162 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 225. 



I have not the Metronariston with me, and there- 

 fore cannot refer to the page. D. W. S. 



Christ- Cross- Row (Vol. iii., pp. 330. 465.; 

 Vol. viil., p. 18.). — Quarles (Embl. ii. 12.) gives 

 a passage from St. Augustine commencing, — 

 "Christ's cross is the Christ-cross of all our hap- 

 piness," but he gives no exact reference. 



Wordsworth speaks of 



" A look or motion of intelligence 

 From infant conning of the Christ -cross-row." 

 Excurs. viii. p. 305. 



These lines suggest the Query, Is this term for 

 the alphabet still in use ? and, if so, in what parts 

 of the country? Eirionnach. 



Sir Walter Scott, and his Quotations from himself 

 (Vol. ix., p. 72.). — I beg to submit to you the 

 following characteristic similarity of expression, 

 occurring in one of the poems and one of the 

 novels of Sir Walter Scott. I am not aware 

 whether attention has been drawn to it in the 

 letters of Mr. Adolphus and Mr. Heber, as I have 

 not the work at hand to consult : 



" His grasp, as hard as glove of mail, 

 Forced the red blood-drop from the nail." 



Rokeby, Canto i. Stan. 15. 



" He wrung the Earl's hand with such frantic 

 earnestness, that his grasp forced the blood to start 

 under the nail." — Legend of Montrose. 



N. L. T. 



Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. viii., p. 527.). — 

 Add Young's Night Thoughts, Night First, vers. 

 440—445. : 



" Grief's sharpest thorn hard pressing on my breast, 

 I strive with wakeful melody to cheer 

 The sullen gloom, sweet Philomel ! like thee, 

 And call the stars to listen — every star 

 Is deaf to mine, enamour'd of thy lay." 



H. T. G. 



Hull. 



Female Parish Clerks (Vol. viii., p. 474.). — 

 Within the last half-century, a Mrs. Sheldon dis- 

 charged the duties of this post at the parish church 

 of Wheatley, five miles from Oxford, and near 

 Cuddesdon, the residence of the Bishop of Oxford. 

 This clerkship was previously filled by her hus- 

 band ; but, upon his demise, she became his 

 successor. It is not a week since that I saw a 

 relation who was an eye-witness of this fact. 



Percy M. Hart. 



Stockwell. 



Hour-glass Stand (Vol. ix., p. 64.). — There is 

 an hour-glass stand of very quaintly wrought 

 iron, painted in various colours, attached to the 

 pulpit at Binfield, Berks. J. R. M., M. A. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



The Rev. Edward Trollope, F. S.A., wisely con- 

 ceiving that an illustrated work, comprising specimens 

 of the arms, armour, jewellery, furniture, vases, &c, 

 discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum, might be 

 acceptable to those numerous readers to whom the 

 magnificent volumes, published by the Neapolitan 

 government, are inaccessible, has just issued a quarto 

 volume under the title of Illustrations of Ancient Art, 

 selected from Objects discovered at Pompeii and Hercu- 

 laneum. The various materials which he has selected 

 from the Museo Borbonico, and other works, and a large 



j number of his own sketches, have been carefully clas- 

 sified ; and we think few will turn from an examin- 



! ation of the forty-five plates of Mr. Trollope's admir- 



I able outlines, without admiring the good taste with 

 which the various subjects have been selected, and 

 acknowledging the lighl which they throw upon the 



j social condition, the manners, customs, and domestic 

 life, of the Roman people. 



As the great Duke of Marlborough confessed that 

 he acquired his knowledge of his country's annals in 

 the historical plays of Shakspeare, so we believe there 

 are many who find it convenient and agreeable to 

 study them in Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens 

 of England. To all such it will be welcome news that 

 the first and second volumes of a new and cheaper 

 edition, and which comprise the lives of all our female 

 sovereigns, from Matilda of Flanders to the unfor- 

 tunate Anne Boleyn, are now ready ; and will be 

 followed month by month by the remaining six. At 

 the close of the work, we may take an opportunity of 

 examining the causes of the great popularity which it 

 has attained. 



Mr. M. A. Lower has just published a small volume 

 of antiquarian gossip, under the title of Contributions 

 to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian, a?id Metrical, in 

 which he discourses pleasantly on Local Nomenclature, 

 the Battle of Hastings, the Iron Works of the South- 

 East of England, the South Downs, Genealogy, and 

 many kindred subjects ; and tries his hand, by no 

 means unsuccessfully, at some metrical versions of old 

 Sussex legends. Several of the papers have already 

 appeared in print, but they serve to make up a volume 

 which will give the lover of popular antiquities an 

 evening's pleasant reading. 



"We beg to call the attention of our readers to the 

 opportunity which will be afforded them on Wed- 

 nesday next of hearing Mr. Layard lecture on his 

 recent Discoveries at Nineveh. As they will see by the 

 advertisement in our present Number, Mr. Layard has 

 undertaken to do so for the purpose of contributing to 

 the schools and other parochial charities of the poor 

 but densely populated district of St. Thomas, Stepney. 

 Books Received. — Mantell's Geological Excursions 

 round the Isle of Wight, Sj-c. This reprint of one of the 

 many valuable contributions to geological knowledge 

 by the late lamented Dr. Mantel], forms the new vo- 

 lume of Bonn's Scientific Library. — Retrospective Re- 

 view, No. VI., containing interesting articles on Dray- 

 ton, Lambarde, Penn, Leland, and other writers of 

 note in English literature. — Dr. Lardner's Museum of 



