Aug. 14. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



161 



Sir James Murray of Cockpool, elder brother of 

 the first Earl of Annaiidale. — See Douglas's 

 Peerage, i. 66. and ii. 539. E. N. 



Armorial Bearings of Cities and Toivns (Vol. vl., 

 p. 54.). — The arms of the principal cities and towns 

 in England will be found curiously engraved in 

 Bickham's British Monarchy^ published in the 

 year 1743. E. N. 



The Black Rood of Scotland (Vol. v., p. 440.).— 

 The inventory made at Burgh -upon -Sands, July 

 17, 35 Edw. I. (a.d. 1307), contains an important 

 notice of this famous historical relique : 



" In CofFro signato supuis signo Crucis. Videlt', 

 crux Neygli' ornata auro et lapid' p'cios' una cum pede 

 cjusd' crucis de auro ct gemis in quada casula de corr' 

 ex* cofl'r' dco pedi aptata. It'. La Blakerode de Scot' 

 fabricnta in auro cu cathena aur* in teca int'i' lignea et 

 ext'i' de arg' deaur'. 



"If Crux See Elene de Scot', [etc.]."— See the 

 Proceedings of the Record Comm., p. .550. 



Having recently met with the above entries, I 

 am glad to ask you to add them to what has been 

 written on this point. Wm. Sidney Gibson. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Birthplace of Wycliffe (Vol. vi., p. 55.). — In the 

 Rev. Dr. Vaughan's Life of Wycliffe^ vol. i. p. 230., 

 it is proved almost to a certainty that the venerable 

 reformer was born at a humble village of the name 

 of Wycliffe, about six miles from the town of Rich- 

 mond in Yorkshire. Your correspondent Sevarg 

 is referred to the interesting Life of Wycliffe 

 quoted above. John Algor. 



Eldon Street, Sheffield. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Every day, every hour, does the interest In that great 

 discovery, which more than realises Puck's boast — 

 " I'll put a girdle round about the earth 

 In forty minutes '' — 

 grow with the increased application of it. A popular, 

 but at the same time, a clear, distinct, and scientific 

 account of its origin and progress, cannot, therefore, be 

 otherwise than welcome, and such will be found in the 

 newly published part of the Traveller's Library, en- 

 titled Electricity and the Electric Telegraph, to which is 

 added the Chemistry of the Stars, I)y Dr. George Wilson. 

 The other part published by Messrs. Longman for the 

 present month is Lord Bacon, in which Mr. Macaulay 

 presents us with a brilliant portrait of 



" England's high chancellor, the destined heir. 

 In his soft cradle, to liis father's chair." 



Mr. Darling, the proprietor of the well-known Cle- 

 rical Library and Heading Rooms, has just commenced 

 what promises to be a most useful work ; it is entitled 

 Cyclopcedia Bibliographica, a Library Manual of Theo- 



logical and General Literature, and Guide for Authors, 

 Preachers, Students, and Literary Men; Analytical, 

 Bibliographical, and Biographical, and cannot be better 

 described than in the words of the prospectus, which 

 states that it " is founded chiefly on the books con- 

 tained in the ' Metropolitan Library (Clerical and 

 General),' and will comprise nearly all authors of note, 

 ancient and modern, in Theology, Ecclesiastical His- 

 tory, Moral Philosophy, and the various departments 

 connected therewith, including a selection in most 

 branches of Literature, with short Biographical Notices 

 and Catalogue of each Author's works, which will be 

 complete in regard to those whose works are published 

 collectively ; and the contents of each volume will be 

 minutely described. To which will be added a sci- 

 entific as well as alphabetical Arrangement of Subjects, 

 by which a ready reference may be made to Books, 

 Treatises, Sermons, and Dissertations, on nearly all 

 heads of Divinity ; the Books, Chapters, and Verses of 

 Holy Scripture; the Festivals, Fasts, &c., observed 

 throughout the year ; and useful Topics in Literature, 

 Philosophy, and History, on a more complete system 

 than has yet been attempted in any language, and 

 forming an Index to the Contents of all similar Li- 

 braries, both public and private, and a Cyclopsedia of 

 the sources of Information and Discussion in Theology, 

 and, to a great extent, in Universal Knowledge." The 

 work will be published In monthly parts of eighty 

 pages, and be complete In two volumes. The first, 

 which will be complete in itself, will be finished in 

 twenty parts. It appears to be very carefully compiled^ 

 and is replete with useful Information. 



" Judging," says The Athenceum, " by the number of 

 new books which we see announced, or which we hear 

 of in our immediate circles, the literary prospects of the 

 coming season are not below the usual promise of the 

 autumn. The activity seems to pervade all spheres, 

 ' from grave to gay — from lively to severe.' In His- 

 tory, we expect an early appearance of four volumes 

 by the Chevalier Bunsen on Hippolytus and his Age, — 

 a History of the Ionian Islands, by Mr. Bowen, — and 

 some portion of a History of Europe from the Fall of 

 Napoleon in 1815 to the Re-establishment of Military Go- 

 vernment in France in 1851, by Sir A. Alison. Some- 

 what later in the season may be expected the Hon. 

 Capt. Devereux's Lives of the Earls of Essex, — Mr. 

 Hepworth Dixon's Domestic Story of the Civil War, — 

 the seventh and concluding volume of Lord Mahon's 

 History of England, — and a new historical work from 

 the pen of Mr. Carlyle. In the semi-historical de- 

 partment of literature we shall have two volumes of 

 Fresh Discoveries at Nineveh and Researches at Babylon, 

 from Dr. Layard, — Leaves from my Journal during the 

 year 1851, by a Member of the late Parliament, — the 

 Hon. Mr. Neville's Anglo-Saxon Remains, — and a 

 new volume of Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens of 

 Scotland. Among books of travel, or books recording 

 the results of travel, we shall have Mr. Mansfield Per- 

 kln's Personal Narrative of an Englishman resident in, 

 Abyssinia, — Isis ; an Egyptian Pilgrimage, by Mr. J. 

 A. St. John, — Village Life in Egypt, by Mr. Bayle St. 

 John, — Mr. Palliser's Solitary Rambles and Adventures 

 of a Hunter in the Prairies, — and Dr. Sunderland's 

 Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay and Barrow^s Straits 



