306 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 231. 



copy which once belonged to him, of Brydone's 

 Tour, I was quite ignorant of the hostile criticisms 

 that had appeared at different times on that once 

 popular work ; but knowing Mr. Finch's high cha- 

 racter for scholarship, and a knowledge of Italy, I 

 thought his remark worth sending to a publication 

 intended, like " N. & Q.," as " A Medium of In- 

 tercommunication for Literary Men, Antiquaries," 

 &c, who are well able to examine a Note of the 

 kind ; and either to accept it as valid, or to reject 

 it as untenable. On referring now to some 

 standard works, in order to discover the opinions 

 of learned men respecting Mr. Brydone's Tour, 

 the first work I looked into was the Biographic 

 Universelle (in eighty-three volumes, and not yet 

 completed, Paris, 1811 — 1853), in vol. lix. of 

 which the following observations occur, under the 

 name of Brydone (Patrice) : 



" On lui a reproche d'avoir sacrifie la verite an 

 plaisir de raconter des choses piquantes. On l'avait 

 accuse aussi d'avoir, par son indiscretion, suscite a 

 l'Abbe Recupero, Chanoine de Catane, une persecution 

 de la part de son eveque. Cette indiscretion n'eut 

 pas heureusement un resultat aussi facheux ; mais ses 

 erreurs sur plusieurs points sont evidentes ; il donne 

 4000 toises de hauteur a l'Etna qui n'en a que 1662 ; 

 il commet d'autres fautes qui ont ete relevees par les 

 voyageurs venus apres lui. Bartels (Briefe iiber Ka- 

 labrien und Sicilien, 2te Auflage, 3 Bd., 8vo., Gotting. 

 1791-92) est meme persuade que le voyage au sommet 

 de l'Etna, chef-d'oeuvre de narration, n'est qu'un roman, 

 et cet avis est partage par d'autres." 



Gothe says (Werke, Band xxviii. pp. 189, 190. : 

 Stuttgart, 1830) that when he inquired at Catania 

 respecting the best method of ascending Mount 

 Etna, Chevalier Gioeni, the professor of natural 

 history there, gave him the following advice and 

 information : 



" Als wir den Ritter um die Mittel befragten wie 

 man sich benehmen miisse um den Aetna zu besteigen, 

 wollte er von einer Wagniss nach dem Gipfel, be- 

 sonders in der gegenwartigen Jahreszeit gar nichts 

 horen. Ueberhaupt, sagte er, nachdem er uns um Ver- 

 zeihung gebeten, die hier ankommenden Fremden 

 sehen die Sache fiir allzuleicht an ; wir andern Nach- 

 barn des Berges sind schon zufrieden, wenn wir ein 

 paarmal in unserm Leben die beste Gelegenheit abge- 

 passt und den Gipfel erreicht haben. Brydone, der 

 zuerst durch seine Beschreibung die Lust nach diesem 

 Feuergipfel entziindet, ist gar nicht hinauf gekommen." 



From these quotations it is evident, that Mr. 

 Finch was not singular in the belief he enter- 

 tained; and certainly the scepticism of men so 

 eminent as Professor Gioeni, Dr. Barthels, and 

 Messrs. Eyries and Parisot (the French writers 

 whose names are attached to the Memoir in the 

 Biog. Univ.), must be grounded on reasons de- 

 serving of attention. An ordinary reader of 

 Brydone would accept the account of his ascent 

 with implicit confidence ; but when veteran pro- 



fessors, scientific men, and experienced travellers 

 and scholars refuse to believe that he reached the 

 summit of Etna, the most probable mode of ac- 

 counting for their incredulity is, perhaps to sup- 

 pose, that in their opinion he had mistaken some 

 other part of the mountain for the real summit. 

 Not having met with any detail of their reasons 

 for disbelief, I am only able to state their bare 

 assertion. In my opinion, the beautifully glow- 

 ing and poetical description of the magic scene 

 beheld by Brydone from the mountain — a de- 

 scription, the perusal of which, in youth, remains 

 for ever after imprinted on the memory, like a 

 passage from Addison or Gibbon, could only have 

 been written by an actual spectator. 



John Maceay. 

 Oxford. 



"the red cow" — cromwell's carriages, etc. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 87.) 



I have known " The Bed Cow," at the top of 

 Granham Hill, near Marlborough, for fifty years, 

 but do not recollect ever to have heard of any 

 particular origin for the sign. 



The old carriages at Mnnton were built about a 

 century and a half ago, perhaps not so much, for one 

 of the Baskerville family, on the occasion of his 

 being sheriff of the county to which he belonged, 

 probably Wilts or Hereford. There are two of 

 them : one a square coach, and the other a very 

 high phaeton. The Baskerville arms — Ar. a 

 chevron gu. between three hurts, impaling, quar- 

 terly, one and four, or, a cross moline az, two 

 and three, gu. a chevron ar. between three mul- 

 lets or — are painted on the panels. As I have no 

 ordinary of arms at hand, I cannot ascribe this im- 

 palement ; but will trust to some more learned 

 herald among your correspondents to determine 

 who the lady was ? When her name, perhaps 

 Moleyns or Molyneaux, is ascertained, reference 

 to a Baskerville pedigree would probably deter- 

 mine the husband, and the precise date of the 

 carriages, which could not have belonged to the 

 Protector. 



O. Cromwell's arms were, Sable, a lion rampant 

 ar. There were also two families styled Williams 

 alias Cromwell : one of which bore, Gu. three 

 cheverons ar. between as many lions rampant or ; 

 the other, Sa. a lion rampant ar., the same as Oli- 

 ver's coat, and probably derived by him from the 

 Williams family. 



I have wandered from " The Red Cow," but I 

 will not omit to hazard an idea for the consider- 

 ation of Glywysydd. Marlborough has changed 

 its armorial bearings several times ; but the pre- 

 sent coat, containing a white bull, was granted by 

 Harvey, Clarenceux in a.d. 1565. Cromwell was 

 attached to Cowbridge and its cow by family de- 



