May 28. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



525 



The author of the manuscript enters into a very 

 detailed examination of the several groups of 

 figures which compose the picture, and of the 

 expression of the heads ; and he confesses his 

 inability to find in them anything decisively in- 

 dicating the period supposed to be chosen. He 

 remarks that nine at least of the persons, includ- 

 ing the principal one, are evidently engaged in 

 animated conversation ; that instead of that con- 

 centrated attention which the announcement might 

 be supposed to generate, there appears to be great 

 variety of expression and of action ; and that 

 neither surprise nor indignation are so generally 

 prominent, as might have been expected. He 

 inclines to think that the studied diversity of 

 expression, and the varied attitudes and gestures 

 of the assembled party, are to be regarded as 

 proofs of the artist's etForts to produce a power- 

 ful and harmonious composition, rather than a 

 natural and truthful representation of any par- 

 ticular moment of the transaction depicted by 

 him. 



The work in question is now so generally acces- 

 sible through the medium of accurate engravings, 

 that any one may easily exercise his own judg- 

 ment on the matter, and decide for himself whe- 

 ther the criticism be well founded. 



It must, be borne in mind that the subject had 

 long been a familiar decoration of conventual refec- 

 tories before the time when Lionardo brought his 

 profound knowledge of external human nature, 

 and his unsurpassed powers of executive art, to 

 bear on a subject which had before been treated 

 in the dry, conventional, inanimate manner of the 

 Middle Ages. The leading features of the tra- 

 ditional picture are retained : the long table, the 

 linen cloth, the one-sided arrangement of the 

 figures, the classic drapery, and the general form 

 and design of the apartment, are all to be found in 

 the earlier works ; and must have been considered, 

 by observers in general, far more essential to the 

 correct delineation of the scene than any adherence 

 to the exact description of it in any one of the 

 Evangelists. But as the subject was usually intro- 

 duced into refectories for the edification of the 

 brethren assembled with their superior at their own 

 meals, it does not seem likely that the treachery of 

 Judas should have been intended to be the pro- 

 minent action of the picture. It was a memorial of 

 the institution of the Eucharist, although the Christ 

 was not represented as dispensing either bread or 

 wine. In such a case, if any particular point of 

 time was ever contemplated by the artist, he might 

 judiciously and appropriately select the moment 

 when the Saviour was announcing, in mysterious 

 words, the close of his mission — as in St. Matthew 

 and St. Mark ; or was teaching them a lesson of 

 humility when the spirit of rivalry and strife had 

 disclosed itself among them — as we find in St. 

 Luke and St. John. 



It is not perhaps generally known that the 

 statutes of Queen's College, Oxford, prescribe th« 

 order of sitting at the common table in a manner 

 which evidently refers to the ccenaculum of the old 

 church painters. E. Smieke. 



iHi'nor §.aUi. 



Scatter Register (County Lincoln). — The fol- 

 lowing extracts from the register of the parish of 

 Scotter, in the county of Lincoln, are perhaps 

 sufficiently interesting to be worth printing in 

 " N. & Q." : 



1. "Ecclesia parochialis de Scotter comitatu Lln- 

 colnia dedicata est Beatis Apostolis Sancto Petro et 

 Sancto Paulo ut apparet in Antiquo Scripto viduas 

 Loddington de Scotter, viz. ia testamento vltimo 

 Thoma; Dalyson, Gen. de Scotter, qui obiit Junii 19", 

 anno Domini 1495. 



" GuL. Carrington, 



" Rector eclia ibid." 



2. " Memorandum, That on Septuajresima Sunday, 

 being the 19"' day of January, 1667, one Francis 

 Drury, an exconnmunicate person, came into the cluirch 

 in time of divine service in y' morning, and being ad- 

 monisht by mee to begon, hee obstinately refused, 

 whereuppon y^ whole congregation departed ; and after 

 the same manner in the afternoon, the same day, he 

 came again, and refusing againe to go out, the whole 

 congregation againe went home, soe y' little or no ser- 

 vice pformed. They prevented his further coming in 

 y' manner, as hee threatned, by order from the Justice, 

 uppon the statute of Queene Elizabeth concerning the 

 molestation and disturbance of publiq preachers. 



Wm. Carrington, Rec." 



" O tempera, O mores." 



3. " Michsel Skinner Senex centum et trium anno- 

 rum sepultus fuit die sancti Johannis, viz. Dec. 27, 

 1673." 



Edward Peacock, Jun. 



Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey. 



" All my Eyer—"- Over the Left." 



" What benefit a Popish successor can reap from 

 lives and fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant 

 religion, he may put in his eye : and what the Protes- 

 tant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the 

 service of a Popish successor, will be over the left 

 shoulder." — Preface to Julian the Apostate: London, 

 printed for Langley Curtis, on Ludgate Hill. 1682. 



Is this passage the origin of the above cant 

 phrases? Geohge Daniel. 



Canonbury. 



Curious Marriages. — In Harl. MSS. 1 550, 

 p. 180., is the pedigree of Irby, where Anthony 

 Irby has two daughters : Margaret, who married 

 Henry Death, and Dorothy, who married John 

 Domesday. E. G. Ballabd. 



