230 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 149. 



find that the modern name Shaston is an abbre- 

 viation of Sha/tsbury, in that county, a town wliich 

 produced many tradesmen's tokens, though in 

 Hutchins's list I do not observe the name of Ed- 

 ward Burd. C. W. B. 



Alain Chartier (Vol. vi., p. 122.). — J- Wallis, 

 in his Grammatica LingucE Anglicaiia:, Lend. 1765, 

 8vo. p. 230., tells us that the first four of these 

 lines were shown him as a curiosity in the French 

 language, upon which he says : 



" Ego protinus eosdem ipsos quatuor versus idiomate 

 Anglicano verbatim reddidi, substituta tamen voce 

 Twist pure Anglica pro exotica quam ille expectaverat 

 Chord." 



Thus: 



" When a Twister, a-twisting, will twist him a twist, 

 For the twisting of his twist he three twines doth 



intwist ; 

 But if one of the twines of his twist do untwist, 

 The twine that untwisteth, untwisteth the twist." 



He then gives two other versions in English, 

 and also one in Latin, adding some observations 

 on the words two, ttcain, twice, twins, to twine, 

 tioist, twister, twirl, &c., which, though curious, it 

 will be sufficient to refer to. F. R. A. 



Oak House. 



Voyage du Monde de Descartes (Vol. vi., p. 150.). 



— In pages 51, 52. of the preface to the English 

 translation of The History of Friar Gerund, which 

 formed part of the Shandean Library, mention is 

 made " of the most witty, sensible, and int^enious 

 Voyage to the World of Descartes, written in 

 French by Father Gabriel Daniel, and very well 

 translated into Spanish." 



We have also an English version, entitled A 

 Voyage to the World of Cartesius, Lond. 1692, 8vo , 

 by T.Taylor, whose name is appended to the De- 

 dication. It has, however, been ascribed to De 

 Foe; but Wilson, who gives some account of the 

 book in Memoirs of De Foe, vol. i. p. 224., thinks 

 on questionable authority. F. R. A. 



Oak House. 



The British Apollo (Vol. vi., p. 148.).— E. H. Y. 

 will find that there is an edition of this work in 

 one volume, 8vo. 1718. I enclose a cutting from 

 a recent catalogue of books of Kerslake of Bristol, 

 in which it appears : 



"19.35. The BRITISH APOLLO, about 2000 

 Answers to Curious Questions, 3rd ed., 1718, 8vo. 

 3s. Dedicated to Henry Duke of Beaufort, &c." 



W. J. Bernhard Smith. 



Temple. 



Saints who destroyed Serpents (Vol. vi., p. 147.). 



— EiRioNNACH may add S. Samsou (the first 

 Archbishop of Dol) to his list of saints whose 

 Christian labours have been symbolised by legends 



descriptive of their triumph over the dragon. 

 Mabillon {Annul, lib. xxx. num. Ix. § 10. a.d. 831) 

 describes Sanson sur Rille as — 



" Pontale monasterium a Childebcrto rege conditum, 

 ad eonfluxum Liricini amnis in Sequanam, infra Pon- 

 tem-Audomari, pro sancto Samsone episcopo Dolensi, 

 qui serpentem ex eo loco ejecit, eidemque nomen suum 

 reliquit." 



And (lib. xiv. num. xxxvl. ad ann. 655) he men- 

 tions — 



" quoddam antrum ad fluvlum Sequanam, ex 



quo Samson quondam serpentem ejecerat." 



J. Sansom. 



Birthplace of Josephine (Vol. v., pp. 220. 619.), 

 — I can infoi-m Mr. Ker, with reference to his 

 inquiry " whether or not Josephine had African 

 blood in her veins," that there are very few white 

 families in Martinique, of whom it has not been 

 asserted, at one time or another, that they are 

 connected by blood with the coloured population, 

 in a more or less remote degree. Indeed, in some 

 instances, something more than mere assertion has 

 been brought forward upon this point, as the fol- 

 lowing circumstance, recorded in the judicial 

 annals of that island, curiously illustrates. A co- 

 loured woman was upon her trial for assaulting a 

 lady of the highest rank, whose claim to be re- 

 puted " white " had never been called in question. 

 In those days the infliction of a blow by a black 

 or coloured person upon a white individual, was 

 punished by the amputation of the hand ; and the 

 judges were about to pronounce the usual sen- 

 tence, when the prisoner oSered to prove that the 

 lady she had assaulted was not white, but a co- 

 loured person like herself. An investigation was 

 then gone into, and it was proved to the satisfaction 

 of the judges (themselves white men) that the 

 lady in question " had African blood in her veins." 



The most important evidence adduced on this 

 occasion was a work, the authorship of which is 

 assigned to Pere Labat, the well-known historian 

 of the French Antilles. It is a genealogical ac- 

 count of the principal families in Martinique, ex- 

 hibiting the degrees of consanguinity in which 

 they stand towards the coloured population. On 

 the appearance of the book the whites used all 

 their endeavours to get it suppressed, but a few 

 copies escaped, and are still privately circulated 

 among the curious in such matters. I have never 

 seen this book, and cannot say whether or not the 

 family of Josephine is included. If so, it could 

 only be on the side of her maternal ancestors, in- 

 asmuch as her father was a native of France. 



Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



Monkish Burials (Vol. vi., pp. 28. 152.).— Your 

 correspondent Leicestriensis, in his interesting 

 paper at page 152. of your present volume, re- 



