300 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2°^ S. v. 119.. April 10. 



'58. 



for one of the large libraries of Edinburgh *, as it 

 would be impossible to form so complete a collec- 

 tion again. Aliquis. 



There are a great number of very pretty little 

 views of towns and cities engraved in Speed's 

 Theatre of Great Britain, and in his Prospect of 

 the most famous Parts of the World. 



W. H. W. T. 



Somerset House. 



Add, Magnvm Theatrvm Vrhivm Belgicce, Re- 

 gicc, et Liberates, a lo. Bleav, Amst. (no date, but 

 about 1641). Two very large folio volumes. 



R. W. 



HAIR STANDING ON END. 



(2"" S. V. 214.) 



The earliest notice of this fact will be found 

 recorded in Job iv. 13, 14, 15. 



" In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep 

 sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling 

 ■which made all my bones to shake. Then a Spirit passed 

 before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up" &c. 



The Rev. Dr. Andrews of Beresford chapel, 

 Walworth, told me he once saw a remarkable illus- 

 tration of this result from the same cause — ex- 

 cessive fear. One William Probert, who had been 

 concerned in the murder of Weare, for which 

 Thurtell was hanged in 1824, was indicted at the 

 Old Bailey in 1825 for horsestealing, and being 

 found guilty June 28, was there executed. Dr. 

 Andrews had been requested to attend this man, 

 and found him in a state of stupor, which pre- 

 vented reflection, almost indeed perception ; but 

 on the morning of execution his mind cleared, and 

 he was anxious to listen and join in the prayers. 

 On leaving the cell, and going to the room where 

 he was pinioned, he became somewhat excited, 

 and the instant the executioner put the cord to 

 his wrists to bind his hands, his hair — long, lanky, 

 weak iron-gray hair — arose gradually and stood 

 perfectly upright, and so remained for some short 

 time, and then as gradually fell down. 



The fact is accounted for from the circumstance 

 that the blood retires to the heart, and the extre- 

 mities being left without due circulation, " the 

 skin contracts, and the effect is to raise the hair." 

 But this I doubt. That such is the result of sud- 

 den fear, and that it has been known for ages is 

 very certain — "Obstupui, steteruntque comas;" 

 " Erectus horret crinis ; " " Arrectasque horrore 

 comae ; " " Each particular hair to stand on end ; " 

 "The king's son, Ferdinand, with hair upstaring;" 

 " My very hairs do mutiny, for the white reprove 



[* They were purchased for the British Museum : see 

 ante, p. 222.] 



the brown for rashness, and they them for fear 

 and doting;" "My hair doth stand on end to hear 

 her curses ; " " But see ! his face is black .... 

 like a strangled man : his hair upreared .... as 

 one that gasped and tugged for life." These 

 quotations from Virgil, Seneca, and Shakspeare 

 could be multiplied almost without end. There is 

 one more curious from Shakspeare — " Your bed- 

 ded hair, like life in excrements, starts up and 

 stands on end." On this passage Mr. Knight re- 

 marks, "hair, nails, feathers were called excre- 

 ments." Izaak Walton, speaking of fowls, says, 

 " their very excrements afford him a soft lodging 

 at night." Chaucer compares this effect on the 

 hair to the action of the hedgehog, " Like sharp 

 urchens his heei-e was grow." H. J. Gauntlett. 

 Powvs Place. 



The outer layer of the hair follicle being de- 

 rived from the corium or " true " skin containing 

 muscular fibres, these fibres, by the stimulus of 

 mental emotion, contract, thereby causing the 

 protrusion of the follicle, and consequent erection 

 of the hair. The so-called " goose skin " is caused 

 by similar contractility. The stimulus of electri- 

 city will evoke the same manifestation. If your 

 correspondent will undergo the applicatioft of the 

 magneto-electric apparatus, or submit to be elec- 

 trified, he will have ocular demonstration that the 

 erection of the hair depends on the contractility 

 of the muscular fibres of the follicle. 



Buchanan Washbourw, M.D. 



Gloucester. 



WONDERFUL ROBERT WALKER. 



(2°'J S. V. 172. 243.) 



Varlov ap Harry may find another biogra- 

 phical sketch of Walker — chiefly, however, taken 

 from that by Wordsworth, the common source of 

 all subsequent accounts — in Craik's Pursuit of 

 Knowledge under Difficulties, vol. ii. pp. 360 — 366. 

 (edit. 1831); and some additional particulars in 

 Mr. Thome's Rambles by Rivers : the Duddon, 

 p. 22., &c. In the latter work is a notice of Seath- 

 waite, where the good pastor of Donnerdale so 

 long ministered to the spiritual wants of his moun- 

 tain flock. In reference to Walker's statement, 

 that his parishioners were "sound members of the 

 Established Church — not one dissenter of any 

 denomination being amongst them all," Mr. Thome 

 says " the inhabitants are still the same frugal in- 

 dustrious church-going race. . . . Though now 

 there are several Methodists, and two or three 

 Baptists in the parish, who have occasional meet- 

 ings at private houses, there is still no dissenting 

 meeting-house in Seathwaite ; but the chief part 

 of the inhabitants are still steady churchmen." 



Seathwaite chapel, when Mr. Thorne wrote 



