322 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 232. 



must have been the result of much labour, considering 

 their tools — the only trace of which we find in the shape 

 of oviformed stones, with a groove round the centre for the 

 purpose of securing a handle, then to be used as a ham- 

 mer to shatter the vein -stone after it probably had been 

 reduced by the action of fire and water on the calca- 

 reous matter entering into its composition. In favour 

 of this conjecture, quantities of charcoal have been 

 found in the bottom of some of these pits, which are 

 almost effaced by the accumulation of timber decayed 

 and foliage of ages past." — • From a letter in the Mining 

 Journal, Jan. 7, 1854. 



S. R. Pattison. 



Acrostic. — I send you a very curious acrostic, 

 copied from a monument in the Church of St. 

 Germans, Cornwall. You will perceive that it 

 is in memory of "Johannes Glanvill, Minister;" 

 and it is surmounted with the arms of that ancient 

 family : 



A.D. 



1599. 

 24 to 



Novemb r 

 natus est. 



I nditur in gelidum 

 O mnibus irriguus 

 H ujus erit vivax 

 A rtibus et Unguis 

 N obis ille novas 

 N aviter et graviter 

 E rgo relanguenti 

 S piritus ; aeternum 



Walton. 



A.D. 



1631. 



20™ 



Octob r 



denatus. 



G regis hujus opilio bustu M, 

 L achrymis simul urbis et agr I. 

 A tque indelebile nome N, 



N ecnon virtute probat I. 



V atem (pro munere) legi S 

 I ucunde et suaviter egi T. 

 L icet eluctetur ab or E 



L ucebit totus ut aste R. 



W. D. F. 



Simmels. — The Vienna correspondent of The 

 Times, whose letter from " Vienna, March 5th," 

 appeared in that paper on Friday the 10th, men- 

 tions a Viennese loaf, the name of which so 

 strongly resembles the simmel of our ancestors as 

 to deserve a Note : 



" The Viennese witlings, who are much inclined to 

 abuse the hyperbole, affirm that a magnifying glass will 

 soon be requisite in order to discover the whereabouts 

 of the semmeln, the little wheaten loaves for which 

 Austria is famous." 



W. J. T. 



Ogborne's History of Essex. — I lately fell in 

 with (at a marine store-shop in Somers Town) 

 some scattered materials in Mrs. Ogborne's hand- 

 writing for the above highly interesting but un- 

 finished work. I have not yet sorted them, but 

 I perceive that the MSS. contain some informa- 

 tion that was never published, relating to Roch- 

 ford Hundred, &c. The shopkeeper stated that 

 she had used the greater part of Mrs. Ogborne's 

 papers as waste-paper, but I am not without 

 hopes that she will find more. There is a letter 

 from Mr. Leman of Bath, which is published in 

 the work. I am aware that Mr. Fossett has Mrs. 



Ogborne's MSS. ; but those now in my possession 

 are certainly interesting,, and might be, to some 

 future historian of Essex, even valuable. Should 

 I discover anything worth inserting in " N. & Q." 

 on examining the MSS. I will send it. G. I. S. 



Fleas and Bugs. — Has the following explana- 

 tion of an old saying ever been brought forward, 

 and is it satisfactory ? When a person is sent off 

 " with a flea in his ear," the luckless applicant is 

 peremptorily dismissed with an imperative " flee," 

 with the word " flee" sounding in his ear, or, face- 

 tiously, " with a flea in his ear." 



Apropos of proverbial domestic entomology, is 

 there more than lies on the surface in the elegant 

 simile " As snug as a bug in a rug ?" A rough 

 variety of dog was termed a " rug" in Shakspeare's 

 time ; quartered on which, the insect might find 

 good entertainment — a plentiful board, as well as a 

 snug lodging. It appears, however, that the name 

 has not long been applied to the Cimex, so that 

 the saying may be of greater antiquity, and relate 

 to bugbears. C. T. 



Zenxis and Parrhasius. — In the Preface to Mr. 

 Grote's History of Greece, there occurs the fol- 

 lowing passage : 



" If the reader blame me for not assisting him to 

 determine this — if he ask me why I do not undraw 

 the curtain, and disclose the picture? — I reply in the 

 words of the painter Zeuxis, when the same question 

 was addressed to him on exhibiting his master-piece 

 of imitative art : ' The curtain is the picture.' " 



Compare this with Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxv. 36. 

 § 3. ; from which it appears that Parrhasius, not 

 Zeuxis, painted the curtain. Akch. Weie. 



Cure for Hydrophobia. — A gentleman named 

 Monsell, who lived at Kilrush in the county Clare, 

 possessed a cure for hydrophobia which was never 

 known to fail. He required that the patient 

 should be brought to him within nine days from 

 the time of being bitten, and his first proceeding 

 was to cause the person to look in a looking-glass 

 or pail of water : if the patient bore that trial 

 without showing any uneasiness, he declared that 

 there was no doubt of his being able to effect a 

 cure. He then retired to another room, leaving 

 the patient alone for a short time ; and when he 

 returned, he brought two bits of cheese which he 

 said contained the remedy, and caused the person 

 to swallow them. He then desired that the pa- 

 tient should return home, and for nine days fre- 

 quently drink a few sips of water ; and also take 

 opportunities to look at water or a looking-glass, 

 so as to accustom the nerves to be under control. 

 I knew a case of a peasant girl, who was bitten by 

 a mad dog, and who had to be brought to him 

 tied on a car, whom he cured. The dog, before 

 he was killed, bit several valuable dogs, all of 



