June 15. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



45 



current at Hackney, viz. " buckhorse," for a smart 

 box on the ear. C. M. 



[Buckhorse was a celebrated bruiser, whose name 

 has been preserved in this designation of a '' blow," in 

 the same way as that of his successor " Belcher " has 

 been in that of the peculiar style of silk handkerchief 

 which he always wore.] 



Symbols of Four Evangelists. — Among the 

 several replies to Jartzberg's Query (Vol. i., 



6 885.), I do not observe any notice of Sir T. 

 rown's account of the symbols of the four Evan- 

 gelists. I will therefore copy part of a note I 

 have on the subject, though I see it is unfortu- 

 nately without any other reference than the name 

 of the author. 



After giving Jonathan's opinion of the four 

 principal or legionary standards among the Israel- 

 ites, Sir T. Brown adds : 



" But Abenegra and others, besides the colours of 

 the field, do set down other charges, — in Reuben's, the 

 form of a man or mandrake, — in that of Judah, a lion, 

 — in Ephraim's, an ox; in Dan's, the figure of an eagle. 

 And thus, indeed, the four figures in the banners of the 

 principal squadrons of Israel are answerable unto the 

 Church in the vision of Ezekiel, every one carrying 

 the form of all these And conformable here- 

 unto, the pictures of the Evangelists (whose Gospels 

 are the Christian banners) are set forth with the addi 

 tion of a man or angel, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. 

 And these symbolically represent the office of angels 

 and ministers of God's will, in whom is required, un- 

 derstanding as in a man, courage and vivacity as in a 

 lion, service and ministerial oflficiousncss as in the ox, 

 expedition or celerity of execution as in the eagle." 



J. Sansom. 



Catacombs and Bone-houses (Vol. i., p. 171.). — 

 Part I. of a History of the Hundred of Rowell, by 

 Paul Cypher, (published by J. Ginns, Rowell,) 

 has recently fallen in my way ; and as I under- 

 stand the writer is a medical gentleman residins 

 in the village (or town), I condense from the ac- 

 count of the " Bone Caverns," p. 39 — 42., such 

 particulars as may answer the Query of Rev. A. 

 Gatty. 



The number of skeletons, as is asserted by those 

 who have taken the trouble to calculate, is 30,000. 

 The vault in which tiiey are deposited is a long 

 cryptiform structure, with a low groined roof, and 

 the bones are carefully packed in alternate strata 

 of skulls, arms, legs, and so forth. They seem to 

 have been discovered by a gravedigger about 150 

 years since. Nothing is known with certainty 

 respecting the date of this vast collection. Some 

 conjecture that the remains here deposited are the 

 consequence of a sanguinary battle in very early 

 times, and profess to discover peculiarities in tiie 

 osseou.s structure, showing a large proportion of 

 the deceased to have been natives of a distant 

 land ; that all were in the prime of life ; and that 



most of the skulls are fractured, as though with 

 deadly weapons. Others, again, say they are the 

 remains of the slain at Naseby. 



" I have examined carefully and at leisure the crania, 

 and can discover none but the mesobregmate skulls 

 common to these islands .... I have discovered more 

 than one skull, in which the alveolar sockets were en- 

 tirely absorbed, — an effect of age rarely produced under 

 eighty years, I should imagine. And as to the marks 

 of injury visible on some, they will be attributed, I 

 think, by the impartial observer, rather to the spade 

 and foot of the sexton, than the battle-axe and stout 

 arm of the ancient Briton." 



As to the supposition that these relics were 

 brought from Naseby, it is sufficient to observe 

 that the number of the slain in that engagement 

 did not exceed one thousand. 



" That most of these bodies were lying in the earth 

 for a number of years is proved, I think, by these several 

 circumstances : First, a careful examination of the inte- 

 rior of many of the skulls, shows that roots have vege- 

 tated within them, the dry fibres of which 1 have often 

 observed : next, the teeth are nearly all absent, and it 

 is notoriously one of the first effects of inhumation upon 

 the osseous system, by which the teeth are loosened ; 

 and lastly, we have two sources from which bodies may 

 have been exhumed and reinterred beneath the mother 

 church ; and those are the Chapel of the Virgin and that 

 moiety of the orisrinal graveyard, which has evidently, 

 at some long distant time, been taken from the church." 



Human bones have been dug up in front of 

 Jesus Hospital, to the south-east of the church- 

 yard. At the eastern extremity of the cavern is 

 a rude sketch, apparently intended to represent 

 the Resurrection. Arun. 



Tace Latin for a Candle (Vol. i., p. 385.). — 

 I am not aware of " Tace is Latin for a candle " 

 in any earlier book than Swift's Polite Conversa- 

 tion ; but it must have been threadbare in his 

 time, or he would not have inserted it in that great 

 collection of platitudes : — 



" Lord Smart. Well, but after all, Tom, can you tell 

 me what is Latin for a goose ? 



" Neverout. O, my Lord, I know that ; why. Brandy 

 is Latin for a goose, and Tace is Latin for a candle." 



H. B. C. 



Members for Durham — why none prior to 

 1673-4 (Vol. ii., p. 8.). — Because Durham was an 

 episcopal palatine, which had jurisdictions, and 

 even, in olden times, a Parliament of its own. 

 Several bills were brought in between 1562 and 

 1673, to give M.P.'s to both county and city ; but 

 an act was only passed in the latter year. The first 

 writ was moved, it is said, in 1675; but the first 

 return is dated in Whitworth, 1679. (Oldfield's 

 Pari. Hist., iii. 425.) C. 



"yl FrofT fie would,'" Si'C. — I am in my sixth 

 decade, and pretty far on in it too; and I can re- 



