Dissection and De- 

 monstration of Men and Things in the Scotch 

 Capital, by A Modern Greek : London, Knight 

 and Lacey, 1825." The author's name will oblige 



R. H. B. 



[A manuscript entry in a copy of this work before us 

 attributes it to Mr. George Mudie.] 



BOOKS BURNT BY THE HANGMAIT. 

 (Vol. X., pp. 12.215.) 



The history of book- burning should have been 

 written by D'Israeli ; only his pen could have given 

 its philosophy as displayed in the fantastic freaks 

 there exhibited of the infirmity of human judgment 

 when acted upon by religious and political preju- 

 dices, sectarian and party heats. The subject is 

 far from exhausted, and I proceed to adduce a few 

 more examples, at random strung. 



A never-failing source of religious bitterness 

 appears to have been the 30th January comme- 

 moration ; and we find that while High Church 

 Jacobites were on that day extolling their canon- 

 ised monarch, at whose martyrdom, according to 

 them, both civil and religious liberty became ex- 

 tinct, the Whigs were, at their Calves' Head Club, 

 reversing the picture, and over their ribaldrous 

 anthems commemorating Britain's deliverance on 

 the same day from tyranny and slavery ! (See 

 « N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 16.) 



Certain Animadversions on the tiuo last SOtJi 

 January Sermons, one preached to the Hon. House 

 of Commons, the other to the House of Convoca- 

 tion : in a Letter, was published in 1702. This 

 being complained of to the House, 



" After the reading and examining several paragraphs 

 and passages therein, it was resolved by their Lordships, 

 that the said book or pamphlet was a malicious, vil- 

 lanous libel, containing very many reflections on King 

 Charles I., of ever-blessed memory, and tending to .tie 

 subversion of monarchy, and thereupon ordered it to be 

 burnt by the hands of the common hangman." 



Having thus disposed of the critic, their Lord- 

 ships turned their attention to the provocation by 

 taking into consideration " The Sermon preached 

 on January 30th, 1701-2, before the Convocation, 

 by Dr. Binks," from which tiiey extracted the fol- 

 lowing High Church ravings. The preacher, speak- 

 ing lightly of the Jews for crucifying Christ com- 

 pared with the rebels for putting to death Charles, 

 observes : 



" For if respect to the dignity of the person to have 

 been King of the Jews, was what ought to have secured 

 our Saviour from violence ; here is also one not only, bom 

 to a crown, but actually possessed of it. He was not only 

 called king by some, and at the same time derided by 

 others for being so called, but he was acknowledged by 

 all to be a king ; he was not just dressed up for an hoar or 



