278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 48. 



is accompanied in some editions by observations of 

 Wendrock (Nicole), likewise in the French lan- 

 guage. Now such an assertion merely proves how 

 carelessly some annotators will study the subjects 

 they attempt to elucidate. Nicole translated into 

 Latin the Provincial Letters ; and the masterly dis- 

 quisitions which he added to the volume were, in 

 their turn, " made French " by Mademoiselle de 

 Joncoux, and annexed to the editions of 1700, 

 1712, 1735. 



As for Eachellus, if Mr. Stamp had taken the 

 trouble to refer to Placcius' Theatr. Anonym, et 

 Pseud., he might have seen (Art. 2,883.) that this 

 worthy was merely a German editor, not a trans- 

 lator of Pascal cum Wendrock. 



The second blunder I have to notice has been 

 perpetrated by the writer of an otherwise excellent 

 article on Pascal in the last number of the British 

 Quarterly Review (No. 20. August). He mentions 

 Bossuet's edition of the Pensees, spealis of "</;« 

 prelate," and evidently ascribes to the famous 

 Bishop of Meaiix, who died in 1704, the editioii of 

 Pascal's Thoughts, published in 1779 by Bossuet. 

 (See pp. 140. 142.) Gustave Masson. 



Porsovi's Epigram. — I made the following 

 Note many years ago : — 



" The late Professor Porson's own account of his 

 academic visits to the Continent : — 

 " ' I went to Frankfort, and got drunk 



With that most learn'd professor — Hrunck : 

 I went to Worts, and got more drunken. 

 With that more learn'd professor Ruhncken.'" 



But I do not remember where or from whom I 

 got it. Is anything known about it, or its authen- 

 ticity ? P. II. F. 



CQticri'piS. 



" ORKNEYING A SAGA." 



In the introduction to Lord Ellesniere's Guide 

 to Northern Archceology, p. xi., is mentioned the 

 intended publication by the Royal Society of 

 Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, of a volume 

 of historical antiquities to be called Antiquitatcs 

 Britannica et Hibernica:. In the contents of this 

 volume is noticed the Orhneyinga Saga, a 

 history of the Orkney and Zetland Isles from 

 A. D. 865 to 1234, of which there is only the 

 edition Copenhagen, 1780, "chiefly printed," it is 

 said, "from a modern paper manuscript, and by 

 no means from the celebrated Codex Flateyensis 

 written on parchment in the fourteenth century." 

 This would show that the Code.x Flateyensis was 

 the most valuable manuscript of the work pub- 

 lished under the name of the Orhneyinga Saga, 

 of which its editor, Jonas Jonteus, in his intro- 

 ductory address to the reader, says its author 



and age are eqiially unknown : " aiietor incertns 

 incerto a3que tempm-e scripsit." The Orhneyinga 

 Saga concludes with the burning of Adam Bishop, 

 of Caithness, by the mob at Thurso while John 

 was Earl of Orkney, and according to Dalrymple's 

 Annals in a. d. 1222; but in the narrative given 

 by the historian Torfasus, in his Orcades, of Haco, 

 King of Norway's expedition against the western 

 coast of Scotland in 1263, which terminated in 

 the defeat of the invaders by the Scots at Largs, 

 in Ayrshire, and the death of King Haco on his 

 return back in the palace of the bishop of Orkney 

 at Kirkwall, reference is made to the Codex Fla- 

 teyensis as to the burial of King Haco in the city 

 of Bergen, in Norway, where his remains were 

 finally deposited, after lying some months before 

 the shrine of the patron saint in the cathedral of 

 Saint Magnus, at Kirkwall. There is not a syl- 

 lable of King Haco or his expedition iu the Orh- 

 neyinga Saga ; and as I cannot reconcile this 

 reference of Torfa;us (2nd edition, 1715, book ii. 

 p. 170.) with the Saga, the favour of inform- 

 ation is desired from some of your antiquarian 

 correspon<lents. The Codex Flateyensis has been 

 ascribed to a pensioner of the king of Norway 

 resident in Flottay, one of the southern isles of 

 Orkney, but with more jjrobability can be attri- 

 buted to some of the monks of the monastery built 

 on the small island of Flate}', lying in Breida 

 Fiord, a gulf on the west coast of Iceland. 



AY. H. F. 



iHiiiar Queried. 



Incumbents of Church Livings in Ke7it. — I have 

 by me the following MS. note : — " A list of B.A.'s 

 graduated at Cambridge from 1500 to 1735 may 

 be found in 'Additional ]\ISS. British Museum, 

 No. 5,585.' " Will any of your correspondents 

 inform uie if this reference is correct, and if the 

 list can be examined ? 



Is there in the British Museum or elsewhere a 

 list of incumbents of church livings in Kent (with 

 name and birthplace) from 1600 to 1660? 



Branbuidges. 



York Buildings Company. — This company 

 existed about the middle of the last century. I 

 shall be glad to be informed where the papers con- 

 nected with it are to be met with, and may be re- 

 ferred to. Wdn. 



Saying ascribed to Montaigne. — The saying, " I 

 have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, 

 and have brought nothing of my own but the 

 thread that ties them," is visually ascribed to Alon- 

 taigne. In what part of his works ai'e these words 

 to be found? I heard doubts expressed of their 

 genuineness some years ago by a reader of the 

 Essays ; and my own search ibr them has also 

 proved hitherto unsuccessful. C. Forbes. 



