Sept. 11. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



245 



Crest of the Bassett Family. — Can any of your 

 genealogical readers inform me when and whij the 

 Lead of St. Ilubert's stag became the crest of 

 the Bassett family, who settled in Glamorganshire 

 at the Conquest ? E. A. S. 



Jane Barker. — Who was Mrs. Jane Barker, 

 authoress o£ Poetical Recreations, 1688 ? 



J. R. Relton. 



" To (lie for what we love." — Will any corre- 

 spondent inform me who is the author of the fol- 

 lowing linos, and in what poem they occur ? 

 " To die for what we love ! Oh ! there is power 

 In the true heart ; and pride and joy for this ; 

 It is to live without the vanish'd light 

 That strength is needed." 



W. Pelham, a. 

 Rochester. 



Crossing the Line. — Can any of your corre- 

 spondents give any explanation of the origin of 

 the ceremonies used on board ships in crossing the 

 Line ? Have they any reference to the ancient 

 masques and mummeries so much in fashion during 

 the sixteenth century ? What is the earliest men- 

 tion of them? E. G. B. 



Churchyard. — In a rural village tlie church- 

 wardens are levelling, as they call it, the church- 

 yard. A great quantity of the consecrated earth, 

 not unmingled with bones, is thrown over the wall, 

 and sold to the farmers at twopence per load. 

 Query, Is this lawful ? W. A. 



The Booh of Destinies. — Do any of your 

 readers know where to find the name of a writer 

 of a book called the Book of Destinies, pretended 

 to be found in a bag stolen from Mercury ? 



" Qua; in hoc libro continentur ; 

 Chronica rerum memorabilium, quas 

 Jupiter gessit antequam esset ipse." 



It contained a dialogue in which Mercury is made 

 to descend from heaven to Athens to get some 

 books bound for Jupiter, and to fulfil some shop- 

 ping commissions for Juno, Venus, and Minerva. 

 Two persons in a tavern door recognise him as he 

 asks them whether there is any good wine to be 

 had there. They answer none better ; and while 

 the waiter goes for some. Mercury slips away up- 

 stairs to steal something. The two men think it 

 will be a glorious thing to rob the God of Thieves ; 

 and lie having left a bag in the room, they undo 

 it, take out a decayed book, and put another in its 

 place. This is the above book; Mercury goes 

 away, but missing the book on his ascent to the 

 regions of the gods, comes down again to have it 

 ciied in Athens. He wonders Jupiter has not 

 avenged himself, for a most wicked book, full of 

 amorous stories, had been put in the place of the 

 Book of Destinies, revealing all the love-tricks of 



Jupiter himself. He meets with two dogs who 

 Lad eaten up Action's tongue when he was meta" 

 morphosed into a stag by Diana, and hence tlie 

 animals got the faculty of speech. They told 

 Mercury many stories of men's cruelty to the 

 brute creation, ridiculed the philosopher's stone, 

 and the idle curiosity of mankind that would know 

 everything. The book was full of humour. Such 

 is a memorandum I made regarding it long ago, 

 and all I can discover about it, except that its 

 author was a Frenclunan, and that it was supposed 

 to have been published at Lyons about 1530. 



Cyrus Redding. - 



Burying alive as a Punishment. — At a spot in. 

 this immediate neighbourhood called Patty Barn, 

 now merely a small triangular space at the junction 

 of three fields, and crossed by a footpath, a tra- 

 dition obtains amongst the ancients of the adjoin- 

 ing hamlets, that many years ago a man was put 

 quick into the earth, i. e. buried to the neck, and a 

 guard placed to keep watch and prevent any from 

 rescuing or bringing food to the victim until death 

 relieved him of his sufferings. 



Query, Does any record exist of such a punish- 

 ment having been at any time inflicted upon cri- 

 minals ? John H. A. 



Ensbury, Dorset. 



Trustees of the National Gallery. — Can any of 

 your correspondents inform me through your 

 pages, 1. The number of trustees of the National 

 Gallery ? 2. Their names ? 3. How they are 

 selected ? An Enquireb, 



General Wolfe''s Family. — Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me if there be any de- 

 scendants of General Wolfe still living ; and if so, 

 where they might be found ? R. V. T. 



Phansagars and Thugs. — Are not the Phan- 

 sagars, said to be once so numerous in the Deccan, 

 and noted for their peculiar mode of ensnaring 

 their victims for the sake of murder and plunder, 

 identical with the Thugs whom our Indian go- 

 vernment extirpated ? Perhaps they only differed 

 by the art with which they ensnared their victims, 

 as women were said to be concerned in their plans 

 of depredation and the sacrifice of their victims. 



Cyrus Redding. 



Bare Cross. — This is a cross road situated 

 about half a mile from the river Stour, where a 

 bridge crosses it at the village of Longham, 

 Dorset. Might not the origin of this name be the 

 same with that mentioned by R. M. W. at Vol. vi., 

 p. 51., who hence inferred that near this spot was 

 anciently a passage across the river ? 



Could any of your readers mention other in- 

 stances of the occurrence of this name ? 



John H. A. 



Ensbury, Dorset. 



