62^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 142-. 



0(Wo«rj re vafft. — Your correspondent Kenneth 

 R. H. Mackenzie, in his last communication on 

 the Homer question, says (Vol. v., p. 223.) : " But 

 that this (5C. revision of Homer) was of no great 

 avail, is evident from the corruption, ot'como't re 

 iraffi, in the opening. All birds are not carnivorous, 

 and therefore the passage must be wrong." Now 

 oluu6s, as everybody knows, is not the generic word 

 for a bird, but means a bird of prey, and thence a 

 bird of omen. Zeus. 



Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter. — The 

 Scotch spaewife (fortune-teller) generally sets up 

 the pretension that she is the seventh daughter of 

 a seventh daughter ; and is supposed, in conse- 

 quence, by the lower orders, to be possessed of 

 second sight. 



I have never heard of any medical knowledge 

 being professed by these impostors. T. R. K. 



Camden Town. 



A strange Cow (Vol. v., p. 285.). — It is re- 

 marked by C, that no other language can afford 

 such anomalies as are to be found for instance in 

 rough, cough, plough, dough, and through. The 

 story of the Frenchman may not be generally 

 known, who declared that he had been disturbed 

 by a cow all night. However, after the anxious 

 host had inquired whether the troublesome cow 

 had trespassed in the garden, or whether her calf 

 had been removed, he discovered that his guest had 

 been deprived of his night's rest by a bad cough. 



C. T. 



Royal Arms in Churches (Vol. v., p. 559.). — 

 It will be seen by a correspondence in the Gentle- 

 man^ s Magazine, 1841, in which I was somewhat 

 engaged (vol. xv. New Series, pp. 338. 450. 603. ; 

 vol. xvi. pp. 19, 20. 338. 452. 584.; vol. xvii. 

 p. 496.), that the authority for setting up the royal 

 arms in churches is out of respect " to the powers 

 that be." At the last reference will be found a 

 woodcut of the arms of Henry VII., from a Bench 

 end in Cornwall. Royal arms in glass may be 

 frequently met with in churches. I will append a 

 note as to the habitat of a few : 

 St. Decumant, Somerset, very early : Arms, three 



lions. 

 Bristol Cathedral (East Window), Edw. II. 

 Portslade, Sussex, Ric. II. 

 Bodenham, Hereford, Ric. II. 

 Madron, Cornwall (Bench end), Hen. VII. 

 Milverton, Somerset (Bench end), Hen. VIII. 

 Checkly, Stafford (East Window), Edw. VI. 

 St. Martin's, Sarum (Tablet), Elizabeth. 

 St. James's, Bristol (Tablet), Elizabeth. 

 Winscombe, Somerset (Tablet), Car. II. 

 Mells, Somerset (Tablet), Anne. 



I would request Notes of any early arms to be 

 made known through " N. & Q." 



H. T. Ellacombe. 



Clyst St, George. 



St. Christopher (Vol. v., pp. 295. 334. 372. 494.). 

 — He is represented in one of the windows of the 

 north aisle of the church of Doddiscombleigh, near 

 Exeter, — a drawing of which may be seen in the 

 2nd volume of the Transactions of the Exeter 

 Architectural Society. The church is rich in re- 

 mains of ancient stained glass. H. T. Ellacombb. 



Oasis (Vol. v., p. 465.). — The two Universities 

 are at variance on the quantity. Let us first hear 

 Oxford. Thus, in 1829, spoke the present Pro- 

 fessor of Poetry : — 



" Like green oases in the Libyan wild." 



Oxford Prize Poems, p. 194. 



And thus, in 1830, the present Professor of 

 Political Economy : — 



" That green oasis, in whose verdant vale." 



lb. p. 203. 



But hear Cambridge. Some twelve or fifteen 

 years ago, the following line occurred in the prize 

 poem by the present head-master of Oakh'am 

 School : 



" A sunny o^sis in memory's waste." 

 Of course I quote these gentlemen rather as 

 scholars than as " English poets." R. 



Lord Bacon a Poet (Vol. iv., p. 474.). — I think 

 no one has given the proper answer to this ques- 

 tion. Lord Bacon not only " wrote verses " (see 

 Mr. Hannah's edit, of Poems by Wotton, Raleigh^ 

 8fc., p. 77.), but, as should be sufficiently notorious, 

 wrote those particular verses. The poem in which 

 they occur was printed as Bacon's by Farnaby ia 

 1629 ; and Bacon's name is appended to it in all 

 the editions of Reliquice Wottoniance after the first 

 (viz. in 1654, 1672, and 1685), as well as in 

 several MS. copies still extant. R. 



Longevity. — 



" My Lord Bacon says that the Countess of Desmond 

 was 140 years of age. Mrs. Eckelston,, who lived at 

 Philipstown in the King's co., was born in the year 

 1548, and died 1691, so she was 143 years old." — 

 Boate and Molyneux's Nat. Hist, of Ireland, p. 181. 



In Silliraan's Tour between Hartford and Quebec 

 in 1819, we have a minute account of an old man 

 of 134 years, Henry Francisco by name, a native- 

 of France. An advocate of vegetable diet ad- 

 duces the Norwegian and Russian peasantry as 

 the most remarkable instances of extreme Ion-, 

 gevity : 



" The late returns of the Greek Church population' 

 of the Russian empire give (in the table of the deaths- 

 of the male sex) more than one thousand above 100 



years of age, many between 140 and 150 Slaves . 



in the West Indies are recorded from 130 to 150 

 years of age." — Smith's Fruits and Farinacea. 



ElBIONNACH. 



Grinning like a Cheshire Cat (Vol. v., p. 402.). 

 — 'The form in which I have heard this expression. 



