Dec. 10. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



577 



ignorant to form part of the wlieel, has been by 

 them corrupted from spike: and that the act is, 

 driving a spike into the nave, so as to prevent the 

 wheel from turning on its axle. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



Ballina Castle (Vol. viii., p. 411.).— O.L.K.G. 

 inquires about Ballina Castle, Castlebar, and of 

 the general history, descriptions, &c. of the co. 

 Mayo. In the catalogue of my manuscript col- 

 lections, prefixed to my Annals of Boyle, or Early 

 History of Ireland (upwards of 200 volumes), 

 No. 37. purports to be " one volume 8vo., con- 

 taining full compilations of records and events 

 connected with the county of Mayo, with reference 

 to the authorities," and it has special notices of 

 Castlebar, Cong, Burrishoole, Kilgarvey, Lough 

 Conn, &c., and notes of scenery and statistics. 

 I offered in the year 1847 to publish a history 

 of the county if I was indemnified, but I did not 

 succeed in my application. I have, of course, 

 very full notices of the records, &c. of Ballinii, 

 and the other leading localities of that interesting 

 but too long neglected county, which I would 

 gladly draw out and assign, as I would any other 

 of my manuscript compilations, to any literary 

 gentleman who would propose to prepare them 

 for publication, or otherwise extract and report 

 from them as may be sought. John D'Alton. 



48. Summer Hill, Dublin. 



Mardle (Vol. viii., p. 411.). — This is the correct 

 spelling as fixed by Halllwell, I should pro- 

 pose to derive it from A.-S. mathelian, to speak, 

 discourse, harangue ; or A.-S. methel, discourse, 

 speech, conversation. (Bosworth.) Forby gives 

 this word only with the meaning " a large pond;" 

 a sense confined to Suffolk. But his vocabulary 

 of East Anglia is especially defective in East 

 Norfolk words — an imperfection arising from his 

 residence iu the extreme west of that county. 



E. G. R, 



Charles Diodati (Vol. viii., p. 295.). — Mr. 

 Singer mentions that Dr. Fellowes and others 

 have confounded Carlo Dati, Milton's Florentine 

 friend, with Charles Diodati, a schoolfellow (St. 

 Paul's, London) to whom he addresses an Italian 

 sonnet and two Latin poems. Charles Diodati 

 practised physic in Cheshire ; died 1638. Was 

 this young friend of Milton's a relative of Gio- 

 vanni Diodati, who translated the Bible into 

 Italian; born at Lucca about 1589; became a 

 Protestant ; died at Geneva, 1649 ? Ma. L, 



Longevity (Vol. viii., p. 442.). •— Mr. Mur- 

 doch's Query relative to Margaret Patten re- 

 minds me of a print exhibited in tlie Dublin 

 E.\hibition, which bore the following inscription : 



" Mary Gore, born at Cottonwith in Yorkshire, 

 A.D. 1582; lived upwards of one hundred years in 



Ireland, and died in Dublin, aged 145 years. This 

 print was done from a picture taken (the word is torn 

 off) when she was an hundred and forty-three. Van- 

 luych pinxit, T. Chambers del." 



EiRIONNACH. 



^^Now the fierce hear" Sec (Vol. viii., p. 440.). 

 — The lines respecting which d. requests inform- 

 ation are from Mr. Keble's Christian Year, in the 

 poem for Monday in Whitsun Week. They ar^ 

 however, misquoted, and should run thus 



" Now the fierce bear and leopard keen 

 Are perish'd as they ne'er had been, 

 Oblivion is their home." 



G. R. M. 



>- 



iMtsffcTTaucottiS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



As long as poetry of the highest order is appreciated in 

 England, Gray's Elegy written in a Country Churchyard 

 will never want readers to pore over its beauties, or 

 artists ready to dedicate their talents to its illustration. 

 Of the latter fact we have evidence in a new edition 

 just issued by Mr. Cundall, which is illustrated on 

 every page with engravings on wood from drawings 

 by Birkett Foster, George Thomas, and a Lady. The 

 artists have caught the spirit of the poet, and their 

 fanciful creations have been transferred to the wood 

 with the greatest delicacy by the engravers, — the re- 

 sult being a most tasteful little volume, which must 

 take a foremost rank among the gift-books of the 

 coming Christmas. 



Books Received. — Smith's Dictionary of Greek and 

 Roman Geography, hy various Writers, Part V'lII., 

 which extends from the conclusion of the admirable 

 article on Etruria to Germania, and includes Gallia 

 Cixalpina and Transalpina, which scarcely required 

 the initials (G. L.) to point out the accomplished 

 scholar by whom they are written. — Darling's Cyclo- 

 ptvdia Bihliographica : Parts XIV. and XV. extend from 

 O. M. Mitchell to Platiiia or De Sacchi. The value of 

 this analytical, bibliographical, and biographical Li- 

 brary Manual will not be fully appreciable until the 

 work is completed. — The National 3IisceUany, Vol. I. 

 The first volume of this magazine of General Litera- 

 ture is just issued in a handsome form, suitable to the 

 typographical excellence for which this well-directed 

 and well-conducted miscellany is remarkable. — Remains 

 of Pagan Saxondom, principally from Tumuli in England, 

 Part VIII. : containing Bronze Bucket, found at 

 Cuddesden, Oxfordshire ; and Fibula, found near Bil- 

 lesdon, Leicestershire. We would suggest to Mr. 

 Akerman that the Bronze Bucket is scarcely an ex- 

 ample of an object of archaological interest, which 

 requires to be drawn of the size of the original, and 

 coloured from it : and that the value of his useful work 

 would be increased by his adhering to his original 

 arrangement, by which the illustrative letter-press ap- 

 peared in the same part with the engraving to which 

 it referred. 



