Oct. 16. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



377 



become a slave owner, yet he constantly hired them 

 from their masters, and tliey formed a regular part of 

 the establishment at Pennsbury." 



William Penn was therefore a slave holder, if 

 rot a slave owner. Many planters in America 

 are similarly situated at the present day ; they hire 

 slaves to cultivate their land, but do not own 

 them. Mk. Bancroft would appear to be cor- 

 rect. W. W. 



La Valetta, Malta, 



Does the Furze Bush grow in Scandinavia? 

 (Vol. vi., p. 127.). — Professor Fries of Upsala, 

 who is the most recent and best authority con- 

 cerning the plants of Scandinavia, states that the 

 Ulex EuropcEus grows plentifully in South Den- 

 mark, rarely in the northern part of that country. 

 He also finds it in part of Scania plentifully, but 

 states that it is only found as an introduced plant 

 in the districts to the north of these. The story 

 concerning Linnaeus, mentioned by D., is, to say 

 the best of it, apocryphal. C. C. B. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



Use of Slings hy the Early Britons. — Having 

 waited and inquired in vain on this topic, will you 

 t allow me to answer, as far as I can, my own Query ? 

 I Within a few days past, in reading Mr. AVright's 

 work on The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, 

 I have been much pleased to find in a note on 

 p. 104. that " The younger British slingers (excul- 

 catores) are found among the Palatine auxiliaries." 

 This seems to raise to a high point the probability 

 that the sea-pebbles found so abundantly in the 

 pits on Weston Hill were destined for the slinor. 



H. G. T. 

 Weston-super-Mare. 



Blessing by the Hand. — It has been shown 

 (Vol. iv., p. 74.) that the ancient form as preserved 

 in the Greek Church is symbolical of the name of 

 Jesus Christ ; whilst the Latin Church, having lost 

 the significant symbol, sometimes use three finders 

 (including the thumb), which are popularly, °but 

 ignorantly, supposed to represent the three persons 

 in the Trinity ; and sometimes, as is done by the 

 present Pope, and as Cardinal Wolsey used to 

 form it, with two fingers only, which form it is 

 clear does not represent the Holy Trinity. The 

 origin of the thumb and two fingers is not of 

 Christian, but of heathen derivation ; for Apuleius 

 mentions this practice as the usual one with orators 

 soliciting the attention of an audience : 



♦' Porrigit dexteram, et ad instar oratorum conformat 

 articulum; duobusque infimis conclusis digitis, ceteros 

 eminentes porrigit." — Metamorph. ii. 34. 



The uproar by which applause is indicated in 

 modern times would have little suited the refined 

 delicacy of the Athenian or Roman ear in their 

 enormous amphitheatres; hence, for applause, 



these ancients elevated their thumbs, and to con- 

 vey dissatisfaction inverted them ; a noiseless, but 

 still a very significant, mode of conveying the 

 popular feeling. Here again the fingers, as in the 

 case of the orator, spoke to the eye when the voice, 

 the clapping of hands, stamping of feet, groaning, 

 &c. — to say nothing of cock-crowing — would 

 be either inaudible from one person, or most dis- 

 tracting from ten or twenty thousand. 



T. J. BuCKTON. 

 Bristol Road, Birmingham. 



"La Garde meurt," Sfc. (Vol. vi., p. 11.). — As at 

 Pavia Francis the First found consolation for the 

 loss of the battle in the remark, " Tout est perdu 

 hormis I'honneur," so at Waterloo, when " sauve 

 qui pent " became the order of the day, the van- 

 quished ai'e said to have solaced themselves with 

 the thought that their famous " Garde " preferred 

 death to dishonour. That sentiment has since 

 been embodied in the words "La Garde meurt 

 et ne se rend pas," upon which the French plume 

 themselves, not only as an indignant protest against 

 the loss of the battle, but as containing a happy 

 transposition, which invests the thought with 

 peculiar significance and force, by placing death 

 as the foremost object in the contemplation of the 

 soldier. 



This saying has been ascribed to almost every 

 man that played a conspicuous part on the side of 

 the French at Waterloo, but more commonly to 

 General Cambronne than to any one else. I ap- 

 prehend, however, that it may be traced to a more 

 ancient source than either Murat or Cambronne, 

 and that it is, at best, but a feeble version of the 

 memorable words uttered by one of Virgil's heroes : 

 " Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus ! " 



The " emphatic " expression said to have been 

 used by Murat, has been inaccurately described 

 by your Querist as a monosyllable. According to 

 French prosody, it is a dissyllable, and the nTore 

 clearly so, the more emphatically it is pronounced. 



Henet H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



Brasses in Dublin (Vol. vi., pp. 167. 254. 278. 

 281.). — Permit me to thank your correspondents 

 William W. K., E. N., and A. A. D. for their 

 communications. The date of the brass to Dean 

 Fyche should be 1527, as rightly stated in the 

 first of these notes, not 1537. Impressions of the 

 brasses at Dublin are in the Print Room of the 

 British Museum. I have for some time been 

 familiar with the copies, but did not know where 

 the originals were to be found, the inscriptions 

 simply stating that Robert Sutton and Galfrid 

 Ffyche were " of this cathedral." Both memorials 

 are on rectangular plates: that to Dean Sutton 

 measures lMO'^xl'5"; that to Dean Geoffrey 

 Ffyche 2' 0" X V r. W. Sparrow Simpson 



