May 20. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



475 



fruit, the ripest is invariably selected for wines of 

 the best quality. The wines of Xeres, like all 

 those of the peninsula, require the necessary body 

 or strength to enable them to sustain the fatigue 

 of exportation. Previous, therefore, to shipment 

 (none being sold under four to five years of age), 

 a little eau de vie (between the fiftieth and sixtieth 

 part) is added, a quantity in itself so small, that 

 few would imagine it to be the cause of the slight 

 alcoholic taste which nearly all sherries possess. 



In consequence of the high price of the delicious 

 wines, numerous imitations, or inferior sherries, 

 are manufactured, and sold in immense quantities. 

 Of these the best are to be met with at the follow- 

 ing places : San Lucar, Porto, Santa Maria, and 

 even Malaga itself. The spurious sherry of the 

 first-named place is consumed in larger quantities, 

 especially in France, than the genuine wine itself. 

 One reason for this may be, that few vessels go to 

 take cargoes at Cadiz ; whilst many are in the 

 habit of doing so to Malaga for dry fruits, and to 

 Seville for the fine wool of Estremadura. San 

 Lucar is situated at the mouth of the Guadal- 

 quiver. W. C. 



RECENT CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. 



(Vol. ix., p. 136.) 



Mr. Thackeray's work, The Newcomes, would, 

 if consulted by your correspondent, furnish him 

 with farther examples. For instance, Colonel 

 Newcome's Christian name is stated (pp. 27. 57.) 

 to be Thomas : at p. 49. he is designated Col. J. 

 Eewcome. The letter addressed to him (p. 27.) 

 is superscribed " Major Newcome," although at 

 p. 25. he is styled " Colonel." At p. 71. mention is 

 made of " Mr. Shaloo, the great Irish patriot," 

 who at p. 74. becomes " Mr. Shaloony," and at 

 p. 180. relapses into the dissyllabic " Shaloo." 

 Clive Newcome is represented (p. 184.) as admir- 

 ing his youthful mustachios, and Mr. Doyle has 

 depicted him without whiskers: at p. 188. Ethel, 

 " after Mr. Clive's famous mustachios made their 

 appearance, rallied him," and " asked him if he 

 was (were ?) going into the army ? She could not 

 understand how any but military men could wear 

 mustachios." On this the author remarks, three 

 lines farther on : " If Clive had been in love with 

 her, no doubt he would have sacrificed even those 

 beloved whiskers for the charmer." 



At p. 111. the Rev. C. Honeyman is designated 

 "A.M.," although previously described a Master 

 of Arts of Oxford, where the Masters are styled 

 "M.A." in contradistinction to the Masters of 

 Arts in every other university. Cambridge Mas- 

 ters frequently affix M.A. to their names, but I 

 never heard of an instance of an Oxonian signing 

 the initials of his degree as A.M. 



Apropos of Oxford, I recently met the following 

 sentence at p. 3. of Verdant Green : 



" Although pronounced by Mrs. Toosypegs, his 

 nurse, to he ' a perfect progkiye,' yet we are not aware 

 that his debut on the stage of life, although thus ap- 

 plauded hy such a clacqueur as the indiscriminating 

 Toosypegs, was announced to the world at large by 

 any other means than the notices in the county papers." 



If the author ever watched the hired applauders 

 in a Parisian theatre, he would have discerned 

 among them clacqueuses as well as clacqueurs. 



JUVERNA, M.A. 



ROLAND THE BRAVE. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 372.) 



In justification of Dr. Forbes' identifying Ro- 

 land the Brave with the hero of Schiller's ballad, 

 Ritter Toggenburg, I beg to refer your corre- 

 spondent X. Y. Z. to Dentsches Sagenbuch, von 

 L. Bechstein, Leipzig, 1853, where (p. 95.) the 

 same tale is related which forms the subject of 

 Mrs. Hemans' beautiful ballad, only with this 

 difference, that there the account of Roland's 

 death entirely agrees with Schiller's version of the 

 story, whereas the English poet has adopted the 

 general tradition of Roland's fall at Roncesvalles. 



Most of the epic poems of the middle ages in 

 which Roland's death is recorded, especially the 

 different old French Chansons de Roland ou de 

 Roncevaux, an Icelandic poem on the subject, and 

 Strieker's middle-high German lay of Roland, all 

 of them written between a.d. 1100 and 1230 — 

 agree in this, that after Roland's fall at Ronces- 

 valles, and the complete rout of the heathen by 

 Charlemagne, the latter returns home and is met 

 — some say at Aix-la-Chapelle, others at Blavie, 

 others at Paris — by Alda or Alite, Olivier's 

 sister, who inquires of him where Roland, her 

 betrothed, is. On learning his fate she dies on 

 the spot of grief. According to monk Conrad 

 (about a.d. 1175), Alda was Roland's wife. See 

 Ruolandes Liet, von W. Grimm, Gottingen, 1838, 

 pp. 295—297. 



The legend of Rolandseck, as told by Bechstein 

 from Rhenish folk lore, begins thus : 



" Es sasz auf holier Burg am Rhein hoch iiber dem 

 Stromthal eta junger Rittersmann, Roland geheiszen, 

 (manche sagen Roland von Angers, Neffe Karls des 

 Groszen), der liebte cin Burgfraulein, Hildegunde, die 

 Tochter des Burggrafen Heribert, der auf dem nahen 

 Schlosz Drachenfels sasz," &c. ' 



Here the question is left open whether the hero 

 of the story was Roland the Brave, or some other 

 knight of that name. The latter seems the more 

 probable, as Roland's fall at Roncesvalles is one 

 of the chief subjects of mediaeval poetry, whereas 

 the death of knight Roland in sight of Nonnen- 



