Dec. 2. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



449 



of his trains of thougbt. Continuations are pro- 

 verbially inferior to first parts ; but were the 

 printer of Robinson Crusoe to make no distinction, 

 though tlie interest might be thought to flag to- 

 wards the conclusion, I think few readers would 

 agree upon the place where the inferiority begins. 

 °I have no doubt that the Rev. Benjamin Hol- 

 loway faithfully repeated what Lord Sunderland 

 told him. He was, as Dr. Warton says, " a grave 

 conscientious clergyman." He was a Hutchin- 

 sonian, — a class of theologians then famous, but I 

 believe now extinct ; and set forth their manner of 

 interpretation in Originals, Letter and Spirit, and 

 other works, marvels of labour, erudition, and per- 

 verseness. He was also a tolerable artist. I have 

 a pencil copy by him of a portrait of Cardinal 

 Wolsey, very fairly done. He was godfather to 

 my grandmother, who delighted in repeating 

 anecdotes of him. Dr. Warton, and Mr. Hawkins, 

 the professor of poetry at Oxford, who were fre- 

 quent guests at my grandfather's house near 

 Bicester. In me she found a willing listener, but 

 as she died when I was about nine years old, I 

 had not then learned to " make a Note," and the 

 good things which they said, and the epigrams 

 which they wrote, have faded from my memory. 

 One story, suited to my age, remains, and it will 

 show that Mr. Holloway was somewhat credulous. 

 At the end of my grandfather's orchard was a 

 dilapidated and haunted summer-house. On the 

 eve of St. Barnabas, Mr. Holloway, in his full ca- 

 nonicals, with four wax candles, four books, the 

 parish constable, a man-servant, and the cook, 

 went out at half-past eleven to meet the ghost. 

 Some neighbours were in the house, and one or 

 two offered to join him ; but he chose his followers, 

 and would not allow the party to exceed four. 

 Though a whist player, he refused his rubber in 

 the evening, and insisted that cards should not be 

 used that night. The man had a blunderbuss, but 

 was obliged reluctantly to leave it at the house. 

 A slight thunderstorm came on. The constable 

 and man ran back to the house, and could not be 

 persuaded to return ; but the cook was firm, and 

 said, "she was afraid of no man, and Parson Hol- 

 loway was a match for the devil any day." They 

 waited till one. The ghost did not come. 



Strange stories were told of what was seen and 

 done ; but Mr. Holloway declared, and was sup- 

 ported in his testimony by the cook, that they 

 saw nothing unusual. The summer-house ceased 

 to be haunted. That it had been so was, I think, 

 the opinion of Mr. Holloway and my grandmother, 

 for she generally expressed regret at my grand- 

 father having laughed at the'ghost, and gone out 

 with a horsewhip to look for him, saying " he was 

 over-bold, what you might call fool-hardy." I 

 cannot fix the date, but from various circum- 

 stances believe it to have been between 1758 and 

 1765. H. B. C. 



In answer to Mr. Scott's second Query, I can 

 say that in the summer of 1813 I was at Largo in 

 Fifeshire, and was shown the chest of Robinson 

 Crusoe (Alexander Selkirk), which he had with 

 him on the island of Juan Fernandez. It was in 

 the possession of a poor woman of the same family, 

 to whom it seemed to have descended as a sort of 

 heir-loom. She had parted with his musket to 

 the laird of the parish (I think his name was 

 Mackenzie, but I am not positive), so that I did 

 not see it, though I was told strangers were al- 

 lowed to do so upon calling at the house. 



The chest was a stout common seaman's chest. 

 A. S. was cut on the lid, I think, in several places. 

 Although I forget the narrative that accounted 

 for the relic being where I saw it, I had no doubt 

 whatever of its accuracy. I recollect mentioning 

 the subject to Mrs. Grant of Lurgan (authoress of 

 Letters from the Mountains, &c.), whom I met at 

 Edinburgh soon after, and that she was perfectly 

 satisfied as to the identity of the chest. 



A. W. Davis, M.D. 



Tenbury, Worcestershire. 



THE DIVINING ROD. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 350. 400. ; Vol. ix., p. 386. ; Vol. x., 

 pp. 18. 155.) 



As this subject appears to possess interest for 

 some of the readers of " N. & Q.," perhaps the 

 following desultory memoranda may not be un- 

 acceptable, in continuation of the articles which 

 have already appeared. 



About the year 1780 great excitement was pro- 

 duced in the south of France by the extraordinary 

 power of discovering, or divining, subterranean 

 springs and waters, manifested by a poor herds- 

 man of Bouvantes in the province of Dauphiny, 

 named Antoine Bleton. These marvellous talents 

 were soon put into requisition, and Bleton speedily 

 acquired great fame by his numerous discoveries 

 of water, by which the estates of many who em- 

 ployed him were enriched. He shortly attracted 

 the notice of a well-known savant, M. Thouvenel, 

 who devoted a pamphlet to a relation and inves- 

 tigation of the facts which had come beneath his 

 notice ; it was entitled, — 



" Memoire Physique et Medicinale, montrant les rap- 

 ports e'videns entre les Phenomfenes de la Baguette Di- 

 vinatoire, du Magnetisme, et de rEleetricite, avee des 

 Eclaircissements sur d'autres Objets, non moins importans, 

 qui sont relatifs, par M. T . . . . (Thouvenel). 12mo., 

 Paris, 1781." 



Three years later M. Thouvenel, whose adherence 

 to Bletonisme had drawn upon him a host of an- 

 tagonists, published a Seconds Memoire Physique 

 et Medicinale, ^c, 8vo., Paris, 1784, a pamphlet 

 replete with interesting and important matter, 

 among which will be found a summary of the 



