78 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 195. 



THE ELECTBIC TELEGRAPH. 



I have just met -with a passage in tlie Pseudo- 

 doxia Epidemica of Sir Thomas Browne, wherein 

 this invention is foreshadoAvod in terms more re- 

 markable and significant, if less imaginative and 

 beautiful, than tliat from The Spectator, to which 

 public attention has already been directed, and 

 which, I conceive, must unquestionably have been 

 written, with this particular example of the " re- 

 ceived tenets and commonly presumed truths " of 

 tlie learned physician's day, distinctly present to 

 the mind of Addison. The passage referred to is 

 as follows : 



" There is another conceit of better notice, and whis- 

 pered thorow the world with some attention ; credulous 

 and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and more 

 judicious and distinctive heads not altogether rejecting 

 it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would 

 follow, somewliat divine : whereby we might commu- 

 nicate like spirits, and confer on earth with Menippus 

 in the moon. And this is pretended from the sym- 

 pathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, 

 and placed in the centre of two abecedary circles, or 

 rings with letters described round about them, one 

 friend keeping one, and another the other, and agree- 

 ing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. 

 For then, saith tradition, at what distance of place 

 .soever, when one needle shall be removed unto any 

 letter, the other, by a wonderful syinpathy, will move 

 unto the same." — Book ii. chap, ii., 4to., 1669, p. 77. 



Thus it is that " coming events cast their sha- 

 dows before :" and, in the pi-esent case, one is 

 curious to learn how far back the shadow may 

 be traced. By whom has this conceit been whis- 

 pered thorow the world? and in what musty tomes 

 is that tradition concealed, which speaks concern- 

 ing it ? Kircher's Catena Mugnetica might haply 

 tell us something in reply to these inquiries. 



In conformity with an often repeated suggestion 

 to the correspondents of " N. & Q.," to the simple 

 signature of my habitat, alone hitherto adopted by 

 me, I now subjoin my name. Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



Sir Waller Raleigh. — In the discussions on the 

 copyright question some years ago. Sir Walter Ra- 

 leigh was mentioned as one of the authors whose 

 posterity is totally extinct; but in his Life, as 

 given in Lodge's Portraits, his descendants are 

 given as far down as his great-grandchildren, of 

 whom many were still living in 1699, at which 

 period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. 

 It seems unlikely that a fiimily then so numerous 

 should have utterly perished since, both in its male 

 and female branches ; and perhaps some of your 

 correspondents may be able to trace their subse- 

 quent history : the name is certainly not extinct, 

 whether its bearers be his descendants or not. 



Is the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert de- 

 scended from one of Sir Walter's half-brothers ? . 



J. S. Warden. 



Ancient Fortifications : Hertstone, Pale, Brecost. 

 —In the Clause Rolls, 16 John, M. 6. (Public Re- 

 cords, vol. i. p. 192.) is a warrant of King John's, 

 addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay of 

 Doncaster, as follows : 



" Mandam' vob' qi villa de Danecastl- claudi faciatis 

 heritone et palo scdm qd fossatu fcm exigit, et una. 

 leve bretasea fl faciatis sup ponte ad villa defen- 

 denda." 



Which, in Miller's History of that town (p. 40.), is 

 thus translated : 



" We command ye, cause the town of Doncaster to 

 be inclosed with hertstone and pale, according as the 

 ditch that is made doth require; and that ye make a 

 ligb.t brecost or barbican upon the bridge, to defend the 

 town." 



I shall be obliged by being informed if hertstone 

 is the coiTect translation of the word " heritone," 

 and, if so, what species of fortification it was. Pale 

 is probably a defence composed of high wooden 

 stakes. Bi-ecost is questionable, I imagine, and 

 should most likely be spelt bretesk or bretex. I 

 shall be glad, however, of explanations of the 

 words. C. J. 



Newton and Somers. — It has been said that 

 thei'e is a complimentary allusion to Somers in 

 Newton's wi-itings. Where ? M. 



Daventry, Duel at. — 



" Veni Daintreo cum puella, 

 Procerum celebre duello." 



" Thence to Daintree with my jewel, 

 Famous for a noble duel." 



' Drunken Barnabj/'s Journal. "" 



Can any Northamptonshire reader of " N. & Q." 

 say between whom, and when, this duel took place? 



J. il. L. 



Passage in Burial Service. — ^Whence comes the 

 expression in the Burial Service, " In the midst 

 of life we are in death." I have observed that 

 Mr. Palmer, in his Origines Liturgicce, refers for 

 a parallel passage to ancient liturgies, but, if I 

 mistake not, to none but those used in England. 

 The passage is very scriptural : but I do not 

 believe it exists in the Bible. J. G. T. 



" They shot him on the nine-stane rig." — Where 

 is the ballad beginning with the words — 



" They shot him on the nine-stane rig, 

 Beside the headless cross." 

 to be found ? Who is the author ? Bobderkh. 



Wai'dhouse, and Fishermen^ s Custom there. — In 

 a MS. local history, written in 1619, there is this 



