206 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 174. 



the Earl of Gowrie, in their flight into England in 

 August 1600), and what became of him? There 

 •was a Wm. Ruthven, of Scotland, married at 

 Chitterton, Northumberland, to Esther, daughter 

 of Robert Adamson, vicar of that parish in 1681. 

 Was he any relation to the Gowrie family ? 



E. H. A. 



Psalmanazar. — The great literary abilities of 

 Psalraanazar, and indeed all the known circum- 

 stances of his life and history, excite some curiosity 

 as to his real name. Can any of your readers in- 

 form me of this ? St. Johns. 



Coleridge's Christahel. — In the original edition 

 of this poem, the following lines are to be found 

 at the beginning of Part II. : 



" Let it rain, however fast, 

 Rest from rain will come at last ; 

 And the blaze that strongest flashes, 

 Links at last, and ends in ashes ! 

 But sorrow from the human heart, 

 And mists of care, will they depart?" 



Now these lines, and a great many more which 

 I cannot remember, as I have not the original 

 edition, are to be found in an old volume of 

 Blackwood's Magazine, in a review upon the poem. 

 The poem, as published in the edition of Coleridge's 

 Poems edited by D. and S. Coleridge (Moxon, 

 1852), does not contain these lines, and no notice 

 is taken of the fact by the editors. Either Cole- 

 ridge did or did not cancel the lines mentioned ; 

 if he did, can any of your readers inform me in 

 which of his works this fact is mentioned ? If he 

 did not, then one of the most beautiful poems in 

 the English language has been edited in a manner 

 that no one, I trust, will imitate. S. Y. 



Beaten to a Mummy. — Whence comes this ex- 

 pression ? It is used to signify, beaten so that 

 form and feature are no longer distinguishable; 

 whereas the immediate object of a mummy seems 

 to be the preservation of the form and features of 

 the deceased. Is not the phrase a corruption of 

 beaten to a mammock, to a piece, to a scrap, to 

 a fragment? And yet, in Marryatt's Pottery 

 (Murray, 1850, p. 250.) is the following passage : 



" Diodorus Siculus (Book V. ch. i. ), in speaking of 

 the usages of the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles, states 

 that these people were in the habit of beating with 

 clubs the bodies of the dead, which, thus rendered 

 flexible, were deposited in vessels of earthenware." 



The Gloucestershire peasants frequently use the 

 word mammock, which they pronounce " mom- 

 mock." Robert Sjnow. 



6. Chesterfield Street, May Fair. 



Hanover Rats. — It is said that the native rat 

 was extirpated from this country by the invading 

 colonists from Hanover. What are the facts of 



this case, and where may the best account of this 

 extermination of the natives be found ? It is 

 worth inquiring also, whether the aboriginal rat is 

 now to be met with in any part of Great Britain. 

 I should think that rat-catchers and farming 

 folks could throw light on this interesting point 

 of the British fauna. Shirlky Hibberd. 



Pallant. — In the town of Chichester there are 

 four streets, north, south, east, and west, to which 

 the name of " Pallant " is attached. 



This particular spot, which is close to the High 

 Street, is always called The Pallant. 



Can any of your readers inform me of the origin 

 and meaning of this word ? 



I have never met with any inhabitant of Chi- 

 chester who could solve this difficulty. 



A Caktab. 



Curious Fact in Natural Philosophy. — The 

 •Exeter Alfred of 1828 has in one of its numbers 

 the following : 



" Cut a couple of cards each into a circle of about 

 two inches in diameter ; perforate one of these at the 

 centre, and fix it on the top of a tube, say a common 

 quill. Make the other card ever so little concave, and 

 place it over the first, the orifice of the tube being that 

 directly under, and almost in contact with the concave 

 card. Try to blow off the upper card, you will find 

 it impossible. We understand that the cause that 

 counteracts the effect at first expected of this singular 

 phenomenon, has lately puzzled all the members of the 

 Royal Society. A medal and a hundred guineas are 

 said to be the reward of the successful discoverer. 



Could any of the correspondents of " N. & Q." 

 give any additional information on this rather 

 curious point ? Elginensis. 



Drying up of the Red Sea. — Will some of your 

 correspondents kindly assist me, by a reference to 

 a passage in one of our modern historians, allud- 

 ing to the extraordinary drying up of the Red 

 Sea on one occasion ? I thought I had read it in 

 Rollin, as a quotation from Baronius, but cannot 

 now find it in either one or the other. 



W. Stillman. 



Birmingham. 



Joa7i d'Arc. — Did Joan d'Arc (the Maid of 

 Orleans) bear any heraldic insignia; and if so, 

 what ? 



Is the family from which she sprung now repre- 

 sented ; and if they bear arms, what are they ? 



Is there any family of this name (D'Arc), and if 

 so, where? And what are the arms belonging to 

 it, if there are any ? Bend. 



Diary of Thomas Earl. — Strype (Annals, 

 vols. i. & ii.) sometimes refers to a MS. No. 206. 

 in the collection of Moore, Bishop of Ely, which 

 he describes as a Diary (vol. i. pp. 135. 180.) kept 



