114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 223. 



arisen from the translator not being conversant 

 with the technical terras of the Ecclesiastical Ca- 

 lendar, in which, as the greater festivals are cele- 

 brated with Octaves, other feasts falling during 

 the Octave are said to be under (infra) the 

 greater solemnity. Thus, if Mr. Warden will 

 consult the Ordo Reciiandi Officii Divini for 1834, 

 he will see that next Sunday, the 8th inst., stands 

 " Dom inf. Oct.," i. e. of the Epiphany, and that 

 the same occurs on other days during the year. 



May I point out an erratum in a Query inserted 

 some time since (not yet replied to), regarding a 

 small castle near Kingsgate, Thanet, the name of 

 which is printed Aix Ruochim ; it should be Arx 

 Ruochim. A. O. H. 



Blackheath. 



Death Warnings in Ancient Families (Vol. ix., 

 p. 55.). — A brief notice of these occurrences, with 

 references to works where farther details may be 

 met with, would form a very remarkable record 

 of events which tend to support one's belief in 

 the truth of the remark of Hamlet : 



" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 

 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." 



A drummer is stated to be heard in C 



Castle, the residence of the Earl and Countess of 

 A., " going about the house playing his drum, 

 whenever there is a death impending in the 

 family." This warning is asserted to have been 

 given shortly before the decease of the Earl's first 

 wife, and preceded the death of the next Countess 

 about five or six months. Mrs. Crowe, in her 

 Night Side of Nature, observes hereupon : 



" I have heard that a paper was found in her (the 

 Countess's) desk after her death, declaring her convic- 

 tion that the drum was for her." 



Whenever a little old woman visits a lady of the 

 family of G. of R., at the time of her confinement, 

 when the nurse is absent, and strokes down the 

 clothes, the patient (says Mrs. Crowe), "never 

 does any good, and dies." Another legend is, that 

 a single swan is always seen on a particular lake 

 close to the mansion of another family before a 

 death. Then, Lord Littleton's dove is a well- 

 known incident. And the lady above quoted 

 speaks of many curious warnings of death by the 

 appearance of birds, as well as of a spectral black 

 dog, which visited a particular family in Cornwall 

 immediately before the death of any of its mem- 

 bers. Having made this Note of a few more 

 cases of death warnings, I will end with a Query 

 in the words of Airs. Crowe, who, after detailing 

 the black dog apparition, asks : " if this pheno- 

 menon is the origin of the French phrase bete 

 noire, to express an annoyance, or an augury of 

 evil ? " Jas. J. Scott. 



Hampstead. 



" The Secunde Personne of the Trinitie" (Vol.ix., 

 p. 56.). — I think it is Hobart Seymour who 

 speaks of some Italians of the present day as con- 

 sidering the Three Persons of the Trinity to be 

 the Father, the Virgin, and the Son. J. P. O. 



MitittTlmcaxtg. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Mr. Wright's varied antiquarian acquirements, and 

 his untiring zeal, are too well known to require recog- 

 nition from us. We may therefore content ourselves with 

 directing attention to his Wanderings of an Antiquary, 

 chiefly upon the Traces of the Romans in Britain, which 

 has just been published, and of which the greater part 

 has appeared in a series of papers under the same title 

 in the Gentleman's Magazine. It is intended to fur- 

 nish, in a popular form, a few archaeological truths 

 which may foster a love of our national antiquities 

 among those who are less likely to be attracted by dry 

 dissertations : and its gossiping character and pretty 

 woodcuts are well calculated to promote this object. 



This endeavour to make the study of antiquities 

 popular, naturally calls our attention to a small and 

 very agreeable volume on the subject of what Brand 

 designated Popular Antiquities. We refer to the last 

 volume of Bohn's Illustrated Library. It is from the 

 pen of Mary Howitt, and is entitled the Pictorial 

 Calendar of the Seaso?is, exhibiting the Pleasures, Pur- 

 suits, and Characteristics of Country Life for every 

 Month of the Fear, and embodying the whole of Aikin's 

 Calendar of Nature. It is embellished with upwards 

 of one hundred engravings on wood ; and what the 

 authoress says of its compilation, viz. that it was "like 

 a walk through a rich summer garden," describes 

 pretty accurately the feelings of the reader. But, as 

 we must find some fault, where is the Index ? 



We have received from Birmingham a work most 

 creditable to all concerned in its production, and which 

 will be found of interest to such of our readers as 

 devote their attention to county or family history. It 

 is entitled A History of the Holtes of Aston, Baronets, 

 with a Description of the Family Mansion, Aston Hall, 

 Warwickshire, by Alfred Davidson, with Illustrations 

 from Drawings by Allan E. Everitt ; and whether we 

 regard the care with which Mr. Davidson has executed 

 the literary portion of the work, the artistic skill of 

 the draughtsman, or the manner in which the publisher 

 has hrought it out, we may safely pronounce it a 

 volume well deserving the attention of topographers 

 generally, and of Warwickshire topographers in especial. 



Books Received. — Folious Appearances; A Con- 

 sideration on our Ways of lettering Books, Few lovers 

 of old books and good binding will begrudge half a 

 florin for this quaint opuscule. — Indications of Instinct, 

 by T. Lindley Kemp, the new number of the Tra- 

 veller's Library, is an interesting supplement to Dr. 

 Kemp's former contribution to the same series, The 

 Natural History of Creation. — We record, for the in- 

 formation of our meteorological friends, the receipt of 

 a Daily Weather Journal for the Year 1853, kept at Is- 

 lington by Mr. Simpson. 



