110 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



TNo. 144. 



with the last reprint of it. Rhabanus Maurus was 

 archbishop of Mayence in 847. The editions of 

 his work Dc Laudibus SanctcB Crucis of 1503 and 

 1606 are mentioned by P. B. : a third edition of 

 the archbishop's poem may be found in his com- 

 plete works, in folio, published at Cologne, a.u. 

 1626, vol. i. pp. 273—337. The latest edition of 

 the poem is one that has just issued from the 

 press of PiJnicke and Son, of Leipsic, under the 

 editorship of Adolphus Henze. It is now on sale 

 by Franz Thimm, New Bond Street. 



The wo:k consists of a series of anagrams, 

 acrostics, and other literary puzzles of most intri- 

 cate character, forming the sliape of the cross in 

 every possible variety of pattern, wrought, without 

 injury to the sense, into the framework of a num- 

 ber of poems. Tiie work is a curiosity of literary 

 ingenuity and typographical excellence; so much 

 so, that no one can appreciate the difficulty of the 

 task without an examination of the work. 



Ceyrep. 



The Woodruff (Vol. v., p. 469.). — The " small 

 Woodruff" here alluded to, and called Aspenda 

 cynajichica, must be the sweet Woodruff, Asperula 

 odorata. The former has no particular smell, and 

 the flowers and leaves are both so very diminutive, 

 that it would be of no use in adorning churches. 

 The English name is not Woodruff, but " Quinsy- 

 wort." E. J. M. 



Hydrophobia (Vol. v., p. 10.). — Your corre- 

 spondent Indagator is not the only boy who has 

 been horrified at the accounts related of the smo- 

 thering of hydrophobic patients. Is tliere such a 

 disease clearly deducible from the bite of a dog ? 

 We know that lock-jaw following wounds in the 

 tendons is not uncommon, and I think it probable 

 that may have been mistaken for it. Be it as it 

 may, I spent 1810—12 at Guy's Hospital, and 

 never heard the disease of hydrophobia mentioned. 

 Drs. Babington and James Curry never alluded to 

 it in their lectures ; nor was there even a report 

 during that period of the admission of any patient 

 so suffering. I have been since forty years in 

 practice ; I have never seen nor heard of a case, nor, 

 in spite of persevering inquiry, have I found any 

 person who could adduce an instance of it. I have 

 long looked at it as a fabulous tale. In the con- 

 vulsions consequent upon traumatic tetanus it is 

 possible that, in the restraint to which patients may 

 have been subjected, smothering has occurred. I 

 have met with no case of deliberate suffocation in 

 my medical reading. James Cornish. 



Battle of Alfred the Great with the Danes 

 (Vol. vi , p. 10.). — If your correspondent J. S. 

 will refer to Lingard {History of England, vol. i, 

 p. 249.), he will find that this battle did not take 

 place in Hampshire, but at Icglea (" grata salicis 

 planities juxta silvam," St. Neofs Life, p. 335.), 



supposed to be Leigh, not far from Wesfbury, 

 Wilts, or, as the position was afterwards changed, 

 on the eminence of Ethandune, supposed to be 

 Bratton Hill, near Eddingdon, in the same county. 



R.J. A.. 

 Bosherston, Pembroke. 



Mummies of Ecclesiastics (Vol. vi., p. 53.). — 

 These mummies are to be seen in the church at 

 Kreutzberg, about a mile and a half from Bonn, on 

 the Rhine. The church was formerly -attached 

 to a convent of Servites. Viator. 



There are some forty or fifty dry bodies, such as 

 A. A. refers to, under the church of St. Michael at 

 Bordeaux. (See Murray's Handbook for France.') 



B.R.I. 



Can a Man baptize himself? (Vol. vi., p. 36.). 

 — Surely the obvious reply to tliis question is, that 

 he cannot do so. Not being in Christian fellow- 

 ship before baptism, he would not be in a condition 

 to administer a Christian sacrament. 



The habit of altering the words when the mi- 

 nister receives the bread and wine at the sacrament 

 of the Lord's Supper from his own hands, is not 

 universal, nor practised, perhaps, by those of the 

 clergy whose example would be most looked to. 

 There would not seem to be any authoi-ity for such 

 alteration. Alfred Gatty. 



Eton Montem (Vol. vi., p. 63.). — I agree with 

 Dr. Rimbault, that the Eton Montem may have 

 been derived from the ceremony of the Boy- 

 Bishnp ; but we possess no certain data as to their 

 identity. Perhaps some of your readers may be 

 able to throw more light on the subject ; and I 

 would suggest the expediency of a reference to 

 the indices of Cole's MSS. in the British Museum, 

 and Cambridge University libraries, it being highly 

 probable that from his long connexion with Eton 

 and King's Colleges, he may have recorded some 

 particulars as to the origin of these celebrities. . 

 Meanwhile, I am enabled to fix the exact date of 

 the alteration of the time for holding the Montem. 

 from the winter to the summer season. The 

 change took place on Whit Tuesday, 1758 ; and is , 

 pointedly alluded to in a copy of Latin verses 

 preserved in the Musce Etonenses, vol. i. p. 60., 

 edition 1795, and written by Benjamin Heath, 

 afterwards Fellow of the College. As captain of 

 the school, he was entitled to the proceeds of the 

 Montem, or the salt, as it was called ; he was also 

 expected to produce an exercise, the subject of, 

 which has always been " Pro More et Monte." The 

 following lines'will be sufficient to prove my asser- 

 tion, but the whole poem is well worth perusal. 

 " Ut mihi more novo Montis celehrare triumphum, 



Fas sit, et optato fi^ere signa jugo, 

 Te supplex te rite colo, quo preside nostra, 



Laeiior cBstivo tempore pompa nitet." 



Bratbrooke. 



