t2 



NOTES AND QJEiRIES. 



[No, 271. 



nienses, vol. i, by Bliss, 1848 (edit. Eccles. Hist. 

 Society) ? Was he a member of Sergeant's Inn, 

 Chancery Lane? and it' so, are the arms of the 

 sergeant emblazoned anywhere there ? and what 

 were they ? Any iufbrmation respecting him or 

 his family will be acceptable. Shorbolds. 



A Note for Junius. — 



" Before I went to bed read some of Francis' Indian 

 Minutes; quite able enoui^h to back him as the author of 

 Junius." — Moore's Diary, vol. iii. p. 188. 



Query, Have any of the inquirers aft^ the author 

 consulted these Minutes? J. M. 



Wobum Abbey. 



Anecdote of Canning. — During the time when 

 the Right Hon. George Canning was in the ad- 

 ministration, an<l on the breaking up of a meeting 

 of the council, he the Right Hon. George Canning, 

 I think it was, who undertook to tell any of those 

 present that he would iguess their thoughts in less 

 than twenty-one questions. One of the party 

 thought of the wand of office. 



The first question was : Was it celestial or ter- 

 restrial ? Ans. Teriestrial. 



Second, Was it animal or vegetable ? Ans. 

 Vegetable, &c. &c. 



I have read tiie above in some work, and do not 

 know where I can procure a copy. I thought you 

 would be enabled to let me know what work it 

 was in, and where I might obtain a copy. E. P. S. 



Comedy at the Coronation of Edward VI. — In 

 the Rev. Joseph Mendham's Memoirs of the 

 Council of Treiit (8vo., London, 1834), he quotes, 

 from a MS. collection in his possession, an extract 

 from a letter, dated March 8, 1547, addressed to 

 Monsignore Verallo by Cardinal Farnese, in which 

 it is stated that, at the coronation of Edward VI., 

 plays were performed in dishonour and vitupera- 

 tion of the Pope and the cardinals. The y)assage 

 is as follows (p. lis. note). The cardinal is 

 speaking delle cose d^Inghilterra, and proceeds 

 thus : 



" E quanto alia dispositione di quelle anime perdute, 

 ditoniar all' union' del la Chiesa, et ubedienza della Sede 

 Apostolica, fin qui noii si comprende cosa buona, ma si 

 vede tutto 1' opposite per alcune commedie, che sono state 

 recitate nella ct)ronatione del nuovo Tirannetto, in disonor 

 e vituperio del Papa, e delli Cardinali." 



Is this statement of Cardinal Farnese's a his- 

 torical fact ? if so, what are the plays referred to ? 



J. M. B. 



Work on the Beality of the Devil. — In the 

 Mamburgische Zeitschrift, Aug. 1778, a work by 

 Professor Link, of Giessen, Uber die Besessener, 

 is reviewed ; and called " one of the many works 

 about which the public is so curious as to the 

 personal reality of the Devil." Another is men- 

 tioned under the title, Man muss auch den Teufel 



nicht zu viel aufhiirden. The controversy is treated 

 as one of great interest, and Dr. Johan Semler is 

 frequently referred to. Can any of your readers 

 give me the title of Semler's book, or any others, 

 on the controversy carried on in Germany at that 

 time ? N. E. B. 



Death of Sir Thomas Prendergast. — The fol- 

 lowing extract is from an obituary notice which 

 appears in The Illustrated London News of Satur- 

 day, Dec. 23, 1854 : 



" Few of the Anglo-Norman families in Ireland have 

 held a more honourable and enduring position than that 

 of Prendergast, seated for centuries at Newcastle, in the 

 countj' of Tipperary, One of the descendants (Sir Thos. 

 Prendergast, Bart.) was an eminent soldier of the reign 

 of Queen Anne, and a participator in the victories of 

 Marlborough. The mj^sterious warning that foretold his 

 death, forms a most curious and well-authenticated anec- 

 dote in family romance." 



I have no doubt that many of your readers call 

 testify to the annoyance of a reference to " the 

 well-known anecdote" which one does not know, 

 and as I happen to stand in that predicament iu 

 the present case, I shall be thankful to anybody 

 who will give me the particulars of the " well- 

 authenticated anecdote" here referred to. 



G. Tatlob. 



Reading. 



True Cross, Relic of in the Tower. — From certain 

 original letters in the possession of a relative of 

 mine, I am led to believe that, as late as the reigns 

 of James I. and Charles I., there was preserved in 

 the Tower of London, among the crown jewels, a 

 relic, supposed to be a portion of the true Cross. 

 Can any of your correspondents enlighten me 

 upon this subject, and give any information as to 

 the previous history of this relic, and what be- 

 came of it ? J- A. D. 



Prussic Acid from Blood. — In Niebuhr's Zec- 

 tures on Ancient History, translated by Dr. Schmitz 

 (3 vols. 8vo., London, 1852), the following pas- 

 sage occurs with reference to the story current 

 in antiquity, that Themistocles poisoned himself 

 with bull's blood (see Grote's Hist, of Greece, 

 vol. V. p. 386.) : 



"It is generally acknowledged that the statement of 

 his having killed himself by drinking ox-blood is a mere 

 fiction; for no quadruped has poisonous blood. There 

 are, however, several cases in which men are said by the 

 ancients to have killed themselves with the blood of 

 oxen. We know indeed that this is impossible ; but the 

 prussic acid of modern times was at first (about ninety or 

 one hundred years ago) prepared from blood ; and is it 

 not possible that the ancients (of whose chemical know- 

 ledge we form much too low an estimate) knew how to 

 prepare it, though perhaps in an impure and imperfect 

 sUte, and thus extracted the deadliest of all poisons from 

 blood ? Such an explanation seems to me by no means 

 forced; and how should such a tradition have become 

 established in Greece, had there not been an occasion for 



