348 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 51. 



Anecdote of a Peal of Bells (Vol. i., p. 382.). — 

 It is related of the bells of Limerick Cathedral by 

 Mrs. S. C. Hall {Ireland, vol. i., p. 328. note). M. 



[Another correspondent, under the same signature, 

 forwards the legend as follows : — 



"those evening bells." 



" The remarkably fine bells of Limerick Cathedral 

 were originally brought from Italy. They had been 

 manufactured by a young native (whose name tradition 

 has not preserved), and finished after the toil of many 

 years ; and he prided himself upon his work. They 

 were subsequently purchased by a prior of a nei<i;h- 

 bouring convent, aiid, with the profits of this sale, the 

 young Italian procured a little villa, where he had the 

 pleasure of hearing the tolling of his bells from the 

 convent cliff, and of growing old in the bosom of do- 

 mestic happiness. This, however, was not to continue. 

 In some of those broils, whether civil or foreign, which 

 are the undying worm in thepeace of a fallen land, the 

 good Italian was a sufferer amongst many. He lost 

 his all ; and after the passing of the storm, he found 

 himself preserved alone, amid the wnck of fortune, 

 friends, family, and home. The convent in which the 

 bells, the chef-d'oeuvre of his skill, were hung, was 

 rased to the earth, and these last carried away to 

 another land. The unfortunate owner, haunted by his 

 memories and deserted by his hopes, became a wan- 

 derer over Europe. His hair grew gray, and hi>^ lieart 

 withered, before he again found a home and friend. In 

 this desolation of spirit he formed the resolution of 

 seeking the place to which those treasures of his me- 

 mory had been finally borne. He sailed for Ireland, 

 proceeded up the Shannon ; the vessel anchored in the 

 pool near Limerick, and he hired a small boat for the 

 purpose of landing. The city was now before him ; 

 and he beheld St. Mary's steeple lifting its turreted 

 head above the smoke and mist of the old town. He 

 sat in the stern, and looked fondly towards it. It was 

 an evening so calm and beautiful as to remind him of 

 his own native haven in the sweetest time of the year 

 — the death of the spring. The broad stream appeared 

 like one smooth mirror, and the little vessel glided 

 through it with almost a noiseless expedition. On a 

 sudden, amid the general stillness, the bells tolled from 

 the cathedral ; the rowers rested on their oars, and the 

 vessel went forward with the impulse it had received. 

 The old Italian looked towards the city, crossed his 

 arms on his breast, and lay back on his seat ; home, 

 happiness, early recollections, friends, family — all were 

 in the sound, and went with it to his heart. When the 

 rowers looked round, they beheld him with his face stil; 

 turned towards the cathedral, but his eyes were closed, 

 and when they landed they foimd him cold in death." 



Mr. H. Edwards informs us it appeared in an early 

 numlicr of CliamLers' Journal. J. G. A. P. kindly refers 

 us to the Dublin Penny Jovrnal, vol. i. p. 48., where 

 the story is also told ; and to a poetical version of it, 

 entitled " The Bell-founder," first printed in the Dtihlin 

 Viiiversity Magazine, and since in tlie collected poems 

 of the author, D. H. M'Canhy.] 



Codex Flateyensis (Vol.ii., p. 278.). — Your cor- 

 respondent W. H. F., when referring to the Ork- 



neyinga Saga, requests information regarding the 

 Codex Flateijeiisis, in which is contained one of 

 the best MSS. of the Saga above mentioned. 

 W. H. F. labotirs under the misapprehension of 

 regarding the Codex Flateyensis as a mere manu- 

 script of the Orkneyinga Saga, whereas that Saga 

 conslitutes but a very small part of that magnifi- 

 cent volume. The Codex Flateyensis takes its 

 name, as VV. H. F. rightly concludes, from the 

 island of Flatey in the Breidafiord in Iceland, 

 where it was long preserved. It is a parchment 

 volume most beautifully executed, the initial letters 

 of the chapters being finely illuminated, and ex- 

 tending in many instances, as in a fae-simile now 

 before me, from top to bottom of the folio page. 

 The contents of the volume may be learned from 

 the following lines on the first page ; 1 give it in 

 English as the original is in Icelandic : — 



" John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are 

 written verses, then how Norway was colonised, then 

 of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason 

 the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of 

 Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, and there- 

 with the history of the earls of Orkney, then is there 

 Sverrers Saga ; thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, 

 with the Saga of Magnus the king, liis son, then the 

 deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of 

 Elga and Uif the Bad ; and then begin the annals from 

 the creation of the world to the present year. John 

 Thordarson the priest wrote the portion concerning 

 Erik the Far-travelled, and the Sagas of both the 

 Olaves ; but Magnus Thorhallson the priest has written 

 all that follows, as well as all that preceded, and has 

 illuminated all (the book). Almighty God and the 

 holy virgin Mary give joy to those who wrote and to 

 him who dictated." 



A little further on we learn from the text that 

 when the book began to be written there had 

 elapsed from the birth of Christ 1300 and 80 and 

 7 years. The volume was, therefore, commenced 

 in 1387, and finished, as we judge from the year 

 at which the annals cease, in 1395. The death of 

 Hakon Hakonson is recorded in the last chapters 

 of the Saga of that name, which we see is in- 

 cluded in the list of those contained in the Codex 

 Flateyensis. E. Charlton. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct. 6. 1850. 



Paying through the Nose, and Etymology of 

 Shilling (Vol. i., p. 335.). — Odin, they say, laid 

 a nose-fa.x on every Swede, — a penny a nose. 

 (Grimm, Deutsche Rechts Alterthiimer, p. 299.) I 

 think people not able to pay forfeited " the pro- 

 minence on the face, which is the organ of scent, 

 and the emunctory of the brain," as good Walker 

 says. It was according to the rule, " Qui non 

 habet in aere, luat in pelle." Still we "count" 

 or " tell nosea," when computing, for instance, 

 how many persons of the company are to pay the 

 reckoning. 1'he expression is used in England, if 

 I am rightly informed, as well as in Holland. 



