Feb. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



135 



thenticity. Cleobulus bears the same relation to 

 Plato that Cid Hamet Benengeli does to Don 

 Quixote. The title of the second edition is, — 



*' Platone in Italia, Traduzione dal Greco da Yincenzo 

 Cuoco. Parma, 1820, 2 torn. 8vo." 



A note states that this is an exact reprint of the 

 Milan edition in three vols. 8vo., but does not 

 give its date. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



Eminent Men born in 1769 (Vol. xi., p. 27.).— 

 Sir Walter Scott was not born in 1769, but in 

 1771 : Humboldt, the great traveller, and the 

 author of Cosmos, was born in 1769; Arndt, the 

 German poet, whose songs and other productions 

 roused all Germany to oppose l^Tapoleon, was 

 another child of that remarkable year ; and per- 

 haps your readers can supply other instances. 

 Humboldt and Arndt are still living in the enjoy- 

 ment of their vigorous faculties. A. 



The Queen's regimental Goat (Vol. x., p. 180.). — 



"The celebrated snow-white goat presented by Her 

 Majesty to the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusileers, died on the 

 20th ult. After weathering the campaign in Bulgaria, 

 and marching proudly at the head of his regiment from 

 Kalamita Bay to Sevastopol, he has at last fallen without 

 wearing the Alma medal he hail earned on the way. His 

 stately demeanour and reverend beard made him a pro- 

 minent feature in the appearance of the regiment as it 

 moved along ; and the gap left by his absence will force a 

 recollection of the fine animal upon the memory of every 

 one familiar with the gallant 23rd. He had been hutted, 

 and every care had been taken to protect him against the 

 exposure and inclement weather; but all this attention 

 was unavailing." — English Churchman, Jan. 18. 



Her Majesty's present of a goat to a Welsh 

 regiment would seem to favour Dr. Hahn's as- 

 sertion, and to prove that it is a custom in regi- 

 ments from mountainous districts to have such an 

 animal attached to the corps, as a fond reminis- 

 cence and symbol of home and country. Perhaps 

 some of your military readers can give more pre- 

 cise information. J. M. (1) 



^'■Amentium, Jiaud Amantium" (Vol. vii., p. 595.). 

 — A translation preserving the alliteration : 

 " Brainless, not brainsick." Sttlites. 



" To the Lords of Convention " (Vol. vii., 

 p. 596.). — This ballad has been set to music, and 

 published by Ollivier, 41. New Bond Street, 

 under the title of " Bonnie Dundee." The name 

 of the author is not given, but I have always 

 supposed it to be written by Sir Walter Scott, in 

 which case it is doubtless to be found in any 

 edition of his works.* Stylites. 



Niagara (Vol. xi., p. 48.). — When at Niagara 

 last summer, I was at some pains to ascertain 



[* In Scott's Doom of Devorgoil. See « N. & Q.," 

 Vol. viii., p. 19.1 



the thickness of the water falling over the Horse 

 Shoe cataract. Within the concavity, where the 

 water is most abundant, it is estimated at twenty 

 feet, which is probably not far from the truth ; 

 but on either side of the curve the depth is con- 

 siderably less, probably not averaging more than 

 five feet. C. R. Weld. 



Somerset House. 



The depth of water on the edge of the Horse 

 Shoe Fall is estimated, by Sir Charles Lyell, at 

 twenty feet ; and when at Niagara in June, 1854, 

 I was told a circumstance by one of the guides 

 which corroborates this opinion, — that when the 

 ship "Detroit" was sent over the Falls in 1829, 

 her hull, which drew eighteen feet, passed clear 

 over the point of the Horse Shoe Fall, without 

 touching. I believe the earliest engraving of 

 Niagara is to be found in Father Hennepin's New 

 Discovery of a vast Country in America, &c., 

 London, 1698. A letter from a Swedish gentle- 

 man, describing the Falls, appears in the Gent. 

 Mag. for January, 1751 ; and in the following 

 number Mr. Urban palms off upon his readers 

 Hennepin's view, slightly altered to suit the nar- 

 rative of the Swede, as " a new print of this 

 wonderful fall or cataract." There appears to be 

 a view of Niagara in Popple's Maps of the British 

 Empire in America, engraved by Toms, folio, 

 London, 1733 and 1740. Is this original, or a 

 copy of Hennepin ? Are there any other early 

 views of the Falls ? Arthur Paget. 



Bishop Oldham (Vol. xi., p. 64.). — It will 

 perhaps be a sufficient answer to this Query, to 

 advert to what I should have conceived to have 

 been a universally known fact, that in 1519, and 

 for centuries previously, the clergy were pro- 

 hibited from marrying, and could not therefore 

 have any descendants. Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Death-led Superstition (A^ol. xi., p. 55.). — It 

 is the common custom in Wales to borrow, if there 

 should not be one belonging to the house, a deep 

 pewter plate, which, filled with salt, is placed on 

 the body of a deceased person as soon as possible 

 after the corpse is laid out. The reason generally 

 given is, that it will prevent the swelling of the 

 body. N. 



KOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



We have received the first and second Parts of the 

 interesting Private Journal and Literary Remains of John 

 Byrom, edited for the Chetham Society by the Rev. 

 Canon Parkinson. After the encomiums which have 



