July 30. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



113 



copied from Milton ; but lie uses it, not as an 

 epithet exactly, but to express the frequency 

 of the bird's appearance. " Night, her solemn 

 bird," means the customary attendant of the night : 

 solemn bein" used in the classical sense, and de- 

 rived from loles. So Virgil, " Solemnes turn forte 

 dapes et tristia dona ante urbem in luco," &c. 



The word solemn probably acquired its present 

 signification from the staid manner in which En- 

 glTshmen go through their customary ceremonies. 

 " They took their pleasure sadly" as Froissart has 

 it, Sydney Gedge, B.A. 



Mysterious Personage (Vol. viii., p. 34.), — 

 There is no mystery about the legitimate claimant 

 of the British throne. He is the Duke of Modena, 

 lineally descended from Henrietta of England, 

 youngest daughter of Charles I. : she married 

 Philip Duke of Orleans, son of Louis XIII. and 

 Anne of Austria, and had two daughters ; Louisa 

 married to Charles II. of Spain (she died without 

 issue), and Anna Maria, married to Victor Ama- 

 deus, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia. Their 

 son Charles Emanuel III. succeeded in 1 730, and 

 was succeeded by his son Victor Amadeus III. 

 He was succeeded by his eldest son Charles Ema- 

 nuel IV., who died without issue, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother Victor Emanuel, who left 

 twin daughters, the elder of whom, Mary Beatrice, 

 married Francis Duke of Modena, while the crown 

 of Sardinia passed to her father's heirs male. The 

 Duchess Mary Beatrice of Modena has left two 

 sons, the elder of Avhom (born June 14, 1819) is 

 the direct, undoubted heir of the House of Stuart. 



L. M. M. R. 



Ken : " The Croivn of Glory'' (Vol. vii., p. 597.). 

 — This work was properly rejected by Mr. Round 

 in his edition of Bishop Ken's Works ; and in the 

 preface he gives the reasons for so doing. The 

 absence of certain forms of expression was the 

 chief test relied on. The book is so excellent, and 

 the prayers so warm and Ken-like, that its exclu- 

 sion indicates much critical acumen on the part of 

 Mr. Round. Subsequently to the publication of 

 this collection, it was ascertained that the prayers 

 and other parts of The Croion of Glory were taken 

 from a book of Dean Brough, of Gloucester, en- 

 titled Sacred Principles, which was published, I 

 believe (I am writing at a distance from my books), 

 in 1661. W. D— N. 



Penny comequicli, adjoining Plymouth (Vol. viii., 

 p. 8.). — In days gone by, when the boundai'ies 

 of the town were much more circumscribed than 

 at the present day, a well-known old female (a 

 perfect character in her way) had long fixed her 

 abode in a curiously built hut-like cot in the 

 locality in question ; the rusticity of which, toge- 

 ther with the obliging demeanour of its tenants, 

 had gradually induced the good folk of Plymouth 



to make holiday bouts to this retired spot for the 

 purpose of merry-making. As years rolled on, 

 the shrewd old dame became a general favourite 

 with the pleasure-seekers ; the increasing frequency 

 of these pic-nics suggesting to her an opportunity 

 which might be turned to good account, viz. that 

 of providing her visitors with the cheap requisite, 

 boiling water, for the brewing their sober after- 

 noon's beverage, at the low rate of a penny a head. 

 Still later in the evening of life, shrugging herself 

 closely in her old scarlet cloak, which had served 

 her well for better than half a century, she would, 

 with much apparent gusto, recount to her pleased 

 auditory how many a time and often she had made 

 the " penny come quick," by the above-recited 

 inexpensive vocation ; until at length her saying 

 became a by-word in the neighbourhood, and 

 universal consent fixed on the ever-happy octo- 

 genarian's triplet as a fitting appellation for the 

 then nameless and retired little nook, but now 

 thickly studded grounds, of Pennycomequich. 



That equally simple occurrences have frequently 

 given rise to the names of places, is shown by other 

 remarkable titles of localities not far distant from 

 Pennycomequich, such as those of " The Bold Ven- 

 ture," and of " No Place." Henry H. Hele. 



Ashburton. 



Your correspondent R. H. B. is informed that 

 the name of this village is Welsh, viz. Pen y cwn 

 gwich, and signifies a village at the head of a 

 valley. 11. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



Longevitrj (Vol. vii., pp. 358. 504. 607.).— May 

 I be permitted a word with your correspondent 

 A. I., and at the same time assist Mb. Hughes in 

 his laudable attempt "to convert him to the faith ? " 

 To do this, it will not be necessary for me to 

 search either in annual or parish registers, or to 

 decipher half-defaced inscriptions on marble monu- 

 ments or humble headstones. 



A lady is now living, or was two months ago, in 

 Williamsburg, State of South Carolina, by the 

 name of Singleton, who is known to be in the one 

 hundred and thirty -first year of her age : 



" Her mental faculties are still unimpaired, and she 

 retains all her senses except that of sight, of which she 

 was deprived at the advanced age of ninety-nine years 

 by an attack of the measles. Her bodily energy ex- 

 hibits no diminution for many years, she being still 

 able to walk briskly about the room. She has outlived 

 all her children : her oldest descendant living being a 

 granddaughter, over sixty years old. The first grand- 

 daughter of this granddaughter, if now living, would 

 be over sixteen years of age." 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Arms : Battle-axe (Vol. vii., p. 407.). — The 

 undermentioned families bore three battle-axes 



