510 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 186. 



Upper Rhone," is evidently that of a sudden de- 

 bcicle destructive of life and property, but not 

 such as to effect any permanent change in the con- 

 figuration of the country. That an antiquary like 

 Montfaucon should have fallen into the blunder of 

 supposing that the Lacus Lemanus was then formed, 

 may well excite surprise. The breadth of the new- 

 formed lake, as given by Marius, is impossible, as 

 the mountains in the valley are scarcely anywhere 

 more than a mile apart. The valley of the Upper 

 Rhone is liable to such debacles, and one which 

 would fill it might be called a lake, although of 

 short duration. Having witnessed the effects of 

 the debacle of 1818 a few weeks after it happened, 

 I can easily understand how such a one as that 

 described by Marius should have produced the 

 effects attributed to it, and yet have left no traces 

 of its action after the lapse of centuries. J. S. 



AthenEBum, 



"Inter cuncta micans" Sfc. (Vol. vi., p. 413.). 

 — In a small work, Lives of Eminent Saxons, 

 part i. p. 104., the above lines are ascribed to 

 Aldhelm, and a translation by Mr. Boyd is sub- 

 joined. 



To Aldhelm also are attributed the lines so 

 often alluded to in " N. & Q.," " Roma tibi su- 

 bito," &c. B. H. C. 



''Its" (Vol.vi., p. 509.; Vol. vii., p. 160.). — 

 As the proposer of the question on this word, so 

 kindly replied to by Me. Keightley, may I give 

 two instances of its use from the Old Version of 

 the Psalms ? 



" Which in due season bringeth forth its fruit abun- 

 dantly." — Ps. i. 3. 



" Thou didst prepare first .a place, and set its roots 

 so fast." — Ps. Ixxx. 10. 



The American Bibliotheca Sacra for October 

 1851, p. 735., says (speaking of the time when the 

 authorised version of the Scriptures was executed), 

 " the genitive its was not then in use ; " which is 

 disproved by the quotations already given. 



B. H.C. 



Gloves at Fairs (Vol. vii., p. 455.). — The cus- 

 tom of " hanging out the glove at fair time," as 

 described by E. G. R., is, in all probability, of 

 Chester origin. The annals of that city show that 

 its two great annual fairs were established, or 

 rather confirmed, by a charter of Hugh Lupus, 

 the first Norman Earl of Chester, who granted to 

 the abbot and convent of St. Werburgh (now the 

 cathedral) "the extraordinary privilege, that no 

 criminals resorting to their fairs at Chester should 

 be arrested for any crime whatever, except such 

 as they might have committed during their stay 

 in the city." For several centuries, Chester was 

 famous for the manufacture of gloves ; and in 

 token thereof, it was the custom for some days 



before, and during the continuance of the fair, to 

 hang out from the town-hall, then situate at the 

 High Cross, their local emblem of commerce — a 

 glove : thereby proclaiming that non-freeinen and 

 strangers were permitted to trade within the city^ 

 a privilege at all other times enjoyed by the 

 citizens only. During this period of temporary 

 " free trade," debtors were safe from the tender 

 mercies of their creditors, and free from the visits 

 of the sherifi^s officer and his satellites. On the 

 removal of the town-hall to another part of the 

 city, the leathern symbol of " unrestricted compe- 

 tlon" was suspended, at the appointed season, from 

 the roof of St. Peter's Church ; until that reckless- 

 foe to antiquity, the Reform Bill, aimed a heavy 

 blow at all our prescriptive rights and privileges,, 

 and decreed that the stranger should be hence- 

 forth on a footing wlt,h the freeborn citizen, Not- 

 withstanding this, the authorities of the city still 

 continued to " hang out their banner on the out- 

 ward walls;" and it is only within the last ten 

 years that the time-honoured custom has ceased 

 to exist. T. Hughes^' 



Chester. 



Astronomical Query (Vol. vii., p. 84.). — Your 

 fair correspondent Leonoba makes a mistake i» 

 reference to the position, in regard to the zodiac, 

 of the newly-discovered planets. It is indeed not 

 at all surprising that these bodies were not dis- 

 covered before, for this reason — they do riot move 

 within the circle of the zodiac : they lie far beyond 

 it, so much so, that to include them the zodiac 

 must be expanded to at least five times its present 

 breadth. Hence they lie out of the path of or- 

 dinary observation, and their discovery is usually 

 the result of keen telescopic examination of distinct 

 parts of the heavens. Leonora Is of course awai-e, 

 that, with the exception of Neptune (the discovery 

 of which is a peculiar case), all the recently dis- 

 covered planets belong to the cluster of asteroids- 

 which move between Mars and Jupiter. These 

 are all invisible to the eye with the exception of 

 Vesta, and she is not to be distinguished by any 

 but an experienced star-gazer, and under most 

 favourable circumstances ; their minuteness, their 

 ex^ra-zodiacal position, and the outrageous orbits 

 which they describe, all conspire to keep them out 

 of human ken until they are detected by the tele- 

 scope, and ascertained to be planets either by their 

 optical appearances, or by a course of watching 

 and comparison of their positions with catalogues 

 of the fixed stars. Shirley Hibbebd. 



Tortoiseshell Tom Cat (Vol. v., p. 465. ; Vol. vii., 

 p. 271.). — See Hone's Year Book, p. 728. Zeus. ^ 



Sizain on the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender 

 (Vol. vii., p. 270.). — This is given as one of the 

 prize epigrams in the Gentleman's Magazine for 

 1735, vol. V. p. 157. ^ _ Zeus.. 



