July 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



77 



telp me in my difficulty, and inform me what 

 foundation there is for this legend ? 



Fkances S. M. 



[Tlie legend of St. Margaret is "singularly wild," 

 says Mrs. Jameson. It appears that the Governor of 

 Antioch was captivated with her beauty : but Margaret 

 rejected his offers with scorn. He endeavoured to sub- 

 due her constancy by the keenest torments, and slie was 

 dragged to a dungeon, where the devil, in the shape of 

 a terrible dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and 

 hideous mouth, and sought to terrify her : but she held 

 up the cross, and he fled before it. In some of the old 

 illuminations the dragon is seen rent and burst, and St. 

 Margaret stands upon him, or near him, unharmed.] 



Montehourg, Abbey of. — Where is any account 

 of the great abbey of Montebourg, near Valognes, 

 now destroyed? G. li. L. 



Lyme Regis. 



[Dugdale (vol. vi. p. 1097.) has given two charters 

 of confirmation to it ; and a list of thirty-three abbots 

 of this house will be found in Neustria Pia, pp. 674 — 

 676.] 



-What is the meaning of " The 

 (^Lives of the 



Virgilian Lots. 

 Virgilian lots ? " 



Johnson, in his "Life of Cowley 

 Poets, vol. i. p. 17.), says, — 



*'. . . . But the manners of that time were so tinged 

 with superstition, that I cannot but suspect Cowley of 

 having consulted on this great occasion the Virgilian 

 lots, and to have given some credit to the answer of his 

 oracle." 



Tecede. 



[A very curious illustration of Johnson's meaning 

 will be found in Aubrey's Remains of Gentilism and 

 Judaism, from which it has been printed in the volume 

 of Anecdotes and Traditions published by the Camden 

 Society, where we read as follows : — 



" In December 1648, King Charles the First, being 

 in great trouble, and prisoner at Caersbroke, or to be 

 brought to London to his triall ; Charles, Prince of 

 Wales, being then in Paris, and in profound sorrow for 

 his father, Mr, Abraham Cowley went to wayte on him. 

 His Highnesse asked him whether he would play at 

 cards to divert his sad thoughts; Mr. Cowley replied he 

 did not care to play at cards, but if his Highness 

 pleased they would use Sortes Virgiliance. ]\Ir. Cowley 

 alwaies had a Virgil in his pocket. The Prince ac- 

 cepted the proposal, and prickt his pin in the fourth 

 hooke of the jEneid, at this place (iv. 615. et seq.), 



' At hello audacis populi vexatus et armis,' &c. 



The Prince understood not Latin well, and desired Mr. 



Cowley to translate the verses, which he did admirably 



well ; and Mr. George Ent (who lived in his house at 



Chertsey in the great plague, 1665) showed me Mr. 



Cowley's own handwriting — 



^ ' By a bold people's stubborn arms opprest, 



Forced to forsake the land he once possesst. 



Torn from his dearest Sonne, let him in vain 



Seeke help, and see his friends unjustly slain. 



Let him to base unequal termes submit, 

 In hope to save his crown, yet loose both it 

 And life at once, untimely let him dy. 

 And on an open stage unburied ly.'" 

 Aubrey, who had not at first recovered Cowley's 

 translation, having inserted an extract from Ogilby's 

 Virgil, observes on the last line of the passage he 

 quoted — 



" ' But die before his day, the sand his grave." 

 Now as to the last part, ' the sand his grave,' I well re- 

 member it was frequently and soberly affirmed by 

 officers of the army and grandees, that the body of 

 King Charles the First was privately putt into the 

 sand about Whitehall; and the coffin, which was car- 

 ried to Windsor, and layd in King Henry VIII.'s 

 vault, was filled with rubbish or brickbatts. Mr. 

 Fabrian Philips, who adventured his life before the 

 king's trial by printing, assures me that the king's 

 coffin did cost but six shillings, a plain deale coffin. 



— Auhrey, fo. 157 and 158." 



On which the editor has this further note : 



" A very different account of the incident related by 

 Aubrey is given by Wei wood in his Memoirs, pp. 93, 

 94. ed. 1 820, where it is said that it was the King him- 

 self who, being at Oxford and viewing the Public Li- 

 brary, was shown a magnificent Virgil, and induced by 

 Lord Falkland to make a trial of his P'ortune by the 

 Sortes Virgiliana, and opened the book at the passage 

 just referred to. Weldon adds • It is said King Charles 

 seemed concerned at this accident, and that the Lord 

 Falkland observing it, would also try his own Fortune 

 in the same manner, hoping he might fall upon some 

 passage that could have no relation to his case, and 

 thereby divert the King's thoughts from any impression 

 that the other might have made upon him ; but the 

 place that Falkland stumbled upon was yet more suited 

 to his destiny than the other had been to the King's : 

 being the following expressions of Evander upon the 

 untimely death of his son Pallas, as they are translated 

 by Dryden : 



' O Pallas ! thou hast fail'd thy plighted word 

 To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword; 

 I warn'd thee, but in vain; for well I knew 

 What perils youthful ardour would pursue ; 

 That boiling blood would carry thee too far ; 

 Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war ! 

 O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom, 

 Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come !' " 



Newspaper Extracts. — Some years since a vo- 

 lume oi Newspaper Extracts — a curious compilation 



— was published. Can you give me the title, 

 date, and publisher ? J. P. 



[Perhaps the following is the work wanted by our 

 correspondent : More Mornings at Bow Street ; a New 

 Collection of Humorous and Entertaining Reports, by 

 John Wight, of the Morning Herald : London, 1824 

 and 1827.] 



