NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOB 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** "Wben found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. VL— No. 143.] Saturday, July 24. 1852. 



{Price Foiirpence. 

 Stamped Edition, ^d. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — ' 



Ordeals ...--•- 



Poetical Similarities, by C. Mansfield Ingleby - 

 Folic Lore : — Northumberland Tradition — Weather 

 Proplipcy — St. Mark's Kve — Children's Nails — 

 Chesiiire Cure for Hooping Cough — Sites of Build- 

 ings changed. Sec. ..---- 

 Buchanan and Theodore Zuinger - • - - 



Minor Notes : — The Word Handbook — Bitter Beer — 

 Slaves ill Ireland not a Century ago — Book Margins 

 — Lord Derby or Darby . - - - - 



QVERIES : — 



Lunar Occultations ------ 



" The Good Old Cause," by Thomas H. Gill '- 

 Minor Queries : — Winclifield, Hants —" Balnea, vina, 

 Venus "— " Kicking up Mag's or Meg's Diversion " — 

 Shan. dra-dam — Kentish Fire — Incantations at Cross 

 Roads — Odyllic Light— Trochihis and Crocodile — 

 Pickigni— Heywood Arms— Memoires d'une Con- 

 temporaine — Drawbridge — Saul's Seven Days — 

 Coudray Family — " Oh, go from the window!" — 

 The Kurnenux Family — Personators of Edward VI. 



— Barlaam's Commentary on Euclid— Venice Glasses 



— Styles of Dukes and Marquises — Who was Coionel 

 Bodens? — "Who sent tlie Messengers ? " 



Minor Queries Answered: — St. Margaret and the 

 Dragon — Monteliourg, Abbey of — Virgilian Lots — 

 Newspaper Extracts 



Replies : — 



Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, by James Spedding - 

 A Passage iu " As You Like It," by Samuel Hickson - 

 Lifting Experiment, by Sir David Brewster, &c. 

 Monody on the Death of Sir John Moore, by C. H. 



Cooper, &c. 

 Way of indicating Time in Music, by Dr. Edward F. 



Rimbault ------- 



The Two Passaxes in " King Lear " - - - 



Amber Witch .-.--- 



Lines on Succession of the Khigs of England 

 Dodo Queries, by W. Pinkerton - - - - 



Burials .-..--- 



Dr. Gumming on Ronnans viii., by J. C. Robertson 



On some disputed Passages in Shakspeare, by S. W. 



Singer ...---- 

 Replies to Minor Queries: — Milton and Tacitus — 



Emaciated Monumental Effigies — La Gardp meurt 



— Baxter's "Saints' Rest " — The Briaht Lamp that 

 shone in Kildare's holy Fane " — Exterior Stoup — 



', Henry, Lord Viscount Dover — Government of St. 

 Christopher in 166'J — De Sancta Cruce — History of 

 Commerce — Physiologus — " Veiwe Bowes " — The 

 Death-watch — William, Abbot of St. Albans — Lines 

 on Crawford of Kilbirnie — Can Bishops vacate their 

 Sees? — Lines on Franklin — St. Augustiuus " De 

 Musica" — Giving the Sack, &c. • - - 



Miscellaneous : — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - - - 



■ Notices to Correspondents - - - . 



Advertisements - - . « . - 



Page 

 69 

 70 



Vol. VI. — No. 143. 



i^atei. 



Ordeals, as the test of innocence or guilt, are of 

 wreat antiquity. In the Book of Numbers v. 14 — 

 31.. the rite of the "waters of jealousy" appears 

 to give them a Divine sanction. The idea was, 

 however, common to the ignorance and supersti- 

 tion of .ill countries. Gaseous springs were among 

 some tribes supposed to possess the power of de- 

 tecting truth, either by increasing or mitigating 

 bodily afflictions upon immersion. In the case of 

 guilt, their beneficent effects were turned into a 

 curse ; as the wine of Me|)histopheles becomes a 

 consuming fire to the drunken student. Ordeal 

 by fire was known to the Greeks : nine others of 

 various kinds were sanctioned by the Brahmins. 

 Fire is also mentioned in early Scandinavian songs. 

 This custom, mingled with other orientalisms, 

 passed probably Into Europe during the migration 

 of those northern hordes by which it was succes- 

 sively overrun. Some interesting literary anec- 

 dotes relative to the ordeals of the Middle Ages 

 will be found in the article under that heading in 

 the Encyclopaedia Metropolilana. The object of 

 these Notes is merely to refute, by an extract, the 

 opinion sometimes entertained, — that the Church 

 invented and encouraged this method of trial. The 

 worst that can be said is, that the Church adopted, 

 that it might control for its own ends, as it did 

 other cases, that blind faith it could not purify : 



"L'esprit de parti a quelquefois accuse TEglise 

 d'avoir imagine ees moyens barbares et insensjs de 

 connaitre la vtrite; — jamais accusation ne fut plus 

 injuste." 



This is the opinion of M. Ampere, Histoire Lit' 

 teraire, tome iii. p. 1 80. : 



"L'Eglise, au contraire, des le 9' siecle, protestait 

 par la voix d'Agobard centre des abus dont elle ne fut 

 jamais le principe; elle tolera quelquefois des institu- 

 tions qii'elle n'avait pas fondees, elle eut le tort de les 

 consacrer par ses rites, mais il faut voir dans de telles 

 concessions le triomphe des prejuges du Moyen Age 

 sur l'esprit de I'Eglise, et non une consequence de cet 

 esprit." 



As evidence of this he quotes at full the opinion 

 of Agobard, bishop of Lyons in 816. Keference 



