Jan. 21. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



51 



whom it was handed over to the then treasurer of 

 the Society, Nicholas Hide, Esq. ? and was the 

 author of such scandalous letter ever discovered 

 and prosecuted ? Cestriensis. 



Cha?-les Watson. — Can any of your readers give 

 me any account of Charles Watson, of Hertford 

 College, Oxford, author of poems, and Charles the 

 First, a tragedy ? 



I believe a short memoir of this author was 

 to have appeared in Blackwood's Magazine (the 

 second volume, I think) ; it was never published, 

 however. A. Z. 



Early (German) coloured Engravings. — I have 

 six old coloured engravings, which I suppose to 

 be part of a series, as they are numbered re- 

 spectively 1, 2. 4. 11, 12, 14. They are mounted 

 ■ on panels ; and on the back of each is a piece 

 of vellum, on which some descriptive verses 

 in old German have been written. The ink re- 

 tains its blackness ; but dirt, mildew, and ill usage 

 have rendered nearly all the inscriptions illegible, 

 and greatly damaged the pictures ; yet, through 

 the laborious colouring and the stains, good draw- 

 ing and expression are visible. Perhaps a brief 

 description may enable some of your readers to 

 tell me whether they are known. 



Nos. 1. and 11. are so nearly obliterated, that I 

 will not attempt to describe them. No. 2. seems 

 to be St. George attacking the dragon. The in- 

 scription is : 



" Hier merke Sohn gar schnell und bald, 

 Von grausam schwartzen Thier im Wald." 



No. 4. A stag and a unicorn : 



" Man ist von No thin dass ihr wiszt, 

 Im Wald ein Hirsch und Eikhorn ist." 



No. 12. An old man with wings, and a younger 

 wearing a crown and sword. They are on the 

 top of a mountain overlooking the sea. The sUn 

 is in the left corner, and the moon and stars on the 

 Tight. The perspective is very good. Inscription 

 obliterated. 



No. 14. The same persons, and a king on his 

 throne. The elder in the background ; the 

 younger looking into the king's mouth, which is 

 opened to preternatural wideness : 



" Sohn in dein Abwesen war ich tod, 

 Und mein Leben in grosser Noth ; 

 Aber in dein Beysein thue ich leben, 

 Dein WiderkunfFt mir Freudt thut geben." 



The inscription is long, but of the rest only a 

 word here and there is legible. Any information 

 on this subject will oblige, H. 



ffiinav Atttrtaf forth ShuttocrS. 



History of M. Oufle. — Johnson, in his Life of 

 Pope, says of the Memoirs of Scriblerus : 



" The design cannot boast of much originality : for, 

 besides its general resemblance to Don Quixote, there 

 will be found in it particular imitations of the History 

 of M. Oufle." 



What is the History of M. Oufle ? L. M. 



[ The History of the Religious Extravagancies of Mon- 

 sieur Oufle is a remarkable book, written by the Abbe 

 Bordelon, and first published, we believe, at Amster- 

 dam, in 2 vols., 1710. The Paris edition of 1754, in 

 2 vols., entitled UHistoire des Imaginations Extrava- 

 gantes de Monsieur Oufle, is the best, as it contains some 

 curious illustrations. From the title-page we learn 

 that the work was " Occasioned by the author having 

 read books treating of magic, the black art, demoniacs, 

 conjurors, witches, hobgoblins, incubuses, succubuses, 

 and the diabolical Sabbath ; of elves, fairies, wanton 

 spirits, geniuses, spectres, and ghosts ; of dreams, the 

 philosopher's stone, judicial astrology, horoscopes, 

 talismans, lucky and unlucky days, eclipses, comets, 

 and all sorts of apparitions, divinations, charms, en- 

 chantments, and other superstitious practices ; with 

 notes containing a multitude of quotations out of those 

 books which have either caused such extravagant ima- 

 ginations, or may serve to cure them." If any of our 

 readers should feel inclined to collect what we may 

 term " A Diabolical Library," he has only to consult 

 vol. i. ch. iii. for a catalogue of the principal books in 

 Mons. Oufle's study, which is the most curious list of 

 the black art we have ever seen. An English trans- 

 lation of these Religious Extravagancies was published 

 in 1711.] 



Ly sons' MSS. — Is the present repository of 

 the MS. notes, used by Messrs. Lysons in editing 

 their great work, the Magna Britannia, known ? 



T. P. L. 



[The topographical collections made by the Rev. 

 Daniel Lysons for the Magna Britannia and the En- 

 virons of London, making sixty-four volumes, are in 

 the British Museum, Add. MSS. 9408—9471. They 

 were presented by that gentleman.] 



"Luke's Lron Crown" (Goldsmith's Traveller^ 

 last line but two). To whom does this refer, and 

 what are the particulars ? P. J. (A Subscriber). 



[This Query is best answered by the following note 

 from Mr. P. Cunningham's new edition of Goldsmith : 



" When Tom Davies, at the request of Granger, 

 asked Goldsmith about this line, Goldsmith referred 

 him for an explanation of ' Luke's iron crown' to a 

 book called Geographie Curieuse ; and added, that by 

 < Damiens' bed of steel ' he meant the rack. See 

 Granger's Letters, 8vo., 1805, p. 52. 



" George and Luke Dosa were two brothers who 

 headed an unsuccessful revolt against the Hungarian 

 nobles at the opening of the sixteenth century : and 

 George (not Luke) underwent the torture of the red- 



