July 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Bt 



Government of St. Christopher in 1662 (Vol. v., 

 p. 510.). — 'ihe following notices of the Bailiff De 

 Toincy, and his successor the Chevalier De Sales, 

 which we have found recorded in the Chronology 

 of St Christopher, may give Ursula that inform- 

 ation he wishes : 



"In 1641 De Poincy arrived at St. Christopher as 

 governor from France?. 



" In 1651 M. De Poincy buys of the French West 

 India Company their share of the Island of St. Kitts. 



"In 1653 the King of France makes a bequest of 

 the Island of St. Kitts to the Knights of the Order of 

 Malta. 



" In 1660, April 11th, De Poincy dies, aged seventy- 

 seven, and is succeeded by the Chevalier De Sales." 



The Grand Master, Nicholas Cotona, on the 5th 

 of May, 1673, made over all the titles of his West 

 India possessions to Monsieur Colbert, the prime 

 minister of Frnnce. At the time of this cession 

 the Chevalier De Sales, "nephew of that great 

 saint, Francis De Sales," was governor of St. 

 Christopher. 



Any information with reference to the islands 

 of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Christopher, 

 and Santa Cruz, vrhen held by the Order of St. 

 John, will be most acceptable. I would like to 

 know for what amount they were purchased by the 

 Knights of Malta, for what period they were held, 

 what tribute was paid, and when and for what 

 sum they were disposed of. The disposal of these 

 islands caused much dissension among the knights, 

 as I have some interesting testamentary evidence 

 to prove. W. W. 



La Valetta, Malta. 



De Sancta Criice (Vol. vi., pp. 9. 61.). — Father 

 Gretser's works were published in seventeen folio 

 volumes, Ratisbon, 1734 ; the first three treat De 

 Sancta, Cruce. Your correspondent may see a fine 

 copy at Nntt's in the Strand. Lipsius has written 

 on the same subject. Martial, a student at Lou- 

 vain, wrote A Treatise on the Cross, which he 

 dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Ci-uciana, by John 

 Holland, Liverpool, 1835, is a useful little work 

 with numerous illustrations. Mr. Alger has drawn 

 largely from it in a work he published last year 

 in America ; History of the Cross of Christ, by the 

 Rev. W. Alger, Cambridge and Boston, James 

 Munroe & Co. Mr. Haslam's The Cross and the 

 Seipent, Parker, 1849, is doubtless well known to 

 your readers. Mariconda. 



Hugo is right in his belief that Gretser, the 

 Jesuit, wrote a treatise entitled De Sancta Cruce. 

 The best edition is said to be that in folio, 1616. — 

 See Biog. Univ. J. M. 



Oxford. 



History of Commerce (Vol. v., pp. 276. 309. 

 329.). — Your correspondent X. Y. Z., who asked 

 for a work relating to the courses of commerce 



between Europe and the East, in ancient and 

 modern times, will find ample infotmaticm in the 

 second volume of The Expedition for the Survey of 

 the Rivers Evphrates and Tigris, by Lieut.-CoL 

 Chesney. William Brock. 



Gower Street. 



Physiologus (Vol. li., p. 205.). — The work of 

 Theobald, called Physiologus, supposed by Sharon 

 Turner to be the same as that so often quoted by 

 Phillippe de Tliaun, supplies, according to your 

 correspondent B. F. (Vol. ii., p. 205.), the fable 

 and application of the Lion, with very trifiing 

 variations from Philippe de Thaun's fabulous ac- 

 count of the Lion. 



Mr. Wright*, on the other hand, is of opinion 

 that the Physiologus of Thetbaldus is not the same 

 as tliat quoted by Philippe de Thaun. I have 

 much pleasure in expressing my concurrence with 

 Mr. Wright's conclusion, on the testimony of 

 Vincent of Beaiivais, in whose Speculum Naturale 

 are quoted several passages from Physiologus, 

 which, as will appear from a comparison, are very 

 different from the Latin poem of Thetbaldus, 

 printed among the works of Hildebert, p. 1174. : 

 Paris, 1708, a translation of which appears in 

 Halliwell and Wright's Peliquice Antiqnce, vol. i. ' 

 p. 208., whilst they precisely correspond with 

 Philippe de Thaun's quotations. A Rosicrdcian. 



'■'■ Viewe Botves" (Vol. vi., p. 10.). — I believe 

 " viewe howes " to be simply yeiv bows. In my native 

 town, in South Lancashire, such used to be the 

 vernacular pronunciation of yew, and probably is 

 still. I remember it with particular distinctness 

 in the name of a farm-house, which was called by 

 the " natives " the " View-tree House," with re- 

 ference to a remarkable yew, which has withered 

 within my recollection. G. T. D. 



The Death-watch (Vol. v., pp. 537. 597.). — I 

 read in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, 

 Vol. Insect Miscellanies, the following : 



" Sir Thomas Browne considered the subject of the 

 death-watch of great importance, and remarks that the 

 man ' who could eradicate this error from the minds 

 of the people, would save from many a cold sweat the 

 meticulous heads of nurses and grandmothers,' as such 

 persons are firm in the' belief that 



' The solemn death-watch clicks the hour of death.' 



" Swift endeavoured to perform this useful task by 

 means of ridicule. His description, suggested, it would 

 appear, by the old song of ' A cobbler there was, and 

 lived in a stall,' runs thus" 



Then follow the lines already quoted hy Mr. 

 Yarrell. H. W. G. 



Elgin. 



* See Popular Treatises on Science, written during 

 the Middle Ages, published by the Historical Society 

 of Science. 



