302 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 152. 



If you think this contribution to any future 

 biography of this peculiar man worth insertion, 

 please iiiibrd it. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



PBOPHECIES or MAIDEN HILDEGAKE. 



(Vol. vi., p. 256.) 



The questions of R. C. Warde respecting the 

 prophecies of " Maiden Hildegare " are easily 

 solved. The Catalogiis Sanctorum of Petrus de 

 Natalibus contains an account of Hildegardis 

 Virgo, In lib. v. cap. cxxxix., incorrectly printed 

 clxxxix. in the index to the Strasburg edition of 

 1513. He may here find that St. Bernard was 

 ordered by Pope Eugenius to draw up an account 

 of her prophecies. " Scrlpsit etiam," says Pet. de 

 !N'at., " epistolam de temporibus futuris. Multa et 

 mira in eodem (sic) arcana futura prajdicens" (sic). 

 He also tells that she was buried in a monastery 

 over which she had presided about forty years, 

 " ubi et miraculis fulget ;" and he assigns for her 

 festival x Kal. Julii. 



Unhappily, however, for the continuance of her 

 reputation in her own church, John Huss directed 

 the attention of his hearers to the fact, also men- 

 tioned by P. de N., that her books had received 

 the solemn approbation of Pope Eugenius and the 

 clergy at the Council of Treves, and that the 

 " Virgin Hildegare had plainly foreshown the 

 taking of the temporalities from the clergy by 

 the secular lords, to be given unto the needy." 

 Hence some farther extracts of her "prophecy 

 respecting friars and monks " are given In Fox 

 {Acts and Monum., vol. lil. p. 87. : Lond. ed. 1837), 

 in the index to which her sex is changed erro- 

 neously. Hence, also, her name has disappeared 

 from modern Romish calendars of their saints. 



H. Walter. 



Haselbury Bryan. 



R. C. Warde will find an interesting account 

 of the Abbess Hildegare (1098—1197) in Nean- 

 der's Church History, vol. vli. 300 sq., and In other 

 ecclesiastical writers on the period. Her works, of 

 which the principal are Visions and Epistles, liave 

 been published more than once. (See Cave's Hist. 

 Literar. ad an. 1170.) 



The sermon preached by R. AVImbledon, which 

 your correspondent found in Fox's Acts and 

 Monuments, was printed separately at London in 

 1745. It will supply the philological reader with 

 some curious archaisms. 



At the close of Bede's Chronlcon (Monument. 

 Britan., pp. 101, 102.) will be found a very sen- 

 sible passage on the vanity of building theories 

 like those In which the good Abbess Hildeaare 

 indulged so freely. I am tempted to transcribe 

 the whole, but must content myself with the follow- 

 ing sentence : 



" Et quia nulla setatum quinque prEeteritarum mille 

 annis acta reperitur, sed ali<e plures annos, alia; pau- 

 ciores habuere, neque alia alteii similem habuit sum- 

 raam annorum, restat ut pari modo ha;c quoqiie, qu£e 

 nunc agltur, incertum mortalibiis babeat suas longitii- 

 dinis statum, soli autern Illi cognitum qui servos suos 

 accinctis lumbis lucernisqiie ardentibus vigilare pnx- 

 ccpit, similes hominibus expectantibus dominum suuin 

 quando revertatur a nuptiis." 



C.H. 



St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge. 



jacpItcS tn Mincx cauerte^. 



Progressive Development and Transmutation of 

 Species (Vol. vi., p. 7.). — I have at last obtained 

 some information respecting the botanical phe- 

 nomenon which I recorded in your pages. Mrs. 

 Loudon Infcrms me that not only Is the fact 

 well established, but that its rationale is per- 

 fectly understood. Many years ago, somewhere 

 In Germany, a yellow laburnum was grafted 

 with the Purple Cytisus. When the tree grew 

 up. It was found to bear branches and blossoms 

 of both trees, and in addition to these a con- 

 siderable quantity of a hyhiHd laburnum, one of 

 whose parents was the yellow laburnum, and the 

 other the Cytisus. This hybrid put forth dirty 

 purple blossoms, in racemes like the yellow labur- 

 num ; and its foliage resembled the leaves of the 

 same tree, though in some respects different. 

 From this hybrid a graft was first obtained by the 

 late Mr. Loudon, and in his garden, after a few 

 years, the hybrid reverted to the Purple Cytisus. 

 From the same source all the purple laburnums 

 which now crowd the gardens of our florists were 

 originally derived, a great many of which have 

 performed the same feat as the one cultivated by 

 Mr. Loudon. This is the only instance known of 

 a hybrid reverting to one of its parents. 



In my last note I inaccurately called this hybrid 

 purple laburnum Cytisus alpinus. I need hardly 

 say that I confounded the Munster with the 

 Scotch laburnum, which likewise bears racemes of 

 purple flowers. C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



Sir Joshuas Portrait of Cromwell (Vol. iv., 

 p. 368.). — A very short time before the death of 

 the late lamented Thomas Haviland Burke, nephew 

 of Edmund Burke, I had a conversation with him 

 regarding the miniature of Oliver Cromwell, and 

 Lord Bratbrookb's remarks in "N. & Q." re- 

 specting It. 



Sir Joshua, ho told me, left It to Richard 

 Burke, who died before his celebrated father ; and 

 after his de^'ith It fell to IMrs. Burke, who died 

 In 1812. She left It to Lucy Crew, wife of John 

 Lord Crew ; she to her daughter Mrs. Cunlifie, 

 who married Sir Foster Cunliffe's son. Mr. Cun- 

 lilFe died, and his widow residing in Upper Brook 

 Street, Mr. Burke added, most likely has it. 



