308 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 50. 



the Mediterranean into a sea exposed to the tides. 

 I think Dr. Whewell mentions that in particular 

 situations the turn of the current occurs at a suf- 

 ficient interval from the time of high or low water 

 to perplex even the most experienced sailors. 



F. Q. 



Bookhinding. — While the mischief of mildew 

 on the i7iside of books has enjraged some corre- 

 spondents to seek for a remedy (Vol. ii., 103. 173.), 

 a word may be put in on behalf of the outside, 

 the binding. The present material used in bind- 

 ing is so soft, flabby, and unsound, that it will not 

 endure a week's service. I have seen a bound 

 volume lately, with a name of repute attached to 

 it ; and certainly tlie ivorkmanship is creditable 

 enough, but the leather is just as miserable as any 

 from the commonest workshop. The volume can- 

 not have been bound many months, and yet even 

 now, though in good hands, it is beginning to rub 

 smooth, and to look, what best expresses it em- 

 jihatically, shabby, contrasting most grievously with 

 the leather of another voluuie, just tlien in use, 

 bound some fifty or seventy years ago, and as 

 sound and firm as a drum's head — common bind- 

 ing too, be it observed — as the modern cover is 

 flabby and washy. Pray, sir, raise a voice against 

 this wretched material, for that is the thing in 

 fault, not the workmanship ; and if more must be 

 paid for uudoctored outsides, let it be so. 



Novus. 



Scolfs Waverley. — Some years ago, a gentleman 

 of my acquaintance, now residing in foreign parts, 

 told me the following stoi-y : — 



" Once upon a time," the great unknown being 

 engaged in a shooting-match near his dwelling, it 

 came to pass that all the gun-wadding was spent, 

 so that he was obliged to fetch paper instead. 

 After Sir Walter had come back, his fellow-shooter 

 chanced to look at the succedaneum, and was not 

 a little astonished to see it formed part of a tale 

 written by his entertainer's hand. By his friend's 

 urgent inquiries, the Scotch romancer was com- 

 pelled to acknowledge himself the author, and 

 to save the well nigh destroyed manuscript of 

 Wavei-ley. 



I do not know wliether Sir Walter Scott was 

 induced by this incident to publish the first of his 

 tales or not ; perhaps it occurred after several of 

 his novels had been printed. Now, if any body 

 acquainted with the anecdote I relate should per- 

 chance hit upon my endeavour to give it an 

 Englii^h garb, he would do me a pleasure by no- 

 ting down the particulars I might have omitted 

 or mis-stated. I never saw the fact recorded. 



Janus Dousa. 



Satyavrata. — Mr. Kemble, Salomon and Saturn, 

 p. 129., does not seem to be aware that the Satya- 

 vrata in question was one of the forgeries imposed 

 on, and afterwards detected, by Wilfoi'd. F. Q. 



CEucrtcS. 



BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND. 



Can any of your correspondents give me any 

 information on the following points connected with 

 " the Black Rood of Scotland ? " 



1. What was the history of this cross before it 

 was taken into Scotland by St. Margaret, on the 

 occasion of her marriage with Malcolm, king of 

 Scotland ? Did she get it in England or in Ger- 

 many ? 



2. What was its size and make ? One account 

 describes it as made of gold, and another {Rites of 

 Durham, p. 16.) as of silver. 



3. Was the " Black Rood of Scotland" the same 

 as the " Holy Cross of llolyrood House ? " One 

 account seems to make them the same : for in the 

 Rites of Durham, p. 16., we read, — 



" At the east end of the south aisle of the choir, was 

 a most fair rood, or picture of our Saviour, in silver, 

 called the Black Rood of Scullnnd, brought out of Holy- 

 rood House by King David Bruce, and was won at 

 the battle of Durham, with the picture of our Lady on 

 the one side, and St. John on the other side, very 

 richly wrought in silver, all three having crowns of 

 gold," &c. &c. 



Another account, in p. 21. of the same work, 

 seems to make them different ; for, speaking of the 

 battle of Neville's Cross (18th October, 13-i6), it 

 says — 



" In which said battle a hohj Cross, which was taken 

 out of Holyrood House, in Scotland, l)y King David 

 Bruce, was won and taken," &c., p. 21. 



And adds, — 



" In wliich I)attle were slain seven earls of Scotland 

 .... and also lost the said cross, and many other most 

 worthy and excellent jewels .... together with the 

 Black Rood of Scotland (so termed) with Mary and 

 John, made of silver, being, as it were, smoked all over," 

 &c., p. 22. 



4. If they were the same, how is the legend con- 

 cerning its discovery by the king, upon Plolyrood 

 day, when hunting in a forest near Ediidiurgh, to 

 be reconcileil with the fact of its being taken by 

 St. Margaret intf) Scotland ? If they were not the 

 same, what was the previous history of each, and 

 which was the cross of St. Margaret ? 



5. How is the account of Simetm of Durham, 

 that the Black Rood was bequeathed to Durham 

 Priory by St. Margaret, to be reconciled with the 



historv of its beintr taken from the Scotch at the 



*' . ^ 



battle of jSTeville's Cross ? 



6. May there not be a connexion between the 

 legend of the discovery of the "Holy Cross" be- 

 tween the horns of a wild hart (Rites of Durham, 

 p. 21.), and the practice that existed of an offering 

 of a stag annually made, on St. Cuthbert's day, in 

 Septend^er, by the Nevilles of Raby, to the Priory 

 of Durham? May it not have been an acknow- 



