8 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 140. 



I beg to give you three references as a voucher 

 of the fact. Mr. Cowdrey, the florist, who has 

 large nursery gardens at Edgbaston, near Birming- 

 ham, has oile specimen, with the history of which 

 he is personally acquainted : no graft of the pur- 

 ple Cytisns has touched this tree. Mr. Holcombe 

 of Valentines, near Ilford, has another specimen ; 

 and in my father's plantations at Kingsheath, near 

 Birmingham, there are four trees of purple labur- 

 num grafted on stocks of yellow laburnum ; and 

 of these, two have put forth the purple Cytisus in 

 abundance. 



Let no one imagine that the purple Cytisus is 

 merely a variety of the purple laburnum. It is, 

 as I have said, specifically distinct. Its flowers do 

 not grow in racemes, as in the two laburnums, but 

 are on short footstalks all along the branch, with 

 a very peculiar and small foliage springing from 

 the same points of the branch. This fact can leave 

 the problem of changes of species into species no 

 longer of doubtful solution. Perhaps this note 

 may lead to others of more scientific research. 

 Surely a series of well-digested experiments would 

 •not merely confirm the facts already known, but 

 lead to a rationale of the presumed transmutation. 

 C. Mansfibld Inglbby. 



Apiileitis on Mesmerism. — I transcribe the fol- 

 owing passage, which I have just met with in 

 Apuleius, as a very early allusion to Mesmerism : 



" Quin et illud mecura reputo, posse animuin huma- 

 uum, praesertim puerilem et simplicem sen carminum 

 avocamento, sive cdorum delenimento, soporari, et ad 

 oblivionem prjeseiitiutn externari ; et paulisper remota 

 corporis memoria, redigi ac redire ad naturam suam, 

 qua; est Immortalis sciUcet et divina: atque ita, veluti 

 quod:im sopore, futiira rerum prassagire." — Apuleius, 

 Apol 475. Delph. ed. 



Rechabite. 



The Domiciliary Clause. — In 1547 a proclama- 

 tion was issued by Henry VIIL, " that all women 

 should not meet together to babble and talk, and 

 that all men should keep their wives in their 

 houses." ALiduis. 



Transmission of Ancient Usaf^es. — To the deri- 

 vation of certain customs and usages frorn the 

 East via Gades or Cadiz, as in 4;he case of the 

 address " uncle" in Andalusia and Cornwall, and 

 the clouted cream in Syria and Cornwall, may be 

 added the use, in the same county, of a lock with- 

 out v/ards actually now to be seen sculptured on 

 the great temple of Karnac, in Egypt, too plainly 

 to be mistaken. The principle is similar to that in 

 one of Bramah's locks. Mr. Trevelyan some years 

 ago brought this fact to the notice of the Royal 

 Institution, The principle is not easily explained 

 without an engraving, .The voyages of Hamilcar 



and others to this part of England for tin is in 

 this way remarkably corroborated, independentlj 

 of tJiat resemblance in domestic implements, and 

 those of personal use, both in ancient and modern 

 times, which may be traced in the antiquities col- 

 lected in the British Museum. C. Redding. 



Inscription on an Oak Chest. — I copy the fol- 

 lowing inscription from the lid of an old oak chest^ 

 measuring four feet eight inches and a half long, 

 and two feet three inches and a half broad. The 

 words are taken from Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 16, 17.': 



"1.5.9.1. 

 CEASR.TO.DO.EVILL.LEARNE.TO.DO.GOOD 

 SEKE . TO . DO . RIGHT . RELIVE . THE . POORE " 



The letters, it may be observed, are formed by 

 brass-headed nails driven into the wood, in exactly 

 the same manner as trunkmakers do at the present 

 day, to ornament their boxes. It is the property 

 of the Coopers' Company, and, from the spirit of 

 the legend, I should say that it was formerly used 

 to hold the documents relating to the various 

 charities of which the Company are trustees. 



A.m 



Kilburn. 



The Raising of Charles I.'s Standard at Not' 

 tingham. — The frontispiece to Cattermole's Civil 

 War represents a forlorn group of men, women, 

 and children, watching the fixing into the ground 

 of a large flag, which a soldier is seeking to 

 strengthen by stakes driven round the base of the 

 flagstaff. Surely this is not a correct delineation 

 of that event? Rushworth, it is true, says the 

 standard was fixed in an open field at the back side 

 of the castle wall ; but the common opinion, that 

 its position was rather the summit of one of the 

 old turrets of the castle, receives confirmation from 

 a source little known to the public, viz. the me- 

 moranda of the antiquary, John Aubrey. In a 

 letter sent to him by Sherrington Talbot (of 

 Laycock?), who was present at the "raising," the 

 writer says that he saw the flag " lying horizontally 

 on the tower ; " this horizontal position being oc- 

 casioned by the tempest which, it need hardly be 

 added, cast the standard down almost as soon as 

 erected. J. W. 



REMARKABLE EXPERIMENTS. 



A living man, lying on a bench, extended as a 

 corpse, can be lifted with ease by the forefingers 

 of two persons standing on each side, provided the 

 lifters and the liftee inhale at the moment the 

 effort is being made. If the liftee do not inhale, 

 he cannot be moved off" the bench at all ; but the 

 inhalation of the lifters, although not essential, 

 seems to give additional power. 



The fact is undeniable. I have never met with 



