Nov. 27. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



519 



they may know of some local lists in which the 

 provincial names of our plants are preserved, with 

 notes on their use in medicine, or their connexion 

 with the superstitions of the district to which the 

 list refers. I would be at present particularly 

 glad to get any such notes, in reference to the 

 ferns, or their allies, the horse-tails and club- 

 mosses. Enivki. 

 Drogheda. 



Newspaper Extracts (Vol. vi., p. 77.). — The 

 subjoined passage, from the Preface of a small 

 octavo volume, entitled The Anrnuil Scrap Book, 

 containing Selections from the Works of the most 

 Popular Modern Authors, pp. 336, John Chidley, 

 123. Aldersgate Street, 1839, leads me to suppose 

 that it, and not Mornings in Bow Street, is the 

 work respecting which your correspondent J. P. 

 desires information : 



" This volume is a compilation of paragraphs which 

 have lately gone the round of the press. In making 

 this collection, the principal object has been to produce 

 a cheap and amusing book ; containing a great variety 

 of information suited to all tastes, and in every page of 

 which something will be found worthy of preservation," 

 &c. 



WuxiAM Bates. 



Birmingham. 



Descent of the Queen from John of Gaunt 

 (Vol. vi., p. 432.). — Why should Mr. Warden 

 think it " singular that the Queen's descent cannot 

 be traced to John of Gaunt in the strictly legiti- 

 mate line?" The Queen legitimately descends 

 from Lionel Duke of Clarence, elder brother of 

 John of Gaunt. She descends also from Edmund 

 Duke of York, his younger brother — whose de- 

 scendents intermarried. What singularity is there 

 in her not descending from the intermediate 

 brother, whose legitimate issue was extinct before 

 what is called the House of York, but was in truth 

 the House of Clarence, came to the throne ? Her 

 Majesty has, by Henry VII., some of John of 

 Gaunt's legitimated blood in her veins ; but what 

 there is of singularity in her not descending legiti- 

 mately from one whom she does descend from 

 illegitimately, I cannot discover. C. 



Book of Almanacs (Vol. vi., p. 432.). — I am 

 afraid that even the little asked for by Mr. War- 

 den, namely, tables to find at what lunations 

 eclipses might have taken place, could not be 

 given by few (if small) tables, or by formulas 

 which a commonly-qualified arithmetician could, 

 as such, be taught to apply. The knowledge re- 

 quired is, that of the moon's latitude at the time 

 of new or full moon, and of the horizontal paral- 

 laxes and apparent semidiameters of both bodies. 



I was aware of the error pointed out by Mr. 

 Warden, which obviously arose from using 10 

 instead of 12, in converting the astronomical 



reckoning into common reckoning. There are 

 two other errors in the Introduction. Page xiii., 

 column 2, for " September 29 " read " September 

 30 ;" page xviii., column 2, for "(December 17)" 

 read "(December 16)." No error in the Alma- 

 nacs or Index, &c. has yet been pointed out. I 

 need not say that I shall be much obliged by the 

 communication of any which may be discovered. 



A. DE Morgan. 



Elizabeth, Equestrian Statue of (VolAv., p. 231.). 

 — For the information of Ma. Lawrence I would 

 beg to state that there is in Rhode Island a 

 breed of horses famed for their pacing, which I 

 think is their natural gait. If I remember rightly, 

 it is termed the Narragansett breed, and the 

 horses are very fast. Although the posture of a 

 pacing horse may appear unnatural in a statue, 

 as Mr. Lawrence remai-ks, yet it has never struck 

 me as such in the living animal ; and as to the 

 movement for the rider, it is peculiarly agreeable. 



w.w. 



La Valetta, Malta. 



Pictures of Queen Elizabeth's Tomb (Vol. vi., 

 p. 9.). — One of the pictures of Queen Elizabeth's 

 tomb, alluded to in your Number of July 3, 1852, 

 still remains on the wall of the south aisle in the 

 church at Geddington in Northamptonshire. 



At Geddington one of the beautiful Eleanor 

 crosses stands in good preservation. Canonicus. 



Durham. 



The Use of Tobacco by the Elizabethan Ladies 

 (Vol. iv., p. 108.). — Stow, when writing of to- 

 bacco, calls it that " stinking weed which was 

 commonly used by most men and many women." 

 Would this not appear to justify Mr. Eccleston's 

 statement in his Introduction to English Antiquities, 

 and at the same time answer Dr. Rimbault's 

 Query ? How far Mr. Eccleston is correct in 

 stating that the Inordinate use of the Nicotian 

 weed caused the ladies' teeth to become rotten, I 

 am unable to say, having always understood that 

 it had a contrary effect. In the words of Dr. 

 RiMBAULT, " I should bc glad to be enlightened 

 upon the subject by some of your scientific 

 readers." W. W. 



Malta. 



Saints who destroyed Serpents (Vol. vi., pp. 147. 

 230.). — The earliest destroyer of a dragon that I 

 have met with is Donatus, Bishop of Eurcea in 

 Epirus, in the end of the fourth century. (See 

 Sozomen, vii. 28.) Add also to the list St. Clement, 

 the first Bishop of Metz, for whom see Murray's 

 Handbook of France. J. C. E. 



Bean Sicads (Vol. vi., p. 312.).—" Bean Swads" 

 are certainly a cure for warts, as stated by Nic- 

 TiLLis NicTOLLis. I know this from experience, 



