Nov. 27. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



507 



Greek Inscription on a Brass. — At St. Mary's, 

 Dover, is a brass plate (preserved in the vestry), 

 on which is engraved the following inscription. 

 The Greek language is so rarely met with on 

 brasses, that this example appears to _me worthy 

 of being noted in your pages. Its date is, I should 

 think, circa 1600 : 



"BPOTOI2 AFASI KAT0ANEIN 0*GIAETAI 

 H ZHN AATrnC H 0ANEIN ETAAIMONiiC 

 KAAON TO 0NH2KG IN QIC TBPIN TO ZHN 0EPEI 

 KPEI220N TO MH ZHN E2TIN H ZHN A0AinC 

 TO TAP 0ANEIN OTK AI2XP0N AAA AI2PnC 

 0ANEIN." 



The last word in the third line should probably be 

 ^epfi, and the last but one in the fifth line aurxpuc : 

 but the above is a literal copy of the inscription. 

 W. Sparkow Simpson, B.A. 



Pear-tree. — Allow me to trouble you with the 

 following Note of a curious pear-tree, the parti- 

 culars of which I gathered a short time since from 

 the daughter of the cottager in whose garden it 

 grows. 



It is known in the village (Ilmington, on the 

 borders of Gloucester and Warwickshire) as the 

 " two-crop pear-tree." The first crop is ripe in 

 August, the second between Michaelmas and 

 Christmas ; the first grows on the old wood, the 

 second on the new wood. The second is in bloom 

 when the first are " getting on," about half ripe. 



The wood bearing the second crop this year will 

 bear the first crop next year. 



A sucker will bear the same as the old tree. 



She told me that many persons went to see the 

 tree, and some took grafts, but she did not know 

 whether the grafts have grown, nor what fruit 

 they have borne. 



The pear is of small size. 



The existence of the tree was confirmed by 

 another party. F. B. Helton. 



St. Luke. — If the subjoined Latin verses have 

 never appeared in print, as I suspect, they may be 

 worthy of a place in " N. & Q." The author was 

 the Rev. Richard Lyne, one of Eton's most po- 

 etical sons, who became a Fellow of the College in 

 1752, and was living in 1764. 



" Luca Evangelii et medicinae munera pandit, 



Artibus hinc, illinc religione potens, 



Utilis ille labor per quem vixere tot a-gri, 



Utilior per quem tot didicere mori." 



Braybrooke. 



Curious Epigram. — A miser named Sunday, 

 who was resident somewhere or other in Scotland, 

 being weary of his life, made a will, in which he 

 left 100^. for the best epigram to be written on his 

 death, and afterwards hanged himself. An honest 



cobbler, who was given to frequenting a beer- 

 house, and had spent his last penny thereat, heard 

 of this bequest, and bethought himself that he 

 might raise a fund wherewith to furnish himself 

 with further copious draughts if he only were suc- 

 cessful. 



The adjudicators decided that his epigram was 

 the best. It was as follows (I quote from 

 memory) : 



" Blessed be the sabbath, 



And cursed be world's pelf, 

 Monday maun begin the week, 

 For Sunday's hang'd hisself." 



Can any of your readers tell me where this miser 

 was buried, and what was the cobbler's name ? 



Wm. M. W. 

 Netherbury. 



Folkstone. — The etymology of this name has 

 found employment for many of our ancient archae- 

 ologists. 



Somner, and Stilllngfleet after him, confounded 

 the place with Ad Lapidem tituli, which Camden 

 places correctly near Rutupia. Baxter, in his 

 valuable work the Glossarium, thinks it to be the 

 Lapis Lemurum, or Larium, placed usually at the 

 Compita of the ancients. The Leniures are there- 

 fore identical with the folk, folces, of the Saxons, 

 a term even now commonly applied to the fairy 

 world ; and the Lapis Lemurum will be the folk's 

 stone. In confirmation of this, it may be observed 

 that the foxglove, so common in our hedges, is 

 properly folksglove ; the name by which it was 

 formerly distinguished in Welsh being identical 

 with this supposed meaning — menig eilff uylpon, 

 now corrupted into ehhyllion, the common term 

 still used. From eilff we have our elf. Eilff 

 uylhon answers to nocturni dcemones. Folkes in 

 Saxon is minuta plebs, and perhaps manes. Folc is 

 also a diminutive of fol or pullus, Greece ttSkos. 

 From fol, which Johnson calls Icelandic or Gothic, 

 we have our fool, a word that had a much wider 

 meaning than the modern acceptation of the word. 



E. L B. 



Ruthin. 



John Doe. — In the State of Mississippi the 

 action of ejectment is according to the old 

 English Jbrm, in which this personage is made 

 plaintiff. Two or three years ago a sheriff in that 

 State, after making a legal return to the writ, 

 added, " I think it right for me to mention that 

 there is no such person as John Doe in the 

 state." Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



The Erse a spoken Language in America. — In 

 the year 1766, Mr. Matthew Clarkson (afterwards 

 mayor of Philadelphia) visited the Mississippi 

 river, to trade with the Indians. From a MS. 



