2«<' S, V, 129., June 19. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



495 



hitherto published," by C. Morrison, Accountant, 

 Glasgow. Was it ever published ? James Peele. 



JHtnor ^uttiei toittj ^nSiuenS. 



The Balh-Easton Vase. — Can any reader of 

 " N. & Q." supply any authentic information re- 

 lative to Sir John and Lady Miller, the founders 

 of the Poetical Society at Bath-Easton, near Bath ; 

 and particularly respecting the disposal of the vase 

 after Lady M.'s death, and its present location ? 



T. K. 



[The antique vase above alluded to was dug up at 

 Fiescati, in tiie year 1759; and was purchased by Sir 

 John and Lady Miller, whilst on their travels in Italy, 

 1770-71. Specimens of Etruscan art were then much 

 more rare than now, and this example was so highly 

 prized by its fortunate possessors that, on their return 

 home, they converted their beautiful villa near Bath into 

 a temple of Apollo. Lady (then Mrs.) Miller was made 

 the high-priestess, and the vase the shrine of the deity. 

 •'The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease," and the 

 fashionable visitors to the city of the West, were invited, 

 during the Bath season, to a fortnightly dies festus at 

 Bath-Easton. These made offerings of some original 

 compositions in verse, principally tributes of adulatory 

 compliment to their host and hostess. •' These verses," 

 says Miss Seward, in the preface to her Poem to the Mt- 

 tnory of Lady Miller, " these verses were deposited in an 

 antique Etruscan vase, and were drawn out by gentlemen 

 appointed to read them aloud, and to judge of their rival 

 merits. These gentlemen, ignorant of the authors, se- 

 lected three poems from the collection, which they had 

 thought most worthy of the three Myrtle Wreaths, de- 

 creed as the rewards and honours of the day Once 



a year the most ingenious of these productions were pub- 

 lished. Four volumes have already appeared, and the 

 profits applied to the benefit of a charity at Bath." These 

 Attic pastimes continued about six years, and ceased with 

 the death of Lady Miller, which event happened in her 

 forty-first year, June 24, 1781. She was buried in the 

 Abbey Church of Bath, where her husband erected a 

 beautiful marble monument to her memory, with a poet- 

 ical inscription by her friend, Anna Seward. Lady Miller 

 was the author of Letters from Italy, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1776. 

 Sir John Riggs Miller, Bart., died in Bloomsbury Square, 

 on May 28,1798; a biographical notice of him is printed 

 in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1798, p. 626. Since 

 writing the foregoing we have received the Bath Chroni- 

 cle of June 3, 1858, containing some extracts from an 

 interesting paper on Bath-Easton, read by the Rev. F. 

 Kilvert at the conversazione of the Bath Literary and 

 Philosophical Association. The present location of the 

 vase, however, still remains a query.] 



Pillars of Solomons Temple. — Of what mate- 

 rial were the pillars and sea of Solomon's Temple 

 composed ? Bronze was found at Nineveh, and 

 Layard thinks it was formed of copper and tin 

 that came from England ; and Mr. Morgaji's 

 article in 2°* S. v. 479. shows that he thinks the 

 Jews were acquainted with bronze. 



In Ezekiel xxii. 18. we read, " Son of man, the 

 house of Israel is as dross : all they are brass and 

 tin and iron and lead in the midst of the fur- 

 nace ;" and verse 20., "As they gather silver and 

 brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of 



the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it," 

 &c. This plainly shows that the Jews were in 

 the habit of fusing metals together, and as bronze 

 is compounded of copper and tin, it seems to sup- 

 port the opinion that they were acquainted with 

 bronze. Brass is an incorrect translation of tlie 

 Hebrew word, which means native copper*, brass 

 being a compound metal, consisting of copper com- 

 bined with about one-third of its weight of zinc. 



What would silver, brass, lead, iron, and tin 

 fused together produce ? Q. 



[Both the " pillars " and "sea" of Solomon's Temple 

 were composed of brass. James Home, in his Scripture 

 History of the Jews (8vo. Lond. 1737), says, "In the porch 

 stood the two famous pillars which Solomon erected ; 

 that on the right hand was called Jachin, and that on 

 the left Boaz, which names import that God alone was 



the support of the Temple Solomon's design in 



setting them up is generally supposed to have been in 

 order to represent the pillar of cloud and the pillar of 

 fire." (Vol. ii. pp. 146-7.) And at p. 153. in the same vol. 



he says, "The brazen sea stood in the priest's court 



It stood upon twelve brazen figures or images represent- 

 ing oxen as the supporters of it." See also Kitto's Daily 

 Bible Illustrations, Forty-first Week, Third Day: "The 

 Temple."] 



Physicians^ Fees, Sfc. — What is the authority 

 for the physician's fee ? What the origin of the 

 practice of giving " advice gratis ?" X. P. 



[There is perhaps no precise law, or right for the phy- 

 sician's fee ; but custom, from the beginning of the last 

 century, has fixed it at a guinea within the boundaries of 

 a city or town, but extra terminos, as two or three miles, 



for another guinea. Advice gratis maj' be given from 



different motives: in j-oung beginners, to make them- 

 selves known ; but it seems it is only advice gratis, the 

 medicine must be paid for. ] 



Monastery of Cupar. — What is the date of the 

 foundation, and name of the founder or founders, 

 of the monastery of Cupar ? De Cupro. 



[Cupar abbey of Cistertian monks was foimded in 1164 

 by Malcolm IV., grandson and successor of David I. 

 Fordun (^Scotichronicon, lib. viii. cap. 7.) says, "Anno 

 MOLXiv. de consilio Waltheri, Abbatis de Melros, rex 

 Malcolmus, fundavit nobile monasterium de Cupro-in- 

 Angus;" and (lib, ix. cap. 48.) "hoc anno (1233) dedi- 

 catae sunt ecclesiae de Newbotil, Abirbrothoc, et Cupro." 

 Wj'nton, in De Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, book vii. 

 cap. vii. tells us, — 



" A thowsand a hundyre and sexty yhere 

 And fowre » * « • • 

 Malcolme, Kyng of Scotland, 

 And pesyblj' in it regnand, 

 De elevynd yhere of his crowne, t 



Mad the fundatyowne 

 Of the abbay of Culpyre-in-Angws, 

 And dowyt it wyth his almws, 

 In honoure of the may kles may 

 Relygyws munkis there dwellis ay, 

 AUlyk to Cystwys in habyt, 

 We 03'S to call thame mwnkys qwhyt." 



The revenues of the abbey appear to have been great. 

 Statistical Account of Scotland, x. 1143.] 



* Deut. viii. 9. 



