252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 283. 



Epitaphs (Vol. xi., p. 190.).— At Swallowfield 

 churchyard I met the following ; allow me to re- 

 mark, en passant, that Swallowfield enjoys the 

 privilege of being situated in three counties, 

 Berks, Wilts, and Hants : 



" Here lies a fair blossom mould'ring to dust. 

 Ascending to heaven, to dwell with the just." 



Allow me to correct an error in the epitaph 

 supplied by R. W. D. at p. 190. We should read, 

 " Ere sin (not sun) could blight," &c. The lines 

 are by Coleridge, and not by Dr. Donne, as stated 

 at p. 294, of Arundines Cami, where the following 

 exquisite Latin translation is to be found, from 

 the pen of the late Right Rev. Samuel Butler, 

 Bishop of Lichfield : 



" Ante malum quam te culpa maculaverat, ante 

 Quam poterat primum carpere cura decus, 

 In coelos gemmam leni mors transtulit ictu, 

 Inque suo iussit sese aperire solo." 



G.L.S. 



In addition to the very beautiful epitaph on an 

 infant by Coleridge, I would venture to submit 

 the two following to the notice of the readers of 

 " N. & Q.," and to ask by whom they were com- 

 posed, as well as where they may be seen : 



" Just to her lip the cup of life she prest, 

 Found the taste bitter, and refused the rest." 



" Beneath a sleeping infant lies, 



To earth its body lent, 

 Hereafter shall more glorious rise, 



But scarce more innocent : 

 Oh ! when th' archangel's trump shall blow, 



And souls to bodies join ; 

 Millions shall wish their lives below 



Had been as short as thine ! " 



N. L. T. 



Hangman (Vol. xi., pp. 13. 95.). — The follow- 

 ing extract from the Dublin University Magazine, 

 Jan. 1850, p. 104., is probably worth preservation 

 in " N. & Q. : " 



" Who think you, gentle reader, officiated upon this 

 gallows high ? A female ! a middle-aged, stout-made, 

 dark-eyed, swarthy complexioned, but by no means for- 

 bidding-looking woman ! — the celebrated Lady Bett}', 

 the finisheress of the law, the unflinching priestess of the 

 executive for the Connaught circuit, and Roscommon in 

 particular. Few children born or reared in that country 

 thirty or even twenty-five years ago who were not oc- 

 casionally frightened into being good by the cry of 

 ' Here's Lady Betty.' This woman (who had been pre- 

 viously convicted of a horrible murder) officiated, un- 

 masked and undisguised, under the name of Lady Betty, 

 as the hangwoman for a great number of years, and she 

 used also often to flog publicly in and through the streets 

 as a part of her trade or profession, being alwa}'S ex- 

 tremely severe, particularly on her own sex. Numerous 

 are the tales related of her exploits." 



E. D. 



Tailed Men (Vol. xi., p. 122.). — To the curious 

 extract from old Purchas may be added the fol- 

 lowing from an equally quaint writer, Bulwers 

 Man Transformed ; or, The Artijiciall Changeling, 



sra. 4to., 1653, scene 22. p. 511., after repeating 

 the two versions of the Kentish men's tails — 



"I am informed by an honest young man in Lieut.- 

 Generall Ireton's regiment, that at Cashell, when stormed 

 by the Lord Inchiquin, and nearly 700 put to the sword, 

 there were found among the slaine of the Irish when they 

 were stripped divers that had tailes neare a quarter of a 

 yard long. Forty soldiers testified upon their oaths that 

 they were eye-witnesses. It is reported also that in Spaine 

 there is such another tailed nation ; but that which 

 gives great reputation to the narratives of tailed nations 

 is, that the Coryphajus of anatomy, Doctor Harvey, in- 

 formes us in a learned tract that an acquaintance of his 

 returning from the East Indies declared upon his credit, 

 that in the remote places of the island of Borneo there is 

 a certain kind of tailed men, of which with difficulty (for 

 they inhabit the woods) they took a virgin whom he saw, 

 with a thick fleshy taile of a span longe. Aldrovandus 

 exhibits a monster with a taile a palm long ; and Schene- 

 kius recites a story of such another with the rudiment of 

 a foxe's taile." 



Captain Samuel Turner, in his Embassy to Tibet, 

 4to., 1806, gives the following passage in his in- 

 terview with the Dai'b Raja : 



" He told me of wonders, for which I claim no other 

 credit than that of repeating with fidelity the story of my 

 author. In the same range of mountains north of Assam, 

 he informed me that there was a species of human beings 

 with short straight tails, which, according to report, were 

 extremelj' inconvenient to them, as they were inflexible : 

 in consequence of which they were obliged to dig holes 

 in the ground before they could attempt to sit down." — 

 P. 167. 



The Literary Gazette, 1854, p. 919., and Cham- 

 bers of Jan. 1855, p. 368., referring to Voyage au 

 Pays de Niam-niams, by C. L. du Couret, adds — 



" What peculiarly distinguishes this people is the ex- 

 ternal prolongation of the vertebral column, which in 

 every individual, male or female, forms a tail of from two 

 to three inches long." 



E.D. 



" The sweet shady side of Pall MalV (Vol. x., 

 p. 464.). — This is the concluding line of Captain 

 Morris's Song on the Town and Country, the 

 thirteenth and last verse of which is as follows : 

 « Then in town let me live, and in town let me die, 

 For I own I can't relish the country, not I. 

 If I must have a villa in summer to dwell, 

 Oh give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall ! " 



In a volume of Poems and Miscellaneous Essays, 

 by Henrietta Rhodes, 1814, there is a parody on 

 Captain Morris's Song; and the authoress sub- 

 joins the original, " as it would be injustice not to 

 give a place to his lines also, which abound with 

 exquisite wit and humour." 



CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



When will the Turks be driven out of Europe f 

 (Vol. xi., p. 203.). — To this Query I cannot, I 

 think, give a better reply than by sending you the 

 following very remarkable prediction which the 

 Rev. Dr. Cumming read to the meeting at the 

 Town Hall here, on the 8th of this month, which 

 he stated to have been copied from an old volume 



