160 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 198. 



"Mater ait natcs^'' ^c. (Vol.vli., pp.247, 248.).— 

 When calling attention to these lines in "N. & Q." 

 (Vol. vii., p. 155.), I at the same time asked if 

 such a relationship as that mentioned in them was 

 ever known to exist ? This Query was very 

 kindly and satisfactorily answered by your corre- 

 spondents Anon and Tte. But, remarkable as were 

 the instances mentioned by them of the two old 

 ladies in Cheshire and Liraington, who could speak 

 to their descendants in a female line to the fifth 

 generation, still that I am now to record of an old 

 man in Montenegro is much more singular, as he 

 could converse with his lineal descendants in an 

 uninterrupted male line one generation farther 

 from him, (i. e.) to the sixth. The case is too well 

 authenticated to admit of a doubt, and until some 

 one of your correspondents shall favour me with 

 another equally to be credited, it will remain in 

 the columns of " N. & Q." as the only one known 

 to its readers : — 



" Colonel Vialla de Sommleres, a Frenchman, who 

 was for a long time governor of the province of Catano, 

 mentions a family lie saw in a village of Montenegro, 

 which reckoned six generations. The venerable head 

 of the fiimily was 117 years old, his son 100, his grand- 

 son 82, great-grandson 60, and the son of this last, who 

 was 43, had a son aged 21, whose child was 2 years 

 old ! '• 



W. W. 



Malta. 



Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., p. 65.). — Anon. 

 points at Chester as the probable birthplace of the 

 above knight, named in Me. Hughes's Query. 

 Now, Mr. Davenport, in his Biog. Diet., p. 546. 

 (wherein is a wood-engraved portrait of Sir John), 

 states that he was born in London, about 1672 ; 

 but, supposing his place of nativity was, as your 

 cori'espondent suggests, Chester, it might very 

 easily be ascertained by searching the parochial 

 register of that city in or about the above year. 



Gaelichithe. 



Fete des Chaudrons (Vol. viii., p. 57.). — Some 

 account of this fete will probably be found in Du- 

 cange's Glossarium Medice et Irifimce Latinitatis. 

 I have not a copy of the work at hand for reference. 



John Macbay. 



Oxford. 



Murder of MonaldescJii (Vol, viii., p. 34.). — 

 The following account of this event is taken from 

 the Biographie Universelle, article "Christine, reine 

 de Suede:" 



" Get Italien avait joui de toute la confiance de la 

 reine, qui lui avait revele ses pensees les plus secretes. 

 Arrivee a Fontainebleau, elle I'accusa de trahison, et 

 resolut de le faire mourir. Un religieux de I'ordre de 

 la Trinite, le P. Lebel, fut appele pour le preparer a la 

 mort. IMonaldeschi se jeta aux pieds de la reine et 

 fondit en larmes. Le religieux, qui a publi;i luimeme 



un recit de revenement, fit a Christine les plus fortes 

 representations sur cet acte de vengeance qu'elle voulait 

 exercer arbitrairement dans une terre etrangere ct dans 

 le palais d'un grand souverain ; mais elle resta inflex- 

 ible, et ordonna a Sentinelli, capitaine de ses gardes, de 

 faire cxecuter I'arret qu'elle avait prononce. Monal- 

 deschi, soupifonnant le danger qu'il courait, s'etait cui- 

 rasse : 11 fallut le frapper de plusieurs coups avant qu'il 

 expirat, et la galerie des Cerfs, on se passa cette scene 

 revoltante, fut teinte de son sang. Pendant ce temps, 

 Cliribtine, au rapport de plusieurs historiens, etait dans 

 une piece attenante, s'entretenant avec beaucoiip de 

 calme de choses indifFerentes; selon d'autres rapports, 

 elle fut presente a I'execution, accabla Monaldeschi de 

 reproches amers, et contempla ensuite son cadavre san- 

 glant avec une satisfaction qu'elle ne chercha point a, 

 dissimuler. Que ces details soient fondes ou non, la 

 mort de Monaldeschi est une tache inefFa9able a la me- 

 moire de Christine, et c'est a regret qu'on voit sur la 

 liste de ses apologistes le nom du fameux Leibnitz." 



In the answer which Queen Christina sent to 

 the objections made in Poland to her election as 

 their sovereign, occurs the following passage : 



" Le Pere dira en temoignage de la verite, que cet 

 homme me forga de le faire mourir par la trahison la 

 plus noire qu'un serviteur puisse faire a son maitre ; 

 que je n'ordonnai sa mort, qu'apres I'avoir convaincu 

 de son crime par les lettres en original ecrites de sa 

 propre main, et apres de lui avoir fait avouer a lui- 

 meme, en presence de trois temoins, et du Pere prieur 

 de Fontainebleau : qu'ils savent qu'il dit lui-meme : 

 • Je suis digne de mille morts,' et que je lui fis donner 

 les sacremens dont il etait capable avant que d-e le faire 

 mourir." — Memoires concernant Christine, Amst. et 

 Leipzig, 17o9, torn. iii. pp. 386-7. 



Dublin. 



Your correspondent Avill find an account of this 

 affair in the Appendix to Ranke's History of the 

 Popes. ' T. K. H. 



Land of Green Ginger (Vol. viii., p. 34.). — It 

 is so called from the sale of ginger having been 

 chiefly carried on there in early times. As far as 

 I can recollect, none of the local histories gives any 

 derivation of the name; those of Gent and Frost 

 certainly do not, and this is the one generally re- 

 ceived by the inhabitants. Salthouse Lane and 

 Blanket Row are other streets, which may be 

 referred to as having obta^ined their names in a 

 similar way. R. W. Elliot. 



Clifton. 



An inhabitant of Hull has informed me that this 

 street Avas so named by a house-proprietor whose 

 fortune had been made in the West Indies, and I 

 think by the sweetmeat trade. T. K. H. 



Unneath (Vol. vii., p. 631.). — It strikes me that 

 your correspondents Me. C. H. Coopee and PI G. R., 

 in reply to Mb, Weight's inquiry respecting the 



