334 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 179. 



The same authority tells tis that William Gerard 

 Hamilton was the only child of a Scotch advocate, 

 William Hamilton, by Hannah Hay, one of the 

 sisters of David Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller ; 

 and that he removed to London, and practised 

 with some reputation at the English bar. Mr. 

 W. G. Hamilton died, unmarried, in July, 1796, 

 eet. sixty-eight. Braybeooke. 



Tee Bee has, by his Queries about Sir W. Ha- 

 milton, recalled some most painful reminiscences 

 connected with our great naval hero. According 

 to the statement in the New General Biographical 

 Dictionary, Sir William Hamilton was married to 

 his first wife in the year 1755 ; but although it is 

 asserted that she brought her husband 5000Z. 

 a-year, her name is not given. She died in 1782, 

 and in 1791 " he married Emma Harte, the fas- 

 cinating, mischievous, and worthless Lady Hamil- 

 ton." Pettigrew, in his Memoirs of Nelson, says, 

 that this marriage took place at St. George's, 

 Hanover Square, on the Gth of September, 1791. 

 Tee Bee will find a full account of Lady H. in 

 the above-mentioned work of Pettigrew. F. S. B. 



THE WOOD OF THE CROSS. 



(VoLvii., p.l77.) 



1 never heard of our Lord's cross having been 

 made of elder wood. The common idea, legend, 

 or tradition, that prevailed formerly was, that the 

 upright beam of the cross was made of cedar, the 

 cross-beam of cypress, the piece on which the in- 

 scription was written of olive, and the piece for 

 the feet of palm. 



The legend concerning the wood of the cross is 

 very curious, and may be analysed as follows : — 

 When Adam fell sick, he sent his son Seth to the 

 gate of the garden of Eden to beg of the angel 

 some drops of the oil of mercy that distilled from 

 the tree of life. The angel replied that none 

 could receive this favour till five thousand years 

 had passed away. He gave him, however, a 

 cutting from the tree, and it was planted upon 

 Adam's grave. It grew into a tree with three 

 branches. The rod of Moses was afterwards cut 

 from this tree. Solomon had it cut down to make 

 of it a pillar for his palace. The Queen of Sheba, 

 when she went to visit Solomon, would not pass 

 by it, as she said it would one day cause the de- 

 struction of the Jews. Solomon then ordered it 

 to be removed and buried. The spot where it was 

 buried was afterwards dug for the pool of Beth- 

 saida, and the mysterious tree communicated the 

 power of healing to the waters. As the time of 

 the Passion of Christ approached, the wood floated 

 on the surface of the water, and was taken for the 

 upright beam of the cross. See this curious le- 

 gend at greater length in the Gospel ofNicodemus; 



the Legenda Aurea at the feasts of the Discovery 

 and Exaltation of the Cross ; Curzon's Monasteries 

 of the Levant, p. 163.; and Didron's Iconography, 

 p. 367., Bohn's edition. 



I think, however, that I can explain the origin 

 of the question put to Rubi by his poor parishioner 

 as to the cross having been made of elder wood. 

 His question may have sprung from a corruption 

 of an old tradition or legend regarding not our 

 Saviour, but Judas his betrayer. Judas is said 

 to have hanged himself on an elder tree. Sir 

 John Maundeville, in his description of Jeru- 

 salem, after speaking of the Pool of Siloe, adds, 



" And fast by is still the elder tree on which Judas 

 hanged himself for despair, when he sold and betrayed 

 our Lord." — P. 175., Bohn's edit. 



To return to the wood of the cross. In Sir 

 John Maundeville's time a spot was pointed out 

 at Jerusalem as the spot where the tree grew : 



" To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where 

 the tree of the cross grew." — P. 175. 



and he speaks of the wood of this tree as having 

 once been used as a bridge over the brook Cedron 

 (p. 176.). Henry Maundrell describes a Greek 

 convent that he visited, about half an hour's dis- 

 tance from Jerusalem : 



" That which most deserves to be noted in it, is the 

 reason of its name and foundation. It is because there 

 is the earth that nourished the root, that bore the tree, 

 that yielded the timber, that made the cross. Under 

 the high altar you are shown a hole in the ground 

 where the stump of the tree stood." — P. 462. 



These are some of the legendary traditions re- 

 garding the history and site of the wood of the 

 cross, up to the time of the Passion of Christ. 



Ceyrep. 



EDMUND CHALONER. 



(Vol. vi., p. 292.) 



I have been waiting for several months in ex- 

 pectation of seeing some satisfactory reply to 

 Ursula's Query. It seems, however, that, in 

 common with myself, your numerous correspon- 

 dents are quite at a nonplus. Wood, in his Athena 

 Oxoniensis, vol. ii. p. 163., mentions this Edmund 

 Chaloner as being about nineteen (Ursula says 

 twenty-one) years old at the death of his father, 

 James Chaloner, in 1660. Wood, Granger, as 

 also Burke in his Extinct Baronetage, represent 

 James as being the fourth son of Sir Thomas 

 Chaloner of Gisborough, in the county of York, 

 and this appears to be the general impression as 

 to his parentage. In a History of Cheshire, how- 

 ever, written, I believe, by Cowdray, and pub- 

 lished in 1791, the author claims him as a native 

 of that county, and makes him to be of much 



