96 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 144. 



INSCRIPTION ON THE SHRINE OF EDWARD THE 

 CONFESSOR. 



Being in Westminster Abbey last week, in com- 

 pany with two ladies, I — or rather, we (for I 

 know not which of us was foremost in the dis- 

 covery) — noticed a circumstance of such extreme 

 interest, that I shall trouble you with the particu- 

 lars of it. 



All round the four sides of the shrine of Edward 

 the Confessor, at the height of about seven feet 

 from the floor, there runs — or rather, there ran 

 till lately — a modern insci'iption in gilt letters, on 

 a black ground. On the eastern side this inscrip- 

 tion has been almost entirely removed, and the 

 hard bed of cement beneath has been brought to 

 light, indented, as it seems, with the marks of the 

 Byzantine mosaic which may have once adorned 

 that part of the shrine. But, besides these traces, 

 I noticed other indentations, of quite a different 

 character, — letters made, as it seemed to me, with 

 a flat tool; and perhaps (indeed, probably) with- 

 out any external inscription to correspond. The 

 letters are easily deeypherable, when once atten- 

 tion has been called to them, and are as follows : 



. . VXIT : IN : ACTVM : ROMANVS CIVIS HO . . . 



A small quantity of modern plaster conceals the 

 first letter, and the last two or three of the inscrip- 

 tion. But the first letter can only be a " D." So 

 that we do but desiderate the end of the last word, 

 in order to know wlio the " Romanus civis" was, 

 who in the year 1269 " duxit in actum" the shrine 

 of Edward the Confessor. 



Between the first " I" and " T" comes an archi- 

 tectural ornament ; which recurs between the last 

 " S" and the initial " H" of the last word. Tliere 

 are also two stops, of a lozenge shape, whi(;h 

 separate the first, second, third, and fourth words 

 of the legend. 



If you will take the trouble to go and examine 

 this inscription — which I pointed out, by the way, 

 to the wondering verger, and which he kept on 

 describing "with a difference," in heraldic phrase, 

 to every one he met — you will easily convince 

 yourself that it certainly does not begin on the 

 south side of the shrine. Nor, if I am correct in 

 supposing that "HO" are the first two letters of 

 a proper name, is it likely that it extends any 

 further, but is contained entirely on the eastern 

 side. J. W. B. 



Houghton Conquest. 



[Some notices of tliis inscription will be found in 

 Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 31., edit. 

 1826 ; Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. p. .5.; and 

 Neale's Westminster Abbci/, vol. ii. p. 69. It is thought 

 by some writers that the artist was Pietro Cavallini.] 



FOLK LORE. 



Superstitions of the Higher Classes (Vol. vi., 

 p. 6.). — As your correspondent VV. H. K. sug- 

 gests the insertion in "N. & Q." of superstitious 

 notions and practices among the higher classes, I 

 beg leave to mention a very superstitious practice 

 which I have frequently submitted to when what 

 is commonly called a sti/e in the eye first makes its 

 appearance ; viz. drawing a wedding-ring iiine 

 times across the part affected. This is supposed to 

 prevent all further irritation, &c. of the organ in 

 question, and, " wonderful to relate," has generally 

 proved efficacious. 



I have often wondered why and when this ab- 

 surd custom was introduced, when receiving the 

 mysterious nine strokes from the maternal ring. 



'Neavlas. 



Springs and Wells (Vol. vi., p. 28.). — On this 

 part of the coast of Pembrokeshire, between Tenby 

 and the entrance to Rlilford Haven, is a small bay, 

 steep in its sides, and so lashed by surf as rarely to 

 permit a boat to land. Here is the hermitage (or 

 chapel) of St. Gawen, or Goven, in which there is 

 a well, the water of which, and the clay near, is 

 used for sore eyes. Besides this, a little below the 

 chapel, is another well, with steps leading down to 

 it, which is visited by persons fi-om distant parts of 

 the principality, for the cure of scrofula, paralysis, 

 dropsy, and otlier complaints. Nor is; it the poor 

 alone who make this pilgrimage : a case came more 

 iunnediately under my notice, where a lady, a per- 

 son of some fortune, having been for some time a 

 sufferer from a severe attack of jiaralysis, which 

 prevented her putting her hand in her pr)::ket, 

 took up her quarters at a farm-house neai- the 

 well, and after visiting it for some weeks daily, 

 returned home perfectly cured. From tlie cliff 

 the descent to the chapel is by fifty-two steps, 

 which are s.aid never to appear the same number 

 in the ascent ; which miglit very easily bo traced 

 to their broken character. The building itself is 

 old, about sixteen feet long by eleven wide, has 

 three doors, and a ])rimitive stone altar, under 

 which the saint is said to be buried. The roof is 

 rudely vaulted, and there is a small belfi-y, where, 

 as tradition says, there was once a silver bell; and 

 there is a legend attached, that some Danish or 

 French pirates came by night, and having stolen 

 the bell from its place, in carrying it down to their 

 boat, rested it for a moment on a stone, which im- 

 mediately opened and received it. This stone is 

 still shown, and emits a metallic sound when struck 

 by a stone or other hard substance. One of the 

 doors out of the chapel leads by a flight of six 

 steps to a recess in the rock, open at the top, on 

 one side of which is the Wishing Corner, a fissure 

 in the limestone rock, with indentations believed 

 to resemble the marks which the ribs of a man 

 forced into this nook would make, if the rock were 



